Converts to Mustachianism - How did you find out about it?

[latetotheparty1977]

Just curious!
I was a spender up until almost exactly two months ago. I had/have no debt, house and Honda Fit owned outright, but never saved either with the exception of 2 very meager 401Ks.
I found out about Mustachianism through a link to the Go Curry Cracker blog posted in my Facebook feed. Read that whole blog and found mention of "MMM forums" in the comments, so I googled. In 2 months I have saved $5K, started shopping only at Aldi, and made many other changes. It's still frustrating that I am 37 and could easily have started this so long ago!

[Redstone5]

I saw this site mentioned in the comments section of a post online about a New York woman who quit her well paying job to move to a tropical island. I'm 38 and, like you, I wish I'd know all this years ago. But maybe I wasn't ready for it at the time.

[eljefe-speaks]

Brother called me and told me to check it out.

Yep, me too. I am in my late 30's and I wish I jumped on the bandwagon far sooner.

[MustachianKentuckian]

Was reading a minimalism blog, which i had just become somewhat intrigued about...signed up for their weekly email.  Pretty much forgot the whole thing, but still had the weekly email. Email came one week talking about someone my age (39) that left corporate America, minimized, and just began travelling.  While I didn't want to travel, the idea of becoming financially independent did interest me.  Started googling and stumbled across a reference to MMM.  Went to the blog. The rest is history!

[StockBeard]

Similar story to everyone above. I was getting tired of my job, looked on google for things such as "retire early" or "how much do I need to retire", one thing led to another, I found the ERE book+site, found it to be way over the top for my taste, and as I was looking for other resources, ended up on MMM, which was much more in line with my way of life.

discovered MMM in November last year, since then we've gone from a 35% savings rate to 45% so far, and (hopefully) it will be increasing steadily. 75% will be a stretch (we don't own a home because we travel internationally a lot, and are paying a lot for rent right now), but I hope to reach 60% by the end of the year.

[latetotheparty1977]

I saw this site mentioned in the comments section of a post online about a New York woman who quit her well paying job to move to a tropical island. I'm 38 and, like you, I wish I'd know all this years ago. But maybe I wasn't ready for it at the time.

Yup! I remember my co-worker who was a Mustachian w/o knowing it back when I was making bank in my 20s. She was like 25 and on the phone with Etrade talking about moving over $250K in her account to somewhere. My mind was blown. Yet if I'd done it her way I could have easily been retired by now. It's incredible how I adjusted my spending to what I was making and all of the stuff I accumulated and spent the rest on seeing the world. I'm still not over it, although at the same time, I don't regret all of it (the traveling and living it up in NYC part).

[HopefulMustache]

I found out about it last fall, while reading an article on Forbes and then noticing the prompt for the next article when I was done, which was about MMM retiring at 30. At the time I was a few months shy of 30 and my interest was piqued - and I guess you could call me a convert since. Was never really spendy, but also never really considered investments in the way MMM addresses, which is a vital step in the RE process (and *always* should have been started earlier).

[Davids]

I had most of my life been somewhat frugal and found out about this site on fatwallet in their finance section. That was over a year ago. Since then i have become even more frugal as i found more ways to cut my singing.

[soccerluvof4]

Been here 2 years +/- cant even remember but glad I did. For all those in there 30's that say they wish they found it earlier I was 48. Its never to late and you have alot more time then i did if you so desire.

[wordnerd]

My husband, ha. He started reading ERE and then MMM a few (maybe 3?) years ago. We've always been fairly frugal, so I didn't have trouble with the spending part of it (though we have increased our saving rate). But, it did take me awhile to believe ER was a real possibility.

[Sibley]

I was reading an article on Huffington Post and it listed about 10 or so different personal finance blogs. The name caught my eye and I was bored at work, so went to the website and read a few. It caught my interest and I kept reading. I read all the posts, then found the forums.

I'm making changes, but was already sorta frugal (hard to cut out restaurants and movies when you don't go). A lot of it was direction and encouragement.

[Paul der Krake]

Hacker News. I believe it was the "true cost of commuting" article that was being linked, and there were all sorts of people making shoddy math to make themselves feel better in the comments.

I was lucky to find it exactly about one week into my first professional job, before I ever lay hands on a paycheck to squander away.

[Bracken_Joy]

Somewhere that the minimalism/simple living world bumped into the finance world, I don't remember exactly how. I'm pretty sure it was that I ended up on Blonde on a Budget for her minimalism series, then her finance posts... one of them linked to the Frugalwoods... from there I found MMM.

[lostamonkey]

I had always been frugal but I was just getting into investing. I was reading a lot of personal finance sites to figure out how to setup my investments. MMM was mentioned on another site so I decided to check it out.

[mm1970]

Found a mention on the Simple Living Network (which I had found via an article in the LA Times, Sunday paper version.)

[Sam E]

I started getting fed up with my job, but I don't have a degree so it's hard to leave the company I'm at. One day at work I googled "make 50k per year without a degree" and found MMM's two-part series on the subject as one of the top results. Financial independence has always been my number one dream, but now I see how to make it a reality, and that's a very exciting and inspiring prospect to me.

[HenryDavid]

Found out about the mindset behind this blog, long before the blog existed, by reading Thoreau's book Walden early in life, then Robin & Dominguez' book Your Money or Your Life in my early 30s.
Never really stopped living like a student, mostly by preference and because of Walden. YMOYL explained the math.

MMM takes those basic ideas about independence and defining happiness in your terms, not someone else's, and adds much-needed fun & profanity.

[MoneyCat]

I found out about MMM through an article on Yahoo and then read the blog and was hooked.  I had already done years of work to rebuild myself financially after some disasters and this became the next logical step.

[kpd905]

I am pretty sure I actually found ERE first, although I cannot remember how.  So glad I did though.  I'm pretty sure if I had never found this community I'd have about 8 years of student loan payments left instead of one.

[Roadhog]

Google led me to MMM.   I was fed up at work and was prepping for a meeting with a financial planner re: retirement planning.   Lucky for me I stumbled on it.   Had been tracking net worth for a couple of years but didn't quite put all the pieces together until I read this blog, start to finish.

[Sayonara925]

Been passively mustachian for a couple decades now, long before this site was created.  Then, about a year ago I started totaling various account balances and weighing that against how unhappy I was at work.  Started googling the early retirement topic for confirmation whether I had enough to bid sayonara to traditional work life.  MMM was on the short list of reading material.  Based on some sites, I was short, but after lurking here I was increasingly convinced I should be good to go.  I did OMY and then pulled the plug recently.

[Daisy]

I can't remember exactly how I got here. I had been doing online searches for early retirement for quite a while already. I had read about other people doing early retirement and thought I was on that track.

I read Your Money or Your Life and the 4-Hour work week about 10 years ago. I was thinking more along the lines of save a bunch at first, then that grows and I can do other things with my life, even if that meant paid work.

Finding MMM about a year ago helped me cut costs even more and focus on index investing. I don't know...I guess his being a software engineer and all and his catchy phrases helped me a bit. I didn't even find the forums until like 6 months later, after I had already taken MMM's advice to get a HELOC on an existing home and buy another cheaper place outright. I think I can relate to the journey he went through and common work environments.

I probably would have continued to drift along other early retirement blogs if I hadn't found the forums. But I've found a lot of new ones from the forums as well (Go Curry Cracker, Mad FIentist, LivingaFI).

[big_slacker]

I actually grew up this way. We just called it being poor, haha!

Then I started making way too much money and spending way too much.

Unfulfilled by all the luxury crap I meandered around minimalism and ended up finding the gocurrycracker blog and from there to here. I'd been making some of these changes anyway and it was an immediate fit. My wife and I are easing into it, but some very positive changes and savings so far!

[forummm]

I found ERE first. I don't remember how. And from there found MMM. I was already well on the way to FI, but I didn't realize it. These websites helped me see how close I was.

[Squirrel away]

I read about MMM on another forum and thought it sounded very interesting and promptly put it to the back of my mind.:) My husband was diagnosed with cancer and suddenly financial matters became far more important so I joined the MMM forum.

[SuperSaver]

My sister read The Simple Dollar and Get Rich Slowly back when they first got started. She showed me articles that piqued my interest I was 15 & in high school when I started reading personal finance websites too. Eventually like.... 6+ years go by and then I notice people talking about Mr. Money Mustache and Mmm in the comments ofGRS. Repeatedly. So I wandered over here, GRS was headed down hill and I decided that here was a good spot to stay. Frugal and badass and not as extreme as other sites. 

[Bambam100]

...I'm 38 and, like you, I wish I'd know all this years ago. But maybe I wasn't ready for it at the time.

I'm 56 and would have been thrilled to have found this its 18 years ago!

I found this site because it was mentioned in a personal finance article in the NY Times.  Shortly after that, I realized that the subscription does add enough value to my life, having found MMM, and canceled it.

[TwoBits]

...I'm 38 and, like you, I wish I'd know all this years ago. But maybe I wasn't ready for it at the time.

I'm 56 and would have been thrilled to have found this its 18 years ago!

I found this site because it was mentioned in a personal finance article in the NY Times.  Shortly after that, I realized that the subscription does add enough value to my life, having found MMM, and canceled it.

I too am 56 and have wish I had found this site at least 18 years ago.

I can't remember which personal finance site I first referenced MMM .. but I have been lurking the forums for several months now. I was always asking "How much is enough?" and the usual answers were "Experts say 75-80% of your gross salary". This never made sense to me. If I am saving money before and after taxes, I never have access to 80% now - or require it. MMM brought confirmation to me of what I was already "realizing" and much more. I only wish this realization had occurred to me much sooner in life, and that retirement didn't have to "come together" by the prescribed age of 65. I have implemented several things in my life that I have found here from lowering 401k cost ratios, travel miles churning to LED bulbs through-out the house.

So even though I am late to the game, I'm just glad I am a better player now.

[fb132]

I think I heard about MMM on the YNAB forum, someone there mentionned him and the name brought some curiosity from me. I read the website and learned about the concept of FI. Before MMM, my goal was to save enough money to retire in my 60's, now I want to be FI way before I retire.

[Mr Dumpster Stache]

Some guys on a facebook group were talking about financial stuff and somebody posted a link to a MMM article. I read it, and couldn't believe what I was reading. Two months later, I had read the entire blog and my brain was forever changed.

I followed up by buying the ERE book, hanging around these fourms, and swearing in my head at stupid radio and TV advertisements.

[CopperTex]

I was reading some reviews on Amazon for I don't know what, but someone mentioned "Early Retirement Extreme" and it felt like a punch in the gut just hearing that term. I was massively intrigued, googled the term and devoured the ERE blog. Jacob mentioned MMM in his "passing the torch" post, and here I am.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Through a Washington Post article. And of course, my initial reaction was like, "That's crazy!" And while I am by no means "all the way there," look at me now--I actually rode my bike in the snow this winter. Pulling two preschoolers in a trailer!

And, yes, really wish I had known about it in my 20s, especially before I had kids. I tend to be a very conventional thinker and we lost a lot of money on a house we used to own when we lived in Georgia and then decided to move away from Georgia... in 2009-2010. Oops. It had four bedrooms and I never even got pregnant until we moved away anyway.

[Suncoast]

I think I googled "Retire by 50" or something similar (since I'm 43) and found an article about Darrow Kirkpatrick, who had done just that.  From there, I read his blog at canIretireyet.com and he mentioned MMM in one of his posts.  Once I started reading the MMM blog, I pretty much read every post in the span of a couple of weeks. 

Fortunately, I had done a decent job of saving/investing over the years and don't have any debt.  However, it wasn't until reading MMM that I finally pieced everything  together and could see a clear path to FIRE.

[ontario74]

On CBC Radio here in Ottawa. I believe MMM lived in Ottawa at one point.

I'd been frugal into my mid-20s but life took a few twists and I ended up in debt twice. No more :)

Thanks to this forum and philosophy I'm debt-free and on my way to a 50% savings rate.

[jamaicaspanish]

I saw the Washington Post article from April, 2013 through the Fugal page on Reddit.

I'd always been frugal (mostly out of necessity), but MMM's claim that frugality actually leads to a better life was an epiphany.

So . . . I continue my badassity, but I'm framing many decisions (financial and otherwise) based on living a "better life."

[Dances With Fire]

I have "always" been frugal/ mustachian...However, the Bogleheads forum mentioned MMM. I felt more of a connection here because we are not in a high income bracket and didn't need (millions) to retire comfortably.

Expenses of the MMM community, in general, are much less than many of the professionals on the  Bogleheads site. 

[Lian]

...I'm 38 and, like you, I wish I'd know all this years ago. But maybe I wasn't ready for it at the time.

I'm 56 and would have been thrilled to have found this its 18 years ago!

I found this site because it was mentioned in a personal finance article in the NY Times.  Shortly after that, I realized that the subscription does add enough value to my life, having found MMM, and canceled it.

I too am 56 and have wish I had found this site at least 18 years ago.

I can't remember which personal finance site I first referenced MMM .. but I have been lurking the forums for several months now. I was always asking "How much is enough?" and the usual answers were "Experts say 75-80% of your gross salary". This never made sense to me. If I am saving money before and after taxes, I never have access to 80% now - or require it. MMM brought confirmation to me of what I was already "realizing" and much more. I only wish this realization had occurred to me much sooner in life, and that retirement didn't have to "come together" by the prescribed age of 65. I have implemented several things in my life that I have found here from lowering 401k cost ratios, travel miles churning to LED bulbs through-out the house.

So even though I am late to the game, I'm just glad I am a better player now.

This is my story too! I'm in my 50's and late to the game. I discovered MMM a few years ago – don’t remember when exactly. I read every post, but then didn’t visit the site again for a couple of years.  I think I found MMM from a mention on Early Retirement Extreme – and I found ERE from a mention in an article (or maybe it was the other way around).

Back in 2008, I had a negative net worth in the six figures – mortgage and a lot of consumer debt.  I was very unhappy in my job, and debt was really weighing me down, so I decided to do something about it.  I set up budget and debt payoff spreadsheets, stopped all unnecessary spending, and diverted as much of my income as I could to getting rid of the debt.  A few years in, I realized that I was perfectly content living frugally and spending much less.  That led to the realization that once the debt was paid off, the money would then go into savings and investments, and I would not need to save enough to replace 70-80% of my income since I was happy on much less. I couldn’t find any relevant information in the mainstream financial sites at that time that supported my conclusions, so lots of searching led me to ERE and MMM - and eventually a few other sites too. There is so much great information on the interwebs now for anyone who cares to find it.

[2Birds1Stone]

I've always been mindful of my finances having worked since I was 13 years old and living on my own for the past 10 years.

When I started my first full time job in 2010 I decided I wanted to learn about investing and have my money working for me. I figured with a lot of saving and some smart investing I could pull the plug by 50. After much online reading on various blogs, financialsamurai.com budgetsaresexy.com etc I stumped on mmm.  The rest is history. I always saved 30-40% of my pay from 2010 forward, when I first found MMM I bumped that to 50%, and now I am on track to hit 70% this year.

FIRE now looks like it will happen before 40, rather than 50+!

Ecstatic to say the least!

[ender]

Decided, when getting close to leaving grad school, "I am going to make a lot more money than I do now when I finish and have no idea what to do."

Led me to Dave Ramsey FPU, but since I didn't have debt wasn't super useful.

The Interwebs led me to Bogleheads, where I participated for a while, then found here (not sure how).

[daymare]

When I was 22, I had a personal finance blog (still do, but haven't updated in a while).  On 04/07/12 (just looked it up specifically for this post), my friend posted a comment with a link to one of MMM's posts - http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/05/12/the-coffee-machine-that-can-pay-for-a-university-education/ .

I was in my first year out of college, reading every personal finance book I could get my hands on, and even had a financial advisor who was wonderful and I learned a lot from.  Discovering MMM has changed my life in such a major way.  My husband and I plan to be FI by 40, and this year (our first full calendar year being married) we're on track to invest more money than we spend.  I'm so obsessed with the freedom and options that come from having investments and a high financial IQ.

[oinkette]

I originally heard about Jacob at ERE, he mention MMM. I think I found Jacob from a post on reddit.

[Exflyboy]

I was Googling "can I retire yet".. Found MMM, posted a note saying "Hey I have this monster commute and I think I live on about $30k a year and a $1.2M stash".. and Pete told me I was "Done working".

Of course it took a lot of number crunching to convince myself I really was fire.. I quit about 4 months later..:)

Now do some p.t work because its fun, they pay very well and my Wife wont retire for another year..:)

[Snow White]

I've always been a bit frugal but I credit Elaine St. James in helping me to crystallize my thinking with her books on Simplicity in the 1990s.  Then I found "Your Money or Your Life" and never looked back.  I think I've read every simple living book published since then and followed the Simple Living Network for years before they folded.  I don't recall how I heard of MMM but I read a number of PF blogs including the Simple Dollar and Get Rich Slowly.  I am sure someone mentioned MMM or included a link.  I then binge read all of the MMM back posts AND the comments over a few weeks and that was a couple of years ago.

[iamlittlehedgehog]

My dad stumbled upon it and sent me link knowing my then boyfriend (now husband) and I lived on a shoestring budget. Now I'm the Mustachian convert of my family. A combination Dave Ramsey debt repayment and MMM investing has given us a 180 in our finances. It sucks now but we'll have security and peace of mind in the future.

[Cookie78]

My boyfriend sent me a link to an MMM blog post late last year. I forget which one, but it was relevant to a conversation we'd had the day before. I started reading more and found the forum and jumped in head first. Boyfriend followed shortly afterwards. I wish I had discovered MMM and the idea of FIRE much earlier, but I also don't regret my past. I wasted a few years, but I also did a lot of things right without knowing it at the time.

[StacheInAFlash]

Three summers ago, a coworker mentioned this crazy blog about a guy in his 30s who retired and loved to swear, saying it was a hilarious and awesome blog. I remember checking it out that day and finding it humorous, but sadly it didn't click for whatever reason and I forgot about it after that day. Fast forward another year, early fall 2013 I really have my student loan getting bought out/transferred to another company to thank. Taking a look at the new student loan site, seeing my new payment and the discouraging 22+ year repayment plan, I was googling things about paying them off early. That led me to the NoMoreHarvardDebt blog and I read through his entire adventure. He thankfully mentioned MMM which brought me full circle back to the blog I remembered from a year prior. For whatever reason, it instantly clicked that time! I started devouring the blog. I shared it with my wife, who was even more hooked than I was. We didn't instantly say, "Let's retire early", but we started with a short term goal of paying off our car loan in 5 months rather than the 3 years that were left. I believe we did in 4 months! In spring 2014, we started the next goal of paying off the $50k of student loans in a few years; as of today (about 15 months later), they are down to $22k and should be pretty damn close to $0 by year end. The next goal will be a simple one...retire by 40.

[KennesawNemo]

I was reading a forum about Disney and believe it or not, there is a budget board, lol. Someone mentioned MMM and I have been following so far.

I don't intend to go mustachian, like ever. Considering the fact that I came from a Disney forum, that shouldn't be a surprise, lol.

That being said, I have been getting useful tips here and it has helped me to improve my overall finance. (I consider myself to be in good finance to start with.)

Good thing about this forum is that a lot of the strategy/advice/lessons are universal, they can be helpful even to non-mustachians, just to a different extent.

[Ozymandiaz]

I've been visiting and reading here off and on for a while. I think I first found Mr Money Mustache when I was looking for a less expensive cell phone option for my daughter who was going to need a phone. Money Mustache recommended Republic Wireless, which I looked into, and eventually signed up for. I just did one phone first to test it, then when it worked, we added two more and dropped T-Mobile. I just wish I had switched to Republic Wireless long ago. The savings adds up fast, and I think I need to thank Mustachianism. Now I'm looking for other ways to save, though I've always been fairly frugal. Anyway, lots of good ideas here (and some rather crazy ones too).

[JupiterJones]

The Interwebs led me to Bogleheads, where I participated for a while, then found here (not sure how).

I'm a long-time Boglehead myself. Kept seeing people mention MMM on their forums and finally decided to check it out one day.

Lots of overlap between Boglehead Philosophy and Mustachianism, it seems.

[sisto]

I like many others here found it via a google search. I think I searched for "How to retire early"? I had always considered 55 early retirement and had been planning on that for myself. After being fed up and burned out from my job I started looking at making sure I was totally on track to hit that. I was immediately hooked by MMM and read it all. Been here for 2 months now and love it. I'm 46 and I too wish I would have found it years ago as I too would be FIREd by now. I have managed to pull in my date by 3 years since I started though.