I just briefly skimmed Mr. Moustache or whatever, and I think that what he did in the timeframe that he did it in is completely reasonable.
A couple things I did notice:
1) No student loans, no debt coming out of school - parents or someone funded him.
2) A great job making 42k in 1997. That's making 71k in 2015, AND remember that everything was ridiculously cheap back then.
3) Made 150k+ in year 5
Basically when you make that much money, you are able to invest in the greatest run up in the stock market of basically all time from 2001-2008.
Also, post-retirement he's still earning 50k+ a year working part time. That's a huge part of the math.
Sorry for rambling, but I think that for a lot of us in Calgary, it's very doable. As we've noted a lot of CP'ers make 100k+. Combine that with a second high earner, be frugal and never spend, no kids, and hope for the S&P going up 400% in 5 years, and you too can retire at 30.
The problem is selling this dream to people in Calgary making 40k a year and telling them to skimp on the latte. That will never work.
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