Quote:
Originally Posted by darklord700
I've seen a lot of retire at 30 or 40 kind of blog but I can never make the numbers work.
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
This guy worked from 21 - 30, 9 years in total and declare financial independence afterwards. Is it possible? |
It depends on whether you are looking for true "retirement" (as most people define that term) or simply "financial independence."
MMM has the latter. Despite his numerous assertions to the contrary, he hasn't done the former.
Quote:
Originally Posted by darklord700
Year 1 Salary 58K Stash 5K
Year 2 Salary 58K Stash 18K (23K)
Year 3 Salary 67K Stash 44K (67K)
Year 4 Salary 127K Stash 83K (150K) – Girlfriend started working
Year 5 Salary 160K Stash 100K (250K)
Year 6 Salary 165K Stash 115K (365K)
Year 7 Salary 165K Stash 125K (490K)
Year 8 Salary 195K Stash 110K (600K) – Works 4 day week (20% paycut)
Year 9 Salary 110K Stash 120K (720K) – Quit Full Time Work
I organized Mr. Moushtash's timeline a bit above. The stash numbers I supposed are portfolio growth plus savings and the numbers in brackets are cumulative networth.
Say for year 3, salary was 67K before tax but savings and growth (based on a 23K portfolio) amounted to 44K. I find it these numbers hard to reconcile or duplicate.
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MMM's numbers do have some problems.
If you take his timeline and his savings numbers, and then compare his yearly result with the S&P 500 index or Vanguard's Total Stock Market Index fund numbers for the same year (picked simply because they give you a very good picture of how the stock market as a whole did for that year), you'll probably see some discrepencies.
Taken at face value, I've never been able to get his math to work.
But, then again, you can't really take MMM (or any financial blogger, for that matter) entirely at face value.
Quote:
Originally Posted by My2Cents
I think My. Moustache also has a rental property that pays some of his bills. I wouldnt say he "retired", more he has moved his career from whatever he did before to now managing his estates/blogging.
That being said I do believe it doesnt matter how much you make, it matters how much you spend to retire.
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Agreed on both points.
MMM is notorious for enaging in "financial wordsmithing." He isn't "retired." He isn't living on $25K in income. Heck, he doesn't even fully account for some of his expenses.
But he's great at marketing a blog and a potential lifestyle.