Mr. Money Mustache

I like Eli Bendersky's blog a lot. He talks about a variety of topics and he satisfies my occasional Go interest since I don't work in it regularly: https://eli.thegreenplace.net/ Mr Money Mustache has been my favorite blog for probably about eight or nine years now. Some people have negative opinions about the financial independence space or they say he's too hardcore for them, but I love a lot of his posts and they've led me to make happier decisions in my life. He's always got a different way of looking at things and sometimes I acknowledge that those aren't for me, and sometimes I adopt them. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com

> "Wealth is accumulated through habits" is a great story to tell people but it seems very often to be complete BS. I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, but I encourage you to dig more into financial independence, and how living more frugally can help you save more money to invest in the right ways to generate wealth. There's plenty of books on these habits, "The Millionaire Next Door", and even some popular communities that attest to it such as https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/. You don't need to be rich to generate wealth, but it takes sacrifice (like everything in life), or even habits to get there.

Consider asking the flip side of this question, "I wonder what kind of safety net I could create that would allow me to think like this?" I can recommend the web site Mr Money Mustache[1] for some ideas along that line. [1] https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

Check out https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ for one possible alternative that is working for a lot of people that live in the US. The FIRE movement is about working for a short amount of time and living frugally but well for the whole of your life. You have to give up keeping up with the Joneses and most people will think you are a bit weird, but many people feel that is a great trade.

If your motivation for starting a business is to have more time, then I would recommend Financial Independence Retire Early(FIRE) instead. A good place to start: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ I used to be just like you. I wanted to start a business so that I wouldn't have to work for anyone! I'm going to be my own boss! The reality is that instead of working for one boss, you are going to be working for 1000 bosses. Unless you like sales and customer support, you are going to be miserable. The odds of having a successful business are low. And even if you do succeed, you are going to have to keep working anyway. It's not like you build it once and forget it. On the other hand, if you have a six-figure job, you can retire in 5 to 15 years depending on your lifestyle. There is no uncertainty. No emotional roller coaster. This fail-proof path will give you a peace of mind.

FIRE is still a thing even today; for example Mr. Money Mustache talks about this all the time: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com Your point about wages stands, but even in the 50s there was no way the lower strata would have been able to retire early -- let alone retire at all -- or accumulate great wealth. > To the cost of living? To the cost of homes? COL and housing prices are not uniform. FIRE is going to be hard in San Fran even as a full-time Dev, but if you're making $85k in Des Moines it might be well within reason.

In my case, I stumbled upon an HN thread on index funds [1] and discovered Bogleheads Wiki page which was an insightful introduction to philosophy of personal finance. Eventually discovered Mr. Money Moustache as well which emphasizes more on behavioural aspects to maximize savings and accelerating financial independence. For me, Bogleheads reading list [4] has been an excellent source for improving personal finance knowledge. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12368136 [2] https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page [3] https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ [4] https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Books:_recommendations_and_reviews

I'd quit. Two of the better life decisions I ever made were quitting education/employment that wasn't making me happy, to free time for better things. Also, in case you're not familiar already, I'd recommend spending some time reading a few posts at https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ - the aesthetic might seem a bit weird, and it's not a "one size fits all" topic, but there's some good food for thought. Maybe read it at work ;).

Those options all make the assumption that you have to carve that time out of regular working hours. I'd just like to add an option #6 - work on your project on nights and weekends, launch it on nights and weekends, and make the leap to working on it full time once it becomes profitable. Meanwhile, increase your savings rate so that you might be able to make the leap sooner. That way if it gets to the point where you're profitable, but not yet making enough to cover your expenses, you can potentially jump ship earlier than you would've been able to otherwise. It's pretty much the plan I followed and so far it's working well (left my job ~5 months ago). On the topic of increasing your savings rate, some of the ideas/mindset from https://mrmoneymustache.com were helpful.

If you are middle class (~$30k-$70k per annum) you can be wealthy* by focusing your spending on freedom, aka capital investments. I did not understand this was an option before reading the blog of Mr. Money Mustache[0]. Reading that and the Living a FI blog[1] may hopefully be as life-changing to you reading this comment as it was for me. * Wealthy in time to spend with those you love [0] https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ [1] https://livingafi.com/

On these notes, you might take a look at the following: https://www.robinhood.com/ Robin hood is a free stockbroker. They make money from loaning money and collecting interest on leftover funds. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ Mr. Money Mustache is a blog about saving. He mirrors many of the above points and has a lot to share about how he reached an early retirement at 30.

Improve your skills, increase income, invest and save, live with roommates, learn that consumerism is programmed into people through TV ads and thus is completely unnecessary. Mr. Money Mustache[1] has been blogging about this for years, and it's a great place to start for people who don't understand personal finance. Also check out the personal finance[2] and financial independence[3] subreddits. [1]: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ [2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/ [3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/

Obligatory link to mr money mustache. He has a great blog on keeping expenses low and living a frugal post tech lifestyle. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

If you could have written this article, read every post in this blog: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ I was a spendthrift for years, and even regular raises couldn't get me ahead. This guy teaches you how to not only save money, but take pride in not having the latest and greatest everything. This, IMO, is what makes spending within your means sustainable in a society that looks down on those without the proper social status markers. If you're in an economically depressed area where the richest family in town doesn't have a pot to piss in, your poverty isn't you fault, and we should have a better safety net that helps people up to more valuable careers. If you have means, save your money, and take pride in not being suckered in by people selling you stuff that won't make your life better!

One potential path is to gain FI, then you can do whatever you want. It can happen pretty fast on a dev's income. My current favorite early retirement blog: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

Not sure if you were asking me or daxfohl, but I've always been a saver. I got serious about it maybe 8-10 years ago. My savings rate has been trending upwards during that time, it's around 40-45% of my take-home pay now. I spent a year in the Bay area, but moved back to Ohio for family reasons. That helped, because things are so much less expensive out here. (Bear in mind, though, you can work in the Bay Area and then retire somewhere cheaper ;) http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ has some great articles on how to save money while still enjoying life. My top piece of advice is: do not buy a brand new car. Don't buy any car if you can manage it, but if you must own one, get something that's a few years old and half as expensive. And even then, try to ride a bicycle when possible.

https://www.mint.com/ - track your net worth https://lab.madfientist.com/ - track your FIRE date - Financial Independence Retire Early, otherwise known as FU money (my date is Dec 2022) http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ - learn how to save and invest. And no, you don’t have to be as frugal as Mr Money Mustache. https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/ - read the sidebar resources and ask questions here if they aren’t answered

None of these sound like great reasons. I'm four years into starting a business. Here was my motivation: * A burning desire not to work for anyone else. * A desire, not to retire, but to free up time for all the other things I want to do. Chiefly learning. It is impossible to to convey, in writing, how badly I wanted these things. I had had a small taste of the working world, and couldn't bear the thought of it. I wanted to be free of my time. I had read the four hour workweek, and longed for income to that was mostly automatic. Your motives don't seem like mine. You sound like you might be a better candidate for this: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ That's a reasonable guide to retiring in your 30s. The author was a software engineer. He just reduced his spending and saved a high % of his salary.

As the article mentions at the end, a big part of living within your means is reducing your spending -- and a lot of that has to do with recognizing what things are actually necessities. The chart of price increases mentions things like movie tickets, new cars, and private college tuition, which are certainly not necessities. Even high gas prices can be mitigated if you recognize the hidden costs of driving a fuel-inefficient vehicle long distances to and from work every day -- and that in many cases you're not forced to live so far away. I recommend the Mr Money Mustache blog as a source of some decent advice about how to think more frugally and focus on early retirement: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

I love the sentiment! I'll try this out when I have more time later, but I think it's worth noting that, of course, saving is only part of the equation. There is so much you can (and should) do to reduce expenses outside of the mundane day-to-day, as well! For great advice on pursuing financial independence or betterment, much of which has changed my life and habits, see: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ "Financial Freedom Through Badassity"

Simplest: 100% VTSMX Conservative: 60% VTSMX, 40% VBMFX I would do: 50% VTSMX, 30% VBMFX, 15% Lending Club, 5% YCombinator funds on fundersclub or wefunder.com (split over next 4 summer and 4 winter classes) This is a great site: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

You should read Mr. Money Mustache! http://www.mrmoneymustache.com He's an ex-software engineer who, by living reasonably (not even at extreme levels of frugality) saved enough money in seven or eight years to retire at age 30. He's got great money advice! You'll love him!

@grecy, do you follow Mr. Money Mustache? He is all about cutting costs in ways I'd have never thought of. His goal was to retire early, but it could be anything. This requires quite a bit of "badassitude" as he would say. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ I'd also agree that taking some time off is very helpful. I took 1 year off to do some volunteering. It taught me to live a simpler life and respect for the dollar (when your income is 0 you make it work the way you can).

If you are intrigued by the thought of changing your financial behavior, I can heartily recommend the following as followups to this article: 1) "Your Money or Your Life" (http://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship/dp/014… - Don't recall if this was mentioned in any of the recommended book threads, but it's definitely a good one. Gets you thinking about what your job really costs and what your time is worth to you. 2) http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ - Truly rethink the value proposition of, well, just about everything in your life. Did you know you can afford another $15,900 worth of house for every mile you live closer to work?

If you like this, you'll love http://mrmoneymustache.com (no affiliation.)

You read through all the advice in these blogs [1][2]. Seriously. If you are invested in low cost index funds, most assume you can safely withdraw 4% a year and not deplete your principal. If you're retiring at 35, you might want a greater safety margin, so let's say 3%. That gives you 60K a year. How do you retire on 60K a year? Obviously take what I'm saying with a grain of salt as I'm a relatively young person and haven't done any of this yet. But...60K is the median household income in the US, so half of families in the US live on less. If you're retired, you can probably save in ways others can't. For instance: * Housing. You don't need to stay in a high cost of living city, so move to a much cheaper area (maybe a college town). * Education. You have much more time, so send your kids to all public education, and use your extra time to educate them further. * Debt. You have a ton of assets. Why hold any debt? * Automobiles. Bike instead, if you're physically able. * Health. Probably the hardest one since insurance in the US is tied to employment. I understand the recommended approach here is to pay out of pocket for a plan, but many have trouble with this. Of course, the standard advice is to use the extra time you have due to retirement to stay as healthy as possible, but I acknowledge this isn't a perfect plan. [1] https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ [2] https://www.madfientist.com/

It sounds like you overthink uncertainty, which is something I was stuck in for years. If I just reason it out enough, and have a good idea, and think it all through, maybe I can solve the problem before I quit that cushy job, or so the thinking goes. It turns out that as long as I'm employed as a factory worker cranking out pointless Jira tickets all day to integrate another A/B testing framework, I don't have any good ideas. Boring works makes people dull. How to escape: have f-you money. Pay off debts, save ruthlessly. See e.g. Mr Money Mustache [0] or The Simple Path to Wealth [1] for more. Bonus: you'll end up making better decisions at your 9-5 job because _you just don't have to put up with all that_, if the need arises. My strategy: realizing that having a boring 9-5 job I found unfulfilling would make me insanely unhappy in the long term. You can always get another job if you decide you'd rather do that again. Did I regret it? Am I happy? N/A. I know for sure I'll regret wasting another day arguing with a project manager that putting a ticket in the "in progress" column isn't actually the same as progress. In any case, others' experience doesn't have any bearing on yours (fortunately!). However, I strongly recommend against discussing this with your coworkers. They've chosen the same path you have, and will demotivate you despite having best intentions for you. If you go on an antarctic expedition, you'll run into a lot of people interested in the South Pole,…

stevepavlina.com - It's not a patch on what it was in its heyday but I still check a few times a year. jamesaltucher.com - I can't say I've ever actually learned anything useful on the site, but I still enjoy James's writing. I found a few of the podcasts of interest - although most is the usual baloney of people thinking they are God's Gift and are just there to flog their tat. lifepassionandbusiness.com - new but I have listened to most of the podcasts and I like the questions the presenter (Paul Harvey) asks. By having a set set of questions for all guests it keeps things on point and not just about how wonderful the guests are (in their own estimation) as on some other podcasts. https://www.gogently.co/listen-to-a-podcast - blog/podcast with Michael Nobbs. Not personal development per se, but I think we could all do with slowing down a bit. Michael's a great presenter and should probably be hired by the BBC! :) https://seths.blog/ - again not strictly personal development, but there are usually useful life tips to be picked up. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ - some life changing content in there. Depends where you are in the journey though. For some all this falls on deaf ears, but if you've made a lost a fortune a couple of times this could help get you on the straight and narrow! https://www.alastairhumphreys.com/ - probably one of the best things you can do if you are serious about personal development is get your teeth stuck into a big hairy adventure that…

Please don't take what I said too seriously, it's not meant as "life advice you should follow to the T". It was merely intended to provoke a discussion about an alternative to the way most people deal with personal finances. As I mentioned, there are plenty of people who practice 'financial independence' who have done this before, what I'm saying is nothing new. Early Retirement Extreme [0] is a good introduction to the subject. Mr Money Mustache [1] is a bit less extreme. These are still rather extreme examples though, so no not everyone will be able to retire in 5 years, but a lot of the advice they can follow, and at least save up an emergency or investment fund of a decent amount. I think it's irresponsible and dangerous to live paycheck to paycheck, and take on mountains of debt just to buy something you don't really need, but plenty of people do that every day. [0] http://earlyretirementextreme.com/about-the-blog [1] http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

First thing I want to say is that it's very easy for technical people to frame this as a technical issue rather than an emotional issue. The evidence is overwhelming that wealth building is an emotional issue. So if you're not paying attention to that side of the equation, all this tax stuff really doesn't matter. I'll get back to this later and explain the four account types now. Employer: Traditional 401k (pre tax), Roth 401k (after tax) Personal: Traditional IRA (pre tax), Roth IRA (after tax) These are tax designations, not investment types. Roth means after tax dollars (more money up front). Traditional is pre tax dollars (you get pay more later). Both grow tax free, but with the traditional withdrawals count as income so they are taxed according to that tax year. 401k has a contribution limit is $18k / year. IRA has a contribution limit of $5500 / year. $23.5k / year total right now for somebody under 55. If you make enough / spend little enough that you can put the maximum dollars under the shelter, my suggestion is to go Roth 401k and Roth IRA or backdoor IRA. Over a 30 year period, the additional dollars under Roth will make up for most tax percentage differences, so it's a decent bet. Roth is the best way to max dollars under the tax shelter, and the tax shelter is hugely profitable. Also, if you go Roth, your retirement balance will be the real balance, not some fake number that is still subject to unknown future taxation. If you can't max the…