Mr Money Mustache

ams25

atush wrote: »

I've read it a bit, but he and his followers are a little bit fanatical about the whole thing. Down to saving so hard they arent actually enjoying life.

I think you need to read beyond the surface. Yes, there are some extreme frugalists (is that a word) out there but the real focus from people like mr mm is on what you value and having a very high quality of life without spending on what you don't really need or value. E.g. Spending money on experiences rather than stuff. Living in a reasonable house but not a huge/very expensive house, driving a good paid for car not a top of the range car bought with debt. Having time to do the things you enjoy vs working to finance the things you think you should have (keeping up with Jones's etc). To me, it's just sensible stuff....but won't be for everyone by any means. (There would be a ton less consumer debt if it was)

I in no way live a frugal life (my wife keeps me honest there) and I like some nice things (good holidays, eating out. Etc) but I do find a lot of the FI ethos (focus on time, value, experiences) are a good basis for a richer quality of life.

Spreadsheetman

I found the MMM blog in 2014 which coincided with paying off all my mortgages. It (and the MMM forum) galvanised me to sort out my investments and pension provision that I really hadn't been paying enough attention to.


I think it's a good thing taken as an inspiration. It's best to avoid getting bogged down in the USA-isms and over-frugality that some people are obsessed with though or it's easy to conclude that it's just not relevant.

bostonerimus

MMM is very well known in the US. He's a bit extreme for me, but his principles are excellent. I started doing my own version of MMM...ie being frugal and saving lots into index funds....back in the late 1980s and retired when I was 52. So there's another successful data point on the frugal/aggressive saving allows for early retirement graph.

MF2015

It seems like there is a bit of a FI movement going on here then.

Thanks for the recommendation of other blogs, I came across the Mad FIensist and have listened to a couple of his podcasts, looks like I!!!8217;ve got enough reading material for a while now.

What is you current post tax saving rate? My own goal is going to be to get to a 50% over the next 12 months, I don!!!8217;t think I!!!8217;m too far off it.

fred246

I am very lucky to have an index linked DB pension. It would have given me a fabulous pension at NPA. However I couldn't contribute any extra to it. The FIRE movement taught me that anyone can retire early if they save enough. So I have wrecked my DB pension by taking it early but it will pay the bills and put food on the table. My pot of cash is for cars and holidays. When I get my state pension on top I won't need the pot of cash. So saving has bridged the gap between early retirement and NPA.

michaels

50% - pah, My gross would be over 70k instead I take home 10k and stick 50k into various pensions and savings and work part time - the annual pension contribution limits mean it makes sense for me to take part of my retirement now


What I find interesting is playing with the firesim calculator to work out how much pension each extra year of work might earn you....

tigerspill

atush wrote: »

I've read it a bit, but he and his followers are a little bit fanatical about the whole thing. Down to saving so hard they arent actually enjoying life.

I read it for a bit and concluded the same. Haven't read it for a while now.

enthusiasticsaver

I am familiar with him and we used some of his mantras like reducing outgoings whilst aiming for a saving percentage of our earnings. We had already started on that road after paying our mortgage off in 2007 when I was 47 and DH 48 but I had not read about FIRE. We had also had 4 years of supporting 2 DDs through university so a big chunk of our income also then became available when they had finished their education.

We aimed initially for an early retirement of 60 but ended up going at 58 when we were saving around 40 -50% of our salaries in SIPPs, S and S ISAs and AVCS and still managing to do home improvements, change cars and holidays. We were keen to carry on doing holidays and were prepared to work a few years more and probably could have gone at 55 if we had foregone those. Our retirement income now which is mainly DB pensions with some investment income comes to around 60% of our final salaries even with the reductions for going early so it was a non brainer. We still have one further DB pension to come when I am 60 in 2 years time and our state pensions when they start will take us over what our earned income was when working so will probably start saving again at that point or passing some over to our DDs and GC.


I am still learning but thanks to this forum and blogs like Mr Money Mustache we have our finances straight for an enjoyable retirement at an age earlier than we anticipated. I saw a friend of mine today who is the same age and she was astounded I was now retired as only 58. We compared my LGPS to her NHS one as we both have been working for them for a similar time and hers was so much less than mine because I had overpaid it for more than 20 years, even without my other investments. She said nobody told her to overpay her pension to which I gave no response

enthusiasticsaver

Here is another FIRE blog I like reading as it is UK based and not quite so frugal as MMM and aimed at balancing living whilst saving for early retirement. http://quietlysaving.co.uk/

cobson

For those new to the MMM site, the UK Tax Discussion sub-board is where the U.K. posters hang out:

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/uk-tax-discussion/