We Joined the Mr. Money Mustache Cult!

We have been looking for guidance, looking for a guru and, finally, we found him. He was right in front of us all along.

 

Mr. Money Mustache, our frugal leader.

Our majestic FIRE king.

We all bow to the supreme badassity emperor.

We are the Mustachians!

 

Our charismatic leader; Mr. Money Mustache

Mr. Money Mustache has increasingly become an object of worship for us. Throughout the years, Pete Adeney Aka, Mr. Money Mustache has guided millions out of financial mediocrity. His devotion to help and spread the good word has had drastic effects on the masses and has reached about 1 in 200 Americans.

 

People think of a cult as a bad thing, because they’re thinking of Waco, Texas and Kool-aid, but, really, it’s just a social organization structure which is a basic built-in thing to human beings, and it’s what allows us to live together and cooperate. – Pete Adeney Aka, Mr. Money Mustache.

 

Our majestic leader has three major goals:

1. To make you rich so you can retire early.
2. To make you happy so you can properly enjoy your early retirement.
3. To save the whole Human Race from destroying itself through overconsumption of its habitat.

 

Our manuscripts

From the historic manuscripts by MMM – to the investment bible by JL Collins – to the community scriptures from the Boggleheads,  Mustachians have plenty of teachings to read through. The beauty of our cult is that, although very simple concepts are preached, one can go deep into minute details and optimize his lifestyle to the last little facet.

 

Our process

The coercive persuasion of our supreme leader had us reduce our spending, save over half of our income, and enjoy the simple things in life. Based on the ancient principles of Stoicism, he enlightened us on the detriments of living an overly-materialistic life and helped us focus on freedom and happiness instead.

 

Wealth. Freedom. Self-actualization. Learning. Generosity.

 

By depriving ourselves, living way under our means, we are able to save a large portion of our income and invest towards our financial freedom. We, Mustachians, value material things less and avoid Hedonic Adaptation to optimize our happiness.

 

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. –Old-time Mustachian H.D. Thoreau, 1817-1862 

 

Here we stand.

Riding our bikes through town, rain or not.

Living on the border of poverty, saving towards the million.

 

 

Oh! And happy April Fools everyone.

Mr. Money Mustache is not a cult. It is in no way brainwashing or pushing certain beliefs but it is an amazing resource and Pete has shared great thoughts and concepts over the years. He is far from a manipulative cult leader. His fans may be vocal and adamant but it is only with the best intentions.

In our case, we do follow a few key principles shared by Pete and adapted a few others to our own situation.

 

The bikes

First of all, riding your bike everywhere in town is one of the teachings of MMM. He is a strong proponent of the car-free lifestyle – combining bikes and bike trailers, with car sharing, carpooling, rentals, and Uber/Lyft rides – even if he recently bought one himself.

For us, living car-free sounds like a great idea but it is not nearly as practical. Even living in the city, we greatly enjoy the outdoors and like to drive out to mountains, national parks, and explore our country. We currently own two cars, which we bought used, and could live with one.

We currently live close to work and only drive long distances for activities which bring us happiness. Of course, we still own bikes, bicycles are fun.

 

Living under $30,000

Pete and his family live on a small budget, nearing under 30 thousand dollars every year. Quickly glancing at our $50,000+ spending it seems like we are burning through the dollar bills like fire. However, Pete does not have a mortgage. If we deduct the $18,000+ we send away in mortgage payments, we come out much closer to his yearly budget.

He is doing a great job and his frugality has definitively inspired us to cut down our spending. Over the last few years, we saved tens of thousands by simply living a simpler life and detaching ourselves from materialistic possessions.

 

The rule of free

Once early retired, MMM shares that most of us will continue to generate some sort of income and will continue to be productive. Reaching financial freedom is simply a tool to quit working on the boring things and start working on things you truly enjoy and makes the world a better place.

 

I try to make all spending decisions as if the price were $0.00

And I make all work and income decisions as if the wage were $0.00

– Pete

 

Once you have saved away enough to sustain your lifestyle indefinitely, there is no more need to endure the office politics or slowly die in your hour-long commute.

You are free to pursue projects you enjoy, even if they do not generate any income.

This is exactly how we plan to spend our retirement once we reach our number. We are currently pursuing a few side-hustles and hobbies but would like to devote more time to them if we did not have the 9 to 5.

 

Your debt is an emergency

Finally, one more thing Pete advocates is the urgency of paying down debt. We discussed this topic before and truly believe living a debt-free life is possible, accessible, and will benefit anyone who tries to do it. Consumer debt is a huge problem in America and, while more and more people take on debt, we are trying to pay off every last penny we owe.

 

The interest savings could also be used to shave decades off of your mandatory working career. – Pete

 

At this point, we do not hold any debt, except for our mortgage. We are currently doing accelerated payments to pay it off as soon as possible but we are still focusing on investment contributions since the interest rates are at all-time lows.

We hope you are having a wonderful Easter and if you did not know about them yet, check out the Mustachians cult. 😛