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How much a man who retired comfortably at age 30 spends each year to get by
(Mr. Money Mustache)
Mr. Money Mustache.
Peter Adeney, better known as “Mr. Money Mustache,” turned quite a few heads when he announced his retirement at age 30 back in 2005 by saving two-thirds of his and his wife Simi’s take-home pay.
Both software engineers, their combined salary amounted to $134,000, and they were saving about $90,000 annually.
After a mere 10 years of working, they had accumulated enough savings to retire comfortably and debt-free: about $600,000 in investments and a paid-off house worth $200,000, Adeney told Nick Paumgarten of The New Yorker in a recent article.
What does their budget look like today?
He and his wife, who have a 10-year-old son and live in Longmont, Colorado, spend an average of $24,000 a year, Adeney told Paumgarten.
To put that into perspective, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that the typical three-person household in Longmont, Colorado should set aside $66,000 a year to cover annual necessities, including housing, food, child care, transportation, healthcare, other necessities, and taxes.
His family can afford to spend much more than $24,000 a year — in fact, the New Yorker reports he’s earning about $400,000 a year through his personal blog, substantially more than he and his wife earned as software engineers.
But for Mr. Money Mustache, a thrifty lifestyle is a liberating lifestyle, and no surplus of money will change that perspective.
He plans to someday give away this extra income, because, as Paumgarten reports, “The point, for him, is to live lean and free.”
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