Mr. Money Mustache is the

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...

and

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of -year-old Canadian-born

blogger A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

Peter Adeney. Adeney

retired Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

from his job as a

software engineer Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ''p ...

in 2005 at age 30 by spending only a small percentage of his annual salary and consistently

investing Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...

the remainder, primarily in stock market

index funds An index fund (also index tracker) is a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to follow certain preset rules so that the fund can a specified basket of underlying investments.Reasonable Investor(s), Boston University Law Review, avail ...

. Adeney lives in Longmont, Colorado, and contends that most middle-class individuals can and should spend less money and own fewer physical possessions. He argues that by doing this, they can live with increased financial freedom and happiness, reducing their

environmental footprint The ecological footprint is a method promoted by the Global Footprint Network to measure human demand on natural capital, i.e. the quantity of nature it takes to support people or an economy. It tracks this demand through an ecological accounti ...

in the process. He has described the typical middle-class lifestyle as "an exploding volcano of wastefulness," particularly citing the overuse of and overspending on new cars as an example. The blog has been featured and cited in various media outlets including

Market Watch This is a list of programs broadcast by CNBC. CNBC is an American basic cable, internet and business news television channel owned by NBCUniversal News Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast. It was originally established ...

, CBS News, and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', as well as others. Adeney was featured in the 2022 Netflix documentary ''Get Smart with Money'' He is the brother of Chris Adeney, a Canadian indie rock musician better known by the stage name

Wax Mannequin Wax Mannequin is the stage name of Chris Adeney,"The Joy ...

Retirement story

The primary aspect of the blog which has caught the attention of many media outlets is Pete Adeney's extremely early retirement at age 30. Adeney and his then-wife both worked in software engineering, averaging an income of approximately $67,000 per year, per person, over the course of their careers. They lived frugally, investing the majority of their take-home pay during their working years. At the time of their retirement, they had amassed approximately $600,000 in investments in addition to a

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any ...

-free house valued at about $200,000. Adeney believes in the 4% rule, which states that, with a balanced

investment portfolio In finance, a portfolio is a collection of investments. Definition The term “portfolio” refers to any combination of financial assets such as stocks, bonds and cash. Portfolios may be held by individual investors or managed by financial pro ...

, a retiree can withdraw 4% of their portfolio's initial value each year, adjusted upward for inflation each year thereafter, with a low

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1, where, roughly speakin ...

of ever running out of money. His portfolio was valued at $600,000 at the time of his retirement, which could support his family's annual expenditures of about $25,000 indefinitely according to this rule. Adeney has made considerable money aside from his initial investment portfolio since he retired from his software engineering job in 2005, through the blog and other sources of income, but he maintains that none of this additional money was ever necessary to fund his family's normal expenses.

Community

The website includes an active

internet forum An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...

for discussion of personal finance matters outside of the blog's comment threads. People who read the Mr. Money Mustache blog and subscribe to its philosophy are known as "Mustachians." Many of the forum's discussions are focused on topics unique to this

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

community, such as frugal living, investing large sums of money, and retiring extremely early. Readers of the blog gather in person regularly at so-called "Mustachian Meetups" around the world to share experiences and tips on how to live a lifestyle conducive to wealth building, early retirement, happiness, and environmentalism. In 2017, Adeney introduced "Th
MMM World Headquarters Building
" a physical location in Longmont, Colorado, dedicated to the Mustachian movement.

Common topics

The blog's topics often include: *

Early retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

Financial independence Financial independence is the status of having enough income or wealth sufficient to pay one's living expenses for the rest of one's life without having to be employed or dependent on others.Cummuta, John. The Myths & Realities of Achieving Fina ...

Frugality Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the consumption of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance. In behavioral science, frugality has been ...

and simple living * Anti-consumerism *Consumer

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The ...

*The cost of

driving Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a vehicle, including cars, motorcycles, trucks, buses, and bicycles. Permission to drive on public highways is granted based on a set of conditions being met and drivers are required to f ...

cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...

Bicycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

*The philosophy of

happiness Happiness, in the context of mental or emotional states, is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Other forms include life satisfaction, well-being, subjective well-being, flourishing and eudaimonia. ...

* Do-it-yourself

work ethic Work ethic is a belief that work and diligence have a moral benefit and an inherent ability, virtue or value to strengthen character and individual abilities. It is a set of values centered on importance of work and manifested by determination o ...

Environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks ...

Credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

churning and

travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

hacking

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Finance websites Financial services companies established in 2011 Internet properties established in 2011 American blogs Simple living advocates Retirement People from Longmont, Colorado Writers from Ontario

Retirement story

Community

Common topics

See also

References

External links