Mr. Money Mustache: How Pete Adeney Retired at 30 on Two $67K Salaries

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Pete Adeney, known online as Mr. Money Mustache, was born in Canada and settled in Longmont, Colorado, where he and his then wife worked as software engineers earning an average of about $67,000 each per year. From the start of their careers they rejected lifestyle inflation, treating new cars, larger houses and phone upgrades as a trap that kept people at desks and harmed the environment, and they saved a large share of their take-home pay. By 2005, his 30th birthday, they had paid off a $200,000 house and built $600,000 in stock index funds. He left work for good. The plan rested on the 4% rule, under which they could withdraw about $24,000 to $25,000 a year, adjusted for inflation, from a diversified portfolio.

They kept costs low by largely replacing cars with bicycles and doing their own repairs and building projects rather than hiring them out. After six quiet years, in 2011 he launched the blunt and humorous Mr. Money Mustache blog, covering early retirement, happiness, consumer debt and travel hacking with credit card rewards paid off in full. By 2017 the blog earned about $400,000 a year and drew coverage from the New Yorker, CBS News and MarketWatch, yet Adeney said his family did not rely on that income for living expenses. Readers calling themselves Mustachians organized forums and meetups, and the movement became a backbone of FIRE, financial independence, retire early.

• He framed every dollar not spent as buying back future free time.
• The episode explains the 4% rule as a reservoir refilled by market growth and dividends.
• Cycling cut costs for fuel, insurance and loans while removing the need for a gym.
• In 2017 readers gained the MMM World Headquarters, a co-working space in downtown Longmont.
• His brother is the Canadian indie rock musician known as Wax Mannequin.