MMM - criticisms?
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Anonymous
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Recently started reading the Mister Money Mustache blog religiously and much of what he says makes a lot of sense to me. We're trying to implement a few changes around here that he recommends.
However, I bet some of the people who frequent this board are way more knowledgeable than I am about personal finance and investments. What are your criticisms of MMM? What does he overlook/over-simplify/just gets wrong, in your estimation? Just want to make sure I take a balanced approach to my reading. TIA. |
Anonymous
| I just started reading it too. Interesting to feel motivated about frugality (i love that). Haven't found anything particularly impressive regarding wealth management but helpful to increase saving objectives, if just as a motivational coach... |
Anonymous
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No criticisms really. We should all live within our means and save a large amount of our incomes.
But... he is making tons off his website so his current lifestyle isn't from his savings anymore. |
Anonymous
| Penny wise, pound foolish. Suggestions often times assume that your time is free. Does not understand the concept of opportunity cost. |
Anonymous
Well he doesn't work so he has plenty of free time. And your time isn't worth anything unless it would keep you from doing your paid job at work. For instance, cooking at home from scratch doesn't have an opportunity cost because otherwise you'd be watching Netflix or being lazy, not putting in hours towards work. |
Anonymous
| I prefer Dave Ramsey's program. Very simple to follow and just makes sense. He doesn't preach early retirement like MMM does. |
Anonymous
No, it assumes an antiquated labor model. If you can freelance on the side, then cooking from scratch could be really expensive for you. Or perhaps you could use the time to tutor your kids instead of cooking. Life is about trade offs. MMM assumes that your default activity is sitting around doing nothing. |
Anonymous
I agree with you, but truthfully, most American's default mode IS sitting around watching TV after dinner and before bed. |
Anonymous
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I don't care for the MMM forum. It reads like who can out poor each other the most. Frugal used to mean being cautious with your money, saving for a rainy day but on that site it's extreme cheapskate logic.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2013/10/03/how-mr-money-mustache-retired-at-age-30-and-how-you-can-too/#645b20317748 |
Anonymous
| Agreed, I would rather work harder and make more money and buy a nice car rather than make do with a bicycle and have more free time. I work so I can have nice things. |
Anonymous
| I think it's an interesting perspective, but it's not easily adopted (nor would I really want to 100%). |
Anonymous
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I haven't made a close study of his blog, so maybe I'm missing key posts that would address my reservations about him, but here's what I can think of off the top of my head:
1) He seems to presume that everyone's top priority is to be able to stop working ASAP, and that all other money-related priorities are second to that. He has repeatedly expressed horror at the notion that some people would be willing to defer retirement for a few more years in order to enjoy some luxuries today. So if you're not an extremist in your desire to be frugal and retire asap, you'll occasionally find some judgmental comments about your own choices that you might find offensive. 2) He has been extremely fortunate in his life in ways that he really seems to take for granted (and doesn't appreciate that they don't apply universally). He likes to tout how smart he is by finding health insurance for his whole family for only $200-something per month. But it's really a catastrophic plan with a 10k per person/$20k per family deductible. That's all fine and good if you and your family are in good health from the outset, but if they'd had a child with special needs, or one of them had a chronic health condition, they wouldn't be able to maintain their retirement lifestyle with that policy. He and his wife also had a high income in a low COL area, which he always tries to dismiss and it comes across as disingenuous. If you're HHI is over $200k and you're living in a place where you can rent an apartment for $400, it's probably not that hard to save 65% of your income. But if you're living in a place where you can rent an apartment for $400, there probably aren't terribly many jobs around that pay that kind of money. He also graduated from college with no debt, thanks in large part to parental assistance. There were a lot of other events along the way that fall into the "luck" category and won't happen for everyone, but he doesn't like to acknowledge his good fortune. 3) Another thing I really don't like is that if you're going to aspire to retire at a young age like him, you should plan to do so without relying upon public assistance; MMM apparently disagrees with this, and feels that it's perfectly fine to include public assistance as part of your retire-early planning. For instance, he has noted more than once when discussing health insurance premiums that people who retire early and live frugally like him will often have post-retirement income levels that qualify for ACA subsidies to make health insurance more affordable. That's so fundamentally not what programs like ACA subsidies were designed for, and to me this feels like fraud and abuse of the system. 4) He likes to cite the ability to go back to work as his fall-back if unexpected stuff happens and he can't afford to be retired anymore. Except he never really stopped working since he's been doing the blog and related activity to make money, so he has a full resume to fall back on. Someone who truly retires in, say, their early 40s and then needs to go back to work in their late 50s due to a fiscal crisis is probably going to have a really hard time finding work. I also don't know what the plan would be if, for instance, he had a hugely expensive medical crisis that rendered him unable to work -- has his wife kept up enough with something that she could readily find work? And is it really retirement if you're constantly needing to keep your resume fresh just in case? I'm sure if I kept thinking about it, I'd remember more things that bothered me. |
Anonymous
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I dislike it because I think it's incredibly foolish to quit working in your 30s or 40s unless you have a lot of money. A lot. mmm seems to think he's smarter than everyone else. He has no idea what will happen in the future to the market or to taxes. There is this assumption on the board that no matter what happens everyone who is retired will be fine. Mmm is fine because he has income coming in from his blog.
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Anonymous
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I find him sexist and have read responses from him with sexist undertones. So many of his ideas work for men but not for women. For example, as a woman riding a bike you're subject to harassment and more aggressiveness from drivers. Studies show that. It also costs more money to maintain your looks. Maybe he's okay with his natural wife who doesn't need manicures or waxing, but I wouldn't be okay with myself.
His lifestyle is also better suited for a place like Colorado. He happens to like many of the free things to do out there and because he lives in a lower col city, he can afford the room to stay at home. |
Anonymous
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I wish I would have had that information when I was in my 20s and making a decent amount of money pre-marriage/kids/sfh. I wasted a lot of money, ridiculous amounts on all kinds of crap that I've long since gotten rid of.
Although, TBH, I probably would have thought he was crazy. At the time I loved my job, loved working, and couldn't imagine not feeling that way. Now I hate my job, hate working, and think wistfully about the stupid trinkets I had to have at the time and how if I had banked just half of what I blew I'd have so many more options now. |