Reply to Mr. Money Mustache may be frugal, but he's high income.

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Reply to "Mr. Money Mustache may be frugal, but he's high income."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]
My reverse engineering of this families budget was spot on without actually having been on the site before.  My bare bones budget put it at 20K without any travel added.  Considering they spent 5K on travel and a total of 25K for the year, my estimation was spot on.
This was a perfect world budget.  No matter how handy this guy is, he is not installing a new hvac system, 7900$ on his own.  He does not look like he can rebuild a car transmission either.
"And to say that his family is just a step away from dying maybe a bit far fetched?"
I think you missed the point here as it was not to suggest they are a step away from actually dying.  Physically the human body doesnt need a lot to survive/exist but on 20-25K a year, it leaves almost nothing to experience it fully.  
Pretending his wifes 60K and the 400K from the blog does not exist and [b]act like they dont have any other money to live on is disingenuous[/b].   Whether or not they actually live on that posted budget is up for debate because when a news magazine outs your real income, it removes any credibility you may have had.
http://familiesusa.org/product/federal-poverty-guidelines
For a family of 3, 20K a year is considered the poverty level in the US.  For most, existing like this is not an acceptable choice especially when they have options to rise well above it.  
It would be funny if he is actually getting federal benefits claiming to be living at the poverty level not unlike the alaska bush people who dont actually live in alaska.
http://www.adn.com/article/20141022/stars-alaska-reality-tv-show-charged-pfd-fraud[/quote]

Funny that you were able to reverse engineer "without actually having been on the site before"
To reiterate, his wife quit her part time job few years ago (but even then living on a 60K income would be a stretch for most of DCUM) and the blog revenue is fairly new. As posters have mentioned upthread, his message is that spending should not be tied to income, and we can and should save 50% or more of our income (I am not saying this is possible for everyone, just clearing up his message). In fact this is how he became financially independent.
So I dont see why his frugality message is undermined because his blog is now earning money. He always claims he has resources to spend way more, but will not, He says he lived off his rental income and did not rely on any income off the stock market investments, so his nest egg kept growing since his retirement in 2004. So the bolded is simply not true.

Also the poverty level guidelines include 5 major expenses: rent, food, child care, health care, transportation
Out of which rent, child care and transportation dont apply to his family. His property taxes also seem very low.
For health care he has a high deductible health plan (and I think the canadian safety net)

Also FYI:
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/11/23/diy-gas-furnace/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/07/02/how-to-fix-a-car/
And http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/06/20/mustachian-motoring-with-a-manual-transmission/

And I did not mean dying literally either. He says he lives his life to the fullest, (and any excess money above his annual spending is of very minimal value) but I agree that is subjective. 
To each his own.[/quote]

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