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Old 12-02-2018, 05:19 PM
 
9,576 posts, read 7,278,727 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingsaucermom View Post
I heard somewhere that his blogs makes $400k a year.
I can believe that, I'm neither a follower or hater of MMM, but it's an interesting story for sure. I do give him credit/props for building his "MMM brand" to what it is today and be able to make $400k a year from his website.
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Old 12-02-2018, 05:47 PM
 
2,757 posts, read 2,218,658 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingsaucermom View Post
I heard somewhere that his blogs makes $400k a year.
Not too many FIRE couples are making 400K on side jobs they enjoy.

Sorry to hear about his divorce but I wonder if divorces for FIRE couples that don't have such a massive side income are able to adjust as easily as he will.
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Old 12-02-2018, 05:51 PM
 
2,757 posts, read 2,218,658 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NewbieHere View Post
He seems to hide a lot of expenses.
Most likely he does. He seemed very full of himself from the brief clips I saw of him. I also read some comments by posters who said he was very dismissive towards those who had genuine disagreements and immediately blocked those who didn't agree with him 100%.

Wonder when he will update his new living expenses assuming they no longer live in the same house and share custody of the children.

Last edited by Stockyman; 12-02-2018 at 06:18 PM..
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Old 12-02-2018, 06:23 PM
 
30,876 posts, read 36,845,439 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffD View Post
The problem with these stories is what happens when he's 50, totally out of the labor force for a decade+, and they run out of money. You don't get senior engineer comp with a 10 year work gap. Your skills went obsolete. Since 2010, everybody is a hero since the market did nothing but go up. That isn't the normal way of it. Even worse, these people won't get much of a Social Security check because they have nothing like 35 work years in the system. Layer in a "life happens" event or two and they have a huge problem.
There's a grain of truth to this. But as has been pointed out numerous times, most people who have the discipline and determination to become financially independent in their 30s will do some kind of paid work. Even an extra 5k per year of income that is saved/invested as extra padding can really add up over a decade. The couple featured in the article have a blog and I think he mentioned that the earn "minimum wage money" from it. So if that's an extra 10k per year, that's significant extra padding.

As has also been said repeatedly, the 4% rule is actually quite conservative. In most time periods, you'll end up with more money, in inflation adjusted terms after 30 years than you started with. But the fear mongers ignore this point. I do understand the next 30 years may not be like the past, but if all h*ll breaks loose, it's probably not going to matter how much money you've got.

And what about the majority of people who deal with these life setbacks while still having to have one or two income earners in the household? They're in a much worse position than those with a million or two set aside. People with money set aside generally have more reaction time than people who have to work for a living.

Last edited by mysticaltyger; 12-02-2018 at 06:34 PM..
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Old 12-02-2018, 06:25 PM
 
Location: SoCal
20,160 posts, read 12,706,609 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stockyman View Post
Most likely he does. He seemed very full of himself from the brief clips I saw of him. I also read some comments by posters who said he was very dismissive towards those who had genuine disagreements and immediately blocked those who didn't agree with him 100%.

Wonder when he will update his new living expenses assuming they no longer live in the same house and share custody of the children.
Sound like a dictator alright. That’s how you build a brand. Why tolerate doubters.
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Old 12-02-2018, 06:26 PM
 
Location: Vienna, VA
654 posts, read 421,312 times
Reputation: 680
Quote:
Originally Posted by countrylv22 View Post
I do not see adds of any type on his blog? I do not understand how he is making money off of his blog?? The link just has comments from his readers...

For example with the City Data forum, if you are logged in you do not see that many adds, but if you try reading the forum without being logged in, the adds are obvious.

But in the case of MMM blog, I do not understand??? How is he making money?


So for example you will see the Sofi article on his home page, of course that has his affiliate link (sofi.com/sofi-refi-300/?refer=10-995) so he gets $$$$ per every lead they give to sofi. His website is very well ranked in google so people searching "refinance student loans" would find his site and he gets money from there.
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Old 12-02-2018, 06:28 PM
 
Location: SoCal
20,160 posts, read 12,706,609 times
Reputation: 16993
Quote:
Originally Posted by mysticaltyger View Post
There's a grain of truth to this. But as has been pointed out numerous times, most people who have the discipline and determination to become financially independent in their 30s will do some kind of paid work. Even an extra 5k per year of income that is saved/invested as extra padding can really add up over a decade.

As has also been said repeatedly, the 4% rule is actually quite conservative. In most time periods, you'll end up with more money, in inflation adjusted terms after 30 years than you started with. But the fear mongers ignore this point. I do understand the next 30 years may not be like the past, but if all h*ll breaks loose, it's probably not going to matter how much money you've got.

And what about the majority of people who deal with these life setbacks while still having to have one or two income earners in the household? They're in a much worse position than those with a million or two set aside. People with money set aside generally have more reaction time than people who have to work for a living.
I never understand why somebody in their 30s is so eager to get out of work and into retirement on a meager spending pattern. That’s sound like disaster to me. Live like a monk, thanks but no thanks. Btw, do monks reuse floss? Hey that’s a rhetoric question. I don’t think they floss even.
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Old 12-02-2018, 08:03 PM
 
10,075 posts, read 7,503,683 times
Reputation: 15500
Quote:
Originally Posted by mysticaltyger View Post
And what about the majority of people who deal with these life setbacks while still having to have one or two income earners in the household? They're in a much worse position than those with a million or two set aside. People with money set aside generally have more reaction time than people who have to work for a living.
they are also traveling more since they got free time, traveling increases risk of injury and illness. More people met, more pathogens exposed (the FIRE crowd don't seem the type to get immunized for each country's vaccination recommendations). They also go off the beaten tourist path, so more risk of injury due to the place not being catered to tourists. From riding a scooter to get around or hiking up "hidden" trails. No, none of them are increased risks by themselves, its that they do it a lot more frequently that the risks add up. Look at all the news stories from injured or sick travelers every year, and having FIRE amount of money isn't going to cut it for most of them.

While young, they might be able to deal with it, but as they get older, those old injuries start to surface. Like I asked before, do FIRE people have good old age planning/insurance for things that happened when they were younger?

maybe I see a lot of the muscular-skeletal issues that vets have from serving, but some of the activities of these FIRE bloggers are nearly on par with the extremes that servicemen go through. But they don't have the VA/US government behind their healthcare

Having $X amount of money to call it quits, isn't going to cut it if they planned it around their current "younger" lifestyle. Unless they planned out expenses at all their different stages of life, it isn't really adequate to call it FIRE. They really are banking on being medical tourists in another country, or major healthcare reform in the US. Neither of those two costs are in their control

Last edited by MLSFan; 12-02-2018 at 08:12 PM..
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Old 12-02-2018, 08:42 PM
 
Location: moved
13,602 posts, read 9,639,208 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonathanLB View Post
...One of my best friends is a radiologist, he makes $465K per year ...but he just started working about two years ago for that kind of money and he's 35 this January. The rest of the time was spent in med school barely scraping by ... he is just starting to put aside some real money. He still couldn't retire in his 30s, though, not realistically. Maybe at 45 if he badly wanted to be done with it....
“Early” retirement is relative. Sure, if we have splashy stories of celebrity-retirees at age 30, then the poor schlub who retires “only” at 50 is tardy and unimpressive. But that’s still 15 years sooner than traditional retirement age. I’d still call that seriously early, even if it’s not flamboyantly early.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107 View Post
i never had a degree , i just used my basic control knowledge i learned as an hvac tech 40 years ago and kept morphing in to new areas ....
There are different kinds of engineers. The kind that rarely gets mentioned is the PhD engineering researcher, whose job is to publish journal articles. In the majority of such circumstances, the career-path is:

1. Scholarships etc. for undergraduate education, and hefty advanced-placement credit from high school. An undergrad degree is thus completed with zero or minimal debt.
2. Teaching-assistantship or fellowship in graduate school. With frugal living, the stipend is just enough to set aside a minimal amount of money for investment, besides covering one’s living expenses.
3. A career-track job in academia, government or industry, allowing one to accumulate considerable money, starting fairly early in one’s employment-history. Sometimes these jobs still have a defined-benefit pension.
4. Upon reaching middle-age (call it 45-50), the incumbent starts to seriously think about retirement, having (a) accumulated a sizeable nest-egg, and (b) feeling burned-out. However, outright retirement is rare, because one’s job becomes more avocation than vocation.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffD View Post
...The problem with these stories is what happens when he's 50, totally out of the labor force for a decade+, and they run out of money. You don't get senior engineer comp with a 10 year work gap. Your skills went obsolete. ...
With enough wisdom and a bare smattering of luck, they won’t run out of money. But if for reasons of lifestyle or personal edification, one decides in middle-age to reenter the workforce, then indeed the barriers are likely to be substantial, if not outright insurmountable.

Quote:
Originally Posted by NewbieHere View Post
I never understand why somebody in their 30s is so eager to get out of work and into retirement on a meager spending pattern. That’s sound like disaster to me. ...
Once again, while exiting from the workforce and the putative “rat-race” at a mere 30 or 35 seems to be arrantly extreme, a similar query could be posed at any age – even 65. Take for example a 60-year-old. Why retire then? Why not keep working until 65? Or if one follows Suze Orman’s advice, until age 70? The answer of course is highly personal and highly situation, but one broad rationale, is that the passion for one’s career that one felt as a young-adult, eventually turns into ennui and cynicism. It all starts to feel pointless, rote, redundant.

My own take is that at age 30, if indeed one has burned-out, it’s readily possible and advisable to switch careers, instead of outright retiring. But shift that by 15, 20, 25 years later, and the career-change becomes more of a fantasy than a viable strategy. It’s at that point that one might decide to retire.
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Old 12-02-2018, 09:17 PM
 
30,876 posts, read 36,845,439 times
Reputation: 34467
Quote:
Originally Posted by MLSFan View Post
they are also traveling more since they got free time, traveling increases risk of injury and illness. More people met, more pathogens exposed (the FIRE crowd don't seem the type to get immunized for each country's vaccination recommendations). They also go off the beaten tourist path, so more risk of injury due to the place not being catered to tourists. From riding a scooter to get around or hiking up "hidden" trails. No, none of them are increased risks by themselves, its that they do it a lot more frequently that the risks add up. Look at all the news stories from injured or sick travelers every year, and having FIRE amount of money isn't going to cut it for most of them.

While young, they might be able to deal with it, but as they get older, those old injuries start to surface. Like I asked before, do FIRE people have good old age planning/insurance for things that happened when they were younger?

maybe I see a lot of the muscular-skeletal issues that vets have from serving, but some of the activities of these FIRE bloggers are nearly on par with the extremes that servicemen go through. But they don't have the VA/US government behind their healthcare

Having $X amount of money to call it quits, isn't going to cut it if they planned it around their current "younger" lifestyle. Unless they planned out expenses at all their different stages of life, it isn't really adequate to call it FIRE. They really are banking on being medical tourists in another country, or major healthcare reform in the US. Neither of those two costs are in their control
Well, I'm sure that' a risk, but it's not like everyone retires early and travels. And what about the risks of being sedentary that comes with most office jobs? Yeah, everyone says they're going to eat better and exercise, but if you have 2 full time earners who are commuting, the healthier lifestyle choices often fall by the wayside. So you're correct to point out that a new set of risks presents itself that maybe people don't think of. But it's very possible that those risks are more than offset by other aspects of the new lifestyle.
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