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Comment by pfisch | Hacker News Reader

25k/3 people is like a welfare amount of money to live on.

You would need to know the value of their house to fully judge their situation. If we assume they live in a reasonable house that would cost $1,500 per month to rent / mortgage and we assume they save $750 per month on the costs of working (commuting, baby sitting, eating out) they have an effective income of... $52,000. The median household income in the U.S is $51,000 and that's for households that will often have debt too and not be very good at spending little money.

Why does the value of their home factor into their annual income? You can't pay for healthcare with pieces of your house.

The value of their home factors into their annual income when comparing to other household incomes. The grandparent said that $25,000 is a level of income someone would expect on welfare, however MMM does not have costs that people on welfare have. For example I spend $18,000 per year on my rent, I would need to earn $25,000 + $18,000 to have the same effective income as MMM. For most households housing costs are one of the largest (if not the largest) ongoing cost, when comparing MMM and others (as the grandparent did) you need to take that into account.

I'll just chip in here. I don't know where the guy lives, but in some places, living is inexpensive. The rent you quoted (1500$/month) is the entirety of my living expenses where I am.

I pay ~600$/month to have a 4 1/2 apartment close to a big-chain supermarket and all necessary amenities. This includes the Hydro bill, the fridge and oven-stove. I have an interior pool. Yes, at that price. Food is about 500$ a month. Internet a further 60$, for a 30/8 Cable pipe.

I'm about 200km from Montreal, close to a university.

Edit: He actually states his house is worth around $400k, which would make it a nice house for the area. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/06/01/raising-a-family-o...

He says he lives in a four bedroom four bathroom house. And he says he lives in what he believes to be one of the nicest neighborhoods in Longmont. His wife also states that the house has around 2600 square feet. That means the house is worth at least $200k. I would suggest that it would be worth at least $300k if it was older. You could get a little bit bigger house for $400k though. I wouldn't say that Longmont is an expensive place to live, it is definitely a lot cheaper than its neighbor Boulder, but I would say there are a lot of cheaper places to live.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/05/11/the-elephant-in-th...

True, but fewer places as naturally beautiful or outdoor-friendly that Boulder Valley. There's a reason that Colorado has the lowest obesity rate in the country. There's just so many great athletic activites.

I agree, Boulder is an amazing place to be. World class outdoor activities like climbing and skiing are close by. Plus CU-Boulder is there, so you get the benefits of a big University. Richard Dawkins and Brian Greene both gave talks this year. And housing is reasonable once you get outside of the city of Boulder.

He owns and runs a VERY popular blog. He is probably making at least $10k/month from advertisements on the blog alone.

If this is the case, then the figures mentioned in the article are incomplete and misleading.

At one point he was making $4k per month on credit card referrals[1].

[1] http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/06/21/i-just-gave-up-400...

Shocking that someone giving financial advice online is not entirely upfront... (Though it is interesting in this case because the sales pitch is pretty universally unappealing.)

"More recently, even my hobby of writing the blog has started producing some cash"

So technically the blog money was somewhat covered in the article, though in a way that I agree is likely very misleading.

As a "living frugal guru" you can't exactly come right out and say "Also, I'm making a bunch of money by selling advertising to you all", though it is almost certainly the truth.

That's only what he spends, not what he's earning. All his income from his investments get reinvested because he doesn't need to tap into that for expenses.

In San Francisco, I think the most a family of three could get a year (GA + CalFresh) is $10,416. Maintaining GA for any length of time is almost impossible, though, and you need to do eight hours of "workfare" a week to remain qualified (so no retirement).

Not to mention that you need to somehow figure out how to rent an apartment for three in SF for less then $300 a month.

True, but I'd say %99.99.. of those on welfare don't own their own house.

Yeah but I think it is silly to suggest he has retired on a 25k a year pension. I mean have homeless people retired? Have people on food stamps retired?

One of his themes is to maximize frugality/stinginess. He claims to have no debt. He has some assets, has some income. Still, I doubt it's as easy as he makes it sound. But OTOH, there are a lot of optimizations I know I could make, yet have tended to ignore.

Not just own their own house, but also own a second rental property (another house).

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