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Indeed, Mr Money Mustache is a good resource for people looking for an early retirement with an average salary: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmo

Indeed, Mr Money Mustache is a good resource for people looking for an early retirement with an average salary: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

brianwawok 12y ago
Even faster on a nice engineer salary.
- ska 12y ago
  The amount of salary doesn't really matter so much as the fraction of it you are willing to live on long term.
  - pessimizer 12y ago
    You don't live on fractions, but on absolute amounts.
    - Kliment 12y ago
      The "fraction" refers to expense rate versus savings rate. If your "absolute amount" is low enough relative to your income, your savings rate is high so you can retire earlier.
    - ska 12y ago
      But that's the point. This process is "faster" on a higher salary if and only if your final target income isn't also higher. For many people this will not be the case, e.g. the person with a 100k/yr salary has a higher retirement cost of living targeted than the person with 50k/yr salary does. Of course, if you are happy living a 50k/yr lifestyle and retirement but happen to make 100k/yr, yes, you should be able to retire much faster.
      - brianwawok 12y ago
        It has a HUGE impact. The MMM lifestyle is something like 25-30k to live. If you make 50k.. you can save at most 20-25k, taking (10-15 years to retire, would need to do math). if you make 200k, you can save 150-175k, reaching retirement in 2-3 years. The "higher income -> higher lifestyle" is a myth MMM tries hard to dispel. You don't NEED newer cars because you make more money. You don't NEED a bigger house. Sure you can choose those things...
        ska 12y ago
        It has a huge impact if you are willing to approach it that way, but my point is that I don't believe many/most people in that 100k+ earning range actually are willing to retire to a 20/25k range, at all. Which leads you back to scaling everything up to the number you are willing to you are comfortable with.

Indeed, Mr Money Mustache is a good resource for people looking for an early retirement with an average salary: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

brianwawok 12y ago

Even faster on a nice engineer salary.

ska 12y ago
The amount of salary doesn't really matter so much as the fraction of it you are willing to live on long term.
- pessimizer 12y ago
  You don't live on fractions, but on absolute amounts.
  - Kliment 12y ago
    The "fraction" refers to expense rate versus savings rate. If your "absolute amount" is low enough relative to your income, your savings rate is high so you can retire earlier.
  - ska 12y ago
    But that's the point. This process is "faster" on a higher salary if and only if your final target income isn't also higher. For many people this will not be the case, e.g. the person with a 100k/yr salary has a higher retirement cost of living targeted than the person with 50k/yr salary does. Of course, if you are happy living a 50k/yr lifestyle and retirement but happen to make 100k/yr, yes, you should be able to retire much faster.
    - brianwawok 12y ago
      It has a HUGE impact. The MMM lifestyle is something like 25-30k to live. If you make 50k.. you can save at most 20-25k, taking (10-15 years to retire, would need to do math). if you make 200k, you can save 150-175k, reaching retirement in 2-3 years. The "higher income -> higher lifestyle" is a myth MMM tries hard to dispel. You don't NEED newer cars because you make more money. You don't NEED a bigger house. Sure you can choose those things...
      - ska 12y ago
        It has a huge impact if you are willing to approach it that way, but my point is that I don't believe many/most people in that 100k+ earning range actually are willing to retire to a 20/25k range, at all. Which leads you back to scaling everything up to the number you are willing to you are comfortable with.