The mirage of early retirement

For the past few days, I have been obsessively reading Mr. Money Mustache’s blog. If you have not followed this blog and my previous mentioning of it, the blog is written by a guy, Mr. Mustache, who retired by age of 30, and now is teaching the lifestyle wisdom that allows people to follow his example. Among his posts are the stories of people (mostly men) desperately trying to remove the yoke of the everyday 9-to-5 job, but being unable to do so (mostly due to a counteractive wife, fear of the consequences, inability to slash expenses, etc.).

The more I read, the more clearly I see the horrifying resemblance between us, the working humans, and any caged animals. The most pitiful realization, however, is that we have built our own cages, and/or willingly stay in them even when the exit door is clearly marked and left open.

I am aware that some of you may disapprove of MMM’s philosophy or language, but try not to be judgmental. Life has many pathways, and it is up to each of us to choose one of them. I love MMM's blog, in fact, it empowers me, despite my gender!


Reading MMM’s blog started me on the discovery of an entire troop of people who have already rebelled against the 9-to-5 sentence for life. This is how I found the YouTube channel madFIentist. 

I am entranced by the tantalizing freedom and the opportunities of the early retirement life. In my case, however, the path to freedom will be a steep learning curve and a minimum of another six years of regimented and pre-scheduled life. Hopefully, it will be fun to be frugal: I just found a great recipe for workday lunches, and discovered that in addition to Buy Nothing Day, there are Buy Nothing communities. As I learn more, I will share more.