But then, you get to cheer up again. Mr. Money Mustache has got the solution for you. As luck would have it, not buying things is not only the solution for saving our planet, it is also the solution to your financial problems!
“But what about being happy?”, you ask. “I am buying these products to make me happy. Won’t my happiness level drop if I stop buying them?”
Great question! That brings us to the next Big Reason Frugality is Great: it actually makes you happier, and there’s science to back it up.
OK. As logical people we probably agree that our main goal in life is to be happy. What if you were to write down the top ten activities that make you happy and are good for your long-term happiness and health, then start spending most of your time doing those things? You would probably find that most of them are not expensive, and that they take so much time you don’t have time for the expensive ones.
My wife and I have have been “retired” for over five years now, and this is what it means to us: We quit our jobs as software engineers just about the time our first baby was due. But we didn’t quit working altogether. I started a little company to build custom houses (since building things was always my most cherished hobby), while she started some very flexible part-time work with another company. Overall, we took about a 100% pay cut (since my construction company ended up losing money while she continued to earn some), but smarter people could accomplish this drastic career switch even more easily.
The idea is that if you are earning quite a bit, but you trim your lifestyle down so you are only living on about 25% of that amount, then you are ready to retire when:.......................................
Having “The Talk” with a Current or Potential Mate
My wife actually invented this post and I think it’s a great concept that we should cover right away.
You see, Mrs. Money Mustache* is an indispensable part of our shared empire of frugality. Believe it or not, she was generally just as excited as I was about making an extra payment on the mortgage. Or buying and selling stuff on Craigslist whenever possible instead of resorting to retail. And she’ll tend to cough just as loudly as I will when she hears about someone borrowing money to buy a new car, or notices everyone driving places that could easily be biked.
“Where can I find such a dream mate for myself,” you may ask?
You may already have one – read on!
When we were just a young couple, we carried along the financial habits from our earlier lives. I was pretty much the way I am now, but young Miss M. was more of a normal person. When we eventually decided to move in together in Colorado and she landed a good job, she celebrated the new lifestyle by acquiring a taste for stylish outdoor active clothing. And a latte and snack each workday at the coffee shop near work. And the odd book from Amazon.com when interesting titles came along. Even I got into the spirit of things, celebrating a job upgrade of my own with a gleaming new motorcycle in 2001. We kept or finances mostly separated – each of us felt we were doing well, but we didn’t really have any joint goals.
The problem was, those packages from Athleta and Amazon kept coming, even when she already had every season covered with sharp gear options. So did the books. The lattes and snacks weren’t going anywhere since you need one each day....So one day we had the Talk. It was a talk about our future, how we both seemed so busy with work, yet we hoped to have children in a few years. I was already into the idea of living off of investments someday, so I threw out the idea of retiring early.. as in BEFORE starting a family....It’s also nice to have such a complicated common interest. We can talk for hours about future plans, how to be able to afford them by being even more frugal or shuffling money this way or that, and about how incredibly bright things are looking in general. It would probably sound pretty mundane and self-congratulatory to an outsider, but it beats arguing about who didn’t do the dishes.
So if you want to move quickly with your own wealth plans, you’ll need buy-in from your own little Mister or Missus.
Sure. 
