Mr. Money Mustache’s Simple Secret to Retiring Early in Your 30s

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pete Adeney, aka Mr. Money Mustache, joins BiggerPockets Money hosts Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench to break down the shockingly simple math behind early retirement. The man who started the FIRE movement and retired at 30 reveals why most people are overcomplicating financial independence—and why your savings rate is literally the only number that determines when you can quit your job. Pete doesn't just share theory—he walks through the real strategies, investment decisions, and mindset shifts that allowed him to achieve financial freedom in his thirties. Whether you're new to FIRE or looking to optimize your current approach, this episode cuts through the noise to deliver the foundational principles that actually work. This Episode Covers: The one metric that determines your entire FIRE timeline Why saving 50% gets you to FI in just 17 years (and the math behind it) How Pete retired at 30 and what his portfolio looked like The psychology of frugality and why it's actually liberating Pete's current thoughts on real estate investing for FIRE His take on Bitcoin and alternative assets in a FIRE portfolio Common FIRE mistakes that derail people's progress Why your income level matters less than you think Practical strategies for increasing your savings rate immediately The mindset shifts that make extreme saving sustainable And SO much more!00:00 The Basics of Early Retirement 01:02 The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement 01:21 Understanding Your Savings Rate 05:41 Pre-Tax Savings and 401k Considerations 11:06 The 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate 13:09 Seven Levels of Safety in Early Retirement 28:44 The $50,000 Earner 31:51 Raising Kids on a Budget 35:17 Health Insurance in Early Retirement 41:39 Real Estate as a Retirement Strategy 46:41 Bitcoin and Speculative Investments 51:19 Connect with Mr. Money Mustache Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if I told you your early retirement timeline comes down to just one number?
0:05.8	Not your salary, not your investment returns, not even how much debt you have.
0:10.5	Just one single factor that most people completely ignore.
0:14.5	Today, we're going back to the basics on how you can fast track your fire journey.
0:24.5	Hello. on how you can fast track your fire journey. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money Podcast.
0:27.9	My name is Mindy Jensen, and with me as always is my has a mustache but isn't Mr. Money Mustache,
0:33.5	co-hosts, Scott Trench.
0:34.6	Thanks, Mindy.
0:35.1	Great to be here, stumbling along on our journey to financial independence. We are so excited to be joined today by Pete Adeny, but you probably know him as Mr. Money Mustache on our podcast once again. Welcome to the show, Pete. Thanks. I think I've been here before, so it's great to be back. Well, welcome back, Pete. It's lovely to see you again, even though I see you frequently because we live in the same town.
0:55.9	And that's a privilege. It is a privilege. Longman is the best town in the universe. And I've lived in a lot of them so I can say that with confidence.
1:03.3	All right, Pete, you have boiled down early retirement to what you call the shockingly simple math. For people that are hearing this for the first time,
1:12.4	what's the one number that determines when they can retire?
1:16.8	One number. Well, if we were going to make an actual number, I guess it would be the number 25.
1:21.6	But the point of that article that we're talking about here, the shockingly simple math behind
1:26.0	early retirement, is that the only
1:27.9	thing that matters is your savings rate as a percentage of your take-home pay. So in other words,
1:33.4	your earnings is one side, your spending is the other side, but how much of your earnings are you
1:37.3	keeping? And if you are consistent in your behavior as you save for retirement and then after
1:42.2	retirement, then all that really matters is what percentage of your money can you save. And and then after retirement, then all that really matters
1:44.7	is what percentage of your money can you save. And that's what determines how long your
1:48.7	mandatory working career has to be. I refer to this all the time because it's the basis for any
1:54.6	calculation for how long one has to work. And the work begins here. And I think that as the years have passed and this community around the
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