3681: Mr. Money Mustache vs. No Impact Man by Mr. Money Mustache on Frugality

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[00:00:54] This is Optimal Finance Daily, Mr. Money Mustache vs. No Impact Man by Mr. Money Mustache of MrMoneyMustache.com. And I'm Justin Malek reading you articles every single day of the year to help you save more, make more, all that good stuff. There are no interviews on this show, just me sharing great content with permission from the authors. So with that, let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:01:25] Mr. Money Mustache vs. No Impact Man by MrMoneyMustache of MrMoneyMustache.com. The Triple M family enjoyed a rather enlightening movie night tonight. These days, we tend to watch all our movies together, and we usually let the kid make the viewing choice using the nicely organized browsing system on Netflix.

[00:01:47] Fortunately for us parents, our boy has graduated from the Pixar movies we've all seen a dozen times, onto science and nature documentaries, which all of us enjoy. Today, however, we picked out a documentary called No Impact Man, which my son thought would be interesting because from the synopsis, he determined that they were like a super money mustache family. In a nutshell, the movie captures one year in the life of a real family.

[00:02:17] The guy, a writer named Colin Bevan, designs an ambitious experiment for the family to follow involving advancing stages of minimalist living. They start by cutting out fossil fuel-powered travel and long-distance shipped food. They figure out ways to produce virtually zero trash and not buy anything other than food for a year. And they go further over time, eventually shutting off even the electricity to their apartment.

[00:02:45] The part that was interesting to me was not the exact lifestyle changes they made, because I've already adopted most of them to some extent. It was the enlightening, mustachian journey that they went through together. From an initial feeling of shock and deprivation, gradually through to realizing that many of the changes they made were better for them, regardless of the cost or impact on the planet. Their starting point was quite amusing.

[00:03:12] The wife, business writer Michelle Conlon, came into the project as a reality television addict, who also liked to buy pairs of $950 designer boots and several Starbucks products per day. Despite being only 40 years old, she was dangerously unhealthy due to poor eating and even diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Mommy doesn't like nature, was one of the things she told her daughter early on in the movie.

[00:03:39] From my current perspective, it seemed like a desperate and tragic life, seeing these people crammed into a tiny apartment room watching reality TV shows on a gigantic television. But that's actually a normal life in this country. Colin himself didn't have to make as many changes to become No Impact Man. He seemed to just dump the high-consumption lifestyle with no regrets.

[00:04:05] And most of his job was in managing the objections and complaints from the outside world. An interesting part of the movie involves the considerable attention that they got, right from the start of the project. Their story was written up in the New York Times during the year of filming, which triggered invitations to appear on a long line of major TV shows, including The Colbert Report. All of this attention triggered some incredibly violent rage from various complainy-pants,

[00:04:33] critics who felt that making any lifestyle changes is a horrible idea, and that people who try it should be punished. I could really relate to this, even just being Mr. Money Mustache, who has never appeared on a TV show. I have seen some mind-bogglingly v***** attacks that folks attempted to post into the comments section of this blog. I blocked them, of course, but I'm collecting them for an eventual article.

[00:05:00] The same thing happened to No Impact Man on a larger scale, and it really is bizarre because the dude is just trying to help us all out. There's no need to attack people like this. If you don't like his ideas, don't buy his book. Your problem is solved. The real lesson, however, came as the movie went on. Michelle became dramatically more mustachian over time, and learned to love riding her bike, even with their toddler daughter in the back.

[00:05:28] They learned to cook at home for the first time, and started spending more time with friends and meeting new people outside once they gave up the daily time waste of television. They became better parents. They became happier and noticeably healthier as well. After the one-year experiment ended, they ended up keeping most of the new lifestyle, including foregoing air conditioning, despite the fact that many of the elements were considered hardships initially.

[00:05:57] I must admit that the lifestyle in my own household is far from no impact. We have a large four-bathroom house. We use electricity freely. We eat food from all over the world. And we take car and even jet vacations. Mr. Money Mustache's whole deal is that even by just paying a tiny bit of attention to the details, I find that you can have the whole middle-class lifestyle

[00:06:23] with well under a third of the standard US level of consumption. I still have an enormous stainless steel double-door fridge with blinking lights and an ice maker, but I bought it used for $500, and it fits easily within my 299-kilowatt-hour monthly electricity use figure, electricity that is 100% wind-generated. I still have a nice, reliable, imported car,

[00:06:51] but it gets over 40 miles per gallon. And more importantly, I still have a couple gallons left in the 10-gallon tank that I last filled in early August. We still have everything we want and need and more, but it all adds up to only 25% of what most of our wealthy neighbors are spending per year. We're not heroes. In fact, we still suck and are consuming too much. But I think we're reasonable role models to start with

[00:07:20] because it takes very little thinking and lifestyle re-engineering to get to this point, even while the savings in both earth and cash are enormous. The most significant difference between No Impact Man and Mr. Money Mustache was that the documentary made no mention of the financial benefits of their experiment. After digging through their blog, I eventually found a passage stating that before the project, they were spending 100% of both of their salaries.

[00:07:50] And after finishing the project and going back to a normal lifestyle, they were suddenly spending only one salary and saving 100% of the second one. So even without specific effort, they found themselves growing a money mustache. But I was surprised that the movie didn't promote this aspect since from my own perspective, and perhaps yours too as a Mr. Money Mustache reader, it is one of the most obvious benefits of adopting a lower consumption lifestyle.

[00:08:20] Regardless of our different approaches, I am proud of No Impact Man who continues to work in the field of spreading the good word to this day. It seems to be a fun new dream job that he's created for himself, a model for all of us in our post-real career days. You just listened to the post titled, Mr. Money Mustache versus No Impact Man by Mr. Money Mustache of mrmoneymustache.com.

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[00:09:45] That's takeultra.com for 15% off with code OFD. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it.

[00:10:14] Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. Thank you to Mr. Money Mustache. This one had a nice twist to it. The whole idea of watching this family go through a year of pretty extreme changes. No fossil fuels, no trash, eventually even no electricity. And the interesting part isn't really the extremes themselves. It's that the wife,

[00:10:43] who started out kind of miserable about the whole thing, slowly realized a lot of these changes actually made her happier and healthier. We tend to assume that cutting back means deprivation, but so often it's the opposite. But I also appreciate his point that you don't have to go all the way to no impact to get most of the benefit. That just paying a little attention to the details gets you most of the way there. That's basically been my experience too,

[00:11:13] and with most things in life, 80% is usually good enough. Like with money tracking, for example. Nowadays, you don't have to make any dramatic sacrifices. Just use an app to keep track. And just seeing where the money is actually going slowly changes how you spend, almost on its own. It's all about noticing. Pick one area, pay a little attention, and see what shifts. But that should do it for today.

[00:11:42] Thank you for being here every day and optimizing your life along with me. It means a lot. Have a great rest of your day, and I'll see you tomorrow as usual, where your optimal life awaits.