Mr. Money Mustache & The Simple Path to Wealth Foreword | MHFI 340
Mile High FI Podcast
Doug from Mile High FI hosts a special bonus episode featuring Mr. Money Mustache (Pete) as they record the new foreword for J.L. Collins' updated
Key takeaways
- J.L. Collins self-published *The Simple Path to Wealth*, which has sold over 1 million copies and is being updated for its 10th anniversary edition with a new audiobook foreword recorded by Pete and Doug.
- Jack Bogle pioneered index funds by purchasing entire market baskets like the S&P 500, allowing investors to capture long-term growth without paying high fees or picking individual stocks.
Main topics
- Index fund investing vs active management
- Market timing and lump-sum investment strategy
Notable quotes
"Simplicity wins."
Conclusion
The episode reinforces that long-term wealth building relies on disciplined, simple index
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) Hey, what's going on? It's Doug here. I wanted to give a little intro before I send it to this bonus episode, which is a little bit different. It's shorter. Well, you'll see what it's all about. It is related to The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins. I will talk for a few minutes, then Mr. Money Mustache and I will talk for a few minutes, and then I will put some clips at the end from the first interview that Carl and I did when we started the show. And it was actually after we recorded several episodes, we finally interviewed JL Collins. And then we published that as our second episode. So he was the first guest that we had on. And I didn't find out and learn about the simple path to wealth until after Carl and I. got to know each other and basically probably around the time we started the show. So I wish I would have found it sooner. I wish JL would have written it sooner, but I'll give you a couple things that I really like about the book. And I think there's probably overlap with things that you like about the book as well, or things that JL may share later in the clips from when we recorded this. five plus years ago. So number one, I really appreciate the simplicity. I mean, it's right in the title, Simple Path to Wealth. I like the simplicity of... A approach that doesn't rely on over optimization and it kind of ignores over optimization or even just optimizing to a point where you could, you know, make mistakes. And for me, that works perfectly. I have a light interest in, you know, the markets and economics, but I also realize that if I start thinking too much, there's a much greater chance of me making a mistake than making a good decision. Even if you make a good decision at one point, it kind of sets you up for making a poor decision or poor timing sometime in the future. So... That's one. I think that's the big thing. The simplicity of it all really does help. The other thing unrelated to, I guess, the concepts in the book. It was self-published and JL, I think he published a lot of the content on his blog before he put it into book form. And the other interesting thing is it's not like JL was one of the original personal finance bloggers. He came into this probably after a lot of people, a lot of bloggers would have said, this is saturated. Like I shouldn't even start trying to blog or. I mean, personal finance books have been out for so many years in this sort of topic area. There were tons of them out by the time JL published the book. And he still, as a self-published author, was able to sell so many of them on this copy that I have here. This says over 1 million copies sold. And this was the most recent edition whenever they republished at jail. Sent it out when he was hopping back on the show to say hello. So anyway, those are a couple of the main things. Let me look at some of my other notes here. Simplicity wins. And oh, the other big thing is just money buys freedom. And I think that's something I had adopted years ago. And for me, the freedom piece is really related to having autonomy with my time. The things that I want to work on, the people that I want to work on them with, that is one of the most important things for me. I need to have I need to own my decision-making. It really bothered me when I worked at a company. And if I thought something wasn't being worked on with the right priority or the process was different, it really bothered me a lot. And I think it made me unhappy. And now if I, you know, if I want to work on something or if I think, hey, this is actually not the way I would want to approach it, I could change it. It makes me feel much better. than not making my own decisions. I could keep rambling on here, but I don't want to make this like a book report on The Simple Path to Wealth. If you haven't picked it up, then I recommend you check it out. It's actually a really good book to recommend to other people that are not as well-informed as you are. Like if you're watching this, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably have a pretty good understanding of what's in The Simple Path to Wealth. So with that said, I'll send it to the rest of the show. Thanks for checking it out. If you have any questions, comments, anything like that, you can shoot me an email, doug at milehighfi.com. Thanks. Speaker 2 (5:26) Hey, what's going on? This is the Mile High Five podcast, and it is kind of a special episode. And I'm not 100 % sure how we're going to release this, hopefully audio, but Pete, Mr. Money Mustache is hanging out with me. How are you doing today? Oh, I'm great. And we are doing something pretty cool today. What project are we working on? Speaker 4 (5:47) Yeah, so we are going to record the new, a new version of the four word for the Simple Path to Wealth because our friend JL Collins. after a decade of success with the first edition, has rewritten some of it to be a 10 years updated edition. And so he's re-recording the audio of all that. And as part of that, for the Audible platform, they wanted me to re-record my foreword for it as well. And then they said, hey, we'll try to find you a studio in Denver where you can go to record it, which to me sounded really unfun and like a job. But then I realized I could get Doug, who is a recording pro. To do it. So I hooked them, you know, audible company up with Doug and he got like a little contract to record this with me. And you said it's more than it's enough to buy like two or more Starbucks coffees. Right. Yeah. Even at today's prices. So nice. Yeah. For retired guys to get thrown a bone every now and then. Speaker 2 (6:40) Yeah, and it's one of those things where it's fun to learn something new. So we actually were recording some vlog style stuff. I'm not sure where I'll insert it or how it'll be like in buy me a coffee or something like that. But basically, I am a professional podcaster, but I'm not a professional audio engineer. So I had to find a microphone that was suitable. And you may hear how rich and beautiful Pete's voice is. Speaker 4 (7:08) Super fancy. Speaker 2 (7:10) It is. And it's a cool mic. I had a fun time finding it and learning about it. And then I also had to learn a new editing technique, which I think should make it go a little more smoothly. So not a pro, although I'm a pro now that I'm going