Three People Who Proved It Works
J.L. Collins laid out the math. Mr. Money Mustache lived it at 30. Our Rich Journey executed it on government salaries. The shared thread: all three put their money in low-cost, broad market index funds and left it there.
J.L. Collins
Started a blog in 2011 to archive investing lessons for his daughter. His VTSAX + index fund philosophy became the investment backbone of the entire FIRE movement.
jlcollinsnh.com →Mr. Money Mustache
Pete Adeney retired at 30 in 2005 — before Collins' book existed — by saving 50–75% of his income and investing in Vanguard index funds. His blog reached 23 million people.
mrmoneymustache.com →Our Rich Journey
Amon & Christina Browning were average-salary US government workers. In 8 years they hit a 70% savings rate, built a 25× portfolio, and retired at 39 — moving to Portugal.
ourrichjourney.com →Collins showed us how.
EthicalPie adds why it matters.
The math Collins laid out is real. But there's a question the strategy doesn't answer: what are you actually funding? EthicalPie takes his proven approach and adds a moral compass — so you can grow your wealth and feel good about where it's going.
Low-cost index funds. Stay the course. Let compounding do the work. Mathematically brilliant. The whole market, no filter.
Same low-cost, long-term philosophy — filtered for companies that benefit humanity. Your money working for you and for others.
Performance with Purpose
You don't have to choose between building wealth and having a conscience.
EthicalPie gives you both.
100+ Years of Market Data
Collins opens with this chart. Wars, depressions, crashes — the Dow absorbed them all and kept climbing. Every catastrophe looks like a blip when you zoom out.
100+ Years of the Dow Jones
The Dow Jones Industrial Average 1900–2012. Wars, depressions, crashes — all absorbed. Every catastrophe becomes a blip at this scale.
Collins asks: Can you find the 1987 Black Monday crash — a 22% single-day drop? It's there. But at this scale it barely shows. This long view is why he says: stay invested and let time do the work.
The Market Is Asymmetric By Design
Collins uses a bell curve to explain why the market trends upward. The math is simple — and surprisingly powerful. All ~3,700 stocks ranked by annual performance.
Maximum loss: −100%
A bad stock falls to zero and exits the index. There's a hard floor on losses. The worst case is fixed.
No ceiling on gains
A great stock can return 100%, 1,000%, or 10,000%+. This asymmetry creates a permanent upward bias across the whole index.
Self-cleansing: Failing companies exit automatically. New ones enter. You always own the whole living market — without doing a thing.
Every Crash Has Recovered. Every Single One.
Collins shows the same chart again in Chapter 9 — this time pointing at 1929. The only true catastrophe in 115 years of market history. And even that recovered.
| Period | Event | Drop | Recovery | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1929–32 | The Great Depression | −90% | ~26 yrs | The Big Ugly. Happened once in 115 years. |
| 1973–74 | Oil Crisis Bear Market | −48% | ~7 yrs | OPEC embargo + stagflation |
| 1987 | Black Monday | −34% | ~2 yrs | Collins sold near the bottom — his most expensive lesson |
| 2000–02 | Dot-Com Bust | −49% | ~7 yrs | Tech speculation collapsed |
| 2007–09 | Global Financial Crisis | −57% | ~5 yrs | "Class 5 financial hurricane" — Collins stayed invested |
| 2020 | COVID-19 Crash | −34% | 5 months | Fastest crash and fastest recovery ever |
The danger isn't the crash — it's selling during one. Collins sold in 1987 near the bottom, then had to buy back at higher prices. "I had managed to lock in my losses and pay a premium for a seat back at the table."
Three Rules. That's the Whole Thing.
This is what Collins distilled. What Mr. Money Mustache practiced. What Our Rich Journey executed over 8 years on government salaries. It's not complicated.
Spend Less Than You Earn
Eliminate debt. The bigger the gap between income and spending, the faster you reach financial independence.
Invest Consistently — With a Filter
Collins' answer was VTSAX: one fund, the entire US market, fees of 0.04%. Buy consistently and don't stop. The math is undeniable.
The Ethical Pie Fund applies the same low-cost, buy-and-hold discipline — filtered for companies that genuinely benefit humanity. Same strategy. Better companies.
Don't Panic and Sell
When the market drops, do nothing. It has always recovered. Your only job is to stay in.
"Staying the course is always served with a side dish of panic. That's why ya gotta be tough."— J.L. Collins, A Simple Path to Wealth