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In a bizarre round of the endless, massively multiplayer game of Telephone that is the internet, a recent Forbes headline pronounced, \u201cWealth Guru Plans Dutch-Style Car-Free Bicycle-Friendly City Near Boulder, Colorado.\u201c Other publications quickly jumped on the story about a supposed eco-friendly, urbanist, cycling utopia in the works at the base of the Rockies, which would have a population of 50,000 people in a single square mile and be the joint project of a Dutch urban design firm and a popular Colorado-based early retirement blogger.\nUnfortunately for those hoping to sell the car and move to Cyclocroft, there are no actual plans to build this experimental city. The whole thing was just a thought experiment, a series of tweets sharing the detailed (but fictional) 3D mockups of what a better and more fiscally resilient way to live in that corner of the world might look like.\nFortunately for those who like good, thought-provoking content on how to detach from the mania of modern life and live more deliberately, the one part of the brief Cyclocroft craze that is real is the \u201cwealth guru\u201d who put the idea out on Twitter as food for thought.\nHis name is Pete Adeney, but you probably know him as Mr. Money Mustache. He is a fan of Strong Towns, we\u2019re fans of his, and he just so happens to have been our special guest on one of the most popular Strong Towns Podcast episodes ever, published back in April 2016. Here it is, #7 in our Greatest Hits series.\n\u201cThe Individual Digital to Our Community Analog\u201d\nThat\u2019s the phrase that Strong Towns founder and president Chuck Marohn uses to describe Mr. Money Mustache, and for good reason. The core insight of Strong Towns is that many communities are trapped in a cycle of unproductive, debt-fueled growth for growth\u2019s sake\u2014and that our cities and towns need to quit the rat race and focus on building great places that generate real, sustainable wealth from the bottom up.\nThe core insight of Mr. Money Mustache\u2019s writing is that many individuals are trapped in a cycle of unproductive, debt-fueled consumption for consumption\u2019s sake\u2014and could also stand to take a step back and live better\u2014and wealthier\u2014by avoiding debt and investing their resources in the things that actually, demonstrably improve their lives.\nListen to this podcast to find out:\n\u2022 How Mr. Money Mustache manages to drive only 400 miles per year (aside from a couple out-of-town trips) while living in suburban Colorado. Hint: it has less to do with bicycling\u2014though he does bike\u2014and more to do with a local lifestyle, arranged so that he can get most of the things that he needs and that are rewarding to him within a few miles of home.\n\u2022 What it looks like to live debt-free on $24,000 a year. Hint: it doesn\u2019t look like obsessive frugality, or like self-imposed poverty. It looks a lot like evaluating your mundane, daily choices to figure out which ones are actually high-returning in terms of happiness: something we at Strong Towns analogously encourage cities to do with their own investment decisions. MMM describes his philosophy as, "Getting the benefits of the modern lifestyle while slicing out the things that don\u2019t benefit us."\n\u201cThe biggest thing is a local lifestyle. That doesn\u2019t really happen by accident.\xa0I try to emphasize that as opposed to just saying \u2018Ride a bike!\u2019\u201d\n\u2022 The benefits of living as though debt is an emergency\u2014something to be resolved as quickly as possible\u2014not a constant fact of life.\n\u2022 The benefits of blogging about all of this. (\u201cI\u201dm living a better life than I otherwise would, because people are watching, so I can\u2019t screw it up.\u201d)\n\u201cIt\u2019s very natural for us as humans to live for today,\u201d observed Marohn. \u201cTo say \u2018these things [we want to spend money on] are prerequisites,\u2019\u201d even if that means we need to go into debt to acquire them. For an individual, getting out of that mindset can be challenging and scary, but it can be immensely rewarding.\nIf you missed this podcast back in 2016 or you\u2019re new to our audi