If you're new here, this blog will give you the tools to become financially independent in 5 years on a median salary. The wiki page gives a good summary of the principles of the strategy. The key to success is to run your personal finances much like a business, thinking about assets and inventory and focusing on efficiency and value for money. Not just any business but a business that's flexible, agile, and adaptable. Conversely most consumers run their personal finances like an inflexible money-losing anti-business always in danger of losing their jobs.
Here's almost a thousand online journals from people, who are following the ERE strategy tailored to their particular situation (age, children, location, education, goals, ...). Increasing their savings from the usual 5-15% of their income to tens of thousands of dollars each year or typically 40-80% of their income, many accumulate six-figure net-worths within a few years.
Since everybody's situation is different (age, education, location, children, goals, ...) I suggest only spending a brief moment on this blog, which can be thought of as my personal journal, before looking for the crowd's wisdom for your particular situation in the forum journals.
If you enjoy the blog, also consider the book which is much better organized and more complete. You can read the first chapter for free, listen to the preamble, or see the reviews (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,Z). Subscribe to the blog via email or RSS. Get updates on the facebook page, join the forums, and look for tactics on the ERE wiki. Here's a list of all the ERE blog posts.
Did you ever think about exactly what makes a status symbol and how status symbols reflect what is important in society. In our commercial society status can be bought. High status is achieved by rapidly spending money to buy in. How this money is acquired does not matter.
However, while high status in the above sense is too often perceived to be correlated with a high quality of life, I doubt this is really the case. By the consumer measures above, I am a failure. I earn less than $10,000 a year. I do not own a house. I live in a trailer park. I do not have a job.
Conversely …
- I do not need to work.
- I am not in a hurry.
- I talk to my neighbors and we watch out for each other.
- I can clean my home completely in less than an hour.
- I live centrally, so I have no need for a car.
- People ask for my advice.
- I do not take any medications.
- I don’t waste.
- I don’t own superfluous stuff.
- I pass the puck.
- I can run for more than an hour and lift heavy stuff.
Although some of this come with a price tag, e.g. freedom from work, none of these require a constant outlay. Overall, I would say many of these make for better status symbols or measures of achievement than size of one’s car or the number of bedrooms one pays a mortgage on.
