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.
I want to bring your attention to this excellent list of books compiled by Charles Hugh Smith, who also writes OfTwoMinds and Survival+ (see this post). Many of these books also form the foundation of my own thinking about the future [and the past and the present].
It also includes the ERE book as shown here in the “ERE library” which is modeled on the Jefferson library. Yes, he had book cases much like this—I built it using [most of] the instructions from Roy Underhill.
Actually I just wanted to show off the book case I just finished making. It is my first foray into dovetails and this case took about 8 hours to make all combined including squaring off the boards with a block plane and chiseling out the pins and dovetails.
Total cost of materials for the case: $5 or so. And it’ll last for decades unlike disposable nail and pressed board furniture. Whether it deserves to live that long is another matter.
PS: It’s actually intended as a CD case which is why the pins are on the wrong boards for a book case. The plan was to miter the corners like the originals, but I had a hard time with the 3D thinking as it was. Next iteration will include mitered corners [and hopefully tighter dovetails].
Originally posted 2011-04-26 19:03:38.
