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.
Once upon a time, people regularly made things for themselves instead of buying them …
The picture shows a bench hook, a mallet, a saw vise (hard to buy these days) to sharpen my saw(s), and a hacksaw that I made. I plan to make the hacksaw look a little prettier but I couldn’t resist putting it together [without shaping up the crossbar] as soon as I had all the parts.
For more tool making fun, see this tool making project book which is where I got most of the inspiration—except the mallet; that was trivial. If only I had knownthought more critically, I wouldn’t have bought so many tools. All you need to bootstrap a woodworking workshop is some wood, some flat steel (used saw blades or scrapers), a saw file, and a hacksaw blade, in principle—maybe an even more fundamental bootstrapping is possible. While my initial attempts are kinda ugly, it’s just the beginning. Check out Bucky’s tool page to see what’s possible.
Part 2 will include a marking knife and a shoulder plane. The reason I made the hacksaw was to cut up some circular table saw blades to make the cutting irons for these.
Originally posted 2011-05-30 18:40:39.
