If you're new here, this blog will give you the tools to become financially independent in 5 years. Here is how I did it and here is how I currently do it. The method is robust and replicable (no need to win the lottery, start a blogging business, or win at real estate), but not easy; much in the same way that a diet results in weight loss but is hard to follow persistently unless you set your mind to it. The key is to save 75%+ of your net income and invest it in income producing assets (bonds and dividend stocks). There is a "21 day" step-by-step plan for how to get to 75% in the left side bar. I try not to be too trite, so if I cover a topic, you will probably not see it again for a very long time, thus you may want to read the older posts here and here. Also, check out my answers to frequently asked questions and while you're at it, don't forget to subscribe to the blog via google or RSS.

With the coming new year, the air is buzzing with resolutions (see here, here, here, here, here, and here — it seems that things have gotten quite goal-oriented in the pf blogosphere this year). Now as for me, I never understood the point of making resolutions simply because it was a specific date. Then again, there is so much I don’t understand. For instance, I don’t understand anniversaries and birthdays as a cause for celebration either, so maybe I just don’t get it. Perhaps I am a lost cause. Perhaps not. I see the significance of the actions taken on those particular days but I don’t see the point of taking action just because of the calendar tells me to.

To me new year resolution bears the mark of the “Yeah I know I have a problem right now and therefore I will take care of it … next week”-philosophy. Hence a resolution uses a particular event to move one from stage III to stage IV of making changes.

I have noted, however, that new year’s resolutions are usually forgotten in about 2-3 weeks when the initial fast gains slow down and the struggle becomes harder. The problem is that new year’s resolution do not automatically come with a strong self-discipline or a strong support group. It is those things that must be established first, because merely moving past January 1st is not automatically going to cut it. Fortunately these can be engaged in all year long.