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 have gotten more brutal in terms of selling out of my library and hence I have run out of padded envelopes. No problem. I now make my own. Freecyclers seem to collect bubblewrap (as do I) so the first thing is to ask for some. People usually have so much they are glad to get rid of it. I then wrap the book with bubble wrap using a few pieces of scotch tape.
For the envelope, I take a used paper grocery bag and cut out a side. Then I wrap the bubblewraped book like a present using generous amounts of packing tape. The address can be written directly on the paperbag.
This is the method I use for amazon book sales. For paperbackswap and swaptree I use an inferior method without the bubblewrap (it’s in finite supply). In that case, I put the book in a plastic bag (here Walmart) and then wrap it with the paper bag. The reason I don’t use only the paper bag is that the coloring on the paper bag might rub off onto the book.
So there you have it. No more envelopes.
For smaller envelopes such as paying bills, sending letters, etc. see this post about envelope recycling.
Originally posted 2008-08-13 07:32:18.
