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.
First, my favorite topic: me 😀 . There is a nice summary of our RV lifestyle plans over at MSN Moneycentral smart spending blog. Since news outlets tend to echo each other, the I also saw links to the post on some of the RV sites. My reputation has started preceding me. Not a good thing since I just found out how to connect the generator to the coach — ooooh, so you plug the shoreline into that mysterious outlet in the electric compartment and then you got power, magical! 😛
That post caused a major traffic spike and hopefully some new readers looking for early retirement/financial independence strategies. Some people apparently do not like working. It can be statistically demonstrated as this graph shows.
So here are ten ways to retire, some of which I had not considered. I have started asking (prodding?) DW whether she would consider retiring to another country. Isn’t life to short to live in the same country for more than a decade? (I’ve lived in three, DW has lived in two). I’m thinking somewhere in the Caribbean (on a sail boat).
Here’s how taxation works. It makes for a nice bedtime story for the children 🙂
This is a very good post on financial freedom. I wonder why I did not see it earlier.
Finally, to get your blog fix, here is an eclectic bunch of carnivals I participated in since the last update: Humanity without Technology, Festival of Frugality, Balanced Living Carnival, and Carnival of Everything Finance. I’ve hired DW to run the carnival operations.
