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 flushed the black water tank. Flushing tanks is like doing laundry for your waste products. Effluent magically disappears down a hole and you got a new set of empty tanks. I’m the only person I know that gets excited doing laundry (maybe I should get out more? 😛 ). I feel quite good about this whole deal. We now have a sustainable operation that could be continued without “hardship” or at least until the furnace becomes important. I wonder whether this climate is a candidate for a heatpump. OTOH I should give the furnace a chance. There’s real cooking going on now in the “house”. It’s not your 15,000 BTU chef’s edition platinum range, but it works. I tried hooking up the DSL, but it didn’t work. We probably need to get in touch with the phone company to look at the outside jack which was infested with spider nests. Otherwise, I’m feeling pretty good about this deal. My commute is down to 20 minutes on the folding bike. I haven’t tried the road bike yet, but I’m guessing 15 minutes or faster. This means that I could get home during lunch if so desired. Tomorrow we’re going to Goodwill to dump the remnants of the “stick house”; I don’t have the patience to deal with freecycle, when the stuff is sitting on the porch.
I think this concludes the “moving in”-series.
