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 would like to thank my commenters for harassing me about getting a library card every time I have been ranting about swapping books or otherwise buying them used as a way of saving money. While this does indeed save money, it does not beat free. The same goes for DVDs. While the library or even interlibrary does not have the same selection as amazon or netflix they do have most of it. I can order and renew loans online and walk over to the local branch in less than 10 minutes, so I have been a frequent customer over at the local branch. Actually, they now know me by name over there and greet me like a Tokyo restaurant (“Hellooooo Mr. #####, so how many books are you picking up today?”) which is getting kind of embarrassing along with the 15-20 checked out books I continuously carry. Oh well 😀
So if you haven’t gotten a library card yet due to general procrastination, try it out.
