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.
While trying to avoid repeating myself by not blogging daily anymore, I have been reading a lot of books lately. I got 13 checked out from the library, another 9 on request, and I got a stack from paperbackswap (link to the lower right). I haven’t really read anything that was not somehow “productive” in quite a while, but I recently decided to postpone the finance study for a semester.
Mostly I have been reading books on sailing — I’m thinking of picking up a used dinghy with a sailing rig on craigslist, if only we had some way to transport it — but I also just finished Jeff Yeager’s book The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map To True Riches and boy do we have some things in common.
I’m not going to review it (plenty of reviews abound) beyond the point of saying that it does not contain “lists of 200 things … ” nor does it spout the usual trivial personal finance advice about making a budget and snowflaking. Rather it’s along the lines of resetting your priorities completely so you don’t have to worry about easy little tips and tricks to make your consumerist lifestyle a tiny bit more financially bearable. So naturally, I recommend it. Check it out (from your library).
Originally posted 2008-05-19 18:00:33.
