If you're new here, this blog will give you the tools to become financially independent in 5 years. 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 on losing their jobs to the next wave of downsizing.
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 delving into the forum journals and looking for the crowd's wisdom for your particular situation.
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 now been on my own time for about 2.5 months and frankly it feels like a lifetime. As far as I remember, during the time when I was still working a normal job, every day looked like every other day and days just moved steadily along and before you knew it, another month was gone.
Conversely, I have had times of my life, mostly associated with intense studying, where all neurons were firing. I remember which songs I listened to, when I was sleeping, what I was learning, and even what I was eating.
It is interesting how the mind works in compressed time. A clock just ticks along but for humans, time sometimes passes quickly and other times it does not move at all. I hate to use an overly abused concept, but time is relative. If the brain is fired up, it beats faster than the clock, and so time does not move. If the brain does not beat, time moves fast.
Here I’m not talking about the instantaneous feeling of time. Frequently when we are really engaged the sensation of time vanishes, whereas if we are bored, the seconds seem to drag on forever. However, in retrospect in the former case, we remember everything, whereas the bored time seems to be lost.
As a fun exercise, try to think back. Which were the periods, where you remember the most? Those were the periods where you really lived.
Now, do you remember a lot about your life? In particular, do you remember a lot about your work? Which periods in your life do you remember with the greatest clarity?
The periods that are most vivid is probably what you ought to be doing with your life if you want to say that you are really living.
Originally posted 2009-06-18 01:12:16.
