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.
We tend to buy in bulk and stuff the surplus around the house. In particular, we buy big bags of toilet paper. This has become a problem now that we are scheduled to move into the RV in little more than a month from now. See, our regular toilet paper does not work in the holding tank. It does not dissolve.
My first instinct was to give it away on freecycle: “I got 50 rolls of toilet paper if anyone wants them. They are not very used 😀 “. Then I remembered, that when I was a kid and got a cold, we sometimes used toilet paper to blow our noses instead of handkerchiefs. Personally I prefer handkerchiefs to kleenex because kleenex and the likes fall apart when I blow my noses and if I have a cold I don’t like to carry snot and wet paper around in my hand until I find somewhere to dispose of it. However, many people, including DW, has been trained to like them under the slogan of “Don’t carry a cold around in your pocket”. I prefer my pocket to my hand. After all, snot from my hand gets on other surfaces where they are picked up and transferred to other people, whereas snot in my pocket stays where it is. But I digress.
My point is that I’m keeping the toilet paper for kleenex purposes.
Originally posted 2008-08-23 09:23:24.
