I'm with you in spirit, and completely with you about not going into debt.
HOWEVER, Saving "at a minimum five percent of every dollar you bring home" isn't actually that smart when we know full well that the government is rapidly debasing the currency and will be doing so at an accelerating rate due to interest on the debt.
What's important is to save - but not necessarily in the form of "money." Saving in the forms of precious metal, ammunition and farmable land have worked well for me and will probably do better in the future than the certain loser known as fiat currency.
I often speak of the wisdom of buying items "with inherent value," though that sometimes leads to lengthier discussions of what that means and whether anything truly has "inherent value." Let's just say that it's smart to put money into things that, with a high degree of confidence, you can sell a long time from now without any loss of wealth.
I know you agree that the U.S. dollar does not fall into that category. While interest rates are near zero and the government is inflating, dollars are pretty stupid things to allocate much of your investment portfolio to. They're liquid, but besides that, they don't have much to offer.
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