Why? Because it helps me to plan out the entirety of the rest of my life. It helps me determine what kind of career I will have. Will I have a career that I can still perform at 70 years old? Will I love what I do enough to keep it up when I’m that old?  Will I make enough money to retire early? Will I get bored if I do retire? Those are all very important questions to ask. Some of them can be answered with tools like aviva retirement, while others require deep personal thought and introspection. My retirement choices are long ways off, but I am thinking about them and planning for them now.

Honestly, I don’t see myself ever fully “retiring”. When I say that, I mean I will always be working in some capacity. Whether it is working a 60 hour a week job or simply sitting on the board of a non profit, I will be doing something to contribute to society my entire life. I’ve always been a big believer in making this world as good of a place as possible, so I will always be doing something to make sure I contribute.

With that said, my definition of retirement is simply different than others. In my opinion, being retired means that you no longer NEED to work because you have as much money as you need for your entire life and then some. My plan is to amass money like I was going to retire early. Hopefully, I’ll be totally financially independent within the next decade. After that though, I will continue to work. I’m a life long entrepreneur, and I constantly have ideas for businesses I want to start.

So once I’m financially independent, I’ll continue to work on my businesses. Specifically, I’ll always be running some sort of blog, I’ll always be doing youth speaking, and I’ll likely always be running some sort of other operation. I also have thoughts of dabbling in politics later in life, as I’ve always liked political debate and think I could be good at it.

So will I ever retire? Probably not. But will I be able to anytime I want to? Absolutely.

It may still be a few months away, but I’m already getting excited. I love hunting season for a variety of reasons. For one thing, it gives me a chance to get out to the outdoors, which I rarely do these days since I moved to a bigger city. Hunting is a very natural, very exhilarating experience that I look forward to every year. This year I put in for bull elk, and hopefully will draw. I also will be buying a deer tag, and probably do some bird hunting at some point as well.

The reason I’m sharing all of this with you is because I highly encourage anyone and everyone to take up hunting. Here is why:

• Save Money: Hunting can actually save you a substantial amount of money on food if you are successful at it. An elk will yield close to two hundred pounds of the most organic, lean, and healthy meat you will ever find. This equates to over a thousand dollars of meat, which obviously is a huge deal if you are similar to me and like to eat a huge amount of meat every day. A deer will yield only around 50, but that is still a substantial quantity of food, especially when you consider the only recurring costs of hunting are a few bullets and a license/tag every year.
• It is a lifelong skill: I am so glad I learned how to deer hunt. It is an incredible lifelong skill to have, and allows you to provide for yourself in a time of need. Imagine an emergency situation in which food supplies are cut off from your area, and you quickly run out. While everyone else is killing each other for food, you would simply kill your food. Hunting is a fantastic skill that I think everyone should be able to do at least on a basic level.
• It helps you stay healthy: Hunting is a fantastic way to get exercise. You’ve never been truly worn out until you’ve gone on a 17 hour elk hunt that involved a dozen miles of walking and a total of 6000 feet of elevation change. Trust me, there is not better way to stay in tip top shape than climbing mountains with a heavy backpack, all while trying to stay as quiet as possible. And you can’t forget about the health benefits of eating incredibly lean and organic meat.
• It is fun: If I haven’t already made this clear, hunting is a lot of fun. There is little that is more satisfying than a successful hunt, or as frustrating as an unsuccessful one, and that motivation brings about an inner struggle that is very enjoyable if you love to challenge yourself.

If you want to get started in hunting, I highly recommend finding a mentor. I had one when I first got started, and it helped me immensely. Also, make sure and do your research. I built a resource specifically for deer hunting season that I think is a great place to start. Click on that link above to find out information on your state, as well as about deer hunting in general.

Millions of people in this world lack access to clean water. I saw this first hand on my mission trip to Africa in the summer of 2011, and it is something that I have always wanted to do something about. Not long ago I came across Charity Water, and was instantly sold on their mission. They are one of the most efficient and transparent charities in the world, and their mission is one of the easiest to support.

Essentially, Charity Water uses 100% of the publicly donated money they receive to give those who live in third world countries access to clean water. Their operational costs are covered entirely by a few large private donors. So if you have ever been concerned about where your money is really going when you donate to a charity, you can be assured that Charity Water is one of the best places nonprofits around. They also track which projects your contribution goes towards, and send you a report once the project is completed with pictures, and even a GPS location! In short, it is a great nonprofit organization.

In the last year or so, I’ve seen several of my favorite bloggers run fundraisers through Charity Water for their birthdays, so I decided that I could do the same. While I don’t have nearly the readership or influence that some of those guys have, I figured it is definitely reasonable that I could raise a nice chunk of change for an organization whose mission I really like to support.

So to celebrate my coming birthday (which is May 3rd), I have set a goal to raise $1000 for Charity Water. While that may seem like a lofty goal, I think it is more than doable. I am promoting this not only through my blog, but also to my friends and family, and will be contributing some of my own money as well.

I’m kick starting things with a $100 donation. That $100 was given to me by one of my uncles last year as a graduation present. He gave me a unique and interesting challenge: Instead of spend that money on something or just put it towards college, he challenged me to use it to really and truly help someone. He specifically told me to not simply put it in a church offering or hand it to someone on the street, but take my time to find someone truly in need and help them. Charity Water says that just over $60 will provide clean water for one person. Seeing as I’m a glass half full type of person, I’ll go ahead and round up and say that with the money he gave me, I’m providing water for two people in need. I don’t know them. At this point I don’t even know where they are. But I do know that I am making a difference in two people’s lives, and that is a great feeling to say the least.

So I’m asking, if you feel so inclined, you get me the best birthday present I could ever ask for, and help contribute to this campaign. If you choose to donate, you will recieve the report of the finished project, with pictures of the people you helped! With your contribution, we may one day live in a world where everyone has access to clean water!

If you can’t give money yourself, consider sharing this post with your personal network and help spread the word.

Here is the link to my campaign:

James Petzke’s 19th Birthday Campaign

Add that to the fact that politicians have incredibly stressful jobs in which they really accomplish relatively little, and politics seems like an idiotic career choice. Who would ever want a job that consisted of nothing but debating public policy, getting bashed by the media, and rarely, if ever, seeing your ideas come to fruition? One of my friends always says “Anyone smart enough to be President is smart enough NOT to be President”, and I think that applies pretty roundly to all of politics.

And yet despite all of that, one of my life goals is to hold national political office. In fact, I intend to run for a state legislature seat within the decade, probably when I am around the age of 25, maybe even younger. And I have plans to start working on a political blog within a few months.

While the job of a politician may not be easy, and being hated by at least half of the population of the United States doesn’t sound fun, entering the world of politics is something more people should consider for several reasons:

• Public Service: The biggest reason to become a politician is that it is a big time public service. As I’ve mentioned several times already, the job of a politician isn’t easy or fun, and few people want to do it. By serving as a politician, you are filling a necessary role, whether it is in your town or on the national level. As someone who has always been big about doing public service, this is an important part of why I plan on one day running for office.

• Make an Impact: Politicians are in a unique position in terms of being able to make a real impact within their domain. While American politicians (thankfully) aren’t all that powerful in comparison to politicians throughout history, they still do have big impacts in our everyday lives. By being on of them, it is possible to make a huge impact on your community and country.

• Build Credibility: And on a slightly more selfish note, holding a political office of any kind is a way to build up a huge amount of professional credibility.

Now, this is a personal finance and lifestyle blog, so you may be wondering why in the heck I’m bothering to talk about this. I decided to write this article for several reasons. For one, even though we are currently in a political “offseason”, I want to encourage you to become more involved in politics. Most of our population’s distinctly negative attitude towards politics means that very few participate these days, so progress can’t really ever be made. Running for office is without a doubt one of the best ways to get involved.

The other reason that I wrote this post is that I wanted to highlight why this is one of my personal goals. I believe that goals, especially ones that aren’t so easily achieved, are incredibly important to living a fulfilling life. My political aspirations came about for several reasons. For one thing, I absolutely love being in leadership positions. Giving speeches, inspiring people, and delegating are some of my biggest skills, so leadership is something that has always come naturally to me. I’ve also always been fascinated by government and politics. I’ve spent more hours in my days talking politics than I care to admit, with everyone from my family members to the Assistant Secretary of Education of the US. Those two things combine to make this personal goal of mine a huge priority for my future.

Without goals, life is meaningless. It is impossible to be satisfied with the life you are living if you aren’t striving for something, and that is why I highly advocate that anyone and everyone set goals of all sorts. Besides my career goals, I also set myself plenty of fitness goals. Physical fitness is one of the greatest goals you can have in my opinion.

So in conclusion, set goals. Especially when it comes to your career. And I can’t encourage you enough to make some of those goals political.

Basketball fans know that it wasn’t just any decision, it was THE decision.

Where would he go to play basketball when his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers expired? Would he stay in Cleveland, his hometown, where he had built up fame and the support of an entire city, the clearly logical choice that everyone would approve of? Or would he venture somewhere new to try and start a new empire? Or would he dare to join a pair of other superstars in Miami?

When Warren Buffett was a child, he could have been like all of his friends. He could have played in the streets, running wild and free and having all sorts of fun. Or he could be weird, and try to make money. And once he had some money saved up, should he follow the advice of financial advisors? Should he listen to trends just like every other investor?

Those are just two examples of situations where society has told someone to do something. And as you likely already know, they decided to go against what our culture was suggesting they do, and despite some criticism, have done extremely well in their respective fields.

A King Becomes One Third of a Big Three

When Lebron’s contract was near expiration, he was playing some of the best basketball this world has ever seen. There is just no denying that he was, and still is to this day, the best active basketball player around. So, naturally, him becoming a free agent caused a big commotion in the world of the NBA. With half a dozen teams actively pursuing him, and more wishing they had the cap space to sign him, it was safe to say that wherever he ended up he would take one of the biggest salaries in professional sports.

The obvious choice, and the one that many people wanted him to make, was to continue to play in Cleveland. He grew up in Akron, and the Cavaliers were the only pro team he’d played with at that point. Another great choice would have been New York, which had cleared enough cap space to sign him up for a massive amount of money.

Meanwhile, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, two of the other superstars in the NBA, had decided to join forces in Miami. This represented a merging of two of the league’s perennial players, something which had rarely, if ever, happened in the NBA before. And then Lebron made his decision, to take a lower salary and play for the Miami Heat with two other superstars. He gave up literally millions of dollars to do something unheard of in an attempt to win championships. Not to mention the potential glory of building up a team without the aid of other superstars.

Predictably there was much backlash in the sports world. Lebron went from one of the most liked guys in basketball to public enemy number one literally in the span of an hour. However, he seems to have clearly made the right choice. In the Heat’s first season with the Big Three, they reached the finals. In its second, they won the title, and Lebron took home both the regular season MVP award and the Final’s MVP award. And as I write this, the Heat are in the midst of a 27 consecutive win streak, the second longest in NBA history. Society told him to do anything but join the Heat. It then criticized him into the ground when he did. But going against what everyone told him to do may have been the smartest thing Lebron has ever done.

The Oracle of Omaha

You may have heard the name Warren Buffett before. If you haven’t, he is arguably the most successful investor of all time, formerly the richest man in the world, and one of the best examples of a person succeeding by going against convention there is.

Buffett began his business success early, amassing nearly $100,000 (accounting for inflation) by the time he was 20. After working for various investment companies and starting several partnerships, he bought a majority stake in a textile manufacturing company called Berkshire Hathaway. This company then served as the vehicle for all of his future investing, and is now worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Buffet himself is worth over $50 billion.

His value investing approach is radically different than what the vast majority of financial experts will tell you to use. Instead of looking at market trends, he looks at individual companies and determines whether or not they are viable, and whether or not they are currently at a fair price. He doesn’t care about daily surges and drops in stock prices, and he is famous for doing the opposite of what the market is doing (buying when everyone else is selling, selling when everyone else is buying). In reality, he does pretty much the opposite of what any “financial expert” will tell you to do.

Apply the Lesson

Obviously, we aren’t all the world’s greatest basketball player or investor. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take a very important lesson from these two incredible people, or many others like them. And that lesson is to stop listening to society.

Our culture has each and every one of us fixated on things that aren’t even close to good for us. Instead of being another drone working the system and being just like your buddies, buck the system.

Everyone around you is fat? Get healthy, and maybe even ripped.

Most people retire at 65? Do it at 30.

All your coworkers car commute to work? Show them who’s boss and ride your bike.

Your friends think they have swag and dress like slobs? Show some class and dress to impress.

A TV commercial came on for the latest fast food sandwich that looks oh sooo amazing? Cook something better. And if you don’t know how to, it’s time to learn.

Some company is telling you it knows your life? Show it how it doesn’t!

And those are only a few examples of the many things that you should go against the grain of society on. The next time you are falling in line behind everyone else, doing what is expected of you, ask yourself this question: “Am I doing this because it is a positive thing that I want to do, or just because someone told me to?”

The challenge officially wrapped up last Wednesday. I meant to post the results sooner, but I ended up being a big part of the Idaho Business Professionals of America state conference for the last half of last week, and took a trip to visit my family for my nephew’s birthday over the weekend.

Well enough excuses for the tardiness of this post, let’s get down to the facts.

The Numbers

My main goal was to go from a total weight of 168 to 175 pounds. This was to include losing 8.4 pounds of fat, and gaining 14.6 pounds of muscle. The real challenge here was obviously doing those two things simultaneously.

I actually ended up getting to my target weight in only five weeks. For the last three weeks, I floated between 172 and 175 fairly consistently. So I did hit my weight mark pretty easily. But what about the body composition changes?

The body fat scale I’ve been using turned out to be even more useless than I thought it would. I noted in my last post on this challenge how inaccurate it appeared to be, and this definitely held true. Regardless of my body composition, the body fat reading would change consistently with my weight. Seeing as my weight tends to fluctuate pretty heavily, this would mean that I would sometimes (according to the scale) gain an entire percentage of body fat in a single day, and then drop it all the next. As such, I decided to pretty much ignore the body fat readings on the scale.

However, I did notice a clear difference in my physique. I saw increased vascularity (visibility of veins), and significantly increased muscle definition. I really didn’t end up adding much bulk, but I’m okay with that for the time being.

Now with that said, I don’t think that I actually hit the numbers I was seeking as far as fat loss and muscle building go. While I did see some big differences, they weren’t enormous. So overall, I would say that I sorta-kinda met my goals number wise. I hit my target weight, but I didn’t quite hit the overall body composition I wanted.

What Went Wrong

There were several things that I think contributed to this. First off was my goal of doing both fat loss and muscle building simultaneously. While many people will try to say this is impossible, I disagree. I proved that it is possible, it just takes a lot longer than I thought. Many others that I’ve read about have had similar results. Because your body can’t build muscle without an excess of calories (especially proteins), and can’t burn fat without being calorically deficient, it is impossible to do them both truly simultaneously. However, you can definitely do them both during the same time frame. For instance, you might swim and burn a lot of calories on an empty stomach, leading to some fat loss. You could then lift weights the next day and eat thousands of calories, resulting in muscle growth. However, doing so isn’t nearly as efficient as simply focusing on one at a time.

The other thing that I had trouble with was I had a few too many days on which I had no choice but to break my diet. Whenever you are eating with other people, especially large groups of people, it is nearly impossible to eat on the paleo diet. Because the average person’s diet is made up in large part of empty carbs (which is why the average person is so unhealthy), you will likely end up eating that way when with a group. During these eight weeks, I spent three days on a youth retreat as a volunteer leader, had two family members insist on celebrating birthdays with me, was in a big conference, and was back in my hometown to attend a funeral which happened to be the same weekend as the super bowl. All of these occasions led to binge eating of all sorts of sugars and grains, and the only real alternative would have been fasting. Seeing as the slow carb diet, as recommended by Tim Ferriss, actually includes a weekly cheat day, I didn’t figure this would be a big deal. However, in the end I think it actually did make a difference in the body composition department.

What Went (Very) Right

Despite not truly meeting my goals, this was an overwhelmingly positive experiment. Here are the things that went right:

Getting Stronger

There is no question about it, I am in much better shape now than I was eight weeks ago. The consistent home workout schedule definitely helped me gain some fairly substantial strength, both aerobic and anaerobic. Besides the visible increases in muscle size and definition, it is an awesome feeling to know that I am getting stronger by the day. Seeing as this was one of the primary goals of this ordeal, I am very satisfied with the results.

Overall Health

When it comes to my overall level of health, I must say that I was absolutely shocked by the results. Once I switched over 100% to my paleo/slow carb diet, I saw some pretty incredible changes in my health in many different ways. Here are some of the most prominent:

• Vastly Increased Energy: This was without a doubt the most dramatic, and welcome, surprise change. Despite getting rid of all kinds of quick burning carbohydrates like sugars and grains, which are typically thought of as what give you energy, I saw huge increases in my overall energy level. The best part was that instead of seeing swings in energy that corresponded with how recently I had eaten like I always had in the past, my energy level was nearly always constant.
• Need Less Sleep: Along with the above, I noticed that I needed to sleep less in order to function well during the day. This was a most welcome effect considering how busy I’ve been lately.
• Quicker Workout Recovery: I noticed that I didn’t get as sore after workouts after making the switch to the new diet. I think this was in part due to the increased percentage of protein in my diet, and also could have been tied into the consistent energy levels mentioned above (feeling tired gives the illusion of being sore as well oftentimes).
• Less Headaches: Again, I believe this was tied to the energy levels mentioned above. I’ve always been prone to regular headaches, but I noticed the frequency with which these occur dropped off dramatically after starting the new diet.
• Clearer Skin: This is kind of a random one, but I noticed that I went from minimal acne to absolutely none for eight whole weeks. At the end of the two months, I decided to binge out for a few days before starting again for the fun of it and ate tons of sugar and grains. The result? Nearly immediately I had several pimples. I’ve never been prone to big breakouts, so this wasn’t that big of a deal to me. But it is still a welcome change to say the least.

So in short, I have seen a drastically increased level of overall health as a result of this new diet. I couldn’t be happier with that part of things.

I think that most of those above effects were due to eating a diet that didn’t include any high glycemic index foods. The glycemic index is a measure of how fast eating a food affects your blood sugar levels. High glycemic index foods, like sugars, grains, and even most fruits, cause spikes in blood sugar, which in turn are responsible for unsteady energy levels. Eating a low glycemic index diet may be the best decision I have ever made.

Lessons Learned

More valuable than the physical changes I experienced throughout these eight weeks were the many lessons I learned. Here are some of the biggest:

• Choose a Goal: Like I mentioned above, I believe that it will be much more efficient in the future to focus on one category of goal at a time instead of doing two simultaneously. In the future, I will be focusing on either fat loss or muscle building, not both at the same time.
• Paleo is Awesome: There is just no way around it in my opinion, the food pyramid lied to us. Eating a diet that is a majority grains and other empty carbs simply isn’t the way to optimal health. Going paleo opened my world to a totally new definition of healthy. And, unless something major changes in the future for me, I never intend to go back to a grain based diet.

What’s Next?

Eight weeks of hard core dieting and consistent exercise was great, but it was only the beginning. I intend to not only keep this up, but also increase the intensity. My goal is to find as many ways as possible to maximize the human body physically. I started a new fitness challenge on Monday which I won’t be talking about until it is over. I want to keep it a surprise, but I’ll give you a hint: It involves the number six.

Stay tuned for more, and be on the watch for more finance posts soon!

This ebook contains some of my best and most popular posts, which have been updated and expanded upon, and also some brand new content you won’t find anywhere else.

If you are looking for a guide to help you get started cutting your expenses, then look no further. Killing the Big 4 covers the four biggest areas of most people’s spending, and will help you slash them drastically no matter your current situation.

And the best part about this ebook is that it is totally free! All you have to do is sign up for my email list, and you’ll get instant free access to this amazing resource. You’ll also get tons of other great pieces of exclusive content and resources as a part of my mailing, it really is a win-win!

If you want to check it out, just enter your name and email address in the form on the right sidebar of the site (If you are reading this in an RSS reader, just visit thisiscommoncents.com to see the form). You can always unsubscribe if you don’t like the book or the subsequent messages at any time!

Many of you are already on my mailing list, and if you are, you will be receiving your copy of the book very soon if you haven’t already!

In other news, I have just published another ebook. Get a Job NOW, which was given away to my email subscribers up until a couple days ago, has been updated, expanded, and awesomeified, and is now available for Amazon Kindle! You can buy it here for a mere $4.99, or get free access if you have Amazon Prime. This is an incredible resource for anyone who is currently searching for employment, or plans to in the future. You will learn how to boost your resume in unique ways, market yourself in the digital age, and absolutely nail interviews! This book really is an incredible resource, and I highly recommend you check it out. Please leave a review if you do!

Well that is all the news for now, I hope you enjoy the ebooks, and be on the lookout for a big post coming later this week!

So how are we to lower the costs associated with keeping our residences at an acceptable temperature? After all, how can it be possible to cut back on the cost of such a normal part of modern living?

To answer that, I am introducing a new category on this blog: Financial Superpowers. Financial Superpowers are skills that you can learn, lifestyle changes you can make, and tolerances you can build up that will help you go above and beyond in your quest to save money and build wealth. And to kick these off with a bang, I am showing you all how you can lower your air conditioning and heating costs by learning to survive and thrive in any environment.

Most human beings are used to living in an environment that is always one temperature. They set their home thermostats at 68 degrees or so, drive a car that is roughly the same temperature, and work in an office that is as well. The walk between a car and a building is the only time this changes. Many people don’t realize the drastic costs that kind of habit brings.

The temperature control unit in my apartment is rarely used, despite the fact that all of my neighbors use them liberally. During the warmer months, my apartment typically hovers in the 80 degree range, and it hits 60 for most of the colder months. When some people hear that I do that, they ask if I have had my mental health examined lately. After all, those kind of temperatures are just crazy!

While that may be the case if you are a weak consumer who is happy to send hundreds, and eventually thousands of unnecessary dollars off to the utility companies, we want financial superpowers! We want to get the most value of out of our hard earned dollars as possible. We want our money to work for us, and maybe even achieve financial freedom!

By allowing the temperature in my apartment to swing like that during the different seasons, I save myself a massive amount of money. In fact, my electric bill most months is around $30. When you consider the fact that I have all electric appliances, an electric water heater, electric heat, and my work computer is a double-screened behemoth, that bill is absurdly low. During the winter months it runs a little bit higher (this January was nearly double the norm, as I mentioned before, because of an unusual cold front which required me to use my heat many times more than what I normally do to keep it at 60), but it still is a fraction of what most people pay.

So how have I learned to survive and thrive in these temperatures? With a little help from some classic Mr. Money Mustache articles and some experimentation, I’ve figured out the best ways to stay comfortable in temperatures that send regular consumers running.

It’s Nature

Believe it or not, the human body survived just fine before the inventions of air conditioning and furnaces. In fact, it has systems in place to help cope with all kinds of temperature ranges and extremes. Sweating is the most obvious to help you stay cool in the heat. Making sure to drink plenty of cold water in the summer allows you to sweat without getting dehydrated, and cools you down at the same time. Your body is also pretty good at dealing with cold. There is a reason people have been able to survive in Alaska for thousands of years. Remember that your body can handle the relatively mild changes in temperature I suggested above without problems, it is your mind that has always told you to crank the heat and A/C in the past.

Quick Acclimation

One of the best ways to get acclimated to the changes in temperature at the beginning of a season is to just be out in it. The temperatures outside are always going to be more extreme than inside, so make coming inside a treat. Spend a few hours out in the heat during the summer doing some hard physical work, and coming inside will feel amazing, even if it is still 80 degrees inside. Same goes with the cold. Go for a walk in a snowstorm, or have a snowball fight.

I have a couple personal examples of my own quick acclimation experiences. For instance, during the winter I will go duck hunting. You have yet to experience true cold if you haven’t stood in a river that is up to your waste in water barely above freezing at 6 am in the middle of January in Idaho. As far as adjusting to the heat, last summer during a church business trip to Pittsburgh I wore a full suit around downtown in 90+ degree weather for ten straight days. Sure I was sweating the first day or two, but I adjusted quickly. Now you don’t have to go to those extremes to truly adjust to different temperatures, but it doesn’t hurt.

Clothing

Of course, the most obvious way to deal with different ranges in temperature is to adjust the clothing you are wearing appropriately. If it is the middle of summer, you shouldn’t be wearing a sweater and cranking the A/C. In the winter, consider wearing long underwear on a daily basis, and always dress in layers. There is nothing wrong with wearing a sweatshirt indoors in the middle of the winter, or to not wear a shirt wear in the summer.

Just Man Up Already

Come on, you don’t think Bruce Wayne became the caped crusader by being comfortable and hitting an easy button, do you? This financial superpower does require you to “man up” and get out of your comfort zone. But you’ll find that the temporary discomfort quickly fades, and is replaced by a new found confidence, and a fatter wallet.

But as our culture continues to move in those directions, you can unlock some serious potential in many respects by rediscovering the notion of DIY, or Do It Yourself. The DIY subculture in America is massive, and growing bigger by the day. There are more popular DIY websites than I could ever fully research, and pretty much any task or item in today’s world has a DIY alternative.

Learning how to do things yourself is very easy. Instead of paying someone else to do something for you, you just have to learn how to do that thing and do it yourself. Obviously the difficulty will change based on what you are doing (cooking your own food is much easier than, for instance, installing your own roof).

Embracing the practice of DIY has numerous benefits. Here are some of the biggest:

• Save Money: It is pretty obvious that when you do something yourself instead of paying someone else to do it for you, you are going to save money in the end. Of course, some types of DIY will save you more than others. For instance, cooking from scratch will save you at least 75% on your total food costs over eating out, while changing your own oil won’t be anywhere near that. But almost all kinds of DIY will save you at least a small amount of money.
• Learn How Things Work: By doing maintenance on things like your car, home, or computer yourself, you learn how they work. And when you have a better understanding of how something works, you will be more able to use it more effectively. It might also help in a time of need, like if your car breaks down in the middle of no-where.
• Exercise The Brain: What kind of information do you think will be more useful in life: memorizing the lines to your favorite romantic comedy, or knowing how to replace the air filter of a car? DIY activities are typically mentally stimulating, and can help you constantly learn all sorts of interesting and helpful knowledge.

If you want to get started in the world of DIY, you may have a hard time knowing where to begin. Here are some of the best places (in my opinion) to start out:

Auto Maintenance

Learning how to perform your own basic car maintenance is one of the greatest skills a young man can acquire, and one that many women will want for practicality’s sake. You can save a lot of money by doing your own routine maintenance, and if you have a real knack for it, you can even do some of the more complex stuff that would normally cost hundreds in labor. If you really want to take this up a notch, considering restoring an old car. I once rebuilt an old dirt bike, which was a very enjoyable and worthwhile experience. From the knowledge I gained there, I’m able to do all sorts of maintenance on automobiles.

Home Maintenance

Another great starting point is doing your own home maintenance. Learning basic skills like simple plumbing, appliance maintenance, or wiring can save you thousands of dollars over time. It is also a fun hobby to have, and is very satisfying. And if you ever want to build your own house, you’ll be able to do some of the work yourself. If you want a good place to get started in home maintenance without jumping right into the critical pieces (it would suck to accidentally blow up a pipe trying to fix a leak), try something like painting.

Food

The simplest and most common form of DIY is cooking your own food. I cook all my own food from scratch, and I can tell you that there are countless benefits. The food is healthier than processed alternatives, you save a ton of money, and it is actually quite fun to cook. Let’s face facts, cooking is just a giant excuse to play with knives and scalding hot metal, and then eat copious amounts of amazing food. What can be better than that?

Build Furniture

One of my favorite DIY hobbies is furniture building. Surprisingly, this isn’t nearly as hard as you would think, doesn’t require too much equipment, and can be done in a limited amount of work space. Building simple things like book shelves and clothes drying racks is a great place to start, and all you need are some basic power tools. I built my computer desk with nothing more than a simple circular saw, power drill, and sander. Of course, you can really scale things up if you have access to more serious equipment. I built my gun cabinet with my uncle, who has a wood shop, and it is leaps and bounds above anything I could ever purchase.

Endless Possibilities

Of course, those are only a few ideas. DIY has literally limitless possibilities. Whatever your hobby or needs are, there is going to be some sort of DIY project out there that can make things cheaper and more interesting. Whether it is reloading your own bullets, making christmas gifts for your family, building armies of small robots, or any other little project, DIY is the way to go.

If you want to do some more research into DIY, there are some websites that you should check out. One of my favorites is Instructables, which I’ve used for years, and has all sorts of excellent tutorials. They have thousands of user submitted tutorials for any sort of project you may have. There are lots of other DIY sites out there, including many that are specific to a category of project. Do a simple Google search for whatever it is you want to do, and you’ll no doubt find someone else who has already done that DIY project and shared about it online.

Do you have any favorite DIY projects? Let us know in the comments!

It was an advertisement for the 2013 Nissan Sentra. The ad basically shows a young hot shot at a company giving an executive a ride in his Sentra, and then getting a promotion because of it. “It makes a powerful first impression” declares the narrator.

I embedded the video so you can check it out yourself.

So basically this ad says that if you drive this fancy brand new car, you will get promoted.

Yeah, I laughed too.

Now obviously that isn’t what they are directly claiming, but it is still is what you are meant to insinuate from the commercial. And that same theme is reverberated not only in countless other advertisements, but through our entire culture. The theme that expensive consumer items show that you are successful and wealthy, and that buying them will somehow get you there if you aren’t already.

There are two huge flaws with that theory. Well there are actually many more than just two, but the two I’m talking about are the biggest and kind of incorporate the others.

Stuff Doesn’t Make You Successful, Hard Work Does

Well isn’t that a shocker. Believe it or not, wearing $2,000 suits and eating all organic food and driving a luxury car won’t immediately vault you to the top of your company and let you conquer the world. The only way to be successful is to work hard. Sound cliche? Sure. Absolutely true? You betcha. There will always be those few people out there who make it big by being lucky, convincing others that you can win big without working hard. But for the vast majority of us, working hard is the best road to success.

This theory can be applied to virtually anything. Of course the obvious example is in your professional career, but there are many others. Will a fancy computer help you type faster and thereby get better grades in school? Of course not. What if you buy a solid gold watch? Will that increase your chances of making lots of friends in high places? Not likely.

Some of the requirements I set for myself during the fitness challenge I started last week are that I can’t go to gyms or personal trainers and I can’t use any expensive equipment. Why would I do that? Don’t P90X and Bowflex and all those other expensive items make you ripped? They can, but I’m setting out to prove that you can get ripped just as easily without them.

Buying Stuff Makes You Wealthy

This is one of the biggest misconceptions out there. If you were to ask random people on the street if they thought that all rich people have lots of consumer and high class items, most would say yes. For some reason, wealth is associated with expensive consumer goods.

Turns out that is very wrong.

If you’ve read “The Millionaire Next Door”, which I highly recommend, you know that the average millionaire doesn’t spend lots of money. They don’t drive luxury cars or wear expensive clothing or live on a small island. Some do, but not most.

The only way to build wealth is to invest part of your income. Therefore, spending money on lots of consumer goods, whether it is a Nissan Sentra, a gold watch, or a private island, actually hurts your ability to build wealth. Unless you absolutely need something, or purchasing an item actually saves you money in the long run, every time you spend money you are impeding your own quest to one day become rich.

It’s Time to Shift the Paradigm

American culture is convinced that stuff is superior to all else. That having a high income means you should spend it all away, that it’s okay to take on debt to buy things like brand new cars, and that stuff determines social class. This paradigm in the American culture needs to be changed. It isn’t good for anyone but the companies making cheap products.

And while it is hard to change a culture overnight, you can easily change your own way of living. If you want to get out of the consumer rat race and live more meaningfully, all that is required are some simple lifestyle changes. Here are the most important:

• Focus on Value and Quality, Not Quantity: When you buy things, focus on buying quality and value. Instead of having lots of stuff that you never even look at, aim to have a much smaller collection of things that provide a maximum amount of utility and pleasure to your life for a bargain price.
• Focus on People and Accomplishments, Not Things: Instead of working and striving towards obtaining possessions, strive to build connections with people and accomplish things in work and life. A meaningful connection with a friend or family member is far more valuable than any car. And when you look back on your life, you will remember what you accomplished and who you knew, not what you owned at the time.

Making those above shifts will no doubt help you live a more fulfilling life, and you will find that you will be much more financially stable as well.

So, in conclusion, a car won’t get you promoted, and no other consumer purchase is likely to do you very much good either.

Now, I’ve always been in fairly good physical shape, so I never made any resolution along those lines before. This is especially true because I played basketball during the winter, so in January I was typically in as good of shape as you can be. Of course this year I’m not playing organized basketball (which is sad, I love the game), but that’s no reason not to be in good shape. So I thought to myself, why not challenge myself to get in to the best shape of my life as a sort of New Year’s resolution? And that is exactly what I’m doing.

Starting today I’m beginning an eight week long challenge with myself to burn off fat and simultaneously build substantial muscle. I’m going to be holding myself to lofty expectations, and intentionally am going to have to rush this process. Eight weeks isn’t a whole lot of time to accomplish what I want to do.

And to make this even harder, I forced several rules unto myself:

• No gyms, personal trainers, or anything similar. For one thing, I think gyms are a very unnecessary expense when you can get an equal workout without one for free. For another, I want anyone who reads about this challenge to be able to duplicate it, and that means I can’t be doing anything expensive or impossible. In fact, the total cost of purchasing the gym equipment I’m using was less than two months of a typical gym membership.
• Track my progress as accurately as possible. I want to be able to point to this little experiment in the future as an example without critics being able to rip it apart on technicalities.
• For the before and after photos, I won’t be using any “Hollywood tricks” in order to make it appear that I was more successful than I really was. If I fail, I have to show my failure.

So here is what I’m going to do. I’ve seen countless case studies of people who have lost a significant amount of fat. I’ve also seen some that show how a person gained a large amount of muscle quickly. But very rarely do you see anyone combine the two. So I’m going to try and build my ideal body by both dropping my body fat percentage drastically and simultaneously building muscle.

My weight fluctuates substantially on a daily basis, so I’m using a four day average for my starting numbers. Putting together my weight this morning and the three prior days, my official starting number is 168.85 pounds. My target weight is 175 pounds. Obviously that isn’t much of a change, but it is when you consider the body fat I’ll be losing.

I have a home body fat scale that I will be using during this experiment. However, these are notorious for reporting inaccurately high if you have an athletic build, which I do. The four day average puts my body fat read at 18.4%. However, I know that I am nowhere near that. Using picture estimators (like this or this), I am more likely in the 12% to 15% range. Unfortunately, more accurate ways of measuring body fat are either expensive or require going to a trainer, which violates my first rule. But despite the inaccuracy of my scale, it should still be a good measure of how much fat I am losing. To keep it as accurate and scientific as possible, I will always be doing these measurements upon waking, after using the restroom, and before eating or drinking anything.

My goal is to lose at least 5% body fat. That will put me at 13.4% on the scale, or around 5% to 8% using picture based estimations. While it may be hard to get a true measure of exactly how much body fat I lost, I think that the difference will be very noticeable, which is the main goal anyway.

So if we do some quick math, we can get a better look at what I want to do. Dropping 5% body fat essentially means losing 5% of my weight, which comes out to 8.44 pounds. And while that may not sound like a lot of weight considering what you’ve seen in other places online and in advertisements, remember two things:

• I am already in good shape, so I don’t have much to lose.
• I am going to be simultaneously gaining muscle mass. Doing so typically involves lots of anaerobic exercise and eating large amounts of food, the opposite of what typical weight loss involves.

Accounting for that total amount of fat loss, that will put my weight at 160.41. So I will have to build 14.6 pounds of lean muscle mass in order to hit my target weight of 175 pounds.

The Plan

This is a somewhat unique challenge that I am undertaking, but I have worked out a solid plan that I think should allow me to accomplish this. I’ve taken inspiration from several different places, including Tim Ferriss’s crazy muscle mass building experiment and Joel Runyon’s six pack abs experiment.

Diet

I will be following a diet that is a hybrid of the paleo and slow carb diets. This means I will be eating an all natural diet full of protein, fats, and low glycemic index carbohydrates. Here is what I will be eating lots of:

This was my dinner last night. A chicken breast, and a mixture of carrots, onions, and green beans. Most of my meals will look like this.

• Meat: A good portion of my calories will be coming in the form of animal proteins. I’m able to eat meat very cost effectively, which you can read about here. I would be eating all grass fed and organic if I could, but price is too big of a prohibitor for that.
• Vegetables: If you want a good indication of how much vegetable mass I will be eating, today I bought a ten pound bag of organic carrots and a five pound bag of organic green beans at Costco (the organic price there was cheaper than the non organic anywhere else, even my local favorite Winco). Vegetables will be a primary staple of my diet, and will most times be stir fried in olive oil or homemade ghee. I will, however, avoid starchy vegetables like potatoes and yams.
• Legumes: At the beginning of the eight weeks I will be eating quite a few legumes. Mostly beans, my favorites being black beans and lentils, but also some nuts. I am planning on quickly phasing out the nuts, and possibly the other legumes as well. Legumes in general are great, but vegetables are better.
• Fruits: The only fruits I will eat a lot of will be avocado and tomatoes. Both are relatively expensive, but they are the only fruits that don’t have a lot of natural sugar. In the beginning I may eat the occasional apple or other fruit, but I plan to quickly phase that out as well.
• Eggs and Dairy: Eggs will be another staple, especially for breakfast. I am what would be called a milk addict (going through two gallons per week by myself isn’t uncommon), so even though it violates both the diets I am modeling after, I will be eating/drinking dairy. For one thing, I am trying to build muscle. Tim Ferriss, who created the slow carb diet, wrote in the 4-Hour Body that drinking lots of milk is one of the best ways to do so. For another, my body is accustomed to an abundance of dairy, and eliminating it may be quite the shock to the system. I may try it another time, but not while I’m changing so many other variables at the same time.

There are also some foods that will be strictly on my do-not-eat list. For the most part, they are simple carbohydrates.

• Sugar: Sorry kids, sugar is bad for you. And while I am as guilty as anyone of eating ridiculous quantities of the stuff, we all have to face facts at some point. It isn’t a coincidence that as sugar has become more prevalent in our society, so has obesity. If there is one thing that this plan hinges on more than any other, it is eliminating sugar. That also means nothing that contains any sort of sugar, like ketchup, barbecue sauce, and pretty much any commercially made drink.
• Grains: Grains are just another form of simple carbohydrate, and eating them isn’t doing you any favors. I know this will be a tough sell for a lot of you, including my entire family, but I’ll let the results speak for themselves in eight weeks.
• Processed Food: I feel like a broken record writing this again on this blog, but eliminating as much processed food as possible from your diet is one of the most effective ways to boost your health and save hundreds of dollars at the same time.

Exercise

Of course, the diet alone isn’t going to be enough. In order for me to get the muscle tone and build I want, I’m going to be doing a lot of exercising. But given the restrictions I put on myself, I am extremely limited as far as what equipment I can use. I’m going to be doing lots of body weight exercises, such as pushups and situps. I also have two pieces of equipment I will be using, which cost less than $80 in total:

• Door mounted pull up bar: One of those things that you see on the infomercials (I bought mine several years ago, I believe it is an Iron Gym). These things actually do make great pullup bars, and you can use them for other exercises as well. A good one costs about $30.
• T-Bar: This is essentially an adjustable kettlebell that I made myself out of some steel piping. I will be using this for kettlebell swings and squats. Buying all the steel piping and weights was less than $50.

I’ll be breaking my workouts into upper body and lower body, and alternating them. I will have a break day on Sunday. I’m going to be detailing this more in an upcoming post, so be on the lookout for that.

Supplements

Normally I wouldn’t recommend dietary supplements. However, for this challenge I will taking a small amount of creatine supplements for several reasons:

• Creatine is a totally natural organic acid found in all vertebrates. That means you already have some in you, and you get more every time you eat meat. Adding creatine supplements to your diet is a proven way to increase muscle growth with a very tiny risk of side effects.
• I’ve used creatine before and found that it was the only way I could gain large amounts of muscle quickly due to my extremely fast metabolism. I’m one of those guys that just burns through food and can’t gain weight very easily (it isn’t uncommon for me to eat 4000 calories per day). In order to gain almost 15 pounds of lean muscle mass so quickly, creatine is really my only option.

So that is the plan for my next eight weeks. I will be writing a lot more about this challenge in the near future, especially once I’ve completed it. I’m going to be sticking to the plan above, but things are subject to change. In fact, I would be willing to bet that my routine is very different at the end of the eight weeks. For instance, if I’m having a hard time gaining the muscle I want, I may start taking protein supplements. Or if I gain weight too fast, I’ll lay off the creatine or cut out dairy. The main thing is that I will be hitting my target whatever it takes.

Do you have a fitness goal for the new year? Let us know in the comments below!

I’m going to do my best to answer some of these questions, and make some predictions for the new year. Take all of this with a grain of salt. While I am an economics student, I am by no means a professional, and the below information and predictions are for entertainment and informational purposes only. I’ve made these conclusions based on what I’ve seen happening at the end of this year, as well as what other economists have said and what makes logical sense.

But on a lighter note, if you go to the bottom of this post, you’ll see there is a form to enter a $100 giveaway! Read more about it below.

Going Over the Cliff?

You’ve probably heard a lot about the so called “fiscal cliff” lately. For those of you who don’t know all the details, it is a combination of automatic financial changes for our country that began today (assuming no new legislation was passed since I wrote this). The first, and most important, of the changes is the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. In other words, if our government doesn’t do anything to stop this, everyone will have their taxes raised to the levels they were at back in the 90′s. This means less money in the hands of every consumer in America, so be prepared to pay a higher tax bill this year if nothing is done to change this.

The second major change is the automatic implementation of federal spending cuts that apply to virtually all areas of the government, including defense. This may not impact you directly, but it will likely have a negative effect on our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Experts have said that this combination will bring an immediate hit to our GDP of around 3 to 5 percent. That could result in massive hits to the stock market, further rises in unemployment, and other negative effects that may impact us all. If this issue isn’t dealt with soon, make sure you are prepared to weather a storm.

Rebound of Real Estate

After the plummet of 2008/2009, the real estate market has been relatively stagnant until very recently. But we’ve finally started to see prices begin to rebound. In my local area of Boise, I’ve seen between 10 and 20 percent increases in real estate prices since I moved here six months ago. While not all areas have seen that dramatic of a difference, most have seen some positive growth. After years of a buyer’s market, I’m predicting that more and more people start taking advantage of low interest rates and home prices, and that increased demand will cause some continual growth for the next few years in the real estate market. If you don’t already have investments in real estate, you may want to consider making some quickly.

The Impact of Obamacare

Regardless of your opinions on politics, no one can deny that the health care overhaul passed several years ago will drastically change things for our economy. Nothing even remotely close to this has ever been tried in America before. For starters, the increased burden on businesses has already resulted in layoffs (many of them very public), and I don’t doubt it will happen more in the future. On the other side of things, we may finally see health care prices stop their outrageous climb. Hopefully, some of the provisions that have been implemented will do their job and curb costs for the average American. Of course, we all know there are better ways to decrease your spending on health care, but I digress. My personal opinion is that overall, these mandates will have negative economic impacts on our country. But I’m very interested to see how things play out in the next few years.

Win $100

To celebrate the new year, I joined a group of other financial bloggers in co hosting a $100 reader giveaway. The winner can receive the money either threw Paypal or as an Amazon giftcard. To enter, you simply have to subscribe through various social channels (RSS, Facebook, Twitter) to the blogs below. Use the Rafflecopter form below and lock in your chance of winning some free money!

It has been nearly five months since the first post went live on this site, and they have gone faster than I ever could have thought. So far this blog has seen tens of thousands of views, and is growing rapidly. I’ve already published over 60,000 words here, and I hope to write more than 100,000 in 2013. My list of posts that I need to write is more than four pages long, so you can look forward to lots more coming soon. But before I talk about that, let’s reflect on the best of 2012.

Here are the posts that got the most views in 2012:

Early Retirement: Passive and Almost Passive Income

Write a Killer Resume

Early Retirement: Is It Possible?

What Exactly Could 16 Trillion Dollars Do?

Cable Alternatives That Save You Hundreds

And here are my editor’s picks for the year:

Couponing: The Time Consuming Way to Increase Your Spending  It may be odd for a personal finance blogger to tell you to not use coupons on a regular basis, but that is exactly what I do.

The Life Rich  The Life Rich live a lifestyle of doing more, having less, and loving life. Minimalism, sustainability, giving back to the community, and much more are what they focus on in life.

The Number One Way To Save Money  Healthcare, on average, takes up nearly 20% of your income. Find out why it’s so expensive, and how to minimize it.

The Only Real Get Rich Scheme  If you follow these two rules, you are guaranteed to start building wealth immediately, and hopefully get rich in the end.

Run Your Life Like a Business  Most businesses are good at making profits, using debt properly, and contributing to society. Manage your money and life like it is a business, and you may find things work out better.

Next year should be quite the year for this blog. I’ve got some upcoming guest posts on big blogs that are sure to help grow the readership and community here. And of course, there are some things that I’ll be writing about soon that I think are incredibly important. And as a holiday treat, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of what you’ll see here in 2013.

• More of my personal story and successes. For instance, how I was able to save up a five figure net worth before turning 18, how I’ve flown tens of thousands of miles without paying for a plane ticket, how I make money online, and how I started a business before going to business school.
• More non traditional personal finance advice. I’ve already told you why I don’t use coupons or go to Black Friday sales, and there is plenty more where that came from. Like the fact that I don’t care about my credit score.
• A look at the 80/20 principle, and how it applies everywhere. For instance, what 20% of the grocery store do I spend 80% of my time and money in, and why?
• More on the Life Rich. Getting everyone to move towards the Life Rich lifestyle is one of my biggest goals, so that is going to be one of my main focuses in 2013.
• And lots more in depth posts that detail ways you can save money, increase your income, and improve your life.

There is a lot to look forward to in the coming year. And starting on the 1st of January, I will be participating in a $100 cash giveaway with a variety of other bloggers. Make sure you stop by and enter for your chance to make some money!

Before you panic and ask yourself what kind of horrific blog you are reading, I’m not talking about human slaves. Far from it.

I’m talking about YOUR MONEY. Every single dollar you earn has the potential to become your tireless slave, never complaining and always working for you.

If you take a small amount of time to make sure your various financial details are all aligned properly, you can begin to build an army. An army of dedicated slaves that seek to increase your wealth and guarantee your financial security. An army that works tirelessly for you, night and day, no questions asked, while needing nothing from you to sustain its work. An army that literally doubles in size in less than a decade, and can then double again, and again, and again.

Recruiting a Willing Army

Now you might think that building up a slave army of money sounds difficult, but it really isn’t. In fact, no matter who you are and what your situation is, you can start to “recruit” money to work for you. It all starts with designing your lifestyle around spending less money than you earn each month, and then increasing that monthly income as much as you can. I won’t get into the details of that here, but just know that anyone can do it.

Once you start to see a monthly surplus in your budget, that tiny bit of seed money is the first batch of recruits for your newly founded force. Take it, and invest it. Like I’ve said previously, it really doesn’t matter as much where you invest your money as long as you invest it in general. I’ll leave the merits of different investing strategies to later, more boring posts. Now that you have your first slaves beginning their work for you, simply repeat the cycle next month. And the month after that. And then (you guessed it) the month after that. If you have a consistent paycheck that doesn’t fluctuate from month to month at all, I highly recommend setting this up on some sort of automated system. That way you won’t even have to think about it.

Slaves Recruiting Slaves

Well what kind of slave army wouldn’t recruit its own new members? In addition to the new recruits constantly coming in from your hard earned paycheck, the most important element to the success of your new stash of cash is the fact that it grows on its own, without prompting or help from you. Thanks to the beauty of compounding interest, it grows at an astounding rate.

To analyze how fast, we can use the Rule of 70. Basically, you take the number 70 and divide it by your rate of return from your investments, leaving you with the approximate number of years it will take for your money to double. So if you are expecting a 7% return on investment, which would be pretty typical, your money will double every ten years. If you can get 10% yearly returns, it’ll take a mere seven years for your money to double.

So if you invest $10,000 your first year, and you get a 10% rate of return, you will have $20,000 in seven years. And in 14 years, it’ll be $40,000. And it just keeps growing from there.

We could get into the finer details and run all kinds of calculations to prove this point, but once again, I don’t think that’s necessary at the moment. The basics of this apply no matter what: Your army of money slaves will continue to grow very quickly over time, even without additional input.

Taking Control of the World

Of course, if you have an army of slave workers that do your bidding without question and double in size every few years, world domination starts to seem possible.

While you may not be able to buy a country or finance a war with the few hundred thousand dollars you’ve socked away, that doesn’t mean you can’t do some seriously awesome things. Once you have that kind of money, worries about finances vanish. You lost your job in an economic recession? Oh well, you’ve got enough money for ten years if you can’t find a new job. Your car broke down and it needs a $3000 transmission? No need for short term loans, just dip into your emergency fund. You won’t be drinking 200 year old scotch out of solid diamond glasses yet (which would be decidedly stupid anyway), but you aren’t hurting for money like so many others are.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about this slave army you’ve built is that at some point, it will begin to make more money for you than you’ve ever made in the past. That’s right, once you have enough money invested, you can literally make more money sitting on your couch then you can in the workforce.

You shouldn’t work for your money. Your money should work for you.                        (Click to Tweet That)

And while that may sound crazy, it really doesn’t take much to make that possible. Say you make $70,000 per year, a solid salary to say the least. You live a modest yet not totally frugal lifestyle and are investing about $20,000 per year in mutual funds, and after twenty years you officially become a millionaire! If you get an 8% return on investment, you will be making $80,000 per year from investment income. That’s right, your slave army of greenbacks will be making you more money than your boring corporate job.

When you get to this point, you are truly financially independent. Technically you are even earlier on, seeing as your investment income would be covering your relatively low spending several years prior. This is the biggest reason why early retirement is possible. Once you have a certain amount of money invested, your returns will cover your expenses, and you’ll have a big sum to fall back on in the case of extreme financial emergency.

And if you don’t want to retire early, you can continue working and amass an even larger fortune, which would allow you to put your kids through school, give back to your community, and other awesome things only possible when you have a slave army hard at work for you.

Ferriss has been one of my favorite authors for a long time now. I first read The 4-Hour Workweek over a year ago, and it was one of the biggest inspirations for me to get into the business world, especially online business. I then read The 4-Hour Body, which has completely changed the way I look at diet and exercise. Both books are in my top five non-fiction list of all time for sure. So when I heard that Tim was writing a book on cooking, which is something I’ve been really into ever since I moved on to college, I was ecstatic to say the least. And when I heard it wasn’t just about cooking, but the skill of learning skills, I nearly had a heart attack.

This book is described as a choose your own adventure guide to rapidly learning skills, using cooking as the learning vessel. It is split up into five sections, each of which I am going to talk about in turn. The book as a whole was an excellent read, and I highly recommend it to anyone, especially the aspiring Life Rich who want to sharpen their ability to learn skills and cook better at the same time.

Section One: Meta Learning

The first section of this book has nothing to do with cooking, and yet I think it was the best part of the book. It is all about meta learning, and becoming world class at anything within six months or less. It it,Tim breaks down his extremely successful methods for learning skills. He uses several acronyms to explain his basic steps, and while I won’t go into too many details right now, I will say they seem to work really well. He shows examples of various things, including learning foreign languages, shooting a basketball, building fires, and memorizing a deck of cards in under a minute.

He teaches his process well, including each step he takes when learning a skill. These range from compressing everything you need to know about something onto a single page, to using monetary incentives to make you do something, to how to properly order the various parts of the skill you need to learn. He of course details how to use the 80/20 principle in Meta Learning, which you’ll already know a lot about if you’ve read his other books.

This section is incredible and rather mind blowing. It really doesn’t have too much information about cooking in it, which may seem odd for a book with that title to not have cooking at all for the first hundred or so pages. But the learning techniques here will help you learn to become a master chef just as fast as Tim did, and learn anything else faster as well.

Section Two: Domestic

The second section of this book is a slow intro to the world of cooking. Tim advises you cook the items in this section in order, twice a week. After a couple months, you’ll have two dinner parties and lot’s of fantastic dishes under your belt if you follow his instructions. There is all kinds of information and tips in this section that will be a review for any of you who have lots of experience cooking, but there will likely be some new stuff as well. And if you don’t have much cooking experience, this section is perfect for you!

I haven’t cooked as many things yet from this book as I’ve wanted to (I guess it’s only been out for a couple weeks, so I’ll give myself a break), but there are some recipes in here I’m really excited about. The ones that I’m looking forward to the most are the Osso Buko, Union Square Zucchini, Sous Vide Chicken Breast, and the eggocado. Of course that’s only a few, there are a couple dozen recipes in this section alone that are all easy and look amazing. I was also introduced to a few new cooking techniques, like sous vide (cooking in a vacuum).

Section Three: The Wild

This was the section of the book that I was most looking forward to. As an avid hunter who grew up in small town Idaho, surrounded by mountains and forests, this section felt like home to me. And out of everything in this book, it may be the most useful. Ferriss starts off by talking about survival skills and gear, which is an important thing for everyone to at least have a basic understanding of. He shared a story about how when his power went out, he was completely crippled, just because he didn’t have electricity for 12 hours. He lost all of his food and water supply. This was a very inspirational event for him, and he decided to learn how to survive if there ever was a real emergency.

He then talks about his experiences learning how to hunt. I very much encourage everyone to try hunting at some point in their lives. I seriously think that I would be a radically different person today if it wasn’t for hunting. I would never have taken any interest in food or cooking, wouldn’t have had an appreciation for the wild or sustainability, and would be much more of a clueless consumer of all things.

As far as cooking goes in this section, there are a few gems I’d like to quickly mention. The Vietnamese venison burgers for starters, that recipe alone is worth buying this book in my opinion. You’ll also learn how to make homemade sauerkraut, ceviche, and beef heart. You’ll take a look at making cricket power bars (yes you read that right), catching street pigeons, and butchering a whole chicken. Some of the things I just mentioned may sound odd, but trust me, this section is pure gold.

Section Four: The Scientist

The scientist is all about understanding and utilizing the sciences involved in cooking food. It is quite the entertaining read. This section contains mostly insane recipes that you’ll likely have a hard time trying yourself. Tim talks about a number of cooking chemicals and compounds that you have to buy online. And while that may be inconvenient, they may be worth it. For instance, he talks about olive oil gummy bears, the perfect slow carb treat. He also teaches you how to make nutella powder, which sounds pretty amazing. To top off the craziness, he makes ice cream in 30 seconds with liquid nitrogen.

Thankfully, not everything in this section requires special order chemicals or utensils. For instance, he has a recipe for “The Best Jerky in the World” which I have yet to try, but sounds pretty fantastic. Another thing he uses is a pressure cooker, which you may already have. He uses it to make caramelized carrot soup (I had no idea carrots could caramelize). Lastly in this section are three enormous food stories for cheat days. If you’ve seen Epic Meal Time, then you can probably imagine the kind of things he talks about here.

Section Five: The Professional

The final section of The 4-Hour Chef is all about taking your skills as a cook to the next level. This is where you become “world-class”, as Ferriss would put it, meaning in the top 5% in the world at a skill.

It starts off with some classic dishes that any chef worth his salt should be able to whip up, no questions asked. Roast chicken, french omelets, and pea soup to name a few. His roast chicken recipe is fairly similar to what I’ve done in the past, just with a couple lemons in the middle instead of onions. He shows a picture of his first omelette, which turned out incredible. He writes that having a first omelet that actually looks like an omelet was quite the accomplishment, and was more luck than anything.

After the classics, Ferriss talks about one of the worlds most famous chefs, Grant Achatz, and how he creates his culinary masterpieces. He gives recipes that use ten of Grant’s most signature techniques and principles. These are all fairly advanced recipes, and I have yet to try my hand at any of them (although that is going to change soon hopefully). Some of the best recipes in here look to be bacon roses (perfect for a date, she get’s roses and he get’s bacon, win win), edible dirt that actually looks pretty amazing, crisp baked sesame coconut chicken, and Peking duck wraps. There are also some incredible cooking techniques in this final section, like infusing cocktails with cigar smoke and using a DIY anti griddle (very cold surface instead of hot) to make instant frozen treats. If you are looking to become a master chef, there may be no higher calling than these recipes. Well, except for….

Cap A L’ancienne

If it’s name sounds intimidating, just wait until you peek at the ingredients list. Ferriss included this recipe to show readers not only how difficult it is to cook elegant dishes, but also how much they don’t yet know, and never can fully know, about cooking. It’s a seafood dish, feeds 8 to 10, and takes 10 to 20 hours to create. Yep, that’s two entire days in the kitchen preparing a single meal. But it is an epic meal, and if I ever see someone pull it off, I will be quite impressed to say the least. It is quite fascinating simply to read the instructions, and is the perfect ending to the recipes and principles taught in this book.

The book wraps up in a way that really spoke to me. The ending included many of the philosophies I talk about here, especially about the Life Rich. I won’t spoil it for you though, don’t worry.

If you want to learn about the modern world of business, read The 4-Hour Workweek. If you want to get in great physical shape, read The 4-Hour Body. But if you are a living person who either eats food or has the desire to learn (i.e. everybody), you should read The 4-Hour Chef. The way the book explores rapid skill learning through cooking is incredible, and has inspired me in dozens of ways. I plan on reading the book several times (albeit slower next time, 672 pages in two weeks was too much to absorb everything), and cooking as many of the recipes within it as I can. If you are going to read one book and only one book in this coming year, make it The 4-Hour Chef.