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!

They would be able to tell all us helpless consumers to buy their products in excess. They would make us spend every last dime we earned on products we by and large wouldn’t need, and they would rake in ridiculous quantities of money.

While that thankfully isn’t possible, I have noticed a similar, and rather scary trend. People often times allow corporations to tell them the best ways to live their lives, sometimes even without knowing it.

I’m talking about all the little ideas and thoughts corporations slyly place in our heads, which prompt us to spend more money than is necessary on virtually everything. Whether it is a subtle but specific product placement, an unnecessary warning label, or advertising that implies the absurd, these little hints are prevalent in every part of consumer society.

But if you are smart, and a little bold, you can easily circumnavigate these costly little nuisances, and beat the corporations at their own game. To illustrate just what I’m talking about, let’s look at a few examples.

Laundry Detergent

Did you know that the amount of laundry detergent recommended by the companies that produce it is more than double the amount required to get clothes clean? That’s right, if you use the recommended amount of laundry detergent, you aren’t getting your clothes any cleaner. If anything, you just make them stiffer and wear them out faster. As detergents have become stronger and washers have become more efficient, the suggested load amount hasn’t budged. While this may not sound like a big deal, think about how much wasted laundry detergent that is. Add up your total expenses on this one product for the year, cut it in half, and that is how much money you are wasting each year. If you have a good sized family, that may be a significant chunk of change.

To see what I’m talking about, read this article on LifeHacker.

Do Not Dilute!

The other day I was prepping a roast that I was going to braise in my slow cooker, and I noticed something odd on the can of beef broth I was about to open. A simple sentence was boldly stamped on the side of the can: DO NOT DILUTE.

I had to chuckle a little to myself when I read that. The warning was more prominent than the safety warnings on bottles of alcohol or medicines. And yet, does it really matter if you dilute beef broth? Sure, you may get a different flavor in your final product if you choose to add water or another liquid to a recipe containing beef broth, but will the world end? Will your safety be compromised? Will the result, god forbid, be a dish that doesn’t taste quite as good as one prepared fully with beef broth? Maybe, but not likely.

I just have to wonder how many people have wasted their money away slowly over the years, using more broth than was totally necessary. And while this example obviously doesn’t show a huge amount of money savings, it does show an important point I’m trying to make: Not all warnings placed by manufacturers on products are actually for your benefit.

Now I’m obviously not saying you should ignore warnings on some products. If you accidentally blow up your house because you didn’t read the safety warnings on a propane tank correctly, that is just pure stupidity on your part, and certainly isn’t what I am telling you to do. What I am saying is that we need to be intelligent and figure out what kind of warnings companies put on their products simply so they can profit off of them more and which ones are legitimate.

Computer Bloatware

Another fantastic (and distinctly annoying) example of this is the software that comes installed on new computers and other electronic devices. Whenever you boot up your fancy new device, you are likely greeted with all kinds of programs telling you that you have “free 30 day access”, or something along those lines. Lot’s of angry ignore clicks and 30 days later, you get a warning saying the software will no longer be available unless you pay up.

This is prevalent in everything from Windows PCs to iPhones. However, it thankfully can be dealt with fairly easily. As soon as you get a new device, simply go through and uninstall every program you don’t need and/or plan to use. Thing is, many times people don’t know what they need. As a general rule of thumb, it is safe to assume that you can delete anything that is a trial version of software. And nine times out of ten, you can delete something that isn’t from the maker of the operating system (if a program on your new Windows computer isn’t from Microsoft, you can probably delete). I recommend doing your research to figure out what are the best programs to get rid of when you get a new device. This will not only prevent you from spending money when the trial editions expire, but also help speed up the device’s system. Check out some of these open source software solutions to save money on the software you do need.

Advertising Absurdities

I’ve ranted about this one before. It is an extremely common practice for companies to make absurd claims about their products in their advertisements. While they may not ACTUALLY be claiming that a new car will get you promoted (read the post I linked to above to see what I’m talking about), that subtle claim still will nag at you and influence your decisions.

I’ve seen this especially prevalent with so called “healthy” foods. Advertisements for granola bars and whole grain cereal that show all sorts of models and claim to be health foods are all over television and the internet. Of course, these products won’t magically make you healthy. Not to mention the fact that what are healthy foods is a highly controversial and much debated topic (I would argue nothing that needs advertisements is really a healthy food, but that’s just me).

These type of subtle hints appear all over in the world of advertising. Corporations like to tell you how to live your life, and the most effective way for them to do so is through advertising.

The next time a company is trying to control your mind, whether it be through subtle hinting or blatant scare tactics, remember that they don’t know your life, and that you are smart enough to avoid their schemes!

And while I believe an unhealthy diet full of processed and empty carbs is the problem that is preventing the vast majority of Americans from getting in good shape, a lack of exercise is also a huge part of the problem. Despite gyms being around every corner in big cities these days, many people don’t have access to a decent one. Not to mention the fact that most gyms and personal trainers charge outrageous fees.

So is it possible for someone to get into acceptable shape at home, using equipment that costs less than two month’s worth of membership fees at most gyms? And going one step further, is it possible for someone who is already in good shape to get into FANTASTIC shape using the same equipment?

When pondering how exactly I wanted to go about the exercise portion of my eight week challenge, I came up with a solution that has worked marvelously. Using $75 worth of equipment, I am able to do workouts that strain every part of my body. I’ve seen some incredible results already, and I know that I will continue to as time goes on.

First, lets take a look at the equipment I use. Then I’ll show you my routine, as well as give you some more ideas for free exercise.

Equipment

Door Mounted Pull Up Bar

My Iron Gym pull up bar

You know those pull up bars you always see on infomercials that go on a door in your home? Despite the likelihood that most people view them as just another sales racket, they actually make a fantastic little home gym. Obviously, they are mainly intended to be used as a pullup bar, and they do a pretty good job of it. But they can also be used as a push up stand, meaning you can take your pushups lower, and even do hanging leg extensions with them to work your core. There are a lot of possibilities for using one of these great little pieces of gym equipment. Mine is an Iron Gym, which costs around $25.

T-Bar

Kettlebell workouts are all the rage these days. In fact, kettlebell swings are considered one of the most effective exercises for fat loss. However, the weights themselves can be very spendy, especially if you want lots of different weight ranges. But thanks to a quick tutorial in The 4-Hour Body, I was able to put together an adjustable substitute that has served me very well. Technically called a T-Bar, this DIY masterpiece is just a couple pieces of metal pipe holding up some plate weights. The materials for this bad boy cost about $50, and it can be assembled in minutes. Here is the list of parts you need to buy to make one, which can all be attained at most hardware stores:

My DIY T Bar

• Two ¾” X 6” steel pipe nipples (handles)
• One ¾” X 12” steel pipe nipple (shaft to hold weights)
• One ¾” steel T fitting
• One ¾” floor flange (for the bottom, I used a second T fitting because my Home Depot was out of floor flanges in that size)
• Kettlebell plates of desired weight (I bought mine at Walmart, this is the biggest expense)
• Duct Tape (If you want to wrap the handles like I did)

Simply slap them all together and you end up with an adjustable kettlebell that does a great job for a fraction of the cost of buying a whole set of kettlebells that go up to 50 or more pounds. Here is a video of Tim Ferriss demonstrating his T Bar.

Gallon Jugs

Old milk jugs can be very useful

While the T-Bar is fantastic for exercises requiring heavy weights (like kettlebell swings and curls), you will need something for exercises requiring lighter weights, like lateral raises. That is where old gallon milk jugs come in. Simply fill them up with water, and you have a weight that is close to 10 pounds, perfect for a variety of exercises. And the best part of all, they are free.

Routine

With the equipment I outlined above, you really have a lot of options as far as exercises and routines to do. However, there are some exercises that I think should be at the core of everyone’s workout routines:

• Kettlebell swings: These work your entire body, and the T Bar is perfect for them. Use a kettlebell or weights totaling at least 40 pounds if you are a guy, and do as many reps as you can (shoot for at least 75 in a row). Once you build up more strength and endurance, you may want to do multiple sets of these or increase the weight.
• Push Ups: One of the classic upper body motions, push ups can be done a variety of ways to focus different muscle groups.
• Pull Ups: Work the opposite muscle groups as push ups, so they compliment each other well.
• Squats: With or without weight, squats are a fantastic way of strengthening your legs. I use my T-Bar to add weight for these.

Of course, those are simply the core exercises. An effective regimen will include exercises working all other muscle groups as well.

I separate my workouts into upper body and lower body. I do upper on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, lower on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and take Sundays off. Here are the exercises I do for each workout:

Upper Body

• Close Grip Push Ups
• Wide Grip Push Ups
• Middle Grip Push Ups
• Pull Ups
• Chin Ups
• Curls with T-Bar
• Lateral Raises

Lower Body

• Kettlebell Swings
• Situps
• Crunches
• Squats
• Toe Raises
• Leg Extensions (hanging from pullup bar)

I warm up by running the stairs in my apartment four or five times, hitting each step, and then doing jumping jacks. I don’t do any static stretching, as I’ve found that I warm up better and am less likely to injure myself if I do active motions in the beginning. I then do each exercise listed until failure, and for most do multiple sets. This routine is quick, taking up less than half an hour per day usually. Despite its simplicity and brevity, I have found it to be incredibly effective.

Other Ideas

Of course there are tons of other things that I’ve done to get great exercise without paying for a gym membership. Here are some of the best ways besides the mostly anaerobic exercises above:

Running

Without a doubt the most popular form of free exercise, running is a great way to get in lots of cardio. I have never been able to do extensive jogging because of a shin splint problem I’ve had since middle school, but I know lots of people who do and are physically fit because of it. Jogging and distance running is obviously the most popular, but new studies have shown that sprinting and interval training may actually be more effective. Personally I like to believe those findings, seeing as I did nothing but sprints back in my basketball glory days and I was in incredible aerobic shape. But any form of running is good for you, no matter how fast or far you go.

Biking

Besides being a fantastic alternative to overly expensive automobiles, bikes are a great way to get exercise. I personally am a big fan of biking because it is lower impact and doesn’t both my shins like running. Bikes can be expensive if you get really into the sport, but you can pick up something used that will work fine for a couple hundred bucks or less.

Boxes

One of the most hated days back in high school gym for me and my fellow students were plyo days. Plyometrics, which focus on quick and explosive movements, are fantastic exercises to tune athletic ability. Most plyo routines require one really simple piece of equipment: A sturdy box. Check out this fantastic guide from Mr. Money Mustache to learn how to build one.

Sports

Of course one of the best ways to get active is to play a sport. While the opportunity for most of us to play a truly organized sport is unfortunately long gone, that doesn’t mean you can’t still play something from time to time. I typically play basketball pickup games at least once a week at my university. You can find pick up games in parks, churches, and schools. And while basketball is probably the most common sport for pick up games, there are plenty of others. Even if it is just throwing a Frisbee around with some friends, sports are fun and help you stay in shape.

Quit Avoiding Free Exercise

It never ceases to amaze me how some people will do everything in their power to avoid free exercise.

To illustrate this, ask yourself a question: How many times have you taken an elevator in the past month?

Climbing stairs is fantastic exercise. That is one of the reasons I love living on the third floor of my apartment complex. Everytime I get home, I climb two flights of stairs. That happens at least a couple times per day. My apartment also has a loft which serves as an office, so everytime I go to use my computer I climb another flight. Between those two places alone, I climb at least a dozen flights of stairs per day, and some days many times more.

If you don’t have stairs in your home, there are all kinds of other places that you can climb stairs. Instead of taking the elevator to your class or office on the fifth floor, take the stairs. Every time you do so, you get free exercise that builds up leg muscles and aerobic strength. It never ceases to amaze me how many people will gladly stand by idly while an elevator creeps down to them instead of simply using their own strength to get to their destination.

Another way that people not only avoid free exercise, but actually PAY to avoid it, is by driving everywhere they go. It isn’t a secret that car commuting is expensive, so why do it? Biking or walking to work is a fantastic way to get more exercise, and save a ton of money. Even if you live eight or ten miles from where you work, biking is more than possible.

And of course, this isn’t just limited to your work commute. Almost any errand you run can be done on a bike or your own two feet. For instance, I ride my bike to get groceries all the time. My backpack holds everything I need it to, I save money on gas, and I get exercise all at the same time.

Wrap Up

So after looking at all of that, it is clear that getting ripped at home is more than possible. Putting together a home gym that consists of a T-Bar, pull up bar, some gallon jugs, and whatever else you can improvise will give you lots of freedom to exercise how you want. Start a plan and stick to it. Take advantage of all the free exercise you can. With dedication and a healthy diet, you may just get ripped without ever stepping foot in a gym.

However, corporate jobs can have some serious side effects. While you may make a significant amount of money, that money could end up disappearing as you get sucked further and further into the Corporate Vacuum.

The Corporate Vacuum is what I call the suffocating and irresistible lifestyle that most modern workers live. It is a lifestyle of great inefficiency (both in usage of time and money), of total reliance on others to even survive, and minimal pleasure. It is easy to get entrapped in, and can be difficult to escape. It encourages behaviors that make little sense, despite its flashy allure.

Working a corporate job and getting sucked into this world has some rather devastating side effects that prevent you from living a full life with financial success and personal happiness. Here are some of the biggest examples:

• Time Wasted Doing Idle Things: Wake up early. Commute for an hour to get to work. Sit at a desk for eight hours. Drive back an hour. Watch TV and surf the web aimlessly for six hours to “unwind” from such a brutal day at the office. Such is the typical day for many corporate workers. Looking at that, it isn’t hard to realize why working a corporate job can lead to a life that isn’t fulfilling.
• Focus Put on Small, Immediate Pleasures: When life is so stressful and distinctly boring, as it is in the Corporate Vacuum, it is easy to enjoy little pleasures multiple times a day simply to fill good. Whether it is a costly latte, a fattening chocolate bar, or a totally unnecessary limited edition box set of your favorite TV show that you can stream for free anytime, these little pleasures add up over time to not only rob you of your money, but of your long term happiness.
• Physical Health Deteriorates: Sedentary living filled with heavily processed comfort food is one of the least healthy lifestyles out there. When we look at why America has become the fattest nation by far in the world, it is the corporate lifestyle that is largely responsible. I’ve said before how good physical health is the number one way to save money for most people, and don’t forget that being in good shape leads to boosts in energy, confidence, and general happiness and satisfaction in life.
• Lack of Independence and Self Reliance: Of all the things that tend to happen when one is sucked up into the Corporate Vacuum, this may be the scariest. Ask yourself some of these questions. How responsible are you for your own food (you likely don’t even always cook your own food, let alone produce the ingredients)? Would you be able to keep warm in the winter without power? What about get around without a car? Start thinking about all the little things that you depend 100% on other people for. Everything from the clothing on your back to your morning latte is produced for you by someone else. The corporate lifestyle tends to encourage this. And while the system does work, people who function this way are missing out on some of the most satisfying parts of life. There is nothing quite like eating a mile comprised of ingredients you produced/harvested yourself. The same can be said for thousands of other DIY alternatives to modern commodities.
• Money Squandered Continuously: Any lifestyle that involves lengthy daily commutes, lattes, and excessive television watching is bound to be an expensive one. This ties in with the above, seeing as anytime you outsource a task to someone, you need to pay them for it. It is also pretty common for those who live the corporate life to spend lots of money and time shopping simply because they feel they are earning a high income and should reward themselves. Let me tell you something: Investing your money and becoming rich is the best reward you can ever give yourself!

The Corporate Vacuum is easy to get into, and unfortunately very difficult to escape. Once this lifestyle has begun, it is will continue to engross you, with little hope of ever returning to a sane way of living. It can be hard to give up small pleasures once you have become accustomed to them.

However, if you are willing to start changing the way you are living, the steps to escape this cycle are actually fairly straightforward. Here are some of the best ways to begin your journey out of this madness and into a more fulfilling and happy life. But remember that the main thing you will need to do is simply find the motivation to make a change.

• Get Active: This I cannot stress enough. Get active, get fit, and get healthy. Being healthy of course saves you tons of money in the long run in medical expenses, and it has all sorts of extremely positive side effects as well. The less you drive and the more you walk, the less you spend on transportation costs. The healthier you are, the better you look and the more confidence you’ll have. And the more you exercise, your body will be increasingly able to handle any physical task, and have huge increases in overall energy levels.
• Quit Stereotyping: One thing that causes the suction of the Corporate Vacuum is that people who begin to get entrapped in it start to think of themselves as “corporate types”. That means they HAVE to drive a fancy new car on credit, eat at four star restaurants, and own a timeshare in Florida. However, I am here to tell you that this is merely a stereotype, and not one that you want to follow. There is nothing “high-class” about having five figures of credit card debt, no matter how fancy your job title is. If you quit thinking of yourself as some “high-class corporate man”, you will stop wasting away your money and life.
• Think Long Term: The vast majority of the things I listed above are a result of short termed thinking. A latte may taste good right now, but it adds fat and costs money in the long term. A new car looks nice now, but you’ll still be paying for it five years later. Next time you make a decision, think about the long term effects, even if it is something as trivial as what to eat or wear.
• Get Out Early: Of course the ultimate way to escape the corporate vacuum is to achieve financial independence and retire early. Once you have saved up enough money that your investment returns pay for your living expenses, you no longer have to work to make money, allowing you to do whatever you want. Of course this is only possible if you do all of the above steps, and are willing to live a lifestyle that is below your means.

Have you had any experience in the Corporate Vacuum, or a success story of escaping? Let us know in the comments below!

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.

If you can add unique items to your resume, you will stand out from your competition. While having a degree with a high GPA or a solid employment history is very important during a job search, it is the little things that can oftentimes make the difference.

I’m pretty proud of my own resume, especially of the somewhat unusual pieces that I have on it. It includes some real accomplishments that show potential employers real strengths of mine. These aren’t little extraneous statements like “I have 4000 Facebook friends” or “My baseball card collection is worth $50,000”. They are accomplishments, skills, and experiences that have helped me get jobs, and will continue to do so in the future.

Some of these examples I will show you are easy to do yourself, while others take more time and effort. By doing as many of them as you possibly can, you will appear a well rounded and creative person to employers, which is exactly what many of them are looking for. Here are some of the most unusual, and yet awesome ways to boost your resume:

Start a Business

For my senior project last year, I started a freelance web design business, and it has expanded to include all of my online projects. Not only has the experience been the most valuable learning experience of my life, but it is a huge piece of my work experience on my resume. Starting and running a business shows not only drive and independence, but also that you are a well rounded candidate for a job.

It is actually much easier to start a business than many people think. The simplest is of course a small freelance operation like mine started out as. For the sake of boosting your resume, the business doesn’t have to be massively successful or established. Even if you only one client and some business cards, it is still a significant accomplishment and worthy of having on your resume.

Publish a Book

Another thing I’ve done that surprisingly few people do is self publish a book. Being able to put that on a resume has been huge for me. It shows that I am a driven and creative individual who is knowledgeable on the subject I wrote about. I published The Basics of Deer Hunting, which I wrote to compliment a website I built, about six months ago on the Amazon Kindle platform. While it hasn’t sold many copies, it is still something that I can point to and say “How many people do you know that have done THAT?”. I am going to be publishing another kindle ebook within the next couple of weeks, and have plans for a total of four this year.

Everyone is an expert at something, or at least knowledgable enough to write about it to an extent. It might be your hobby, your job, or something else entirely. You could also write fiction if you wanted. And in today’s world, self publishing is easy and totally free. Once your book is up, you may even make some money if it sells well!

Unique Volunteer Work

Most people will have some sort of volunteer work to put on a resume. However, it is almost always the same kinds of things. Most resumes will have something along the lines of “help with son’s basketball team” or “part of group that adopted a highway” or “volunteer at the local animal shelter”. And while those are great things not only for your resume, but for your community as a whole, there are some more unique things you can do on a volunteer basis to stand out from the crowd. Here are a couple of my personal examples.

• Take a Leadership Role: Last summer, I served as a Young Adult Advisory Delegate to the Presbyterian General Assembly in Pittsburgh. This was not only an extremely fun and valuable trip, but it serves as both an example of leadership and volunteer service on my resume. Any time you have an opportunity to be a leader in a volunteer setting, you can showcase multiple types of skill and experiences from only one source.
• Do Something Uncommon: The summer before my trip to Pittsburgh as a YAAD, I was a part of a 20 member team from my church that went to three different countries in Africa on a mission trip. While the lessons learned and experiences had on that trip are worthy of a good sized book, I will say here that being able to put that trip on my resume is highly valuable. That kind of experience is very rare, and shows employers that you aren’t just another John Doe trying to make a living somewhere. You don’t have to go all the way to Africa to have that same effect. Just find an uncommon way to contribute to your community.

Public Speaking

In my various student leadership positions, I have had a ton of opportunities to do public speaking. It is something that I absolutely love doing, and not many people have experience in. One of the items in the “other” section on my resume states that I have given speeches in front of as many as 2000 people, and ran meetings with as many as 400. The jobs I apply for may not all require public speaking skills, but it still sounds impressive to potential employers.

Win Awards

This one is pretty self explanatory. Winning an award in your industry establishes you at the forefront of your competition, and adds a huge amount of credibility to your name. Personally, I’ve won many different awards, mostly from a Professional Technical Student Organization called Business Professionals of America (BPA) at both the state and national level. These awards have helped me tremendously, and have opened many doors. I highly encourage anyone and everyone to find awards they may be able to win and try to earn them. Whether it is employee of the month at Walmart or a Nobel Peace Prize, it will boost your resume.

Of course, these are only a few examples of the many unique ways you can boost your resume. If you are proud of something and think it will look good on a resume, it probably will. Sometimes the little things are what make you stand out from the crowd.

To be honest, this didn’t entirely surprise me, nor did many of the traits of these millionaires they described. There was, however, one that really stood out to me. And that was the fact that 97% of the millionaires surveyed own their home.

Now, I knew that number would be high. After all, why wouldn’t a millionaire own a home? But still, 97%? That is a ridiculously high percentage. It was the trait that virtually all millionaires surveyed shared.

Obviously, correlation doesn’t equal causation, and therefore buying a home doesn’t make you a millionaire. Not to mention the fact that if you have a million dollars to throw around, owning a home would be fairly easy.

But, conversely, what if buying a home does HELP you build wealth, even if it doesn’t make you an automatic millionaire? And wouldn’t it be just as easy for a millionaire to rent if they wanted to instead of owning a home? After all, many of these people live mobile lifestyles, why would they want to be tied down to a single area?

So I decided to do a little bit of math/research on the subject of buying versus renting your primary residence. Spoiler alert, owning your home is almost always the smart choice.

Benefits of Home Ownership

Owning a home, even with an expensive monthly mortgage payment, has numerous benefits. Here are some of the biggest:

• Taxes: One of the biggest advantages homeowners have over their renter counterparts is that the interest paid on their mortgages is tax deductible. This means they pay less overall in federal income taxes each year.
• Building Equity: The biggest benefit of home ownership is the fact that your monthly mortgage payments aren’t just disappearing from your net worth entirely. As you pay off your mortgage, you build up equity in your home, until you finally own it outright. This process starts off slow at first, but it is substantial overtime, as you’ll see in the case study below.
• Appreciation: Tied along with the above is the fact that homes, on average, appreciate over time. So as you are paying off your house, it also slowly increases in value. That means that once you are ready to sell your home, you will likely make money on it. Even taking into account the recent home value bubble, this has averaged three to four percent per year.
• No Weird Fees: One thing that I absolutely hate about renting is all the little fees you get dinged with. Pet fees are one of the biggest, which have prevented me from owning a pet since I moved here. You can also get nailed with fees upon moving out of a rental. My landlord told me when I moved in that if I didn’t wipe down my counter-tops when I left they would charge me $13, and that was only one example of the many outrageous charges you can get hit with.

Benefits of Renting

I am currently renting, but the only reason I am is because I am a college student. If I knew where I would be living five years from now, I would be trying to buy a house right now. Despite that, there are some clear benefits to renting your residence.

• Consolidated Payments: One of the main advantages of renting is that instead of having to pay monthly insurance, mortgage payments, maintenance, taxes, and half a dozen utilities, you most often will only have one bill to pay each month. That makes things convenient, and likely cheaper.
• Ability to Move: Most experts agree that you should only buy a home if you plan on living there for at least five years. Buying and selling a home is a very expensive and time consuming process, so it makes moving often nearly impossible to do. If you like to move often, renting is really your only option. This is why I don’t own a home, seeing as once I graduate from college I will likely move somewhere else.

Case Study

So to determine once and for all who comes out ahead in the renting versus owning debate, let’s do a quick case study. Bob is your average worker making $60,000 per year in Boise. He is looking to buy a home. He has $40,000 to make a down payment on a home, and has budgeted for a $1,150 per month mortgage. He buys a $240,000 home with a 30 year, $200,000 mortgage at 3.5% APR.

Fred has almost the exact same deal going. Same income, same amount saved up, but he decides to rent. He rents a home that is slightly smaller, but more than enough space, for $1,150 per month, making his monthly rent the same as Bob’s monthly mortgage payment. He takes his $40,000 and invests it in the stock market and gets a 7% return on his investment.

Thirty years later, Bob has paid off his mortgage and still lives in the same home. He has paid a grand total of $413,000 throughout the course of his mortgage, including interest, private mortgage insurance, and taxes. He also spent $50 per month on average in maintenance, which is lower than average because he did a lot of things DIY style. That rings up at a total of $18,000. Add in the initial $40,000 down payment, and his home cost him approximately $471,000. That may sound like a massive number, but let’s look at what he has now. His home appreciated at 3.5% per month like expected, and is now worth $673,000! That’s right, he made more than $200,000 just by owning his home! And now let’s look at the tax savings. He paid a total of approximately $121,000 in interest over the course of his loan. Because he is in the 25% tax bracket, we can assume that he saved approximately $30,250 in taxes over the last thirty years by deducting his interest payments. If we round out these numbers to make them easy to handle, he has added approximately $700,000 to his net worth while subtracting approximately $500,000, for a net gain of $200,000.

Meanwhile, Fred has spent the last thirty years renting. In total, he paid $413,000 to rent his home, the same as Bob’s mortgage. He didn’t have any maintenance costs, so he saved some money there. However, at the end of thirty years, he doesn’t have anything to show for all of the money he spent renting. He also didn’t get any tax savings like Bob did. The $40,000 he invested in the stock market did turn into $305,000, which is a nice chunk of change. But subtract his expenses, and he ended up with a net loss of $108,000.

Of course there are all kinds of other expenses that could be factored in. But we can assume that once you add up the utilities, insurance, and fees that they essentially cancel each other out.

So despite the fact that Bob and Fred had identical budgets and incomes, Bob came out more than $300,000 ahead of Fred by owning his home instead of renting. That is a pretty substantial amount of money, and it of course continues beyond those 30 years.

After doing that little example, it is pretty clear to me why 97% of millionaire own their homes. While it may take time for that amount of money to stack up in home equity, it really does have a huge impact on your net worth.

Do you own your home? Or do you have any other factors you think should be considered, or success stories of homeowners? Let us know in the comments!

The Positives of Self Employment:

Be your own boss

For many people, this is the biggest draw to self employment (it was definitely one of mine). The idea of being your own boss is very appealing to those of us who are independently minded, have had bad experiences with former bosses, or any number of other reasons. There are definite advantages to this. You are accountable only to yourself, so you don’t waste time constantly reporting to your superiors, and can often times get more work done. As your own boss, you make the decisions for your own business, and can decide what work you are going to do, and what direction you are going to take for the future of your business.

Work your own hours

Another huge positive for self employment is the ability to set your own hours. If you are a person that is most productive at night, then you’re going to have a hard time getting a job to accommodate that fact. However, if you’re self employed, you can decided when and where you’re going to work. I for one wouldn’t mind working on a beach in Hawaii at sunset every night. This can also allow for more flexibility in your personal life, like being able to work only when your kids are in school so you can spend more time with them when they’re home, or going to events that you wouldn’t be able to at a normal job with a limited number of vacation days.

Potential for Automation

The Four Hour Work Week, a bestselling book by Tim Ferriss, was what got this craze going. The idea is that you build up a business that you then automate via outsourcing and streamlining of operations. This business makes you enough money that you can live your dream life, and you have all the free time in the world because your business is fully automated. This system does work, although it isn’t nearly as easy at it sounds. Being successful at this requires quite a bit of upfront work. However, it is something that is a major positive for self employment, and a lot of people are willing to take the risk and try it.

Huge Money Making Potential

One quick look around the internet will show you all kinds of people that are self employed and making absurd amounts of money. If you have a marketable skill or good idea for a small business, you really can make tons of money. Remember, it isn’t a get rich quick kind of thing, and it does take just as much (and in most cases a lot more) work than a regular job. But, just to show you what is possible, freelance web designers will often charge over $100 per hour, whereas many working for companies make a tiny fraction of that. The allure of money making draws many people to self employment, and many get just what they were seeking.

The Bad

Laziness

This is the one thing that ends most entrepreneurial dreams. Without a boss telling them what to do, many people get lazy and don’t get work done. The projects they are working on get put off, and, consequently, the entrepreneur makes no money. If you are the kind of person who isn’t particularly self motivated, then don’t go off on your own. Unless you really think you’ll get the work done, you’ll do yourself more harm than good by striking out into the world of self employment.

Working Overtime

One thing that many people don’t realize about self employment is that just because you set your own hours, doesn’t mean those hours will be short. Remember that when you are working as some type of consultant, you are going to be responsible for finishing projects within a deadline. As someone who does freelance web design, let me tell you that once you’ve pulled a 15 hour work day, you may just hate your choice to become a freelancer in the first place. Often times this hard work pays off, but it is still a pain. Also remember that you don’t get payed extra for working more than 40 hours a week like you do in a normal job if you’re self employed.

Instability of Pay

When you work a normal job, you know how much you are going to get paid and when that big check will come in. This makes it very easy to plan out your finances and budget. Not to mention the fact that you have consistent benefits like health care. Most times when self employed, you don’t have any stability of pay. One month you may get a check for ten grand, and another month you might not make anything. Obviously this creates a huge risk for you financially if you can’t weather a few dry months.

A little good and bad:

Taxes

People who are self employed are governed by different tax codes than regular employees. People who are self employed have several advantages, including the ability to write off business expenses. Get a new laptop to use for your business? You can write off the laptop on your taxes, or at least a percentage of it. Other common deductions include home office expenses and mileage. It isn’t uncommon to not pay taxes if you make less than $20,000 a year, simply because you can easily have that many deductible expenses from your business.

However, if you’re self employed you do have to pay the second half of social security and medicare taxes that is normally paid by your employer, so be ready for that percentage to double.

Swapping Bonuses and Raises for Big Clients

Another thing to consider is that you’ll no longer be getting bonuses or promotions if you’re self employed. After all, how can you move up the ladder in a company of one? All hope for big money isn’t lost however. If you land a major client, you can still get some major dough. Or maybe you are a freelance writer, and you write a book on the side that becomes a bestseller. There are still opportunities to make big money as a freelancer, just remember that they will come in non traditional forms.

Wrap Up

Being an entrepreneur has its ups and downs. While there is the potential for big money, easy hours, and the ability to choose your work, remember that self employment can be a rocky road. Is it the right choice for you? Maybe. If you like to take risks and think you can stay motivated enough, and there is a legitimate market for your skill or idea, then you may just do fine.

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!

Such is the thought process behind many a person’s decisions when it comes to buying food. This small item is inexpensive, so it has to save me money when compared to buying tons and tons of groceries, right? Or maybe a food looks big and substantial for the price.

But what about the VALUE you are getting from that candy bar or bag of chips?

Of course I would argue that such processed foods provide negative value because of what they do to you health, however good they may taste. But to keep things objective, let’s look at one of the best ways to analyze food prices: cost per calorie.

If we assume that all calories are equal and that each person needs to eat a certain amount of them every day to live, then we can figure out what the lowest price foods are simply by finding out their costs per calorie. From there, we can build a diet that is as inexpensive as possible while meeting our health goals.

Calculating cost per calorie is relatively easy. You just divide the price of a certain quantity of food by the total number of calories contained in that food. For instance, an avocado costs me $0.90 at Costco. It contains approximately 275 calories, so the price per calorie is about $0.0032. To make all of these numbers a little bit easier to handle, I’m going to be multiplying them by 100, so the prices below are all per 100 calories. That means that 100 calories of avocado costs approximately 32 cents.

I’ve been doing lots of research into food, dieting, and food costs during my fitness experiment. My current slow carb/paleo diet isn’t exactly the least expensive way to eat, as it turns out. Many of my main staples are higher in cost per calorie than alternatives, such as wheat. But I still need to stick to certain groups of food. Depending on your goals, dietary needs, and food preferences, it is actually pretty easy to figure out the most affordable foods that you should be eating lots of.

Here are the main staples of my diet, along with how much they cost per 100 calories.

Of the main staples of my diet, there are some clear winners. I had a feeling dried beans and olive oil would come out on top. While olive oil is more expensive than other oils, it is calorie dense, and tastes incredible. Dried beans may take a lot of time to cook, but they are clearly one of the cheapest staples you can eat. And that isn’t limited to black beans and lentils like I listed above, there are many different varieties of dried beans that you can eat that have similarly low price points.

Almonds also are relatively cheap, and are one of my main snack foods. Other nuts have similar prices, but almonds follow along best with my diet. In the vegetable department, carrots are one of the best values. Green beans, I was surprised to find, are incredibly expensive. In fact, they were the most expensive of the foods on my list! Once I’m done eating my current stock, I sure won’t be buying any more of them. Salad vegetables like lettuce are very very low in the calorie department, and thereby are more expensive per calorie. An entire head of Romaine has barely 106 calories in it! Seeing as with the diet I’m on I don’t need to worry about how many total calories I eat, such leafy stuff isn’t finding its way onto my plate anytime soon.

Pork, with its high fat content, was unsurprisingly the winner of the meats. Chicken breast was the most expensive. However, I may try thighs, which have both a lower price and higher calorie count, which give them a price per 100 calories of only $0.14! I think I’m going to be buying more thighs from now on for sure. Eggs are also a relatively inexpensive source of animal protein/fat, as is milk.

Of course, once we venture outside the limitations of my current diet, we find that there are some other stand out foods that have exceptionally low costs per calorie. They may not necessarily be the best for you health wise, but they aren’t TOO bad either, and are definitely inexpensive.

While they may be simple carbs, which I’m not a big fan of, there is no denying that rice, potatoes, and wheat are incredibly affordable foods.

So looking at all of this, it is clear that what foods you eat will determine what you spend overall on groceries. If you want a diet that is as cheap as possible, lots of chicken thighs, nuts, beans, rice, potatoes, oil, and even wheat will be your main staples. If you are like me and have some dietary restrictions, whether by choice or not, calculate the cost per calorie of all your different options, which will help you figure out the best way to save money on food.

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.