The Art of Natural Building is the encyclopedia of natural building for non-professionals as well as architects and designers. From straw bale and cob, to recycled concrete and salvaged materials, this anthology of articles from leaders in the field focuses on both the practical and the esthetic concerns of ecological building designs and techniques. Includes examples of diverse natural dwellings, from a Hybrid Hobbit House to a thatched studio and a cob office.
This is a good primer for concepts, and shows a lot of different ways of natural construction. I imagine, if you are experience, handy, and smart, then you could manage to construct a home using this as your sole guide, but I use it more as a reference to help narrow down what I want, and then get more specific construction books.
It has some very nice pictures, and is a great book to sit down and thumb through while dreaming about what kind of homestead you want to build.
This book has spurred my imagination, I sit and look at it and dream of a time when I can build the buildings it describes. I am a large supporter of cob construction and other forms of natural building, I just wish I had more time to do instead of dream.
I am a fan of Gavin De Becker’s work, and this is (in my opinion) his best work.
He uses The Gift of Fear to further his argument that fear is necessary for survival, and that, in our “safe” modern world, we ignore our gut.
He posits that women’s intuition, uneasy feelings, a man’s gut instinct, and our fear are all signals something is not right. If we learn to harness and train ourselves to use these unconscious signals we would be better trained to deal with unplanned emergencies.
De Becker has a long and distinguished resume to bolster his ideas, for instance, he wrote the program our US Secret Service uses to prioritize and interpret threats to our elected officials.
I have used his work to describe to my students what goes on in the brain when we get instinctive clues and why they should trust their “gut” feelings. This book really does a good job of describing that.
I will say that while adherence to policy and good common sense is important inside the prison, being able to trust those gun instincts have saved me a time or to also.
Personal finance management is something that we don’t learn since our childhood, nor is it taught in schools. But it is something that we must learn as soon as we start growing up, as it is something we have to deal with all our lives!
Here are a few simple tips that will hopefully guide you to improve your finances.
Spend Less than You Earn:
It may sound very cliché, but this is the most straightforward hack ever. You should always spend less than you earn. Most people don’t stick to this rule, but it’s very simple. For instance, you make $1000 per week, and if you spend $1200, you won’t be able to save for your future, or maybe pay your bills, get full grocery, or anything at all. It’s a lousy way to live. But sadly, life is not as simple as defined. It’s very effortless to slip in a hole without knowing it. Sometimes an unexpected car bill can make you spend extra, or sometimes you can have a surprising visitor come stay with you!
However, you can always at least plan on investing, and maybe in the more extended period, you can ask for a pay raise, or even pursue towards a higher paying job! Spending less is all about your mindset. Reducing your expenses is one of the easiest methods of sorting your finances.
Stick to Your Budget:
If you do, or if you don’t have any debts, you need a budget anyway. Making a budget is more convenient than actually sticking to your budget. Many simple things that can help us keep on track. A few are:
– To keep your receipts and write them down at the end of each day. It gets easier to track and calculate.
– Whenever you have the urge to buy something, ask yourself, “Do I really need this?” It will help avoid compulsive buying.
– Stop shopping at pricey stores. If you want a t-shirt, go to the store that offers it for $10, instead of $40.
– Review your budget plans regularly! Keep your financial status in your mind always! It helps you remember your goals and cuts down the desires to spend.
– Use every last bit of everything you use. Make sure to finish every last bit on your plate and not throw it away.
– Do right amount of research before you go and buy anything important or expensive.
– Always save. Take out 20% off of your salary before you make your budget and pay your bills.
Invest:
If you want to be wealthy, you should invest! And you should invest early, often, and as much as you can manage. But some people don’t prefer spending to invest because they think they need a lot of money for it. That’s where people are wrong. You can start investing with as little as $20! The key is to be persistent and save wherever you can. Here are some tips that can motivate you:
– Try the cookie jar approach. Put whatever you have collected during the day in an envelope or a jar, and try doing it every day. Try to make this a habit, even if you have $2 at the end of the day, put it in your savings jar.
– Start from small, like index funds, betterment funds, and mutual funds.
– Later move on to real estate or dividend stocks.
– Enroll in your employer’s retirement plan. You can start with investing just 1% of your salary every month.
– Go to Bitcoin Investment programs. Bitcoin is digital currency and also has low transaction fee!
Emergency Funds:
Let’s face it, unexpected financial problems can arise anytime, and it’s not easy to avoid them too. So, it’s always a good idea if we have some savings to help us when our car breaks down, or our washing machine stops working, or even if we lose our job for any reason.
Another benefit is that emergency funds also help us clear our debt. Emergency funds help you with unexpected spending so you can pay off the debts (if you have any).
Good Insurance:
Insurances can be your best friend! They are always there to take care of things you didn’t plan for. Three most essential insurances everyone must have are Car-Insurance, Life Insurance and of course, Health Insurance.
Car-Insurance:
Almost all states require having a minimum amount of car insurance. It provides benefits when an accident occurs, it covers lawsuits and legal fees, and it covers vehicle repair dues as well. Car insurance also include the damage caused by accidents like theft, fire, etc.
Life Insurance:
First off, if you are the one who is earning for a family, or if some of your family depends on you, you need insurance because if you die without an insurance, it can create a lot of problems for the ones depending on you. These may include income issues, debts, bills, etc.
Life Insurance these days is extremely affordable, and you have the flexibility to choose any company and whatever insurance plan that suits you. You are the one who gets to decide the duration, coverage, beneficiary, etc.
Health Insurance:
Health benefit is also significant when you are trying to manage your financial life. Many people say “why do we even need health insurance?” I’ll tell you why.
Insurance companies are an expert on negotiating with hospitals and their crazy bills. Negotiations between doctors and hospitals are standard, and they can reduce our bill up to 50%!
When you have health insurance, you can avoid those long waits at the ER. With health insurance, you can directly go to your primary care physician, and cut the waiting line and get yourself fixed at the initial stage only.
These are of course few of many benefits, but I find these convincing enough!
Hopefully, this mini guide of mine helps you to solve your money problems and improve your finances. Happy Financing!
I am a follower of Lisa Bedford’s blog, and was very excited to hear she had come out with a book.
This excitement was well founded because Survival Mom is a great book. As I mentioned in the video, I got this book for my lovely wife, who is very understanding, but who does not truly understand what prepping is, or why I spend so much time and energy doing it.
This book connects the dots between good parenting and prepping. It is accessible, entertaining, knowledgeable, and shows that preppers are not some paranoid group of gun nuts stroking their guns and waiting for the Apocalypse. Lisa is a normal, well adjusted lady that represents the VAST majority of preppers.
The very first item in the book is a quiz, and upon taking it my wife commented that it is time she learned a little more about what I do. That, it itself, is the strongest reason to buy this book.
If you are new to prepping, this is a great book to have, but if you are an old hand at it, you still can learn from this book. However, the real reason to buy this is to give it away to those loved ones that don’t really “get it”. Because this book is written in such a way to illuminate the need for basic disaster preparedness without intimidating the reader.
This is a great book, and Lisa has a great blog. If you are not already a reader of it, you should check it out.
When I got The Prepper Next Door in the mail, and opened it for the first time, I thought “Man that’s a lot of stuff”. After reading it I have to say, go with your gut, because this book does have a lot of information.
This book is jam packed with information, and has a reference section in the back that links to several well known prepper websites and YouTube Channels. I really appreciate it when authors give me ways to get more information, because if I liked the information they gave, and the way they have processed it, then it is pretty likely that I will find there references useful also.
The only problem I have with this book, an to be fair it may just be my preference for lists and bullet points, is that it reads like the author wrote from a long stream of consciousness session, where he just started talking about prepping and write it all down.
When you have as much information as Mr. Palmer has, then it is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is hard to go back and refresh yourself on topics covered or to find answers to specific problems.
Basically, in my opinion, this book has enough information to be a fine reference book, but it is not a reference book because of the difficulty in finding the information.
Don’t let that stop you from reading it though, because you will earn something in this book. The author has a lot of experience, and it shows.
I am a fan of Gavin De Becker’s work, and this is (in my opinion) his best work.
Personal finance management is something that we don’t learn since our childhood, nor is it taught in schools. But it is something that we must learn as soon as we start growing up, as it is something we have to deal with all our lives!
I am a follower of Lisa Bedford’s blog, and was very excited to hear she had come out with a book.
When I got The Prepper Next Door in the mail, and opened it for the first time, I thought “Man that’s a lot of stuff”. After reading it I have to say, go with your gut, because this book does have a lot of information.