The next step of survival is to simplify your cash flow. A budget is a good place to start, but let's go beyond that (Budgets were discussed in this blog on Monday, November 26, 2007). The real secret is to curtail or eliminate as many bills as possible. Think about it. What if you didn't have bills to pay - or if your bills were very few and very small? That isn't a joke - it's a serious question. Most people can get their monthly spending down to less than $1000, and if they had to they could live on less than $450 a month: if they knew how.
Your house is where most of your bills comes from. If you want to get rid of bills, you have to choose housing that keeps the bills at a minimum. The idea is to have housing that doesn't produce bills: you want your house to be a zero-net-energy input home or something very close to it. You also want a well and septic tank (no water or sewer bills), and enough space to have a large garden and some chickens and rabbits if you want to. Producing wholesome organic food is definitely part of this strategy. (This is fine for a rural setting. Living in a city is a different story altogether, obviously.)
The point is that the more ties you have to monthly bills, the more you are dependent on the system and the more entrapped you are. Property taxes are another matter. Consider these seriously because they only go up over time.
For most people their biggest bill is their mortgage. There are two basic ideas about how to deal with a mortgage: either pay it off quickly or sell the house and downsize. The best way to do it is to sell the place and downsize by building your own home. You can build it high-cost or you can build it low-cost and still get more or less the same house, you just have to be willing to do some of the work yourself.
If you are capable of building your own house (with others to help you, of course), here is the plan. For the next year or two your job is to go to every estate sale and auction in your area to find good construction material for dirt-cheap prices. Your mission is to find high-quality windows, doors, bathroom fixtures, kitchen cabinets and appliances and mechanicals (heating and air) for the house you're going to build. The majority of the cost of a home is in the kitchen, bathrooms and mechanicals, and after that the windows, doors and floor covering. The renewable energy equipment is also expensive, but it eliminates energy bills that are only going to go higher. While you're busy collecting building material, you need to read everything you can get on the subject of renewable energy, super insulating a home and building a zero-net-energy input home. If you want a life without bills, you need a home that doesn't cost anything to live in. It sounds crazy, but it's not that difficult to do.
Once you get the materials, you need an experienced builder who will take on the project. You'll meet the builders if you frequent the sales, you just have to be willing to talk to people. A good builder will help you keep costs down and be willing to work with you on the "odd" requests.
After getting a good education in renewable energy, you need to find some land. Absolute perfection would be a southern-facing slope with a year-round stream running through it with enough flow to use a hydro-electric generator. Don't try to find land until you've learned about solar, wind and hydro-electric power generation.
Once the home is finished, you have to be prepared for the problems that occur from time to time in life. The idea is to invest your extra money by spending it on tools and the basic household supplies you use on a long-term basis. By stockpiling the supplies in your home, they become a source of stored wealth that you will eventually consume (as discussed earlier this week in the blog). By purchasing in bulk you get a better price and avoid the ravages of inflation.
Not everyone is able to take all of these steps, but it is good to know that there are always more options. The point is that the simpler you make your life, the fewer bills, and thus the more you will be able to handle the upcoming economic crisis. As stated yesterday, imagine if money had no value at all, how would you live?
You can minimize your exposure to the games that central bankers and politicians play with paper money and get a better quality of life while you're at it ... but the adage that "no man is an island" still holds true. The trick is simply to become as self-sufficient and independent as you can tolerate. If this is not an option, form a working alliance with your friends and neighbors to support each other.
It seems that quality of life issues are paramount. Standard of living does not equate to quality of life and it never did. The problem with pursuing "standard of living" goals is that you not only won't necessarily get the quality of life you desire, but you'll also be placing yourself at risk in the coming currency wars: sooner or later the paper money game is going to end, and when it does things will be ugly.
Time is the commodity that everyone works for, and it's control of time that often gives us our quality of life. That's why people who live fairly simple lives in this country usually tell you how high their quality of life is. They have freedom from fear because they are often pretty self-sufficient and their needs are few.
The people who are part of the rat-race are the ones who have the least control of their time, and they often complain of feeling like their lives are spinning out of control and that they live in fear of layoffs, crime, an uncertain future and many other things. The more money they make the more they spend and they never get anywhere.
The point is that your efforts should be oriented toward quality of life issues instead of standard of living goals. If you pursue quality of life you'll find that you've insulated yourself from the uncertainties and challenges of life, then you'll be in a position to help others - especially family and friends.
So again, when survival is the issue - simplify, simplify, simplify.
As always, the choice is yours.
I would like to thank Brian Botta for most of the ideas presented here today.
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. I Corinthians 3:10-15 (NIV)
If you have comments or questions, please feel free to contact me at the address below.
Email: DeltaInspire@panama-vo.com
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