Business

Estate Planning Lessons From “The Art of the Steal”

By Terence Gillespie October 17, 2014

The documentary film, The Art of the Steal is a gripping tale of intrigue and mystery in the art world. The film traces the history of the Barnes collection of Post-Impressionist paintings, which was worth billions and became the subject of a power struggle after the 1951 death of the owner. Dr. Albert Barnes collected 181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos and many other valuable paintings. Despite his best efforts political wrangling over the collection eventually led to its division and control by the very group of people he wanted the collection to be protected against.

Barnes was a shrewd man. He took pains to hire the best lawyers to erect a trust for his paintings to protect them from every imaginable threat. Ironically, the people, state rats and foundations that would eventually divide, move and control his collection were largely known to Barnes at the time of his death.

For the intriguing story of how they accomplished this I recommend the film.

Barnes drafted his trust in 1922 and modified it many times leading up to his sudden death in 1951. It took 58 years from the time of Barnes’ death before the judges ruling cleared the way for its division which overturned every one of Barnes’ express wishes for his collection and transferred control of what now is $25-$30 billion dollars of art into the very hands Barnes never wanted to to have anything to do with it.

While watching the documentary I was struck both by how long it took the collection to be divided and how short that period was with respect to the magnitude, beauty and importance of the art. It’s reminiscent of what is often said about a Stradivarius Violin: The current owner is merely temporary in the life of the instrument.

Barnes was a great man. As such, we who loathe that his magnificent collection has fallen into enemy hands have no better recourse than to glean from the rubble of this theft every possible lesson of what strategies might have worked in fulfilling Barnes’ true wishes.

The problems started when the Barnes Trust ran out of successor trustees.

Have More Successor Trustees

Have Children – Barnes had no children. There’s no guarantee that children will fulfill estate wishes but it would have put a few more options on Barnes’ table.
Designate a Lineage of Trustees – Barnes designated five successor trustees. This is the primary reason his collection was protected for the 58 years it was. Even though five seem like plenty it was not enough. More is better and a methodology for adding them, post-mortem, is even better.
Have Trustees (Vetted While Grantor is Alive) Designate Successor Trustees – The Trustees Barnes knew while he was alive performed flawlessly. If there was a mechanism in the trust for these trustees to, in turn, vett and add new trustees, this would extend the time and increase the quality of adherence to the original intent of the Grantor (Barnes, in this case).

“Poison Pill” Provisions

To avoid contention between competing trustees “Poison Pills” could be placed in the Trust to squelch trivial squabbles. John Lennon’s estate was famous for ensuring that anyone who contested the terms of the trust be cutout of the trust, as a result. It works!

Map Out Maintenance Strategies Using Corpus of the Trust

At one point, Barnes’ collection was in danger due to problems with the building that contained it. Multiple approved methods of raising money for maintenance could be included in the trust. This would take options away from untrustworthy trustees who see this as a crack in the Trust’s armor. It would also make it easier for good trustees who may not have the business sense to go along with their desire to adhere to the grantors’ wishes.

One option, here, for Barnes would have been a strategic sell-off of some of the collection. As terrible as that may sound Barnes would have been most familiar with his collection. Not everything he chose was untouchable. While alive Barnes might have chosen the order in which a very small number of paintings could be auctioned off for the good of the collection IF that was the only option available to the trustee.

Use Corporation(s), LLC(s) or Complex Structures in Lieu of a Trust

This opens up a whole different can of worms that I’d rather not explore in this article. I only bring it up as an option in reaction to seeing the limits of Barnes’ chosen protective entity: The Trust. The ultra rich typically erect complex structures of multiple entities to protect their wealth while they’re alive. Admittedly, maintaining such structures is much more difficult upon death but perhaps such complexity is necessary in cases like Barnes.

Prohibit Boards as Trustees

The biggest fractures appeared with the Barnes collection when Trustees morphed into boards who created their own rules about how the boards were run. Such boards were free to add members, for instance, that enabled a few members to change the consensus of the board. I’d say the only way to squelch this problem is to prohibit boards of any kind. Groups of people never behave themselves with as much integrity as individuals.

The Nuclear Option

Barnes was a great man. To become so takes a level of determination and single-mindedness that few of the rest of us can probably even imagine. After watching the documentary it occurred to me that Barnes was so determined to keep his collection in tact and out of the hands of his enemies that he never even contemplated a last-ditch option. With the benefit of the hindsight that Barnes’ experience has given me I think his best last ditch option would have been to focus on . . . .

The Creators Not the Creations

In the event that any of Barnes’ parameters were violated he could have put instructions into the trust that all the art in the collection be auctioned off for the benefit of the kinds of artists whose work Barnes so understandably admired. By doing so the actual art in the collection would have been randomly distributed around the world (To be collected by the next Barnes?) and he would have been funding the efforts of new great artists to create more beautiful and inspiring art for Barnes’ desired educational purpose of the art, itself. Not to mention that the existing art would have been put beyond the reach of the contemptible group that now controls it.

I’m not presuming that this is a better use for Barnes’ art than he, himself, imagined. I’m merely pointing out one possible backup option that Barnes probably wouldn’t even let himself consider.

They Ruin Everything They Touch

Greed, power, sociopaths and whatever “Foundations” they hide behind are like water falling on a building: They never stop eroding what they come in contact with. In life it’s often possible to avoid contact, altogether, with these brands of evil. In death, the best one can hope for is to delay the meeting for as long as possible.

Diet

How To Stop Drinking Wine

By Terence Gillespie September 26, 2014

The best way to quit drinking wine is to replace it with something else. For wine you’ll need direct and indirect replacements.

The indirect replacements are for the routines, sights, sounds, textures, tastes, feelings, circumstances and occasions that surround your wine drinking.

The better your choice of replacement(s) for the drink and all these other things that surround your drinking the easier the quitting will be.

I wrote similar words about quitting coffee, last week. And I’m testing their limits by simultaneously giving up wine and coffee. Wine is the tougher of the two because I like wine more. It’s also become more ingrained in my lifestyle and eating habits than coffee ever did.

I thought about calling this article, “How to Give Up Alcohol”, but, I don’t have experience with drinking other forms of alcohol, besides wine. I can’t tell you how to stop drinking alcohol unless its the alcohol in wine your trying to give up. Like every article I write this is about my direct experience. In this case my direct experience is in giving up wine.

It’s possible that some of my experience may be useful for wine alcoholics, but, that would be presumptuous. If you have a more extreme form of addiction than I’m writing about here the additional benefits of an isolated environment, group support and a counselor is probably warranted. It’s never been easier to find an Alcohol Treatment Program near you.

Should you stop drinking Wine?

The biggest stumbling block for quitting anything is knowing if and why you need to quit. In the case of wine you have to be very clear and honest with yourself on your reasons for giving it up. Wine, itself, is not a harmful drink. But, you can make it into one by drinking too much of it.

How much is too much? I’ll give you my answer, but, you’ll have to come up with yours. In terms of health one glass of wine a day is good. Between one and two glasses the benefits drop off, rapidly, according to bodyweight. There is no literature anywhere recommending more than two glasses, regardless of bodyweight. So, if health is your value there’s your answer.

If you exceed the amount good for your health its bad for your body. At that point you can no longer claim health benefits as your excuse for drinking more.

I am giving up wine for the following reasons:

It’s interfered with the length and quality of my sleep.
Lack of sleep has compromised the clarity of my thoughts and the quality of my writing.
I’ve been exceeding the small quantity that’s good for my health.

These are not acceptable tradeoffs for my enjoyment and they’re certainly not Optimal. I won’t be having wine until its just another drink option and I can take it or leave it. Here’s how I think about it: “Wine that detracts from my health and productivity has got to go.”

Being this clear on my why and if is probably the only thing that enables me to actually stop drinking it. Seems to me the more wine detracts from your life the more motivation you have to stop drinking it. I highly recommend being honest here and getting extremely clear on your motivations.

Replacements

Quitting is a transition to something else. With wine its a transition to alternative beverages, routines and choices . With that in mind here’s a few important points to keep in mind about picking and using replacements:

The best replacements usually have a lot in common with what you’re trying to quit. Things we have to quit often involve routines, sights, sounds, textures, tastes and feelings surrounding the thing we’re trying to quit. You need replacements for them, as well. For wine, there is the taste, the wine buzz, the smell, the cool liquid flowing down your throat, the occasions where its served and the mood and social interactions that occur around it. Since we live up in wine country in northern California there are many events that occur on vineyard grounds, as well.

You may need a series of replacements to step into the routines that are optimal for you. That means that your optimal final replacement may not be the best choice to use first. Your body may have to detoxify or have other reactions and compensations it has to cycle through before you can ultimately quit. In extreme cases that may mean moving from something toxic to something less toxic and eventually to something non-toxic.

It may be effective to allow yourself as much of the replacement as you want (Assuming your replacement is not toxic). It may serve as a psychological reward for following through on the quitting.

My Replacements for Wine

My first replacement for wine is sparkling water.

Sparking water is fun, cold, quenches my thirst and is poured out of what looks like a wine bottle. Like wine, I have to make a separate trip to the fridge to find a cold bottle. After opening it I pour it onto a wine glass. When we’re eating out at a restaurant and I have wine I usually pour sparkling water into the empty wine glass. So, there’s a psychological sense that I’m finishing up a good meal and a few glasses of wine at a restaurant when I pour the sparkling water without having had any wine, at all.

My second replacement is a RockStar energy drink. This is similar to the sparking water but comes in a can. Like wine it gives me an energy boost and usually gets my writing started if I’m procrastinating on an article. Many people don’t know that wine gives an energy boost, as well, and that’s part of what’s missing when you stop drinking it.

My third replacement, used in the afternoon, is a nap. I was using coffee and wine as a crutch to power through the afternoon without a nap or a break. I decided not to fight afternoon naps any longer and just take one. The benefits of afternoon naps have been enormous! If fact, I feel it gives almost a full extra day of productivity every day! Wow, talk about a replacement.

My fourth replacement is my ace in the hole: Exercise! Physical exercise is the best way to get high. And when it comes to drinking wine the physical high from exercise completely wipes out desire for anything but water or electrolytes.

I have a RockStar after waking up from my afternoon nap. So far, its been a great way to start my ’second day’. It’s one of those sugar free health drinks that has healthy ingredients. I’m skeptical about the pink, blue and yellow stuff they use in sugar free drinks and prefer stevia. But, for now, I’m enjoying the Rock-Star until I find something better. Leading candidates are pelligrino with a little fruit juice added for taste or some of the exotic teas my wife gets on her trips to China.

Exotic teas will probably become my number one beverage replacement for wine in the future. I don’t think they are the best first beverage, but, they are probably the my optimal replacement. There are an infinite variety of them, they are excellent for a wide variety of health aspects, its fun to make them and experiment with preparation and taste. They are also like wine in the sense that it feels like I’m drinking the earth. Call me nuts, but, I think drinking wine and tea feels like drinking the earth. They make me feel like I’m absorbing all the best minerals and herbs from the leaves and trees and fruit that they were made from.

How Long Does It Take?

It took about three weeks before it didn’t occur to me to have wine with dinner, any longer. That’s longer than I thought it would take and shows how much I associated food with wine.

As much as I was addicted to coffee it was easier to stop drinking coffee than wine. That was another surprise because I craved coffee but never wine. I think wine was actually providing more energy and calories than the coffee was. I was actually using wine like an energy bar. Who knew?!

One of the surprising things for me was how much I slept. Without the energy from the wine I was more tired, even during the day. I could not have a cup of coffee to bridge this gap because I was giving up coffee at the same time. This is all ok with me because one of my goals was to sleep more. I just didn’t expect to be more tired in the afternoons. This may be the temporary adjustment of my body making up for lost sleep. I sleep much better at night, now, and that has enourmous health benefits.

How Will You Know When You’ve Quit?

You’ll know you’ve quit when you can take it or leave it. Wine will take its place among the multitude of drink options available to you depending on the occasion and what you’re in the mood for at the moment.

You’ll be able to have a meal and not automatically think of having wine with it.

You’ll be able to engage in social interactions in a relaxed and enjoyable manner without the wine buzz that used to loosen up your inhibitions.

A few days ago, we were over at a friends house and I was starting to fade. We were late in getting together and didn’t want to leave, yet. The conversation was interesting and another couple had just walked in the door that we wanted to socialize with. This is the point at which I would normally pour a glass of wine. Instead I had one cup of coffee. Luckily, I had already gotten to the point of not needing coffee to start my day and it was just another drink option to me. It was just the thing needed to keep the conversation going for a little while until it was time to go. One cup of coffee and that was it. No coffee needed the next morning and no problems sleeping that night. And best of all, no wine either, which probably would have kept me up all night.

Unlike coffee, wine has never been a drink I couldn’t do without for things like starting my day or thinking clearly or what have you. It’s always been an optional drink added to the existing circumstances. My desire for it was mental more than physical because I never really craved more of it unless I was already drinking it. And that’s just part of my obsessive nature. Most of the time my obsessive nature helps me finish things. I’ve learned to redirect that urge into finishing a bottle of pelligrino instead of a bottle of wine.

Being straight is the ultimate high. Spend time with any 5 year old if you need to prove this to yourself. You’ve always known it. Children don’t need anything but a glass of water and a baloney sandwich to be ecstatic about life. And the only way to experience the full bandwidth of life is to be straight.

The irony is that If I have a glass of wine in a few months one glass will probably provide more enjoyment than three glasses used to. One glass is all I’ll want. And, its all I ever did need. If a second glass is poured I’ll be thinking about sleepless nights and less productivity the next day. Hopefully, I’ll be thinking about that while reaching for the pelligrino.

Banking

Read Lew Rockwell!

By Terence Gillespie September 25, 2014

I read LewRockwell.com, every day, because he writes or posts the best line-up of articles in the world…every day!

For a modest incentive to checkout Lew’s site (And put it in your daily reading routine) please see the following articles on Lew’s site:

Mr. Party’s Gun Bible

Selecting Your Optimal Armory

Ammo for Barter – Ammo vs. Money

The Best Gun in the World

Fractional Reserve Banking Made Easy

Checklist for Hard Times

76 Reasons To Have a Gun

The Ten Best-Read on LRC for October 2009 Source of readership stats: Google Analytics

Banking

Catherine’s Financial Detox

By Terence Gillespie September 20, 2014

This is a re-post of a summary of Catherine Austin-Fitt’s financial detox plan as given to Max Keiser five years, ago. The 15 pieces of wisdom extracted from the video are timeless. If you had started working on them in 2009 it would have had a dramatic impact on your life. Five years from now the same will be true about starting to work on them, today.

Catherine Austin Fitts is a breath of fresh air.

With a keen understanding of the links between politics, corruption, and money she is unmasking economic con-games, one by one, for the benefit of us all. Give her 15-minutes and she’ll explain the most complex schemes and enable you to see right through all sides of the rhetoric we’ve been hearing all our lives.

Not only that, but, she offers powerful solutions and action plans that can be implemented within minutes of watching one of her videos.

Listen to her describe her “Bailout Plan” in the video, below, which I found on The Edge with Max Keiser.

1. – Save Time

Cut out TV and corporate media. They’re a brainwashing waste of time. You’ve got better things to do and think about. Get radical about cutting this out and save 5-10 hrs a week of “bad training”.
Get corrupt people and enterprises out of your life. They get access to your data and money. Consider carefully the banks, brokerage houses or institutions you do business with.
Control personal data. There is no privacy. Think through who you do business with and who has access to your data.
Compliance – be impeccable with compliance. In a situation with highly complex rules and no privacy it’s easy to get caught up in a dragnet.
Simplify. The less things you’re responsible for the better.

2. – Get Smart

Implementing 1. gives you time for 2. and 3.

See things as they truly are.
The greatest wealth creating entity of all time is the family. Think strategically about your family and friends.
If you’re not in a conspiracy you need to start one. Conspiracy means to breathe together. Start a conspiracy with your family to benefit each other and keep corrupt institutions out of all your lives.
Network with other people who know what’s going on. Nobody is as smart as all of us.
If you have time, understand history. What’s happening today is logical if you understand the history of things like narcotics trafficking, mortgage fraud, etc.

3. – Reposition Your Assets

The goal of the games of economic warfare are control and equity.
Build your equity. Invest in your health and your knowledge. Think strategically about managing these key assets.
We’re leaving a large bubble and now people want hard assets. Shift out of phony financial instruments into securities and hard assets with solid economics.
Stick with long term trends. Follow the tapeworm. Don’t be confused by economic nonsense into investing into anything that is not long term and high quality like food, water, gold, Precious metals.
Demonetize. We put money into financial assets, get yield, then buy things. This is a losing proposition.

Catherine Austin Fitts is always worth your time. Check out her blog which she calls, The Solari Report.

Church

Church Preparedness Plan

By Terence Gillespie September 17, 2014

Scriptural Basis & Motivation

It was wise for Joseph and the Pharoah to trust God’s warning and prepare for the Egyptian famine. God warned, they listened, and Joseph prepared. By setting aside the wheat and supplies to save a nation Joseph was an active participant in God’s plan. This pattern in scripture well established: God, while capable and in control of all, weaves his people into the unfolding of his plans. Whether it be for spreading the Gospel, delivering a message or preparing his people for hard times, we are part of God’s plans.

“By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” — Hebrews 11:7

As you read through applicable scriptures ask yourself where you may fit into His unfolding plans. The answers will be different for everyone as we are each unique parts of the body. The only thing we all have in common and know, for sure, is that we all play a role in God’s plan for redemption and kingdom come.

“The prudent sees danger and hides himself,
but the simple go on and suffer for it.”

“One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil,
but a fool is reckless and careless.”

“For the simple are killed by their turning away,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
but whoever listens to me will dwell secure
and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” — Proverbs 22:3 , 14:16 , 1:32-33

We’re told the prudent see danger and hide from it, that the wise must turn away from evil, and to listen to God to be at ease and without dread of disaster. And so, wisdom, itself, makes us part of God’s plan in listening, seeing, hiding and turning away.

We are saved by faith and not by works and yet, far from being complacent, God’s wisdom is for us to participate in his plans. In saving us by faith, God has, in turn, made us part of his plan of salvation for others.

Prepare the Way of the Lord!

Mission Statement

An Emergency Kit in every Home,
A Radio in every Small Group,
A Communication Plan for every Family.

Goals

To maintain a preparedness plan for the church to be kept as a working document, updated periodically and distributed to the church.
To address as many needs, in advance, of predictable emergencies that may occur in the local area.
To be flexible and open to adjustment should the membership decide they have been lead strongly to prepare for something that has been made known to them.
To ensure that members of the church are able to communicate and gather together in the absence of conventional means of communication.
To encourage and give specific suggestions to members of the church to prepare for their own emergency needs so that they may be able to better serve each other, the church, and the local community, in times of need.
To share plans with local sister churches to enable the church to more easily come together in times of need.
To work towards a longer term goal of being able to assist the broader community in times of need.

Strategy

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” — John 15:7-8

A Foundation in Two Steps

Most of the goals of this plan are achieved in only two steps: 1) Ensuring that each family has the items they would need in an emergency and, 2) Enabling each family to communicate with the rest of the church in the absence of phone, web or e-mail services.

After these two things are achieved the rest of the plan becomes a means to improve quality of life, address special needs of the church in an emergency, and enable the church to better serve each other and the broader community.

A Decentralized Plan

This is a decentralized plan for many compelling reasons:

Supplies are prepositioned at the place they will be used.
The work of transport and distribution is performed, in advance, which frees up resources during an actual emergency.
The purchasing, storage, maintenance and periodic updates required for all kits is performed by the church family that will be using the items.
Standardized kits and supplies can be customized to the individual needs of each family.
The church is not be made a target for theft and loss which deceases the potential for crime while ensuring that supplies will be available in times of emergency.

Primary Determining Factor

The primary determining factor of the success of this plan, after God’s will, is the number of families who address their own basic needs, in advance. To a large extent this will determine our ability to make ourselves available to serve others.

The more church families that can manage to acquire all the items recommended in the TDF Kits (Things That Disappear First) the more each member family “. . .will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”

The church is only as prepared as each member family is prepared. All desire and ability to serve each other and the broader community is an outgrowth of the completeness of providing for these needs, in advance.

Gathering in His Name

“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” — Matthew 18:19-20

Only a small percentage of members need have radios to enable most of the church to communicate and arrange to gather in His name. For example, one radio per small group would have a dramatic impact in enabling the entire church to stay in touch and is probably the best first step.

The optimal number of radio operators will be determined by mapping out the location of all church members, taking geographical limitations into consideration and performing subsequent tests.

Serving these primary operators can be any number of relays (Other members using FRS/GMRS, CB Radios and household AM/FM receivers).

Clearing the Decks (& Network), in Advance

It is crucial to understand that no matter how many radios are used to stay in touch the “Network” can be easily overwhelmed. The most likely culprit of that overwhelm will be requests for items described in the TDF kits. In this way, the TDF kits and radio network are intimately tied together and affected by one another. To the extent that such items can be obtained, in advance, by each church family the network is freed up to relay important news, special requests and address aspects of an emergency that cannot be anticipated.

Therefore, as a church, we address as many needs as can be anticipated, in advance, so that our work during an emergency can best focused on serving others.

The Rest of the Plan

The rest of the plan can be as detailed and complete as the church may see fit to document. The entire plan rests on God’s will, the willingness of each family to set aside supplies for their own basic needs and the ability of the church to communicate with each other in the absence of conventional services.

The strategy for the rest of this plan will be gathered and documented through these “Next Steps”:

Sharing the Plan with Church Leaders & Members
Sharing Thoughts & Plans with Other Churches?
Incorporating Feedback into Plan
Enabling Members to Retrieve Updated Plans
Embed Templates in the Plan to Assist each Family
Add to Family Directory- List of Skills, Tools, Special needs.
Designate Radio Operators in Family Directory
Create Map of Operators

Creativity

Jumpstart Your House in the Country. Build it Backwards (Or maybe not at all)!

By Terence Gillespie September 11, 2014

The most useful things built on land are built last. I propose reversing that order. Build it backwards. Small structures provide big comfort and improvements relative to their size and cost. Their return on investment is high because the investment is small and the return is relative to the “nothing” of vacant land.

Building backwards and small enables you to get the most important uses out of your land first, and soon. There are many advantages other than a high ROI. One might be to rescue this widely held and rarely realized dream from the never-to-be-crossed-out section of your bucket list.

We’ve started the project of securing a retreat in the country and there’s been a world of decisions in choosing one plot of ground. That part of the journey is ongoing and best left to a separate article. Between scouting trips thoughts have turned to solidifying the vision. As the vision became clear I started thinking about ways to Optimize the effort-to-value ratio of building any house in the country. We’ll be building across state lines so remote access factors come into play in our optimization approach, as well.

Plan the Site – Then Build Small and Useful

You have to plan the site anyway, right? Planning is an expense that enables every downstream cost (Including time) to be optimized.

Plan everything your dreaming of for the site. Make sure it fits with the natural flow of the topography. Be practical and figure what you want and what you don’t. Consider everything including the next owner and future generations. And when you’re done pick the smallest most useful element from your plans and build it first.

Easements and Road Access

If you don’t have road access or need an easement then you’ve got some road or legal work to do. Depending on your site design, however, it’s possible your first small structure is some distance from the main building site. If that’s the case then you’ll only need road access to the first structure. Working on that, and leaving the larger road work project aside, for now, still fits the general idea of building it backwards.

Universal Site Plan

If you plan well your plan will capture the universal truths of the lay of the land. Future owner preferences will vary though none would benefit from going against the natural flow of the land.

If circumstances change before you actually build out your vision then most of the things you’ve already built have a good chance of fitting in with the next owners vision. Though not more important than your own values and goals there’s good reason to believe that well-built structures in-line with the natural flow of the land will become permanent beyond you.

Possibilities

My working definition of useful is anything that provides shelter, storage, rent, access or produces income or savings. Ideally, it’s something you would have gotten around to building anyway and decided to build first rather than last.

Covering every possibility is impossible. There’s a continuous line of structures from a tent to the Taj Mahal. Here’s a trigger list to get your creative juices flowing:

The popular descriptions of structures bleed into each other. At what point does a shed become a garage? When you use it as one. What’s the difference between a shed and a Gable? Roof design and quality. The difference between a cabin and a cottage? Depends on who you’re talking to about the property.

For Example

We’re securing a retreat in the country where we’ll build a downsized semi-off-grid version of the house we currently live in. We live in a 3200 sq. foot home and could easily chop off 1000 sq. feet as long as there is storage and room for guests.

We have a clear vision of the design and function of our future home in the country. We are also in the advanced stages of choosing the exact location. Once we’ve decided and bought the land there’s some big decisions to make. Made badly, or not at all, and the whole project could grind to a halt.

Build or Sell?

If our vision is clear why not find an existing place that fits and buy it?

No debt. Purchasing the land and building slowly is a form of self-financing that keeps us from having to take a loan.
Flexibility. As circumstances change and money comes and goes we can make optimal choices on the margin about the timing, cost and usefulness of the next step.
Working harder now to build a second house will enable us to rent our current house in the future for retirement income.
Doing so would require selling our current home and moving immediately. In addition to disrupting my wife’s job we prefer to hold onto our current house for backup.
I like to build things and would prefer designing and building exactly what we want (Where we want it).

Most Bang for the Buck

The last thing we need is land we don’t use. Our best use for land would be to provide:

Overnight Stays – Comfortable enough so they’ll actually happen.
Storage – For Tools and Supplies.
Income – Rental or from our direct use.
Security – For our retreat and securing the property in our absence.

These are the functions we’ll keep foremost in mind when deciding what to build first. The sooner a stucture provides one of these functions the better. Chosen wisely we could fulfill all these needs with minimal cost and effort and spread more ambitious plans over time.

Overnight Stays

We could stay in a motel, hotel, apartment, rental cottage, cabin or at a friend’s house. There’s nothing like the occasional motel room to freshen up. However, we’d prefer to put money directly into improvements wherever possible.

Tent & Rental Car

Realistically, it will be yours truly driving a rental car, setting up a tent and enjoying some getaway camping, at first. This zero structure lo-fi method is a custom fit for me (Supplemented with an occasional motel room). Some of the best adventures I’ve been on were done car camping with a tent. I can’t think of a better way to stay overnight while jumpstarting our place in the country.

Lean-to or Shed

Depending on the land the first structure will be either a Lean-to and Firepit or a custom shed. Either will provide extra shelter and comfort for future solo trips. The Lean-to would become an outdoor gathering place when we’re living on the land, permanently. The shed would be a great place to store supplies and tools and also be a notch above a tent for shelter. Done well, either one will give a sense of accomplishment and start momentum towards the next improvement.

While building the first structure I’ll collapse the tent and check-in to a motel room to recuperate, now and then. Our location shouldn’t be more than 30-40 miles away from one. I’ll keep tools in the truck and haul supplies as needed. My SUV has been a champ playing this role on local builds. Though it hasn’t been necessary I could always rent a local U-haul for a day to haul large materials.

Mobile Home or RV

My wife will go two nights in a tent or lean-to. Longer than that and it’s time for a motel room. If we ever hope to stay on the land, together, for longer than a week then we’re talking mobile home or RV. Happily, mobile homes and RV trailers can be bought for a song, nowadays.

If we go with the mobile I’ll prepare the site and have it delivered. If we go with an RV I’ll pull it on-site with the truck. Either one is a big step up from, and will supplement, the lean-to or shed.

Time Out for Perspective

This is a big step. If I can make overnight stays a pleasant experience it would get my family on-site more often and provide support for the next build. That would pave the way for making progress on the rest of the project. If our project gets stopped we still have land, a shed for on-site storage and a comfortable means for overnight stays. Add the rental of a small public storage unit and we’d have a Bug Out Location, already.

There will have been significant expenses, at this point. However, in relation to their value it smacks of Optimal bang for the buck.

Nothing Wasted

Notice all of the above options leave nothing wasted though we’ll be implementing only four of them depending on the site:

The rental car gets returned.
Use or sell the tent at a garage sale.
The lean-to and firepit become an outdoor family gathering place for BBQ’s.
Everyone needs a shed and a good one, at that.
The RV can accommodate guests or be taken on your next vacation.
The mobile home can become a guesthouse, sold or moved.

Storage

Everybody needs a place to put things. Building requires tools and supplies and so do humans. Kick back on a hammock all week and your food and water is still better off out of the heat of the rental car. The questions are should the storage be:

Underground?
On-site or off?
Secured by something/someone other than you?

I find underground storage options to be more romantic than practical. It’s expensive to build reliable underground structures and the drop-ins are no picnic with their delivery charge and crane installation. Completely concealing underground storage is hard unless it’s kept small and dispersed.

Until I have someone on the property full time my answer to off-site storage is yes. More specifically, we’ll supplement our on-site shed with a public storage unit. When we’re off site everything we can’t afford to lose goes into a public storage unit. That’s only $35/mo where we’re looking; cheap insurance for expensive tools.

A side benefit of renting public storage is it gives you a local ship-to address while you’re remote. Ask a friend (Or the on-site storage folks?) to receive the shipment and put the materials into storage for you. When you come into town stop by and pick up what you need to get started.

Gotta Love These Pole Barns

A larger pole barn is a possible one-building solution to overnight stays, storage and a little bit of security for the trouble. There are options to insulate them if it fits your long term goals for the structure. In fact, a pole barn that fits the site is so useful my first title for this article was, “Build the Barn First!”. However, building backwards is a more complete way to say it and opens up more possibilities.

If it fits the site plan we may skip the shed and go right for a larger pole barn. If so it would make sense to consider one big enough to house an RV. In the event we decide to buy an RV for overnight stays the barn would provide a bit more security and protection for it.

Even if the pole barn was not insulated it would become a second option for sleeping bags over a presumably more comfy RV. Also, if there are ways to secure it well enough, or, we discover that theft is a non-issue then we might risk storing an RV and more expensive supplies there. Such choices can only be made on the margin as things unfold.

Security

Nothing is 100% secure if you’re not living there. Second best is a house sitting friend or renter. Third best is line of sight view and regular stop-by’s from a neighbor. When you’re off site store anything you can’t afford to lose in public storage.

Put a Web Cam on it?

You’ll need electricity, satellite-only internet and a dedicated (Cheap) computer for this option. For the trouble you’ll get four to eight cameras monitoring your site. It’s not foolproof but it could make your eyes the first eyes to see anything suspicious. Call your neighbor and ask them to check it out.

Retreat

With all the excitement of working on your house in the country don’t forget it gives your family the added benefit of a retreat location should you ever need to leave your current home. Every improvement makes it that much more comfortable for you family in times of retreat. One need only browse recent headlines to become a fan of having some geographical diversity in your housing plan.

Income

What if you could build something that would provide a source of income?

If a moblie home were in the right location and had electricity and water then it could possibly be rented out. Nowadays that may require having cable and internet installed, as well.

A Tiny House

A second possibility is to stay in your mobile home or RV while building a Tiny House on Ground or a Small Guest Cottage. Once built you’d no longer have an issue providing a comfortable place to stay for your family. Depending on location you might even be able to rent it out to someone who could keep an eye on the place for you between builds.

Two is One

If you can rent out a mobile home or cottage then why not have two (Or one of each)? One for a renter and the other for you.

Building two enables leveraging of design, materials, labor and knowledge into a second identical structure. Rent one and stay in the other. If one isn’t rented then all the more options for family and guests. Even if you build one tiny house or cottage and don’t rent it you could then get rid of the RV or supplement the cottage with the RV.

Either way it will be much easier to get your family to stay longer!

Electricity

Speaking of Building it Backwards the smallest and last provision for electricity will be the first one on the back of my truck: A generator.

Bringing electricity to rural land is expensive. Even if your land already has an electrical drop the expense was built-in to your purchase price meaning you would have been able to purchase more land if it wasn’t. Whether you value more land or less with electricity is up to you. I’m a bit torn on the issue and will face it as we zero-in on our exact land choice.

My overall opinion is that electricity is the easiest utility to do without or provide by self-sufficient means. Since our goal is to provide at least some of the latter I’m not sure how much I’m willing to pay for the former.

Water

Water is life and mandatory. It’s so crucial to rural land it makes for a go/no-go buying decision. If you’re lucky enough to have a stream running through your land then you have a huge jumpstart! You’ll still have to setup pumps, plumbing lines, sewer and leach field, but, drinking water is only a two-stage gravity filter away.

Everyone else has to either drill a well and hope for the best or haul water in. If drilling a well is mandatory it’s too big a risk to not have an idea of whether you’ll be successful or how much money to set aside for the expense.

Cell Phone Coverage

Will you have to drive to get a signal on your cell phone? That could be a time and money losing proposition. Satellite has too much latency for any VOIP functionality you may be counting on. Best check on this, in advance.

Structure vs. Strategy

Structure order is only part of build strategy. You may know what to build and still get stuck on strategy. Since we’re building remotely I’ve been thinking through the various options. Here’s some thoughts off the cuff in the spirit of sparking a jumpstart or an idea to break the logjam of the theoretical.

As discussed previously, unless your paying someone else to build you’re going to need tools, supplies, a place to store them and a place to stay while you’re building. While large industrial one-use tools are best rented general tools and equipment are best owned for long term use.

Store all tools and supplies underground on-site.
Store all tools and supplies in an on-site Shed.
Build an on-site shed supplemented with small public storage rental.
Keep RV onsite or in local public storage and pick it up when visiting property.
Rent and return a separate RV trailer for each building session.
Keep RV on a friends property and pick it up when visiting property.
Build a pole barn on-site large enough for supplies, tools and to store RV inside.
Put a wood stove in the Pole Barn (Properly vented and with CO2 detectors all around) to heat.

We live a considerable distance away from our potential building site. That means any RV must be stored or rented locally even if we own it. I’ll be driving the truck to the site and it’s not worth the extra gas to haul an RV back and forth. The gas savings alone would pay for the RV or its local rental.

When in Doubt

The more clear and definite your vision the less time you’ll waste. The best use of your time is spent building structures that fit into your overall site plan. You would have built them anyway and just decided to build them first because of their superior marginal utility.

If you’re stuck on what to build first then there are three ways to go.

Build the Smaller Thing

Let’s face it, building something useful that you would be proud to have on your land is always a bit more difficult than you first imagine. Maybe what you have in mind is too ambitious. Take it down a notch or two. Instead of building a pole barn build a shed. Instead of a shed build a metal canopy. Instead of a canopy a Bear Grylles lean-to to take the edge off the wind for overnight camping.

Cut to the Chase

If you know a larger pole barn will obviate the need for a shed, smaller barn or serve as a workshop (And maybe even store an RV) and you have the means then the optimal use of your time is to build it first. Such a barn is a considerable project though much less than a home. The useful structures you build before your home may still, in themselves, be considerable projects. But, they still bestow the benefits of building it backwards.

Temporary Stuctures

Anyone who’s hauled a port-a-potty or scaffolding onto a building site knows that temporary structures can be the Optimal next choice. If a temporary structure has that much use, and you’ve got the money and time, then build it.

Build It Backwards Advantages

The idea of building it backwards can be implemented in an infinite number of ways. Limiting the focus to my family’s personal goals the approach has the following advantages over a more traditional strategy:

Gets you thinking of ways to use of your land, immediately.
Gets your land ‘producing’ at the beginning of the building process rather than at the end.
No debt. Purchasing the land and building slowly is a form of self-financing that keeps you from having to take a loan.
Flexibility. As circumstances change and money comes and goes you can make optimal choices on the margin about the timing, cost and usefulness of the next step.
Working harder now to build a second house will enables renting your current house in the future for retirement income.
You get to design and build exactly what you want, where you want it, and when you’re ready to build it.
Motivates site planning from the beginning which saves time, money and effort.
Provides a place to live on your property whenever you decide to be there.

Provides a place to live while working on or building the next phase of your country home.
May provide a place to rent for income or on-site security.
Starts momentum. Once you’ve built something useful the chances of adding further improvements rises exponentially.
Your improvements to the property for tax purposes will be minimal. By the time it amounts to something you’ll be getting maximum value from the land.

The most useful things built on land are built last. Reverse that convention and build it backwards. Small structures provide big comfort and improvements relative to their size and cost. Return on investment is high because investment is small and return is relative to the nothing of the vacant land your starting with.

Get the most important uses out of your land first, and soon. Doing so may rescue this widely held and rarely realized dream from the never-to-be-crossed-out section of your bucket list.

Business

240 Jobs That Won’t Disappear in an Economic Crisis

By Terence Gillespie September 2, 2014

The real unemployment rate is 22%.¹ John Williams predicted a climb to 35% in light of the many negative converging factors of this artificial economic crisis we’re in.

A job lost in this economy is hard to replace. We may attempt to do what we love and hope the money will follow. However, less division of labor means less job choice. With one out of three workers unemployed it may come down to to doing what we must so that groceries will follow.

If you have a job hold onto it by:

Becoming an invaluable employee with a superior attitude.
Volunteering for extra work and showing great interest in what’s profitable for the business.
Helping your company cut costs and waste.
Contributing to your companies goal of bringing in revenue or new customers.
Being a source of income, not expense, to the company your work for.

If you lost a job, recently, can you work part-time for your previous employer or hire yourself out in the same field?

If not, it’s back to the drawing board of . . .

Matching Abilities to Market Opportunities

In good times we may have the luxury of matching our most fulfilling abilities with a market opportunity. With less opportunities we have to either create our own market in line with our purpose (Optimal, but not easy) or match one of our less fulfilling abilities to a remaining opportunity. Either way, it’s helpful to have a clear view of what opportunities still exist.

The purpose of this article is to keep a running list of jobs and opportunities that exist even when the economy goes south. Such a list is useful to both entrepreneurs and job seekers, alike. Obviously, the more self-knowledge you have about the complete range of your strengths, weaknesses, values, goals and purpose the better chance you have at optimizing the work you do in any environment. However, a comprehensive list of jobs, known to be available in hard times, makes it much easier to zero-in on a best fit. My hope for this list of Jobs is that it:

Puts a wide range of opportunities in front of you all at once.
Jars your mind into creating a clear picture of what always needs to get done
Points out an opportunity you might have missed or never thought of.
Causes you to think of something, not on the list, that you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise (Please e-mail me your suggestions).
Enables you to optimize a match between your abilities and market opportunities rather than taking the first thing that comes along.
Enables a jump to higher state, closer to your individual purpose, even during these hard times.

As a list maker I know the value of a complete list. Although overwhelming, at first, its true value is the specific insight they give. You’ll care about only two to five items on this list. But, you’ve got to sift through a mountain of dirt to get to a gem. And, your dirt is someone else’s gem. The goal is to do what needs to be done that nobody else can, or is willing, to do.

Range of Strengths

People have a range of strengths and talents and are very adaptable. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that each person is capable of doing 100 different jobs for which they could get paid. Let’s also say that each of those 100 jobs were listed out and prioritized such that job 100 was least preferred and job one was most preferred. It would be a very fortunate person working only on jobs 1 through 5. In hard times, however, one may need to flexible and willing to do any of those 100 jobs depending on what opportunities exist.

Of all the things you can do, for which there are opportunities available, pick the ones you could do, with relative ease, better than 80% of the people. It may sound cold, but, if you can’t perform in the top 20% then you’re a general worker and more likely to be expendable as companies cut back.

Consider More Than One

The ideal work for you may be doing two or three of these jobs on a part-time basis and getting your own small business started as a long term project. There may not be full-time work for your top choice and businesses seek temporary help during hard times. Even if you can find steady work in your top choices it’s always wise to hedge risk through multiple sources if income.

The Ways of Hard Times

In hard times, people and businesses tend to:

Fix, not replace, existing equipment.
Expand sources of revenue for their business.
Cut the number of paid work hours in the week (Furlough days).
Ask employees to take pay cuts.
Focus on cutting costs to the bone.
Take better care of what they have.
Focus on essential needs rather than desires.
Seek entertainment or psychological relief from endless worries.
Seek temporary help rather than full-time employees.
Keep work in-house rather than outsource.

Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous (And in Demand)

There’s always work available for people willing to perform dirty, difficult or dangerous jobs. Since these terms are subjective only you can decide what they mean. Ideally, something others consider difficult is not difficult for you. Same goes for dirty or dangerous. To provide good samples I’ve included all the jobs from the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs and denoted them with an asterisk.

Work is Everything You Must Do

Anything you must do to provide for the needs of your family is work. When performing this work you are employed whether you’re paid or not.

What we really need is to provide food, clothes, shelter and security for our families. We need the real things listed in Checklist for Hard Times. A job is an indirect means of providing these real things for our family. Anything you can do to provide them, directly, decreases your dependency on working for someone else.

Barter with your excess instead of spending new money you have to work for.
Cut overhead.
Swap services and expertise with trusted friends.
Store new money into real things instead of disintegrating fiat money.

All the simple things suggested in Your Optimal Bailout Plan and Depression Proof your money can be done whether you have a formal job or not. In fact, being formally unemployed may create a time and space to work on eliminating the need for a conventional job, altogether!

After all, who cares if your labeled ‘unemployed’ if you’re meeting all the needs of your family?!

Jobs For Hard Times

Anyone who has seen a balance sheet for a business knows there’s a small number of income sources and a large number of expenses. Each job, below, represents a possible source of income.

(Note: This is a running list. Please e-mail your ideas for additions and subtractions. I’ll post them here at YourOptimal so others may benefit.)

Accounting – Cut costs and avoid taxes
Accupuncturist
Agricultural Equip. Parts & Personnel
Airport Maintenance*
Alligator Farmer*
Alpaca Farmer*
Alternative Communications Systems
Animal Barber*
Appliance Repair
Auto Mechanic
Auto Parts & Personnel
Bakery
Bankruptcy Consultant
Bar – Tender, Keep, Supplier
Barge Demolition*
Barter Exchanges – Clearing Houses For Goods.
Bat Guano Collector*
Battery Recharging Services
Bee Exterminator*
Beekeeper
Bicycle Shop & Repair
Big Animal Vet*
Billboard Installer*
Bio-Diesel Recovery*
Blacksmith
Blogger or Freelance Writer in a Unique Niche
Bodywork – Car, Truck
Bologna Maker*
Bridge Painter*
Buoy Cleaner*
Bus Driver
Camel Rancher*
Candle Maker
Cardboard Packaging
Career Counselor
Carpenter – Temp shelters, House Repair, Security
Casino Food Recycler*
Catfish Noodler*
Cattle Rancher*
Cave Cleanup*
Cave Digger – Excavate Wine Caverns In Napa Valley*
Cell Tower Maintenance
Charcoal Maker*
Cheese Maker*
Chick Sexer*
Chicken Raising/Breeding
Child Daycare
Chimney Sweeper*
Chiropractor
City Hall Jobs
Coal Miner*
Coffee Shop – Barista, Proprietor
Communications Equipment Repair
Community Colleges – Career (Re)Training
Complementary alternative medicine
Computer Rental & Repair
Concrete Spreader*
Cook/Chef
Cooper – Barrel maker
Copywriters for Ad Copy
Cosmetologist – Basics That Boost Spirits
County Clerk Office
Crab Fisherman*
Crawfisher*
Custodian for Empty Buildings
Dairy Farmer*
Debt Advisor
Debt Collection
Demolition Worker*
Dentistry/Oral Surgery
Diaper Cleaner*
Direct Marketing
Disaster Cleanup*
Doctor
Doctor’s Offices
Drivers – Bus, Van, Truck, Dumptruck
Drugstores
Educational Services – Trade Schools, Retraining
Egg Farm*
Electrician (Power Generation & Distribution, Communication)
Electronic Waste Recycling*
Engine Repair / Mechanic / Machinist
Engineer (Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Metallurgical/Materials)
Entertainment And Diversions – DVD Rental
Exterminator*
Farm Equipment Repairman
Fill-In Worker For No Shows
Firearms Instructor
Fish Gutter*
Fix Things
Food Recycler*
Foreclosure Services
Fruit
Fuel Tank Cleaner*
Garbage Collector*
Garbage Pit Technician – Convert Trash Into Electricity*
Gardener
Gasoline Service Stations
General Stores – Mom And Pop
Generators Ac & Dc (Supply, Repair, Maint, Installer)
Glass Maker*
Goat Farmer*
Golf Ball Diver*
Goose Down Plucker*
Gourd Maker*
Green Algae Grower*
Grocery Store
Groundskeeper for Large Estates
Guns And Ammo Supply
Gunsmith
Handyman (Carpenter, Plumber, Roofer, Mr. Fix it)
Harvest Field Workers
Harvest Hops*
Harvest Walnuts*
Healthcare Services (Admin, Therapy)
Heating Oil Tank Removal*
Herb Grower/Supplier (Medicinal)
High-Rise Window Washer*
Home Retrofitting For Senior Access
Home Security And Locksmithing
Homeschooling Teachers
Honey Harvester*
Hoof Cleaner*
Horse Breeder*
Hot Tar Roofer*
Hunter/Trapper
Hydroelectric Dam Maintenance*
Import / Export – Anything & Everything
Infrastructure Repair – Communications, Utilities, Roads
Installing Insulation
Internet Café
Junkyard Dealers
Language Translator
Lawn & Garden Parts & Personnel
Leatherwork / Tanner
Leech Trapper*
Liquor Stores
Locksmith
Maggot Farmer*
Marketers – Drum Up Business
Massage Therapist
Mattress Recycler*
Mechanic – Aircraft
Mechanic – Automobile
Mechanic – Keeping Stuff Running
Midwife
Mortician
Mosquito Control*
Mule Logger*
Museum Conservator
Mushroom Farmer*
Nurse
Nursery Worker
Off-grid Power Supply – Sell, Install, Repair, Consult
Oil Drilling*
Optometrists
Ostrich Farmer*
Oyster Harvester*
ParaLegal Services
Paramedics/EMT
Parent – Stay at Home, Homeschooling
Parts & Personnel for EVERYTHING
Pawn Shops
Pest Control*
Pet Groomer*
Pharmacist
Physical Therapy
Physician (General Practice, Surgeon, Ob-Gyn)
Physician Assistants
Pig Farmer*
Plumber
Plumbing Parts & Personnel
Potato Farmer*
Power Supplies – Fix, Repair, Maint
Precious Metal Dealer
Psychological Counseling
Recharge Batteries
Reindeer Farmer*
Reloading
Repair – Home, Car, Commercial, And Industrial Repair
Repair Shops
Repairs And Maintenance Of All Kinds
Repairing Utilities
Repossession Services
Roadkill Recovery*
Rock Quarry*
RV Maint & Repair
Salespeople
Salt Miner*
Salt Supplier
Schoolbus Driver
Scrap Metal Recycling*
Second Hand Stores
Security Consultant
Security Guard
Security Improvements – Building Barriers, Install Cameras
Seed Supplier
Senior Care Management
Septic Tank Technician*
Sewer Inspector*
Shark Catcher*
Sheep Castrator*
Shoe Repair
Shrimper*
Skull Cleaner*
Sludge Recycler*
Snow Plowing
Soldier – If you really must
Spray Insulation*
Steam Ship Cleaner*
Steel Mill Worker & Recovery*
Stonemason/Bricklayer
Storage Unit Cleanout
Storm Drain Metal Recovery*
Street Vendors – Meat, Corn, Fruit, Ice Cream, Tacos, Candy
Sunken Logs Recovery*
Survival Supplies Dealer
Swap Meets – Setup, Organizers
Tailoring/Alterations
Teacher/Tutor
Telephone Repair
Temporary Workers (Biggest Category And Opportunity Here)
Termite Controller*
Tire Recycler*
Tofu Maker*
Toilet Crusher And Recycler*
Towtruck Driver
Trade Schools
Truck Farming And Large Scale Vegetable Gardening
Turkey Farmer*
Unloading Railroad Cars
Utilities
Van Drivers
Vegetable Gardening
Vellum Maker – Turns Animal Hides In To Paper*
Veterinarian
Vice: Sex, Moonshine, Drugs, Gambling
Waste Water Sewage Plant*
Welder
Well Digger*
Wind Farm Technician*
Windshield Glass Repair
Wine Maker*
Wood Stoves
Worm Rancher*

*These were featured jobs on the the Discovery Channel show “Dirty Jobs“.

¹It’s 9/2/2014

Family

Gentleman’s Travel Checklist

By Terence Gillespie August 29, 2014

You know that feeling you get when you’re driving to the airport and realize you forgot your passport?

I haven’t had that feeling in years. . . . thanks to my father’s travel list and his son’s obsession with lists.

My father traveled a lot for business and made a travel checklist so he wouldn’t forget things. We had fun brainstorming on worthy additions (Rarely subtractions) to the list. It got to the point where he never forgot to pack anything. Now its gone way beyond that and my father would get a kick out of how his list has evolved.

The latest Travel List has been improved over the last 20 years. It now has 300+ items and covers just about every trip imaginable. I’ve recently added items for family, camping, international and kids travel. There’s also some 50 simple tasks to do before and after a trip to make it easier, safer, save money, and put me at ease while traveling.

Beyond Forgetting

Not forgetting things is only the most obvious benefit to using the travel list. Here are some other bene’s:

Removes mental clutter and maintains focus while packing.
Makes packing easier, more fun and quicker.
Reduces the stress of trip preparation.
Enables packing far in advance of trip.
Enables light travel while getting more out of items packed.
Takes the stress out of unexpected trips.
Enables focus on destination specific details.
Frees up time to help less prepared family members pack.
Enables you to delegate trip preparation tasks to family members.
Enables you to focus on completing nagging projects (not related to your trip) that you want to complete prior to being gone.
Standardizes your approach to trip preparation.
Makes you more ready and willing to take spontaneous trips.
Makes you more likely to travel to places you’ve always wanted to go.
Sets your mind at ease that all bases are covered at home and work so you can enjoy your trip.
Minimizes the tasks you’ll need to do upon your return.

That’s a lot of bang to get out of one list!

The list is the focal point for the activity performed around it. The better the list the more effective the activity. This article is about maximizing the effectiveness of both the list and the activities it inspires.

Less is Enough

Space is in short supply when traveling. You pay money for the small space you occupy on the plane, each checked bag, your hotel room, etc.. You also pay dearly in effort and hassle for the weight and size of everything you have to lug around, secure, insure, keep track of and maybe even replace.

If ever there’s an occasion when you need to do more with less its when traveling.

Ironically, the longer your travel list the more comfortable you’ll be in bringing less! Now that anxiety about forgetting travel items is no longer a problem how about leaving things behind on purpose? With more than you could ever need listed out in front of you make informed decisions about what not to take. Come up with techniques and strategies to:

Use items in multiple ways.
Find smaller versions.
Bring disposable items that get thrown away before returning.
Purchase at a convenience store at the destination.
Share common items with a travel mate.
Wash key clothing items at you destination rather than bringing multiple versions.
Keep a travel bag at a friends house at your destination.

By Air

When traveling by air my goal is to take as few items as possible. Ideally, I don’t even check a bag. That boils down to one small travel backpack (SAK, makes a nice one) and one carry-on bag. The backpack is so small that most people don’t even see it. You’ll be doing me a favor to not refer to it as a man purse.

By Car

When traveling by car I’m a lot more survival oriented and tend to go overboard. Now that my wife and child are in the car I feel more protective. Soon, however, I’ll be able to expertly scale back. My goal is to scale back to less items while improving on utility.

The question is: What is optimal for this trip? Part of that answer is that optimal, when traveling, usually means bringing less.

For the “Don’t Need a List” People

I know who you are. My wife is one of you.

My wife thinks I’m a little nuts with my travel list. “What do you need that thing for?”, she used to say, “It’s all just common sense!”

Now, even my wife asks me to print the list for her when:

She’s tired.
She’s busy.
Her trip comes up suddenly.
The purpose of her trip changes drastically.
The trip destination is unusual.
She has too many non-travel related projects to work on before she leaves!

To put this in perspective you should know that Isabel is an expert traveler by any definition. Her trips are international and usually to multiple countries where knowledge of the language is limited. And, she has a remarkable talent for keeping details in her head. Keeping the same amount of detail in my head would cause goo to drip out of my ears.

Let’s put it this way for all the “Don’t Need a List” people out there: The six reasons that my wife will use a travel list are the best real life example I could ever show to “One of your kind”.

Actually, if you can keep that much detail in your head then think of what you could do with Travel list in front of you! Use that brainpower for more glamorous achievements than packing!

For the Sophisticated

You can always just get in the car and drive with a credit card in your pocket and the shirt on your back. But, how sophisticated is it to extol the benefits of traveling light when you make your first turn and start worrying about all the things you don’t have.

Have fun interrupting the fun parts of your trip to shop at the store for toothpaste (If you can find a store). Or worse, what if your business mission is in jeopardy because your only copy of the presentation is on your secretaries computer. She’d send it to you, but, the server just crashed.

For the Creative

The more basic ingredients you have on hand the less creative you have to be about not having them.

But, guess what? You won’t be less creative. Your creative efforts will just go further because you’ll have more basic ingredients that can be used for things that cannot be anticipated (Think apollo 13 and the carbon monoxide filter they had to build out of raw materials in the capsule).

In other words, just because you may have paper towels doesn’t mean you’ll be using it as a paper towel. It may be used as a coffee filter, dust mask, fire starter or water sponge (Gee how creative you can be when you have things to be creative with.).

Creativity is another form of excess capacity. Just like I say to the people who can store lots of details in their head: Fantastic! Now, how about using that ability for something greater than packing badly.

Most Likely to be Forgotten

Things in the fridge.
1. Vitamins
2. Drinks
3. Baby bottles
4. Wine
Support materials for incomplete “B” projects.
Change of plans at last minute changes your needed support materials.
Cell phone & charger.
1. Because you left it charging.
2. Because you packed the cell phone too early and forgot about charger.
Things you don’t have the right container for.
Information written on pieces of paper scattered around your house.
Backups and copies of documents you need to perform admin tasks on the road.
CD’s or DVD left in the drive in your computer
Project files for any projects to be performed “On the road”.

Sometimes, traveling companions are so disorganized that you spend all your time helping them pack and forget your own stuff. Parents should be especially prepared for this as things they forget have consequences for the entire family. YO Travel List will help you get on top of your own packing to minimize the da mange of sort of thing.

Field Experience

When you start traveling with a list it makes you more aware of which items are truly useful. Since traveling is an extension of living it’s possible to find yourself wanting or needing just about anything. Thankfully, the practical aspects of traveling place natural limits on the infinite items that could make it onto your list. Here’s a few conclusions I’ve drawn through lots of time spent “In the Field”.

There are many items I rarely use but am still glad to have: Antibiotic cream, compass, many of the survival tin items (Though its surprising how many times I need to use something in the tin), lighter, spare glasses. Even items not used are worthwhile if they remove anxiety or if having them would prevent an emergency.
Small items are worth taking even if you don’t use them. They prevent late night in-convenience store runs or may be just plain annoying not to have. Think aspirin, tissue, dental floss, lip balm,etc..
Bring the travel list with you. This is especially useful for unexpected trips. The list enables you to buy stuff at the airport or at your destination. It will also make you aware of exactly what you don’t have that’s important for this unexpected trip.
Keep your master travel list on your phone AND accessible by internet in a jam.
I usually need only one book as reading material. If I finish it then it provides an opportunity to read something I normally wouldn’t.
Reference cards are a great source of reading material. Spanish vocabulary, Knot cards, first aid summaries. Anything I’m interested in studying that might have a laminated summary card is a compact way to learn and travel light.
DK books are excellent and compact source of all things local to your destination. They have local maps, amenities, hospitals, hotels, restaurants and on and on and on.
Knowledge of destination leads to less things to pack.
Knowing people at the destination leads to less things to pack.
Ability to improvise leads to less things to pack.
Taking items that perform multiple uses leads to less things to pack (Wave multi-tool, rag, tissue).
Leave space for purchases in your suitcase. A suitcase 3/4 full provides room for souvenirs.

Do I Have to use Categories?

No, you don’t have to use categories. I used the list without categories for a long time. I only started grouping things into categories when I got married. That’s when things got more complicated and more responsibilities leave less time to prepare.

In case you didn’t notice –the paragraph above is a backdoor recommendation to use categories. Ok, I feel your pain. Please hear me out. Categories:

Encourage you to store items in your house by usage.
Make you aware of where things go while packing.
Make it easier to unpack when you get home
Make your travel list more visually appealing and easier to work from.
Get you thinking in terms of space and context rather a bombardment of item after item.
Encourage you to brainstorm on other items in the same category you might have missed.
Separate tasks from things on your list making it easier to delegate trip preparation to other family members.

I’ve made my own Optimal choices for categories. I put a key identifier in front of the task or item so they are grouped and sorted at the press of a button. There are lots of options for categories:

Type of travel
Place item is kept
Place item is packed
Where item is carried
Usage category
Activity based

Try mine out and see if you like them. If you don’t its time to experiment with your own. Just make sure the key in front is unique so it sorts and groups well in your word processor.

B – Before Packing

Almost all my “Packing” time is spent working on what I call “B” items. “B” stands for “Before Leaving”. They are tasks or projects –not items to pack. Many of them relate to the trip, however, most of my efforts go towards projects I want to get done before leaving. These fall into three categories:

Projects that must be completed before leaving.
Projects I want to be completed to feel better about leaving.
Projects much easier completed now than when I return.

Work on all three categories make the trip more stress free and relaxing.

“B” items are the true “Work” of traveling. Taken all together, they are the real reason people dread (Avoid, postpone, Never get around to) traveling. They are also the most under appreciated and complex part of leaving the house. Smoothing out this phase of trip preparation will go a long way towards making you want to travel, again.

Strangely, I hear comments from friends that “It takes you a long time to pack”. That’s because I refer to any work on “B” projects as “Packing” to minimize interruptions leading up to departure. After my friends read this article that trick will no longer work for me. But, it will still work for you so give it a try.

Travel is a great excuse to impose deadlines on nagging projects. As any writer will tell you “Deadlines” don’t kill you when you cross them. They’re more likely to set you free.

Packing Tidbits

It’s best to check an item off your list only when it is:

Placed into a bag that won’t be left behind.
Put in the car (For car trips only).
Put into the pockets of the clothes you’ll be wearing when you leave.
On your key ring.
In your pocket survival tin.
“Done” if its a task or project.

Work off one list only!
Consider a bag full when it’s 3/4’s full. That will make items easier to retrieve and leave space for souvenirs.
Place packed bags by the door or in the car.
Pack car trip bags for easy retrieval of commonly needed items on the road.
While packing the car for a road trip create a ‘cockpit’ around driver to make things easy to retrieve safely while driving without having to pull over and stop.
Add any new items or tasks you thought of while packing to your master travel list. If you think of them while traveling e-mail or leave a phone msg to yourself to add later.

Gentleman’s Travel CheckList

Instructions

The list is the simplest component of travel preparation. Although the Travel List is the result of years of brainstorming –how you use the list is more important than the list, itself.

Once you get it down the list prep will take only 5 minutes. The rest of the time will be spent packing or getting non-travel related projects done before your trip. Don’t be put off by the detail in the steps. I have to be specific for those going through the process for the first time.

Paste the whole list into word
Change categories, if necessary, but keep each prefix unique.
Consolidate all lists for this trip into this list
Categorize any new items added.
Use Word to Sort the entire list by Alphanumeric A-Z (Which will group all categories together).
Now, delete all items not applicable for this trip (Which will probably cut list in half).
Going through the list probably made you think of destination specific items. Add these items to the list while they’re fresh on your mind.
Going through the list probably made you think of things you have to do before leaving. Add these tasks/projects to the list with a “B” prefix.
If any items you thought of in 7. or 8. are general items then add them to your master travel list for the next trip.
Delegate any “B” items that could possibly be better accomplished by someone else. Change any delegated items to “BD”.
Go through list again and delete items not needed for this trip.
You list is probably much shorter now. Using Word, select all and then format the list into two or three columns with a goal of getting all remaining items on one page.
Print out the resulting list. If greater than one page then print on both sides so entire list is on one sheet of paper.
Keep that one sheet of paper with you while you run errands. Check items off list as they get done. Consider giving a copy to family members with their delegated items. Add any general items you think of to this list and transfer to master list for next trip.

Last, but, not least my father would be disappointed if I didn’t leave you with his favorite travel tip. While your walking out the door leave one bag behind!

God

Modules For Manhood

By Terence Gillespie August 21, 2014

Book Review by Terence Gillespie

“A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month’s study of books.”
— Chinese proverb

If conversations with the wise were captured in all the categories a man needs, supplemented with the views of the wisest authors of history, and woven together for the modern man the result would be “Modules for Manhood”.

The goal of Kenneth W. Royce’s series is to impart “What Every Man Must Know” to “Transform yourself into a strong, patient, competent, and courageous Gentleman of Honor”. Judging by the first volume—with the remaining two to be published this year—Royce may have accomplished these rather lofty goals.

Heritage

The Greatest Conquest of England

By Terence Gillespie August 13, 2014

Atlas and Cyclopedia of Ireland

by P. W. Joyce, LL.D.

Introduction

Mr. John Mitchel justly remarks, in one of his historical works, that the greatest conquest England ever made was to gain the ear of the world. In the case of Ireland especially, she has for centuries possessed not only its soil, but the advantage of telling the story of its people from her own viewpoint, while preventing them from making themselves heard in their own behalf. Down almost to within the memory of living men, education, even in its most rudimentary form, was a felony in Ireland, on the correct principle that the most effective method of subjugating and despoiling a people is to keep them in enforced ignorance.

Defense

The Only Thing Better Than Becoming a Rifleman

By Terence Gillespie May 17, 2010

. . . is helping another become one.

A reader I haven’t met became a Rifleman on Sunday and credits my essay with finding out about Appleseed. Hearing the news truly made my week!

Though working on a few candidates at home they’ve yet to attend an Appleseed. But, America’s latest Rifleman, Mark Hudson, went a step further and managed the feat of documenting his training while mastering it. I hope it’s not too long before Mark receives word that the next Rifleman found Appleseed through his article (Which contains excellent checklists and pictures to inspire and assist in preparing for the event)!

Of course, not everyone writes. Just telling folks what you’ve been up to is enough. Those inclined to listen pay more attention to actions than words, anyway; something Appleseed founder Fred knew from the start, no doubt.

All week I’ve been thinking about the popular notion that everyone on the planet is only six degrees of separation away from each other. I think it’s only two degrees for Rifleman. After posting on a favorite forum about Mark’s success one of the Appleseed instructors who worked with Mark, last weekend, actually saw and commented on the post!

To Those Who Have Ears

There’s no way around the looks you’ll get when recommending Rifle training over another trip to Disneyland. Guns are provocative by nature like a beautiful woman. Speaking of which, my wife was concerned watching me gear up for Appleseed. It was fun to return home and burst her bubble with pictures of families, father-daughter teams and boyscouts right along side the warriors she was expecting.

It wasn’t long after that Isabel was dropping hints that she’d be willing to learn if she had her own rifle (Of course!). So, I bought her the one she picked to go with her outfits, in black & silver.

[Photo taken just after Isabel’s promise to attend the next Appleseed with her husband. She is holding the bribe it took to extract that promise.

What a natural and relaxed stance for a gal who’s never picked up a rifle. Now, if that elbow was vertical under the stock and . . .]

Isabel says she always wanted to learn to shoot and my enthusiasm made her speak up. Make that zero degrees of separation in the Gillespie household.

I planned to make this a longer article by mapping out ways to overcome common objections to the innumerable benefits of Rifle training. However, I’m learning from experience that it’s best to save words for those who have ears:

If you don’t see the Liberty aspects of the training then go to learn about your Heritage.
If you don’t care about the Heritage aspects then go for the Marksmanship.
if you don’t care about the marksmanship aspects then go for Precision.
If you don’t care about precision then go to spend time with family members that do.
If you don’t think they need the company then go to meet quality people who are passionate about any one of the above.
If none of these things motivate you then volunteer to babysit for someone who does. . .

Which brings me to something else I learned from Mark that will serve to keep future articles more brief and to the point. As with so much worldly wisdom the Greeks said it first in Latin, “Verbum sat sapienti” or

“A word is sufficient to a wise man”.

After reading some of Mark Hudson’s views on Life, God and Family I think we get a rare glimpse of one, below.

Family

Insurance is Not Health

By Terence Gillespie April 9, 2010

Health insurance is to health what car insurance is to safety: Both pay for damage only after it’s occurred. Insurance doesn’t prevent anything and may even give a false sense of security leading to the very behavior that necessitates its use.

Health comes from food, nutrition, lifestyle, wise choices, habits and from God’s bountiful earth. Most of that is under your direct control and can’t be delegated.

Whether you pay for medical ‘care’ with insurance or out of your own pocket orthodox medicine deals with the effects of sickness rather than the causes of health. You’re neither safe nor healthy by having the means to pay for your sickness after it occurs. What are you doing to remain healthy and prevent sickness in the first place?

Reliance on orthodox medicine as the only means to provide for health is a poor strategy. In the video, below, meet a group of people who don’t rely on orthodox medicine (Or the insurance that pays for it) for anything. Instead, they invest into the direct causes of health and rely on the best person in the world to take their medicine: Themselves.

You may not agree with everything Mike and his fellow Health Rangers say and do in support of their own health. However, instead of pointing out differences what parts of their approach to health sound like common sense?

People without health insurance are not all homeless, destitute or in ill-health. They may be the most healthy among us. Certainly, the people in the video, above, spend more on their health than someone fully ‘covered’. Yet, we’re supposed to think of them as crazy because:

They don’t want to pay for something they don’t need or use.
They prefer to invest the $1000/month directly on their health and not insurance that only pays for care that doesn’t work, treatments they don’t need and medicine they wouldn’t take even if it was free.
Their children rarely need a doctor, are not sick and will most likely remain so if they follow in their parents’ footsteps. The people in the video believe that part of the reason their children are not chronically sick is because they’ve never received the vaccines we’re made to believe are the only possible means to achieve immunization against disease. They don’t believe that vaccination is a synonym for immunization.
They enjoy supporting companies that make products that keep them healthy. They even say they can afford the organic food and nutrients they need for their health because they don’t waste money on health insurance to pay for orthodox medicine that doesn’t work.
They’re not concerned about getting cancer because the chemo and radiation treatments they would be offered would kill them faster than the cancer.
They say that insurance doesn’t prevent anything because detection is not prevention.
They believe the detection tests themselves are harmful or inaccurate leading to either harm or misdiagnosis. Even if they get sick they’re more likely to choose a treatment that actually works, most of which are outside of the system and wouldn’t be covered by their insurance, anyway!

While everyone is clamoring for something called “Health Care” these people say they don’t have it, don’t want it, don’t need it and wouldn’t take it even if it was free!

Is Zero Health Insurance Optimal?

Modern orthodox medicine handles one area, extremely well: Trauma and catastrophic damage to the body. My view on Optimal health care is combining Mike’s approach with an alternative medicine doctor and the ability to pay for the odd catastrophic event. Whether or not insurance is needed to cover all this is another question.

My father used to say that, “Any insurance offered can’t be a good deal“. His reasoning was that any insurance worth it to the customer would cause the insurance companies to lose money and that never happens.

While my fathers view was a bit extreme insurance companies do have the resources to study every angle and risk. On average, most of the events they would insure are more cost-effectively self-insured. One of the guys in the video alludes to this when he says that by investing in their own health they are really self-insuring their own health care. The big picture of whether health insurance is needed, at all, breaks down like this, in my view:

Good food, nutrition, lifestyle, wise choices & habits – Requires some money, study and time but no insurance.
Alternative medicine doctor – Very reasonable cost per visits which are usually preventative in nature. No insurance required. Ironically, since the visits and natural medicines recommended are preventative ‘health’ insurance is less inclined to reimburse for these visits, anyway.
Catastrophic medical – If you get hit by a bus you’ve got to pay to get put back together. Orthodox medicine handles this well, but, the costs are high. My recommendation is to put aside 1/3 of what you would pay for health insurance, on a monthly basis, to pay directly for anything that may happen. Ironically, the fact that most pay for catastrophic medical with insurance greatly inflates the price. You need to negotiate the price back down to the non-insurance inflated cost. I have done this twice in my life: Once for dental work and once for surgery. My direct family members have done the same. It would take a separate article to cover this topic well. I only describe it here to present a complete picture of alternative ways to pay for every aspect of one’s own medical care.

A Service is Not a Right

If a service is a right then doctors and nurses are slaves. How long will doctors and nurses continue to sacrifice and pay for their extensive medical training to keep us well if their only reward is to be made slaves of the people they serve?

Indeed, socialized medicine is a prime cause for the ‘brain drains’ that follow in their wake. The best students stop going to medical school, interns and residents opt out, current doctors quit medicine and there are massive doctor and nurse shortages. These shortages would be difficult to handle even with current demand. As millions of magically ‘entitled’ people are added to ‘the system’ the quality of medical care declines fast for everyone. In Canada, such shortages have given rise to illegal clinics just to meet basic health care needs. Officials pretend not to notice hundreds of illegal clinics because they enable them to say that their socialized medical programs are working well.

I’m all for working towards a solution where all people can receive medical care. However, turning a service into a right has so many historical precedents of destroying the service in question that it’s hard to believe anyone who really wants to help people would try it (Again). More importantly, turning a service into a right is morally wrong and turns the service providers into slaves. Realizing this the service providers simply stop providing and less people are served than before the ‘fix’ was implemented.

There are 307 Million people in the US. If 40 Million don’t have health insurance then 87% of the population is insured. Destroying the entire health care system for 13% of the population would be bad enough if it weren’t for the point of this article that . . .

Insurance is Not Health

Insurance doesn’t prevent sickness or promote health. Detection is not prevention and treatments are rarely cures. The detection, treatment, drugs and procedures that are most likely to be reimbursable by your ‘health’ insurance deal only with the effects of sickness rather than the causes of health. Focusing on being reimbursed for treatments that don’t work perpetuates a flawed system.

Health comes from food, nutrition, lifestyle, wise choices, habits and from God’s bountiful earth. Most of that is under your direct control and can’t be delegated. Invest into the direct causes of health and rely on the best person in the world to take your medicine: You.