In my last post I told how I first began to suspect there was more to life than having a job and making as much money as possible as fast as possible. First, because of the hemorrhaging of money from my paycheck before I got it. Second, because of the cost of things I needed just to have the job.

I kept working at the factory because I applied for and was accepted into an excellent apprenticeship program and got a valuable education. I took part-time jobs for extra money and for interesting new work experiences. I was smart enough to know I needed skills in order to get jobs. After about seven years I had worked four full-time jobs and more than 20 part-time jobs.

There were usually part-time jobs available which required the skills I had learned. I felt safer in knowing that I could do a variety of things to keep the money coming if I lost my full-time employment. A good strategy, but I still had not put the best plan together.

Eventually I realized that fear of having no money was influencing me too much. What I lacked was security. Even with some savings in the bank the fear remained because something could so easily happen that would take it all away. Everything I did required money. Without it I was sunk.

That was when the fog began to clear. It was during the back-t0-the-land movement and I was reading all I could about it. The Nearings and Ken Kern were my favorite authors. What came through to me was how successful these people were with so little money. They, and many others, were doing well because they did things for themselves instead of paying for it with money from a job.

I could write all month about my revelations but it boiled down to what I call “The Facts Of Life.” I asked myself, ‘What are the basic necessities of life?’ After making long lists and distilling them down I came up with three categories: Food – Shelter – Security. All other subjects fit into one of these categories.

Food is obvious. It includes all things concerning food. Shelter is about a place to live and all things relevant to that. Security is the biggest category because so many matters in life involve staying safe. I am sure readers of this website and BHM are very aware of these three Facts Of Life or something close to them.

We have visitors coming today, new ones and an old friend. We are going to discuss self-sufficiency. I look forward to learning some things. The new friends are Amish and have generations worth of knowledge.

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Now is a good time to go back and read my July 17th post because this relates to it.

When I was about 19 I decided to go on Dave’s big adventure. I left my little town in the hills of Vermont, drove to the big city of Hartford, Connecticut and got a job with a large company that made helicopters, jet engines, parts for spaceships and lots of other cool stuff.

I settled in to take my place in the great American work force. Things went pretty well for a year or so until I got “laid off.” It was not my fault. The union in another part of the factory went on strike for longer coffee breaks or something, leaving my part of the factory without work. My whole existence was supported by money from that job and the prospect of having none for awhile was a shock.

During my time off I had reason to examine what having a job for money was costing me. First was the time. I worked eight hours. I had a half hour lunch break and it took an hour and a half, round trip, to commute when the traffic was reasonable. That was ten hours a day, often six days a week because the factory was doing well.

I drove my car over 200 miles per week just to go to work and back. It was a nice new Pontiac. I bought it with economy in mind. The brochure said the engine, with a two-barrel carburetor, would get 15 miles per gallon so I got the GTO option with THREE two-barrel carburetors, expecting to get 45 miles per gallon. For some reason that never worked out. Nice car though.

To have this job required that I pay for work uniforms and a laundering service supplied by a vendor company. I had to buy special safety glasses and expensive shoes with steel toes. They did let me use a safety helmet for free when one was needed. Wearing socks and underwear was my choice.

Then there was the apartment. I rented a couple of rooms in an old farmhouse in the country and it was really nice. The landlady was like a grandmother to me, but it was costing me nearly a quarter of my take-home pay and I hardly did anything there but sleep.

Speaking of pay, there was a serious difference between what the company paid me and what I took home. There were these things called payroll deductions that sucked up about a third of my money. Taxes, work services, union dues, charity donations and other niggling little things I can’t remember. Then there were car payments, utilities, insurance premiums, fuel for the car and food for me.

During my forced time off I came to realize all the parasitic expenses I had overlooked in order to have a job. When money is coming in regularly that is easy to do. Now, in my defense, I was young, healthy and seriously distracted by the number of lovely young city ladies who needed me for their social entertainment. However, it was during that “laid off” time that I began to form a philosophy which led me to where I am now. I will share that with you next time.

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I hate money. When it is needed it takes too much time and work to make it. When there is enough it takes too much time and work to manage it. But having it and managing it is less miserable than needing it. That is one big reason for taking two years of concentrated work to make a worthwhile amount.

These last few posts have been about using the first year to organize your finances to make the second year possible. During the second year you will be spending your money and probably borrowing some too. At the end of Year Two you should have a home that is (1) yours free and clear or (2) yours with a much smaller mortgage than if you had bought it the regular way.

You will also have learned a number of valuable job skills along the way that could open up new career choices for you. In fact, you automatically have a new career right in front of you at the end of Year Two. Imagine what you could do if you sold your new house, took the profit and built another house.

The second house would be financed by you without borrowing, and you might have money left over. Then do house number three. Each project teaches you more and each should be more profitable than the last. And…you have created a real life career.

I have built 24 houses on my own using the ideas I am giving you here. There are numerous things to learn when making this career choice and I will talk about as many as I can in future posts.

The most important accomplishment arising from this new life experience is becoming your own boss. I can’t begin to tell you how good that feels.

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On the previous subject of stucco and styrofoam walls, check out this website: starbulletin.com:2000:05:19:features:story1.html.webloc

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Older folks, those of you beyond 35, have most likely bought a home and are paying off a mortgage. This gives you some options. If you are not too many years into your mortgage you could sell the house and get out from under the payments. Where will you live if you do that? I’ll get to that later.

If you are more than halfway through paying off your mortgage and can borrow against your equity that may be the way to go. I’ll have some ideas for you later too.

What I want you to do is rearrange your assets so that by the end of your first year you are out of debt, have some savings and your only bills are living expenses for food, utilities and maybe rent. It will be a rather drastic change for most people, especially those beyond thirty-something who have become used to a secure routine of having a place to come home to after work each day. However, this will be an adventure and such things require risks.

Making lists is a good part of planning. Get your financing plans written down and next time I will talk about some more things to be accomplished during the first year like, what do we do with the kids?

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It is a particularly nice day here on the coast of Maine. I walk two miles next to the ocean almost every day and sometimes take it all for granted. The little islands I pass do their best to attract attention. The picture with this post is one of them showing off.

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The last post was for young people starting their home building education in the real world. Today’s is for people who have been out there awhile and have a few miles on them. I am thinking of 25 to 35 year olds. I was 29 when I decided to build my first home. I had obligations, a job, bills, a mortgage and hardly any savings. Does that sound like you?

On the plus side, I had a few assets. I had a nice car that was almost payed off and a collection of stamps, coins, and other semi-precious items that I had saved from my youth. About one third of my little house was paid for and I had My Baby, a 10 1/2 foot long chopper (motorcycle) painted OSHA Safety Purple, that I had to ride after midnight because it attracted too much attention in the light of day.

I know you are ahead of me here and realize that I am going to tell you to sell off anything you have that is worth money. It hurts, I know, but console yourself with the thought that in a couple of years you will be able to buy a better…whatever it is. My Baby had to go. It was heartbreaking. I sold everything I could and it actually turned out to be a freeing experience. The person who said “He who owns little, is little owned” was right.

Anything you owe payments on should go next. I sold my nice little car and replaced it with an old pickup truck that I bought for a few hundred dollars. I estimated it would last two years (it lasted eight, great truck.) All the money went into the credit union because their interest rate was higher than a bank’s and I wanted their cooperation when I needed loans later.

Another area where I saved a surprising amount of money was by altering my entertainment and social life. When I wrote down what all that fun cost me I was shocked. I changed from movies, clubs and parties to long walks in the park and TV and popcorn dates. I got so disciplined about this that I limited myself to only two steady girlfriends. It was tough.

Everyone has different circumstances but the procedure is the same. Sell everything you can to lower your debts as drastically as possible (plus 10% more) and stash your money in an interest bearing account. All this should be accomplished during the first year, which is long enough to do it gracefully. You won’t have time to feel deprived because there will be plenty of interesting things happening to keep you occupied.

If you have a mortgage on a house you have options. I’ll go over those with you next time. For now, go sell something.

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D. Chandler emailed today asking about a stucco finish over bricks on the outside of a house:

D., scroll down these posts to find several that cover just this subject. Yes, you can smear stucco onto exterior bricks but be prepared for the Masons when they come over and do a protest march in front of your house.

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