With the recent earthquake in California and the oncoming winter here in Iowa, I thought it might be worthwhile to discuss how to properly prepare yourself so that if an emergency strikes, you’re well-prepared to handle it. Winter storms regularly take out the electricity in rural Iowa, for example, and if you live near a fault line, a quake can happen at any time.

While I’m far from a survivalist, I do see the utility in having a small number of items on hand in case of a natural disaster or other unforeseen event. Here are some guidelines to make sure you and your family are prepared for a significant crisis.

Seven Items to Consider Having in Your Basement

Flashlights If the electricity is out and it is dark, flashlights can come in handy for verifying that everyone is safe and for finding food, water, blankets, and other equipment. If you can find one that operates via winding, that’s the best option so you don’t have to ever think about batteries.

Bottled water Normally, I’m not much of a fan of bottled water, but if you’re in a situation where the power is out and your tap water is unusable, this can be a life saver.

Packaged food A couple days’ worth of packaged food is also worthwhile. If your home is struck by a tornado or an earthquake and you’re trapped, for example, some packaged food can really come in handy. Most of our food is just canned vegetables and fruits and the like, but a friend of mine keeps a case of MREs on hand at all times – just in case.

Blankets Keep a number of blankets in a known location, even if the weather seems quite warm where you are and especially if you live in a colder climate. Blankets are always useful: emergency bedding, warmth, comfort, and helping with shock, just for starters.

Cash A small amount of cash can also be useful if you’re trying to acquire supplies in the wake of a disaster. The local economy will quickly revert to cash and if you’re unable to get out of the situation, you may need to rely on the cash to acquire food and anything else you might need.

A radio A battery-powered radio can be essential for getting weather information and all-clear information. At the very least, this should be battery powered – the best option is one that has a wind-up handle so that it can be charged and used even without batteries.

First aid kit A simple, prepackaged first aid kit with tips on how to treat common injuries is another useful thing to have in case someone is hurt during a natural disaster. Being able to treat a flesh wound, a burn, or a broken bone can make a huge difference in a serious situation.

How to Acquire Them on the Cheap

Many of these items can be acquired whenever you have an opportunity to get them on sale, as it’s not entirely necessary to run out and immediately purchase all of this stuff. However, there are a few useful tips you can use to make this easier.

Stock canned goods for food to start with. A few days’ worth of canned tuna, vegetables, and fruits is a good start and it can be done relatively cheaply. Just put them in a box in an interior room or basement and don’t worry about them. I suggest rotating these once every few months by buying fresh, then using the ones in storage.

Watch for sales and coupons on bottled water. Since bottled water can keep for a long time, just wait for an opportunity to get it really cheap with a coupon or with stacked coupons.

If you decide to buy MREs, get ones with heaters. Why? If they don’t include heaters, the food will be cold if you don’t have a method of warming them up. Most complete MREs with heaters aren’t too bad, especially in a pinch.

Make sure your first aid kit has a guide on how to treat injuries. The basic prepackaged Johnson and Johnson first aid kit has a solid guide inside the box, useful for explaining how to treat many common injuries, and the kit itself is well-supplied for a baseline purchase.

Request some of these items as gifts. Quite often, relatives will ask for gift ideas for me for Christmas. This year, several items on my list are along these lines, as they’re gifts I can actually use. A wind-up radio or a shakeable flashlight are good gift ideas. Remember, gifts that have a productive use are much better than gifts that just sit and gather dust, so look for things you might actually have a real-world use for.

In a nutshell, having emergency supplies on hand is always worthwhile, but you don’t need to make an emergency out of getting the stuff. Be patient, pick up the items frugally, and store them away so they can be there for you when you need them.

One strong undercurrent of sentiment among commenters on this blog is that living a financially sensible lifestyle – spending far less than you earn, investing, not spending money foolishly, and so on – is boring. Incredibly boring, in fact. So boring that I get numerous comments along the lines of “WHY DON’T YOU GET A LIFE?”

Well, the truth is that it’s not really boring at all and, in fact, I feel substantially more fulfilled after turning my financial situation around than I ever did before. Here are seven tips that I encourage you to try out if you’re trying out financially sensible living and finding it to be less exciting than you’d like.

Re-evaluate your hobbies There are a lot of enjoyable hobbies out there that don’t require a fistful of cash. Read a book. Start a garden. Take a walk. Fully enjoy the DVDs/video games/CDs you already have. Teach yourself to cook. Then, focus on that hobby and really develop it – if you put in the time at any hobby, you will become more skilled at it. Since figuring out my financial situation, I’ve come to really enjoy cooking, something I didn’t enjoy nearly as much until I decided to actually learn how to do it with some modicum of skill. Not only is it fun, virtually everything I make is cheaper than eating out.

Involve other people Being frugal doesn’t mean being a hermit. In fact, it’s quite often worthwhile to get others involved. Invite friends over and prepare a meal for them. Have a movie night where you watch some of your favorites from your collection. Don’t shy away from other people out of some kind of “shame” that you’re being frugal; instead, put your lifestyle choices out there.

Go green Almost every environmentally friendly choice you make is also a frugal choice. Start recycling aluminum cans by having a separate storage container for them – and then take them to the recycling center yourself on occasion and make a few bucks. Reduce your energy use around the home and save on your electric and natural gas bills. Find ways to increase your car’s gas mileage and save on your gasoline bills. There are countless things you can do under the umbrella of going green that don’t involve spending money, plus it’s something you can discuss with others in a culturally relevant manner (while padding your pocket with the savings).

Buy things for the long haul Financially sensible doesn’t mean cheap – in fact, I quite often buy very expensive things. The only caveat is that these purchases were made with reliability and the long haul in mind. I am quite willing to spend a lot up front for a reliable and energy efficient appliance. In other words, you don’t have to fill your house with cheap stuff to be “frugal” – I certainly don’t and I don’t recommend it either. Instead, buy just the stuff you need – but buy quality. If you’re concerned about appearances, most of the best choices for total cost of ownership are aesthetically pleasing, too – they’re usually rather expensive right off the bat, but they’re cheaper over time and last longer because of reduced energy and maintenance.

Instead of buying ten frivolous items a month, focus on one quality item a month. A lot of people like to shop, and as a result they wind up buying a lot of stuff that’s completely unnecessary. To those folks, I generally recommend reducing but not eliminating your purchases. Instead of buying ten unnecessary things a month, cut that down to one, but make that item quality, allowing yourself to spend more than usual on that one item. This works particularly well for clothes shopping – I know one person who is addicted to buying shoes, buying several pairs a year, but I know she would get much more enjoyment out of one great pair of shoes than box after box of cheap pairs that are just worn a few times each.

Fill your life with positive reminders of your choices. I like visual debt reminders; they perk me up quite often and make me realize that the choices I’m making really are transforming my life. Keeping one in my wallet has convinced me to keep my wallet closed many times – and feel really good about it.

Give it time. Behavioral changes don’t come overnight. Spend some time trying out all of the other tips and slowly you’ll find yourself weaned from at least some of your financially irresponsible behavior. Once you’ve done that, it becomes much easier to start getting a grip on your situation and getting financially ahead.

Now that the inaugural edition of The Simple Dollar book club is over, it’s time to sit back and look at what was good about it and what was bad about it.

First, the good. I think overall it went well, and I know quite a few people out there did get into the book. At least a few people were very into it, and sent me emails about how much they enjoyed the book and the commentary. I think I did a good job balancing commentary on the reading sections with enough highlights so that even people not reading along could follow, too, and the comments were largely worthwhile, especially during the more interesting parts of the book.

There were also at least three significant problems, though, and I thought I’d address these individually.

First, the quantity and pace on the same book was overwhelming for some. A few readers wrote to me and asked if they could read the site without the daily articles on the book. Others wrote and said that they were having difficulty reading every single day to keep up with the pace, even with such short readings.

Second, the book was simply uninteresting for some, and that made a quarter of the posts this month a waste for them. Investment-oriented folks, as well as people seeking primarily frugality tips, were largely bored by this. At least one reader wrote to me voicing an opinion that the book was terribly boring and she didn’t see the point.

Third, some pieces of the book were simply less interesting than others. If you look through the posts, you can tell by the number of comments which pieces were intriguing and which ones weren’t. The pieces of the book that are good are golden, but there are other parts that just aren’t as intriguing.

I have three significant questions for people who followed along.

Did you enjoy it, and what parts did you like and not like? If you didn’t, don’t hesitate to say so, because I’m going to use this information to decide how exactly to handle the next one, if there is a next one.

Similarly, are you interested in another book club like this one, given that there may be some changes? Meaning, are you open to another reading like what happened with Your Money or Your Life?

If so, what book would you like to read? I offer up nine nominees – please choose ones from this list that you’d like to read and/or see discussed in a detailed format. I’ve read all these books and am confident that they’re good enough and meaty enough to generate some good discussions.

What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles (careers)
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham (value investing)
Born to Buy by Juliet Schor (children and consumerism)
America’s Cheapest Family by Steve and Annette Economides (frugality)
Getting Things Done by David Allen (task management)
The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, Michael LeBoeuf, and John C. Bogle (conservative investing)
The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey (debt freedom – and would probably make for heated discussion)
Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferazzi and Tahl Raz (communicating and building professional relationships)
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton J. Malkiel (stock investing)

I’d be happy to know which ones of these you’d be interested in reading through – I’ll pick the most popular one (or one of the most popular) if it’s clear that there’s interest in doing it again.

My plan? My tentative plan is to give it another shot, starting in mid-November, with a reading every other day or every third day, but with the readings being a bit longer than before. I think this would fix some of the problems with the first edition of the book club.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks to the many readers who let me know how to easily get a copy of Getting a Life, the pseudo-sequel to Your Money or Your Life. I’ll be reviewing it soon!

The Minimum Budget: The Cost of Living for a Family of Four This is some interesting analysis of what it really costs to have a spouse and two kids. (@ the digerati life)

Owning A Home Isn’t Always All It’s Cracked Up To Be The hidden costs of home ownership are tremendous – this is a good review of the costs. (@ generation x finance)

Scheduling Time Versus Scheduling Tasks I tend to do a mixture of both: I schedule time blocks within which I do free-form tasks. For example, I have a block of time each day that I spend with my family, but within that block it’s pretty free-form. (@ wise bread)

The Simple Dollar Retro: Review: Never Eat Alone Out of all the books I’ve read for The Simple Dollar, this one was the biggest pleasant surprise and I’ve found myself almost constantly using and reusing the material within.

This is the thirtieth and final part of The Simple Dollar Book Club reading of Your Money or Your Life. Want to know more?

Your Money or Your Life has done more than any other book I’ve ever read in terms of changing how I view money. It truly brought to life the connection between the choices I make every day and the greater decisions I make about my life, and it opened my eyes to the value of frugality and day-to-day personal responsibility about my financial bottom line and that of my family. I really can’t pay it any higher compliment than that.

To me, the one single factor that makes a book essential is that it significantly affects your thinking and/or your actions. In other words, a book becomes essential solely due to the effect that it has on readers. Regardless of the quibbling disagreements I had with Your Money or Your Life over specific details, it has arguably had more impact on my life than any book I’ve ever read.

When I first read it, I was already realizing that I needed to get my financial life in order, but I didn’t see the real connection between money and daily life. I was stuck deeply in a mindset of I work, I get paid, I work some more, I get paid some more. This book revealed to me that such a routine doesn’t really have to be the plan and, in fact, isn’t entirely healthy. Now, I view life as work to do stuff I like and minimize the expense of it all so I can have more time to do stuff I like. Money is nothing more than the tool you use to maximize the time doing stuff you like.

That doesn’t mean I wholeheartedly subscribe to everything in this book. I feel, as many readers do, that in many places the political views of the authors come into place quite strongly, with a lot of environmentalism and a bit of New Age touchy-feely type material. The book also could use a much stronger section on investing advice, as that advice really only applies to people who are on the verge of having enough money in the bank to live off of the interest in a extremely secure investment – not advice on how to get there.

But that’s not the point.

The point of the book is to encourage people to rethink their life choices from the ground up in a very tangible fashion, something that very few books manage to pull off. In fact, the connection between the abstract (living an alternative lifestyle) and the concrete (figuring out exactly what that costs) is the core of the genius behind this book, and it’s why it is the only personal finance book I’ll universally recommend to any reader.

If you’d like to review all of the readings in the book club reading of Your Money or Your Life, here’s a list of each reading and a link to all twenty-nine discussions. This is a great page to bookmark if you’re thinking you may read through the book at some point in the future.

Prologue (pages xxiii to xxxviii)
The Money Trap (pages 1 to 9)
Prosperity and the Planet (pages 9 to 21)
The Beginning of a New Road Map for Money (pages 21 to 29)
Step 1 – Making Peace with the Past (pages 29 to 39)
Money Ain’t What It Used To Be (And Never Was) (pages 40 to 59)
Step 2 – Being in the Present and Tackling Your Life Energy (pages 59 to 75)
Where Is It All Going? (pages 76 to 87)
Totaling It All Up (pages 87 to 108)
How Much Is Enough? The Nature of Fulfillment (pages 109 to 112)
Three Questions That Will Transform Your Life (pages 113 to 128)
Assessing the Three Questions (pages 128 to 145)
Seeing Progress (pages 146 to 157)
Getting Your Finances Out in the Open (pages 157 to 165)
The American Dream – on a Shoestring (pages 166 to 171)
Ten Sure Ways to Save Money (pages 171 to 181)
101 Sure Ways to Save Money (Part One) (pages 181 to 197)
101 Sure Ways to Save Money (Part Two) (pages 197 to 212)
Additional Thoughts on Cutting Spending (pages 213 to 218)
For Love or Money (pages 219 to 231)
The Stunning Implications of Redefining Work (pages 232 to 246)
Valuing Your Life Energy – Maximizing Income (pages 247 to 258)
The Crossover Point (pages 259 to 268)
The Power of Working for a Finite Period of Time (pages 268 to 279)
The Freedom to Choose What You Do and Do What You Choose (pages 279 to 291)
Now That You’ve Got It, What Are You Going To Do With It? (pages 292 to 305)
Three Pillars of Financial Independence (pages 305 to 318)
Cushions Make For Softer Landings (pages 318 to 327)
Additional Resources (pages 337 to 343)

A year ago today, The Simple Dollar began. At that time, I had figured out that I needed to always spend less than I make, but I still had some credit card debt and a truck loan to get rid of (on top of my other debts) and almost nothing in the bank. I also had no idea how to manage the responsibilities of a website like The Simple Dollar. Today, my only debts are student loans and a home mortgage, I’ve built The Simple Dollar into a thriving community, and I’ve got a very comfortable emergency fund and the beginnings of an investment plan.

It wasn’t easy. It took a lot of work and I spent a lot of late nights getting things in order. Here are the ten things I’ve learned over the past year from the experience of starting and building The Simple Dollar, learning how to manage my finances and my own mental traps, and build a stronger future for myself.

Time is the one thing you can’t ever get more of. There will always be opportunities to earn more money, but there will never again be an opportunity to read your son a book when he’s a toddler. Don’t let a day pass without enjoying the great things already in your life, even if it means you miss a meeting or fall a bit behind on your projects. What’s really important, after all?

Every time you spend a dollar, you sacrifice a bit of your future. If you sit around and dream about financial freedom while dumping $30 a week at the coffee shop or buying a new DVD each week or going out for $20 worth of drinks with the guys on a regular basis, you’re just tossing that dream into the gutter. Getting ahead takes commitment and sacrifice – if you want to live the dream, you have to work for it, and that work means sometimes not buying everything you want.

The simpler you make your investments, the better. I used to believe that investing was complicated. In truth, it’s scarcely more difficult than a savings account if you do it right. Just buy low-cost index funds, hold onto them for a long time, and let them do the work. When you’re ready to do something with the cash, start selling the funds. That’s it – and the online services offered by most providers of index funds, like Vanguard, make it about as easy as putting cash in a savings account.

Finding ways to better manage your time is always worthwhile, but don’t make it an obsession. I have a friend who has an elaborate time management scheme he uses. He often tells me how much time it saves him, but I regularly see him devoting significant time just to the system. For me, the core of it is that I just keep an idea notebook with me, jot down ideas when I have them, then go through them all once or twice a day. It’s simple, doesn’t take much time, and really keeps me on the ball.

Automate as much as you possibly can. I have all but two of my bills on autopilot. I have dumps into my savings accounts on autopilot. I have my investing largely on autopilot. In effect, except for irregular things, I basically don’t have to touch my personal finances, which means that I don’t have to spend much time worrying about it. One big caveat – for this to work, you need to consistently be spending less than you earn, otherwise you run into some serious overdrafting problems. Yet another reason to become financially responsible.

Find time to recharge. There are days where I just keep going without cease from before dawn to well after dusk, but if I do that too much, I start to wear down and no matter how much time I devote, I’m simply not as productive. I’ve found that taking regular time outs to do stuff that really deeply fulfills me works wonders. In fact, over a weekend, I’ve found I get more done if I spend one day doing my tasks and the other day just taking my kids to the park and reading than if I spent both days working from daylight to dusk.

The best way I’ve found to save money is to prepare all my food at home. This is an incredible money saver. It’s not too hard to prepare a meal at home that costs less than a dollar a head and contains all of the nutrients my family needs. Do that over and over again, especially compared to the prices on take-out foods, and it isn’t long before you’re saving a lot of money – and likely eating much more healthy as well.

Keep track of things. Make yourself look at your financial situation at least once a month, if not once a week. Tabulate up all your debts and assets and see whether or not you’re making progress. The numbers don’t lie – it’s a constant reality check that keeps you from living in the clouds and spending money on a whim.

Connect with as many people as you can. It’s always useful to forge connections with as many people as possible. Take the time to get to know everyone around you – your coworkers, your professional acquaintances, your neighbors, people in your church, and people who participate in community events. Get to know as many of them as you can – learn their names and some things about them, and keep in touch with them. When you know two people who could really use each other’s help, connect the two of them. Doing this and being genuine about it pays more dividends than you can even imagine.

Forget the paycheck – do what you’re passionate about. Time in and time out, I’ve seen that people will pay very well for passion – that’s the truly valuable thing on this planet. Whatever you’re passionate about, do it and the money will follow if you open the doors to it. I believe this from the bottom of my heart and I’ve reached a point where I’m passionate about everything in my life. My choices are merely determinations about which passion to follow at the moment.

To celebrate the one year anniversary of the launching of The Simple Dollar, I went through the archives and picked out my twenty five favorite articles. These aren’t necessarily the best, but the ones I enjoyed writing the most because they challenged my own thinking and they also brought forth some excellent responses from readers in the comments.

The Road to Financial Armageddon This is an attempt at autobiography, highlighting some of the bad financial lessons I learned in life and how I’ve worked to correct them.

Remembering A Painful Childhood Experience – And Trying To Apply What It Means When I was still a child, the product of a summer’s work was stolen from me. This is the full story of that experience and what it taught me.

Battling the Convenience and Cost of Fast Food One of the biggest drains on my wallet used to be fast food. Here are the basic tactics I used to kick the habit, both for my health and for my wallet.

What Can I Do Today To Make Me Rich In The Future? Here, I argue that little things you do today can dramatically affect the future – and I actually spell out eighteen examples of this phenomenon.

Building a Better Blog for 2007 This is a series of articles detailing everything I know about how one can build a blog that will excite others to read.

31 Days to Fix Your Finances This series was designed to help people who were in deep financial trouble but were willing to sit down and work through it carefully. It was heavily inspired by a wide range of sources, including many of my favorite personal finance books.

Deconstructing Robert Kiyosaki This may be the single harshest thing I’ve ever written on The Simple Dollar. I had just read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and some of his other writings I was very, very bothered by the tactics that Kiyosaki encouraged people to use. I detailed the reasons why, and many of his followers invaded and let me have it (172 comments and counting).

The Art of the Thank You Note This is a passionate argument (and tutorial) on behalf of handwritten thank you notes for professional interactions. I’ve found that time and time again, handwritten thank you notes go a long way towards creating a strong impression of your character.

15 Things You Can Do Right Now To Help Your Career Don’t ever let yourself just sit idle at work – there’s always something you can be doing to put yourself in a better position for promotion and greater success.

Money Merge Accounts: Are They A Good Deal For Home Borrowers? This is my most commented-on post of all time (814 as of this writing). Why? Money merge accounts are a very hot topic in the mortgage world and lots of people are apparently interested.

Why Johnny Can Read: Simpson’s Paradox and the Greatly Exaggerated Death of American Public Education I had read several articles on the sad state of American public education that presented some very conflicting facts, so I dug to the bottom of it. It turns out that American schools are better than you think.

The Simple Dollar Guide to Shaving I love a great shave, and I also love saving money. That meant it was time to pitch the Mach 3.

Ten Books That Changed My Life A while back, I wrote a series of essays on books that transformed the way I looked at and thought about the world. These are truly powerful books.

Ten Financial Reasons To Turn Off Your Television – And Ten Things To Replace It With My wife and I still have a television, but aside from a few live events, we barely even turn it on. At one point in July and August, with the exception of playing a Wii game or two, we did not turn on the television for five weeks.

Fifteen Free Things To Do During A Money-Free Weekend Spending a weekend without spending any money can be a lot of fun – my wife and I try to do it two or three weekends a month.

101 Goals In 1001 Days This is a spectacular way to get yourself thinking about your near-term future and come up with things that you can be doing to make your life better – and certainly less boring.

You Don’t Need Six Figures: The Financial Realities of Living in Iowa I love Iowa – and not just because it’s really inexpensive to live here.

Trimming the Fat: Forty Ways to Reduce Your Monthly Required Spending This is a great collection of tips for reducing your monthly bills, so you can instead begin getting rid of your debts or constructing an investment plan.

Angry Emails: Is Money The Root Of All Evil? I took on an angry reader who kept insisting that money was evil and thus by extension The Simple Dollar was evil. A lot of readers weighed in as well.

Lessons From My Grandfather In The Garden I miss him. That’s really all I can say.

One Thing You Can Do Today That Will Put You In Better Financial Shape Tomorrow Something about this one struck a chord with a lot of people – I’ve been emailed many times about how this article made them think differently about what they were doing.

The Stay-At-Home Parenting Question Hits Home – Hard A painful morning dropping my son off at daycare left me wanting badly to be a stay at home parent.

Is The Value Menu Really A Value? Comparing A Homemade Cheesburger To The McDonald’s $1 Double Cheeseburger This was a great photo essay comparing the two that got a lot of reaction – I had a lot of fun creating it, too.

Making a Major Life Change: Is It Time For Kathy To Abandon The City? If you live in the city and aren’t sure if you like it, this article is a must-read. Kathy’s story is a compelling one and apparently a feeling that’s shared with a lot of people.

Ten Steps To Financial Success For A Minimum Wage Earner So much of the personal finance advice you hear is targeted towards well-off people. I decided to buck this trend, inspired by a reader.

Here’s hoping I can list twenty five more great articles this time next year!

Yesterday, I signed up for a Digg account in order to start sharing the interesting links that I find. Basically, I’m going to submit my morning roundup links, a few of the best ones from The Simple Dollar, and a few more links each day that I find interesting. If you’d like to keep tabs on what I add, here’s my profile – it might also be worthwhile to add me as a friend on there, too, if you’re a frequent user.

I also have some big news… but that can wait until a bit later today.

Always Be Prepared: 5 Tips For Unexpected Job Loss I have a sixth tip: always have some kind of backup plan. Spend some time thinking about what you’d do if you got fired right now, so you don’t have to think about it during the overstressed period right after getting fired. (@ consumerism commentary)

Temptation in the Workplace and Accountability My best practice at work is to just focus on nothing at all but work. Even when I’m engaging in office banter, I try to see it as just part of work. Why? I’m not tempted to start mixing work and personal life. (@ clever dude)

Some American Companies Are Now Going Job ONsnoring I’ve actually seen this several times in the last few months, and I wouldn’t be shocked if it becomes a serious trend. (@ filam personal finance)

The Simple Dollar Retro: Emptying Out A 401(k) To Pay Off Credit Card Debt This is a very touchy issue with a lot of argument in both directions. My feeling is that if you’re currently in a place where you literally can’t pay your bills, sometimes you have to look pretty far outside the box.