Archive for December, 2009

I grew up in the cold and snow, but now I have decided I never wanted to experience another winter. This is my story.

In Quebec, the famous French poet Gilles Vignault wrote “My country is not a country, it’s winter” (Mon pays c’est pas un pays, c’est l’hiver). Although it doesn’t translate that well from the original French, I think it still summarizes well the love/hate relationship many Northerners have with the winter.

On the one hand, the winter defines who we are. On the other hand, we despise the hardships of the cold season.

Other satirical comments have been made about the winter in Canada or the Northern states, such as

“We have two seasons in Canada, cold and not as cold”

I was told that the best way to go through the winter is to embrace it. So instead of cursing the weather, make the best of it. Go out and enjoy some winter sports! Ski! Put on some warm clothes and go take a walk when it’s sunny outside, even if it’s below freezing. That all sounded good, but in spite of this advice I still hated the winter.

I do not care for skiing or other winter sports. I much prefer feeling the wind on my skin as I ride my bike or run outside, with sunshine on my face, rather than feeling myself uncomfortably sweating inside of a giant isolated winter coat, while risking getting every unexposed part of my body getting injured by frostbite.

The winter made everything more difficult

Getting in and out of the house became a big endeavor requiring a lot of preparation, rather than something simple and enjoyable.

Even with good intentions such as taking a 45-minute walk every morning, the power of the elements can discourage the most committed ones.

There were times when the weather was so cold that I remained literally locked in my house for almost a week at a time. Even going out to the gym was something I was not even willing to do.

Some other random winter annoyances included:

• Being cold in the morning when getting out of bed.
• Salt on the streets corroding everything
• Shoveling snow
• Snow melting into slush and brown from the dirt, staining and wetting everything
• Scarf smell! The nasty phenomenon that happens when you breathe your own snot smell from having to wear the scar over your nose and mouth.
• Having to get into a cold freezing car that never actually starts to warm up until you’re about to reach your destination
• Cold feet and toes!
• Snow and how it gets in the way of everything!
• Sunrise at 8:30 and sun set at 4:00 p.m.
• Chapped lips because of dry heating
• The time it takes to get dressed just to go outside for any reason!
• Ice and the dangers in brings
• Christmas songs playing in early November with no respite until late in December

Health Aspects of Living in the North

I found that although it was possible to stay healthy in the North and even eat a mostly raw food diet, the winter made it much more difficult to stay healthy and in shape.

First, there’s the problem of temperature. Setting the thermostat between 65 and 68 degrees (18-20 Celsius) is supposed to be healthy, but it feels too cold. Try boosting the temperature above that and you start feeling the negative effects of artificial heating: dry skin, respiratory problems and discomfort.

So my sad solution was to keep temperature low, but wear extra layers in the house. I always kept the bathroom steaming hot, as I hated to enter a cold bathroom on a Monday morning to take a shower.

The problems of the cold weather were reinforced by eating cold foods, such as fresh fruit. I had to be particularly careful to avoid all cold drinks and fruits, otherwise I would get shivers.

Sometimes after eating a big smoothie with fruits coming out of the fridge that I didn’t have time to warm up, I would feel so cold that I had to take a hot bath to feel better.

The average body temperature of a healthy fit person eating raw is a few degrees lower than the average body 98.6 (37 celsius) most people consider “normal”. A lower body temperature is a great advantage when it comes to all sorts of athletic endeavors, and also to handle hot weather, but can take some time adapting to when you live in a cold climate.

As soon as the weather started getting cold, I would lose my motivation to exercise outside, which is my favorite type of exercise. So I had to find other types of exercises that could be done inside, such as rebounding or going to the gym.

The shorter days with less sunshine meant little vitamin D for the entire winter, which could be hard for the body to bear without supplementation.

I did find however that despite the difficulties of eating raw in the North, the health advantages of eating this way far outweighed the negatives. Most of my friends and relative got seriously sick at least once every winter, and would often complain of stuffed noses or colds, while I remained healthy and cold-free the entire winter. My mood was dramatically improved by the natural “sunshine” I got from the fruits and vegetables I was eating, and the exercise routine I tried to maintain.

Over the years I spent eating raw in Canada, I even came up with a series of recipes and tips for following a raw food diet in the North, called the Raw Winter Recipe Guide.

However, there is no doubt that staying fit and healthy was dramatically easier in a warmer climate.

The Winter Amnesia

Every winter, I tried to spend at least a few weeks in a warmer climate. In 2004, I spent one month in Brazil. In 2005, I spent three months in Costa Rica. In 2006, I went to Bali and French Polynesia. In 2007, I spent five months in Costa Rica. Every year, I was avoiding more and more of the winter… but part of me was still attached to living in the North with four seasons. Call it nostalgia?

I have a different name for it. I call it: winter amnesia.

I came up with this concept with a friend of mine back in 2003. At the time, I had noticed something strange. I would go through an entire winter of hardship, coldness and snow, and when springtime and summertime came, I started thinking that living in Canada wasn’t so bad after all.

I would think to myself: “Maybe I don’t have to move anywhere warm after all. It’s not so bad.”

I would completely forget how horrible the winter was… and that’s why I realized I had winter amnesia, a common psychological affliction most Northerners suffer from, when their minds purposely forget how bad winters are, in order to stay in their comfort zone and avoid any radical move!

So I would set myself up for another cold winter again, without making the necessary move to move to a warmer climate.

It got to the point that I actually asked my friend to send me an email in November of next year. The email I asked him to send me read something like this:

Dear Frederic,

I know that by now you’ve come out of a very enjoyable summer in Canada, and you have completely forgotten how bad last winter was. This letter is to remind you: get out of there before it’s too late! The winter sucks! Your friend,

Yourself

Frederic

Of course, this “winter amnesia” concept was just a joke, but there was some truth behind it. Unless I planned in advance, there was no way I was going to fulfill my dream of living in a warmer climate.

Fastforward to present day: I’m now spending my winters in Costa Rica, and I have no intention of experiencing another winter again for any reason!

Last year, I waited until January 10^th to go on my annual winter trip, and later I regretted it terrible. The months of November and December in Montreal were truly horrible, so I swore to myself that I would never stay for another winter again.

Call me a winter wussy, but I came to the conclusion that the months of November until late April were completely out of the question. I HAD to be in a warm climate during that time. May isn’t so bad, because there’s the promise of summer. June is okay. July and August are the only great months. September is also good because of the sunny weather, harvest time and beautiful trees falling. October is already off-limit. It’s tolerable but not enjoyable. I’d rather be somewhere else!

For many years, I used to keep my apartment year-round in Canada, and spend several months in the tropics. Now my fiancée and I have decided to get rid of most of our possessions in Canada to establish a more permanent base in Costa Rica. We’re here until May, and after our wedding we’ll be traveling around the world for one year. When we come back, we might spend some time in Canada, and then come back to Costa Rica when it’s getting cold.

There’s a lot more to say about this topic… in my next article I will tell you how I ended up living in Costa Rica and how I made my dream of living in a tropical paradise a reality, after years and years of thinking about it. There were many difficulties, but when I look outside my window and take a look at my jungle and mountains… and breathe the warm tropical air, perfumed by the scent of beautiful flowers, I think to myself, it was worth it!

What do you think about living in the North? Do you dream of living in a warmer climate? Did you actually make the move? I’d like to know more in the comments!

A lot of people ask me: what kind of product can I sell on my website?

I personally have had the most success with information products. Here’s a list of possible types of information products you can release.

There are many different types of products you can sell on the Internet. My only focus here is to show you how to create and sell information products (as opposed to consumable items such as food, cosmetics, or appliances). Let’s take a look at the different types of information products you can create and sell.

· Book — This is a classic information product. I consider the book to be more like a fancy “business card” and credibility builder rather than an item that earns you a lot of money. Therefore, I don’t recommend releasing an actual, physical book until you have started building your list and have at least a couple other information products under your belt. If you decided to publish a book, consider going with a print-on-demand publisher. At the moment, the best service for print-on-demand for books is the Amazon company CreateSpace (www.createspace.com)

· eBook — The eBook can be a create information product to sell as an entry-level product to the rest of your product line. The eBook doesn’t need to be very long, but can include other bonuses such as audio recordings, other bonus eBooks, live teleconferences, etc.

· Audio CD or MP3 download — Audio products can be very successful. Take, for example, my “Perfect Health Program”, which essentially is 12 hour-long teleconference interviews, and a few bonus booklets, sold for around $300 on CDs, and less as a download. You can have a single, hour-long audio product that could fit on a CD, or a package combining several recordings.

Nowadays, it’s best to offer the option between the audio CD and the digital download. Offer the digital download for about 20% less and free shipping. Between 20 and 50% of your customers will still choose the physical version, even if they have to pay more for it. We expect that percentage to dramatically lower overtime. To ship CDs on-demand, with very few efforts on your part and a professional design, use the service at www.kunaki.com

· DVD or Video Download — Video is even more popular than audio, but more time-consuming. It can also be sold for more. An easy way to create video products is to host a live conference and film the event. Then, sell the recording. At this point, most people prefer to have the actual DVD to comfortably watch on their TV than having to download a large video file to watch on their computer. When I released my Raw Vegan Cuisine DVDs, only 2 people (out of hundreds of comments left on my blog about the pre-release) wanted to have the download. So at this point, I don’t recommend selling the download of DVDs.

DVDs can easily be produced again by www.kunaki.com. One exception would be to create a series of short videos (about 10-20 minutes long) on a very simple camera like the Flip, and sell them as a package available in a password protected membership site (with only one payment to access it).

· Live Teleconferences and Videocasts — Less marketers than before use teleconferences it seems. However, they are still a great way to create a product. All you have to do is organize an event, sell the “seats” for people to attend, produce a replay, and then create a product from the recording. Video teleconferences are now more popular. The best service for that is www.gotowebinar.com. For traditional audio teleconferences, I recommend www.nobrainerteleseminars.com

· Live Events or Cleanse — I wrote an entire special report on this for members of the Success Group. The idea here is to organize a “live” cleanse or detox program, or a form of “challenge” where participants are going to achieve some kind of goal, such as following a diet or fitness program for a specific length of time. You provide a written explanation of the program, and assist them with daily motivational emails, a discussion forum where they can connect with other members, and possibly live teleconferences. This type of product works very well in the natural health field.

· “Courses” — One of my favorite type of high-end information product is the online “course” or “training program.” To create it, all you need is a theme that promises to solve a problem or teach your clients something they really want to know. For example, some of my online courses include “How to Make a Living in the Natural Health Movement”, “How to Write Your Own eBooks”, and “How to Move to a Tropical Paradise”. As you can see, you can easily come up with a title just by using the words “How to_____” followed by your promise.

The structure of this type of online courses can vary, but usually you’ll want to have 4 to 8 lessons, one per week. These can be offered live or delivered by email. I don’t recommend going for more than 8 lessons. I found the attention span is greatly reduced after 8 weeks of consecutive lessons, and you invite more refunds that way. 4 to 8 lessons is best.

What you do is you charge for the whole package at once, but deliver the lessons overtime. You can also offer payment plans. Lessons can be in audio, video, or written format, or a combination of both. You should also include some form of support, such as direct email access to you, or a discussion forum, or teleseminars, or a combination of those.

For my course “How to Make a Living in the Natural Health Movements”, the lessons are in audio format, assisted by slides and homework assignments, and checklists. For “How to Write Your Own eBooks”, I wrote the lessons in text format, and then recorded the audio of each lesson for additional value. For “How to Move to a Tropical Paradise”, I recorded screen capture videos of slideshow presentations.

The advantage of this type of product is that you can sell the product right away, even if you have not completed it yet. You only need one lesson before you start selling the course.

· Packages — I outlined some of the basic forms of information products. Of course, you can combine some of these items together to create all kinds of packages.

My main home at the moment is Costa Rica. I’ve been spending 3 to 5 months of the winter here for the last few years, and this year I’ll be here for over 6 months.

After that, my fiancée and I will be traveling around the world for around a year. Then, we’ll probably come back to Costa Rica to settle here semi-permanently, probably spending 6 to 8 months a year here, and traveling to other places or visiting North America the rest of the time.

A lot of people wonder what the cost of living is down here. They fancy a simple life in the tropics, and would like to be able to do this for a fraction of what it’d cost in North America or Europe or Australia.

First of all, there’s no doubt that Costa Rica is a cheaper place to live than all other first-world nations. However, a lot of the savings come from the fact that Costa Rica is still a developing country.

It may not be a “third-world” country (you won’t see abject poverty here like you do in Mexico or Honduras), but it is certainly not a first-world one either. “Second-world” would probably be the best description, but that doesn’t mean much!

The average Costa Rican (most commonly called “Tico”) is friendly, hard-working, welcoming to foreigners and happy (the Happy Planet Index survey classified Costa Rica the “happiest country in the world” recently).

Most Costa Rican families earn less than $10,000 a year. Even a well-educated person might only earn $1000 to $2000 a month. Construction workers, police men and other similar jobs get less than $500 a month. Yet, almost everyone seems to be well-fed, well-clothed and clean and not lacking in the basic necessities.

Certainly, it would be possible for a couple to live on less than $1000 a month in Costa Rica, with a higher standard of living than in North America, but most foreigners will not be able to do that, and here’s why:

1) You could buy a house really cheap, or rent a “Tico” apartment, but it will be lacking in some basic things that most Westerners (including me) take for granted. For example:

- You won’t get hot water running out of every faucet. Instead, it will be cold water. For your shower, you’ll have a shower heater that gently warms the water as you take a shower, which saves you a lot in electricity but won’t be anything like the good hot showers you’re used to.

- Most Tico families live packed in small quarters, by American standards at least. A Tico house or apartment may be too small for your needs.

- Tico-qualtity construction. It’s not that the houses are poorly constructed here, but rather that the attention to quality and details is not the same. For examples, many Ticos don’t think twice about putting a tin roof that looks terrible and is quite noisy when it rains (more on noise later).

2) Ticos have a higher toleration for noise, but do you?

I found that the average Tico can stand much more noise than the average North American. In many Tico neighborhoods, there’s a big problem with dogs barking at any hour of the day or night. The average Tico doesn’t seem to care, but it personally drives me completely crazy! You might also hear motorcycles early in the morning (most Costa Ricans wake up between 5:00 and 5:30 a.m. and are not tiptoing around just because you like to sleep until 8:00, fireworks at night, roosters that seem to have lost their inner clock and announce the “day” at around 3 in the morning, and more.

I know some Americans that can live in the middle of all of this, and I even did it myself for the experience of living in a Costa Rican community, but  habits acquired during years of upbringing in a quiet subburban Canadian neighborhood are impossible for me to eradicate.

I can stand some noise, but dogs barking all night drive me crazy. So like most expats, I live in a quieter part of the country, and of course, I pay a premium for that peace.

3) The average Tico lives on mostly rice and beans, some meat, and not a whole lot of fruits and vegetables.

You could live on almost nothing in Costa Rica if you ate like the Costa Rican. Then, your monthly food bill would probably not be higher than $100 for two. This would buy you a lot of rice and beans, some vegetables, some meat, and cheap sodas. This is not the worst way to eat, but certainly not the healthiest. (They consume a lot of sodium on a daily basis in seasonings)

Because of my extreme diet of mostly raw foods and fruits in massive quantities, my food bill is much higher than if I lived on the Costa Rican diet. However, I calculated that I still save about 30 to 40% in my food costs by living here.

Fruits and vegetables are dramatically cheaper than in North America, and much fresher too. However, buying any imported foods will jack up the price. I could spend a lot less if I didn’t occasionally indulge on some imported organic seasonings, organic dates for recipes, and other treats.

4) The average Costa Rica lives without a car. Can you?

Driving a car is obviously a big expense. The average Tico doesn’t own one, because they are too expensive. Brand-new cars in this country are more expensive than in America by about 30 to 50% if not more, because of high import taxes. Most people get around by bicycle, buses and sharing rides.

I did live in Costa Rica for two years without a car. I would occasionally rent one in order to do some weekend trips. But I also lived in a more densely populated area where owning a car wasn’t as important.

However, not owning a car can seriously limit what you can do and where you can live. Most nice places are a little out of the way on little dirt roads.

I now have a used Toyota 4Runner and honestly I couldn’t be without it. First of all, the beautiful place where I live would not be reasonably accessible without a car. The car allows us to easily shop at the farmer’s market, go to the beach hassle-free, visit the country, pick up our mail, etc with enough room for us and all of our stuff.

The good news is that although brand-new cars are expensive, there’s a good market for used cars, and they are often well-maintained and will last you a long time. With no cold and snow, cars can be kept for longer than up North.

So let’s be honest:

Most Westerners are used to a high standard of living. There’s nothing wrong with that, and obviously you can’t expect to suddenly lower your standards when living in another country.

I do enjoy the slower pace of living in Costa Rica, and my life is a lot simpler when I’m here. I don’t care as much about the latest gizmo, and I spend a lot more time in nature enjoying simple things.

However, I do also enjoy beauty, convenience, peace, quiet, security and comfort.

I rent a condo that would be completely out of price for most Costa Ricans, but quite inexpensive compared to what the same thing would cost in North America (we basically feel like we’re living on a little resort, with a pool and jungle nearby, and a completely modern furnished condo with two bedrooms and modern ameneties, for less than $40 a day!).

I drive a car, but spend a lot less time driving than I did in Canada, and more time walking and exercising.

I buy quality food, but it costs me much less than in Canada.

I order stuff on Amazon (like books and kitchen gadgets), and get it shipped to a private mail service with an address in Miami that redirects to Costa Rica and handles customs for a reasonable fee.

I enjoy a great standard of living, but overall spend about 25 to 30% less than I would in Canada, and considerably less than I would in Miami or other more expensive city in America or Europe (where the savings would probably be in the 40% range).

I could spend a lot less than that if I lived like the average Costa Rican, of course, but then I would be giving up a lot of quality of life.

Overall, Costa Rica is an affordable destination for living and traveling. Basic but clean rooms can be rented for less than $20 a night, and the mid-range options will give you more for your money than you would get in Western countries. For those considering retiring, a couple could live pretty well on $1500 a month. It would be a pretty frugal lifestyle, but quite luxurious by Costa Rican standards. $2500 a month for a couple is more realistic for the standard of living most foreigners are accustomed to.

If you own your own house, or grow your own food, you can considerably cut down this monthly budget! If you have other questions about living in Costa Rica, let me know in the comments.

Interested in the topic of Moving to a Tropical Paradise? Get more information at www.fredericpatenaude.com/tropicalparadise.html

Recently someone asked me what I think of Joomla, a popular type of website software with lots frills. I responded roughly:

“I don’t like Joomla. It’s too complicated for the average user and most Joomla websites look terrible. The most “civilized” and best website you can have is a WordPress website.”

People ask me all the time:

• What kind of website should I have?
• Do I need a blog?
• Is wordpress a blog?
• Should you have a blog AND a website?

I think these questions show that there’s still a lot of confusion when it comes to building a website. I see it all the time not just with people who are getting started, but often with those who have established website.

Let’s clear the confusion:

• You need a content website, and a “blog” type of website is the BEST way to organize information.

It used to be that you could start a simple website by just putting one salesletter on the web as one long page and call it your “website” and wait for orders to come in.

Not anymore.

Every serious business now features a ton of content on the website.

In the old days of the web, adding content to your website was a mess. You had to create separate pages for each article based on a template, and then update all links throughout your site manually.

Then came the “blog”, which was initially used for people to share their own personal journals or “web logs” (that’s where the term comes from), which facilitated adding new articles and updating your website automatically. This was perfect for the non-technical user, but also for the website visitor who could easily find what they were looking for.

But now, the term “blog” should easily be replaced with “RSS” website, which is the technology behind what makes the blog work.

Now, you’ll find the “RSS” logo on almost every credible and recent website, which means that almost ALL good content websites on the web are now “blogs”, even if they don’t call themselves that way.

One feature of the blog or “RSS” website is that each new article or “post” shows up with the most recent ones at the top. It’s also easy to archive those articles and search through them, or event subscribe to the website news using a separate program, like Google Reader.

I won’t go in the technical details of this, but the bottom line is that you need a content website, and your content website should be a blog.

So then, the question of “should you have a website and a blog” is pointless. Your website IS your blog, and your blog your website.

Everything will work with the same RSS technology, allowing you to add articles and organize your information easily.

For example, take a look at my new website, the one you’re viewing right now. The entire website is done in RSS. However, I still kept a separate link for “blog” where articles are listen one by one.

• WordPress is the *king* of blogging software

Ok, so now you realize that your website should be a blog. If you have an older website that was started before blogs became popular, you can probably convert it to a blog, like I’m planning to do with my main raw food website.

In any case, at the very least you should have a blog.

What kind of blog software should you use? There’s only one to recommend: WordPress

WordPress is so versatile that that there’s practically nothing you can’t do with it. WordPress can be used for your blog, but also for your membership sites, and for anything you can think of. Wordpress is an open-source program, meaning that it’s not a software you have to pay for. Hundreds of programmers are working on it just to improve it. However, you probably will have to pay someone to install WordPress on your website, unless you can do this yourself. You can also pay for a theme and custom design to make it look good, which is what I recommend to do.

In my upcoming course “How to Make a Living in the Natural Health Movement”, we will have a new feature where we’ll show you exactly how to set up your WordPress website live. It will be a live webinar and by the end of it, your website will already be set up! The next course is unfortunately not available until January, but if you’d like some personal coaching to get started right away, join us for the Do What You Love Success Group at: http://www.dowhatyouloveuniversity.com

Frederic

PS: Do you have more questions? Post them in the comments!

I admit it, I’m a renter.

At least a few times a year, I get told by my parents that I should buy a house, or put some money down on a condo.

“When you rent, you throw away your money”, they told me many times. “You want to end up with something in the future, like a house”.

In spite of hearing this advice many times, I still rent, and intend on doing so for a long time. Here’s why:

My Philosophy on Debt

“The borrower is servant to the lender” — Proverbs, 22:7

The modern tool for enslavement is debt. In fact, there’s never been a better tool designed to restrict people’s freedom. The path has been clearly laid out when you were born. The way to happiness is to get a good job with a good pension plan, get married and raise a family, and borrow money to fund your American dream.

It starts with your first credit card. Then you borrow money for your first depreciating asset: your car. But your most important expense of all will be your house, which you’re told is an asset, instead of the obvious: the biggest debt you’ve incurred so far. When you owe money to a bank or another lending institution, you cannot be free.

Debt is like an invisible leash tying you to your current circumstances. When you have payments to make, you cannot decide to do something different. If every month you must make payments for your car, your credit card and your mortgage, then you must continue slaving away at that job to make those “ends meet”.

Want to take a trip around the world? You can’t do it.

Want to quit your job and live on your savings? Impossible. Those monthly payments have to be made.

The numbers show that the average person in the USA has $8,500 in consumer debt. Keep in mind that this doesn’t include mortgage debt. That’s for every man, woman and child! Obviously, some people have much higher levels of debt for this average to be so high.

Debt in My Life

My first important step towards total freedom is realizing that any amount of debt will restrict my freedom. Therefore, the ideal amount of debt to have and be free is ZERO, just like the ideal amount of cigarettes to smoke for good health is NONE.

I had no problem with consumer debt like credit cards. I always paid them in full at the end of the month and did not feel I had to cut them down or freeze them like some debt-reduction experts recommend. I like the convenience of credit cards and in fact I could not run my business without them.

I never borrowed to buy depreciating assets like a TV or a computer. I’ve only owned three cars in my life and paid in full for them. I always bought them a few years old, which is the smartest thing to do. But there was one type of debt I was conditioned since birth to view as “good”, and had a very hard time to view as just “debt”. And that’s of course the house mortgage.

I’ve always rented, but almost three years ago I decided to buy a property in Costa Rica, this was a big mistake. But at least it taught me the danger of debt.

A lot of people will tell you that getting a mortgage on a house is a “good” debt, because you’re buying an appreciating asset. Very few people realize that a house mortgage is just a big debt that’s only potentially going to appreciate in value. Like all debt, it will restrict your freedom. But since it’s going to be your largest debt, it will be a more important factor working against your freedom than any other type of debt.

Consider the following:

1. A house is NOT an asset until you’ve paid in full for it. It’s only an asset for the bank who loaned you the money, because they can sell it in case you’re no longer able to pay your mortgage.
2. Paying a mortgage is NOT comparable to a “forced saving plan”. Only a tiny amount of your monthly payment goes towards your equity. The rest goes towards paying the debt. On a typical mortgage at the average interest rate, you will pay for  your house TWICE in the end, with half of the money going to the bank.
3. A house only potentially appreciates in value. It’s only worth what you can sell it for, not what you think you COULD sell it for. As many people have found out in the last two years, the real estate market does go down from time to time.
4. From 1978 until 2004, real estate appreciated about 8.6% per year on average. At the same time, the stock market appreciated 13.4%. So in the long run, there are much better ways to make a good return on your investment than buying a house.
5. As the author of the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” said, “an asset is something that puts money in your pockets”. So buying a house for yourself is not an asset.
6. Renting is cheaper than buying, in most cases. The average homeowner will spend much more on “improvements” on a house than the average renter. If you value your time, you should also think about all the repairs that will go towards the house that the renter will not have to worry about.
7. A house mortgage restricts your freedom. If you want to live somewhere else, or take a year to travel, you can’t do it on a whim. Those payments have to be made, or the house has to be sold.
8. Buying a house only makes financial sense if you think you’re going to live at the same place and not sell it for at least a 5 to 10 years. At this point, I personally prefer not to be tied down somewhere for that long.
9. Buying is easier than selling. You can go any day and buy a house. But selling it is another story. This lack of liquidity can severely restrict your freedom.
10. Renters are not “throwing away their money”. They can be using it smarter. All the money you save renting (and not having to worry about repairs and house improvements) can be invested somewhere else, usually at a much better rate of return. It’s not just about the monthly payment.

Why I’m Renting and Not Buying

For me, renting is what makes the most sense, at this point in my life.

For one thing, I don’t want any debt for any reason. The only way I would buy a house is if I could pay for it 100% cash. But even then, I would think about it twice, and would make sure I could envision living there for a long period of time.

Of course, some people value other things above freedom. I’m not saying that getting a home mortgage is necessarily wrong for everybody. In your situation, it may be the right thing to do. But for someone who values freedom above everything else, a 100% debt-free life is the way to go.

Renting Increases Your Options

The other problem with the “buying is better” mentality is that it severely restricts your options. Most people think that they must own the place in which they live, and that the only way to drive a car is to buy it or lease it. But when you buy something, you’re stuck with it forever, until you sell it. Most of the time you’ll end up paying more than you can recoup later on.

Let’s say your dream is to own your own tropical island. Most beautiful tropical islands for sale cost at least one million dollars, and financing is generally not available. But did you know that you can rent an entire tropical island for as little as $2000 a month? I was shocked when I learned this! There are literally thousands of tropical islands you can rent in Thailand, Fiji, Panama, and the rest of the South Pacific.

Maybe if you rent a tropical island for a month, you might realize that it is not for you long-term. You spent $2000, got to live your dreams and learned something along the way. But if you spend years saving money to buy that island… you’re stuck with it for a long time! I imagine there might not be a huge market for tropical island buyers.

This is just an example to show you how the “buy-only” mentality can restrict your choices.

For example, let’s say your dream has always been to drive the latest BMW or Infiniti car model, but you felt like you couldn’t afford it, or it was too flashy. Why not rent that car for a weekend and try it out? Then you’ll know if it’s for you or not. At least you’ll get to live your fantasy. You don’t need a million dollars to live your dreams. There are beautiful million-dollars villas you can rent for a very reasonable price in many parts of the world. Why get stuck owning something when you can rent it, stress-free?

Practically anything you’ve always dreamed of doing but always felt you never could — can be done right now for much less than you imagine.

Some people have asked me, “What is the very first thing I should do to start making money on the Internet?” It’s not always obvious to answer that question, because there are a lot of possible answers.

First, let’s take a look at what are some of the steps necessary to successfully earn a living online:

- You need a list

- You need a TOPIC and a domain name

- You need a website

- You need some products to sell

- You need TRAFFIC to your website

- You need credibility

- You need a salesletter for your products

- You need to know WHY you’re doing this. What is your ultimate goal?

In my course “How to Make a Living in the Natural Health Movement,” I spend a lot of time covering the plan. I believe people should have a good plan before they start investing too much time and energy towards a business that might not work for them.

For example, you might have a great idea, like opening a restaurant, or writing a book. But if you don’t investigate more and be clear about WHY you’re doing this, and what is your ultimate end goal, you might end up with a book that nobody wants to buy, or worse, a business that costs you money and takes up all your time.

So that’s why I get people to spend several modules to research their market and be sure they’re going in the right direction.

However, I do think that there’s something even simpler that anyone can do, and which will give you results even if you’re not clear about your market and what you want to do.

So what is this special technique?

It’s very simple:

Start a blog and write a new article at least 2 or 3 times a week in it.

It will cost you very little to do this, and it will work to your advantage in several ways.

First of all: in spite of the huge popularity of online videos, text is still the dominant medium on the web, and the way most people prefer to learn. In fact, a recent survey with over a thousand responses I conducted on my list confirmed this.

In order to get traffic to your website, you need content. And the best content to have is text.

Secondly, if you want to be successful online, you need to establish a routine for writing articles. Chances are that if you don’t start now, you will have problems doing it later.

By starting a very simple blog, with new articles 2-3 times a week, you will learn a lot about writing, about the Internet, and you will be surprised by the amount of positive feedback you get once you start publicizing your blog.

Even if you realize down the road that you want to change the topic of your website, you will still have gathered all that invaluable experience and have a ton of content that you can use in many ways.

Content is king on the web. There is simply no way around it. If you have great content, people will come. You will get traffic.

Just writing a short article of about 500 words, every other day, and posting it on a blog is the best way to get started making a living with your passion on the Internet.

Yours for health and success,

Frederic

PS: Want coaching? Go to: http://www.dowhatyouloveuniversity.com/new.html

The countdown for my trip around the world has already started. We’re now in December 2009 and the trip officially starts as early as June 2010!

In case you don’t know, I recently announced that next year I’ll be going on a one-year trip around the world with my fiancée, and together we’ll discover many beautiful places around the world, but also use this opportunity to prove that it’s really possible to live the “Do What You Love Lifestyle”, as I like to call it.

As I started preparing for this trip, I realized that all of my initial ideas of how I was going to travel had to change.

One thing that became very clear is that I needed to find a way to bring a lot less stuff with me than I initially envisioned.

Have you ever traveled and been burdened by your luggage? This happened to me several times and in spite of my best efforts, I always brought too much stuff on most of my trips.

I remember the first time I went to Costa Rica in 2002. I brought approximately 10 books along (and big ones), along with way too many clothes, and I even brought a guitar! I was carrying big suitcases everywhere, and this dramatically lessened my enjoyment of my trip. The guitar thing was a bit too much, so in 2005, when I travelled to Bali, I decided to bring a Soloette folding guitar. It only weights a few pounds in a fairly compact case, and impressed a lot of Balinese people who enjoyed watching me play. But again, that’s another piece of luggage to bring along.

On my last trip to Thailand, I decided to bring along my Brompton folding bike. It’s a neat little bike that I enjoyed using to visit some of the country. But even though it’s the most compact folding bike in the world, it still weighed almost 20 pounds with the case.

On some trips, I even brought my big Vita-Mix blender along!

But every time I travel somewhere, I’m always torn between the desire to travel light and the “need” for some items I feel I can’t live without. Now that I’m preparing for a one-year trip around the world, I realized that traveling light won’t be a luxury. It will be a necessity.

On many places in the South Pacific, the best way to get around is to take small charter planes between islands.  On these planes, you’re limited to 25 pounds of luggage — per person!

Also, traveling light brings an extra level of freedom. When you’re traveling with pounds of extra luggage, you’re tied up to your “stuff” all the time, and it limits what you can do.

In preparation for this trip, I started reading some books and eBooks by rugged travelers. Every single one of these travel experts said the same: “travel light!”

One book that made a particular impact on me is “Life Nomadic”, by fellow vegan traveler Tynan (http://tynan.net/lifenomadic). Here’s the clothing packing list that he recommended:

• Two pairs of underwear

• One pair of convertible pants (converts to shorts)

• One bathing suit

• Three shirts

• One bra (if you’re a woman)

I must say I was shocked when I saw this, because I always brought WAY more clothes than this.

In fact, clothes have always been problematic on a trip, because even if you bring one-week worth of clothes, you always have to figure out where you’re going to do laundry, and that’s not always easy.

The logic behind Tynan’s minimalistic wardrobe is that you don’t need more than that if you buy high-quality clothes. He criticized cotton as being the worst fabric for travelers, and instead recommended the company Icebreaker who makes shirts and other clothes from merino wool — a fabric that is ideal for almost all uses.

If you’re wearing one pair of underwear, you’re also washing the other pair. You’re wearing a shirt, but you’re also washing another one.

And when your wardroom is very simple, it’s very easy to wash clothes by hand.

I did an experiment by wearing only two shirts for a week. I simply wore my shirt every day. Then when I took my shower in the evening, I took advantage of the running water to also wash my shirt with a little shampoo. I let it dry, and the next day wore a new shirt, and repeated the process every day. I found that way I never ran out of clean clothes, and my shirt was just as clean as if I had washed it in a machine.

With that little experiment done, I can see how easy it will be to travel with a very limited wardrobe. But beyond clothes, I’m starting to evaluate what else I will bring on this trip.

Tynan recommended a small 28 liter backpack to put *everything*. 28 Liters is quite small. By comparison, the average school backpack is 32 liters. I had a backpack about that size, and tried to pack an entire list of things I would bring on my trip, and surprisingly, everything fit in!

At the moment, I’m refining my packing list.

One of my big burden when traveling was books. But this time around, I don’t plan to bring any books. I’ll only bring an eBook reader (probably the Kindle, unless something better comes out first), and my laptop.

For a laptop, I’m due to replace mine, so I will be watching what gets released in the next 6 months. I might go for a MacBook Air, but I’m even considering a PC laptop. My problem is that I’m so used to the Mac operating system that I don’t function very well on a PC. However, my fiancée is more used to Windows, so we might bring a PC and a Mac.

In any case, I’m starting to see the value of traveling light, and I’m quite excited about it!

Less is often more.

Every day, I’m looking at my packing list and reconsidering what I might be bringing on this trip.

Right now, I have a small travel blender by Tribest that I’m considering bringing on this trip, but I might even skip that and learn to live without smoothies for a year (sadness!).

Pretty soon, I’ll be posting my packing list so you can get an idea what are some of the best items to bring on any trip.

Yours for health and success,

Frederic

http://www.dowhatyoulove.com
http://www.fredericpatenaude.com

PS: The best way to have the freedom to travel anywhere is selling digital products online like I know. If you’d like to know the process of selling your own eBooks in a weekend or less, make sure you sign up for my course “How to Write and Sell Your Own eBooks in 24 Hours or Less”. There’s about 10 spaces left and I’d love for you to be one of the students to take part in this course — and I know that you can accomplish miracles too. Sign up at: http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/writeyourebook.html