The Frug: Live Lean. Work Lean. Travel Lean.

Most people misunderstand life.

What we can all learn from a 75-year-old sailor building a 10 ft boat to circumnavigate the globe. (nonstop)

Sven Yrvind, a 75-year-old Swedish boat builder, designer, sailor and writer, has something to say about life. He’s chosen to communicate this philosophy through taking on tough challenges. Faced with a future of scraping by on a crap pension, surfing channels in a retirement home, Sven had different ideas.

“TV is not for me. I must have something to live for, problems to solve. Most people misunderstand life. Money does not make you happy. Comfort does not make you happy. It is only by using energy you create more energy and it is that surplus of energy that makes you happy and healthy.”

Sven has lived this quote. A recent 45 day trip took him across the Atlantic in a 16 foot self-made boat. He’s been building and navigating small boats around the world, for 50 years, including treacherous, stormy waters like those near Cape Horn at the southern tip of Chile.

The Quest

For his next trip, Sven is building a 10 foot boat to circumnavigate the globe nonstop – a 30,000 nautical mile voyage that will last 600 days. Some have called this a suicide project but with more than 50 years of experience designing, building and sailing small crafts, Sven has proven smaller is better. A smaller boat, designed to be indestructible, has less forces acting on it then a larger boat. It lives among the waves, instead of doing battle with them.

Because he’s making the trip nonstop, he’s also bringing along 800 pounds of food and 200 pounds of books. [Read more…] about Most people misunderstand life.

How to take a hatchet to your spending with a hit list.

11/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Stop budgeting and start using a hit list.

I hate budgets.They are a pain in the ass to put together and, once you do, they just sort of sit there. They’re like a line in the dirt you just can’t cross, but often do. It feels like you’re trapped between the lines. It may remind you of work since it involves spreadsheets! That’s probably the reason most people don’t put together a personal budget and hold themselves to it.

I’ve experimented with different budgeting tools like Quicken, Mint, and various sad spreadsheets, created with good intentions and never updated or opened again. I tend to do much better with actuals. As in, what did I actually spend and what can I do about it. I’m calling this “action-based budgeting.”

I want it to be simple, something that can be done in an hour on a piece of paper and pay benefits all year. Less = More.

What is a hit list?

Why you’ll soon be paying zero dollars per month for high tech home security.

11/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Home Alarm Disruption — Scary Times for Established Players with Fees

By Brad Beckstrom

What is disruption? It’s when an established industry like eyeglasses, taxicabs, music is completely turned on its head by a new technology or a new way of doing things.

Usually this is very good for Frugs. Eyeglasses and prescription sunglasses drop from hundreds of dollars down to $75. A taxicab ride into town drops from $20 to $10 and comes with a tidy receipt, including a map of your journey sent to your phone from UberX. Music sounds better and, is unlimited, for a fraction of what we used to pay.

Whenever I see an industry about to be disrupted, I see opportunity to flex some frug muscles and get the word out. The next industry being disrupted…..

Home security.

The home security business is a 5+ billion dollar industry. The industry includes established players like ADT, FrontPoint, Brinks. Also, other major communications players have jumped into the game including Google, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and others.

The monthly monitoring fees are the bread-and-butter profits for these companies. Much like the cable or mobile phone industry, they are willing to install a high-tech home system, for a low price, but you’ll be on the hook paying anywhere from $30 to $200 a month or more, depending on the number of entries, windows, sensors, and keypads etc. in your home.

Cable companies and mobile carriers are jumping into this market because it’s a perfect fit for their model. They are very good at setting contracts up, raising prices while charging early termination fees for those who want out after their monthly monitoring gets too pricey.

The good news is this industry is about to be completely disrupted.

The future will require less space.

10/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom AKA The Frug

As I write this, I’m sitting in an office filled with a lot of books and dusty CDs, but the future will be different. I’ve been paring down books for years. Getting rid of old tech manuals and binders, DVDs, and other junk. Only keeping books I would want to re-read or give away.

I know that the digital world will require less space.

For many, music, books, and movies have already moved to digital. And the digital world requires less space. When I say the digital world, I’m not just talking about music or movie downloads on iTunes or downloading Kindle books on a tablet. I’m talking about something better than owning or downloading stuff and taking care of it, storing it, getting rid of it. I’m talking about accessing anything on an as-needed basis via high tech sharing or streaming for small rental fee.

This is now

In the future [Read more…] about The future will require less space.

Dusty CDs and the Price of Music.

10/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Why now is really the best time for music lovers.

In my relatively short time on this planet, here are the many different ways I’ve purchased and listened to music. Oh, so many ways that the music industry has zapped us music lovers over the years.

Vinyl 45 records on mono record player
Vinyl LP records with high fidelity turntable and stereo
Cassette Tapes and mix tapes on tape deck (Luckily, I avoided the whole 8-track tape thing) But my Dad’s 1968 Olds Tornado did have one in the dash.
Recording cassette mix tapes from vinyl records and playing them on my first Alpine car stereo (I had arrived)
Cassette tapes in a Walkman
Compact discs on a compact disc player plugged into home stereo
Compact discs and cassettes on a boombox
Compact discs on portable Sony Discman
CDs, Concert DVDs, cassettes and vinyl LPs with 6 speaker home theater surround sound system. (why would I ever need anything else to listen to music?)
Six Disc CD changer in the car with cassette player and AM/FM radio
MP3 Player (one of the early versions, can’t remember how I even got the music on the thing.)
Using my laptop to “Rip” my CDs to iTunes and then sync them on my iPod
iTunes on laptop with Harman Kardon surround sound speakers and subwoofer
iPod with iTunes. Discovered the iTunes store along with everyone else.
Burning CDs from tracks downloaded on Napster, LimeWire, shared with friends
Streaming commercial free radio stations like Radio Paradise on my Mac with various desktop apps including iTunes, Chrome and Safari browser extensions
XM satellite radio
iPhone with iTunes
Streaming music via apps on my iPhone, like Last FM, then Pandora
Streaming music on Tivo, Roku and Apple TV with Surround Sound Digital Amplifier
Streaming Music from Apps to Bluetooth car stereo and a Bluetooth HD home receiver
Amazon Prime Music via Amazon Music apps

I’d almost be afraid to total up what I’ve spent on music, including all the gadgets, CDs clubs, and concerts. But the problem is, I love music. I basically listen to it all the time and I still use many of the items on this crazy list, including the vinyl records.

Dusty CDs

I am sitting here in my office looking at a very tall tower of dusty CDs. [Read more…] about Dusty CDs and the Price of Music.

What would you take with you?

10/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

How the Burning House Project helps us think about how much we really don’t need.

The Burning House by Foster Huntington began as a popular blog and later became a book that the New York Times called “fascinating and provocative.”

It asked the simple question.

“If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It’s a conflict between what’s practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question.”

The idea went viral as thousands of people around the world posted a photo and a list of the few things they would grab if their house was on fire. Most people assumed that family, friends, and pets were out of the “hypothetical burning house” safely so you just have a few moments to grab those few important possessions. It’s also very hard to get a cat to pose for the picture. [Read more…] about What would you take with you?