Kendall Giles

One basic theme of the book Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life is the simple question: what will you do in an emergency?

For example, consider the reaction of most people --- if they see a car wreck, their response is likely to be "call 911". Or if the power goes out they will likely say "call the power company". Or if they hear someone breaking into their home, they could say "call the police".

But how do you handle an emergency if there is no one else to cry to for help? What if the responsibility for the response falls onto your shoulders?

For example, after Hurricane Katrina, where local, state, and federal agencies where simply not up to the task of dealing with the disaster, "call 911" was not enough.

Or consider man-made disasters --- just this morning the news headlines read that North Korea fired a long-range missile, against international condemnation. What will you do if a war breaks out?

What will you do in a riot, natural disaster, attack by religious extremists, economic collapse, or other event where you must act in order to save your family and yourself?

Author Neil Strauss considers these questions in an entertaining description of how he transformed himself from a typical "city slicker" into someone who knows how to respond to each of the above scenarios. He describes how he learned to protect his assets, how to "disappear" in a crowd, how to defend himself, how to find water if stranded at sea, how to travel unhindered through police/emergency barriers, how to remain "invisible" as an American when traveling abroad, and even how to turn a credit card into a knife.

This book is not a how-to manual for all of the above, but by considering the experiences and questions raised by the author, it may lead you to consider increasing your skills and knowledge so that you can save yourself rather than depend on someone else to come to your rescue, especially in the event that no one else can or will.

From the book:

When the shit hits the fan, you're going to want to find me. And you'll want to be doing whatever I'm doing. Because I've learned from the best.

You can call me crazy if you want.

Or you can listen to the story of the eight years it took to open my eyes, realize my country can't protect me, and do something about it.

It just may save your life.

What will you do in an emergency?

Available from Amazon: Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life.

Here are two simple questions:

1. who wants to be healthy?
2. who wants to be rich?

Probably most of you raised your hands to both questions.

But considering that the National Center for Health Statistics reports that more than 34% of Americans are obese (and with another 33% overweight), and considering that the average American has about $10,000 in credit card debt, there seems to be a big difference between what people say they want to be (the answer to the above questions) and what they actually are (unhealthy and in debt).

I'll leave getting fit for another post, but at least there's a great resource you can tap if you actually want to be rich --- the unambiguously titled new book I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

The book contains a six-week program to get your finances in order, get you out of debt, and help you be rich. But it is important to note that this is not the typical "buy hot stocks" or "hedge funds are great" or "to be rich you need to be an expert in finance" investment books. Rather, this book contains basic, fundamental, core principles and steps you can actually implement, today, to get out of debt and save lots of money. For example, regarding credit cards, the author includes actual scripts you can use to turn the tables on the credit card companies (like the scripts the telemarketers use on you to get you to buy things) and get them to waive your finance charges, lower your APR, and resolve missed payments. The book also includes examples, solid advice, explanations and reasons, and practical tips for getting out of debt and becoming rich.

This book is best for those people in their 20's and 30's -- those most likely to make naive finance mistakes (like going into credit card debt) and those most able to take advantage of the long-term view to money management. But everyone can learn something from the book, from how to negotiate, how to automate your bills and investments, and how to make investment decisions that won't require you to spend a lot of your own time managing them and won't require you to become a finance expert beforehand.

From the current state of the economy, it is clear that a lot of people do not have a basic understanding of how to manage their money. If they really want to become rich, then they should buy the book and actually do something about it, starting today.

Currently available from Amazon in paperback or kindle editions.

I never thought I would be impressed by a timer --- usually they feel flimsy, cost too much, are tedious to use, or don't have the features I need. So I was surprised when I started using this Gymboss timer and found that it has all the features I need, it is very easy to use, it seems quite rugged, and it is inexpensive.

As you can see from my photo, the unit itself is fairly small and compact, and it has a belt clip on the back. There are three buttons on the unit --- they are used to set up the mode (repeating intervals, countdown, stopwatch), alarm type (high/low beep or vibrate) and duration, and timer start/stop. The display is very easy to read, and I like that the unit remembers the previously-used interval settings when you power on the timer. The timer also keeps track of the number of intervals you've completed when in repeating intervals mode.

You can buy the Gymboss Interval Timer directly from the Gymboss website, or from Amazon.

So you may find this timer very useful, especially if you are interested in fitness --- whether you do MMA, martial arts, cardio/sprint intervals, kettlebells, weight lifting, strength training, or other activities.