Get Out of Debt and In Control of Your Personal Finances with Adam Baker of Man Vs Debt

If you’re someone who’s tired of living from one paycheck to the next, want to build a solid safety net, curb impulse spending and increase your earning power, then Adam Baker at Man Vs. Debt is someone you should be listening to. He and his wife paid off about $18K in consumer debt, sold all their belongings, and were able to travel the world for over a year (with their 22-month-old daughter!). With a little hard work, they have been able to achieve some incredible things, and because he’s done it, Baker has become a huge authority in the online personal finance world who shares credible advice that will help you eliminate financial stress in your life.

I’ve known Baker since early on after he started his blog in 2009. Since then, he’s quickly amassed a loyal following, joined forces with some of the biggest forces on the social web (Leo Babauta at Zen Habits, J.D. Roth at Get Rich Slowly, and the team at WiseBread). He and I partnered together with a great team to start Untemplater, and finally got the chance to meet in person when he visited Thailand in January on his year-long location-independent world tour! I’ve been looking forward to doing a video interview with him for quite a while now, and this week we were finally able to sit down for a great conversation.

Baker just launched his first ebook guide, Unautomate Your Finances: A Simple, Passionate Approach to Money , which lays out his holistic approach to personal finance. I know from interacting with him on a weekly basis that he’s spent the last several months toiling away on this guide, he’s gotten a tremendous amount of positive feedback, and this is something that is sure to transform people’s relationship with money. Watch our video conversation below to see why you should un-automate your finances, how you can build a more conscious, simple, sustainable financial life, and get the scoop about his world travels since freeing himself from debt prison!

Click here for the full video interview.

  • 0:55 – Baker’s college experience, business background & financial history
  • 2:15 – White picket fences & opting out of the template life path
  • 4:54 – Unconventional approaches to eliminating debt
  • 6:45 – Deliberate, effective budgeting
  • 8:13 – How to plan for income fluctuations & irregular expenses when you’re a freelancer
  • 10:20 – Couchsurfing & backpacking through Australia, New Zealand & Thailand
  • 13:38 – Traveling the world with young children
  • 16:07 – More about Baker’s new ebook Unautomate Your Finances
  • 20:36 – Cultivating a conscious mindset about personal finance & money
  • 22:12 – South by Southwest Web Awards & where to find Baker

UPDATE: For more from Baker: check out his Sell Your Crap guide to learn how his family got rid of all their belongings before they went traveling around the world, and how you can sell all your stuff on eBay, Craigslist, and Amazon to make some extra cash. Also, if you want to add a guaranteed $12,000 to your online business over the next 12 months, you might want to grab a seat in his course with Corbett Barr, The Hustle Project. Corbett and Baker are both Faculty members at Digital Nomad Academy, regular recurring mentors for our students inside the Academy, so I can speak personally to the high quality of their coaching.

I’ll be honest: I’m someone who hates to sit down with spreadsheets and budget out my finances. I don’t even like to look at my bank statements every month! With student loans, a lot of random business stuff going on, and the fact that I’m a lazy excuse for a human, my finances are a damn mess, but Baker has developed a product that has fundamentally changed the way I think about money, and he and his wife Courtney are proof that you really can get conscious about how you spend, escape the debt “game” that the rest of the world is stuck in, and start to build the lifestyle you want now! Forget dreaming about retirement, if he and his family can eliminate their debt and go globetrotting, you can get control of your finances and do whatever you dream of doing too.

Here is what you get if you purchase a copy of Baker’s Unautomate Your Finances:

  • A comprehensive 83-page eBook. In “The Unautomation Theory” section, Baker relates his experience climbing out of the debt hole and the way that has transformed his family’s lives. He goes on to explain how to avoid financial burnout and unlock conscious financial awareness by un-automating. In “The Science of Unautomation” he’ll help you take a hard look at your priorities and figure out how to budget for what you really want in life. Lastly, in the “Applying Unautomation” section, he focuses on application, showing you how to actively manage your finances with a simple 2-page minimalist budgeting system and apply his “Debt Tsunami” tactic to rid yourself of debt.
  • A 27-minute video interview with Leo Babauta of ZenHabits.net. Baker interviews Leo on how he applied the principles of simplicity and minimalism to dramatically turn around his financial life.  Powerful insights from a leader in simplicity, blogging, and productivity.
  • A 29-minute audio interview with J.D. Roth of GetRichSlowly.org, one of the top personal finance blogs on the web. J.D. joins Baker on a call to discuss his own financial recovery story and what it’s like now that he’s in the “third phase of personal finance“.
  • A 2-page, custom-designed PDF version (printable) of the minimalist budgeting system discussed in the main guide.
  • A simple Excel template for those who want to take the minimalist budgeting system digital.
  • Free Extended Updates! Get on the exclusive email list and over the next 6 months, Baker will be releasing sample case studies, FAQ’s, and exclusive interviews… for free!

At just $17, I honestly thought he was nuts for giving away so much hard work, but it just goes to show how dedicated he is to providing real value and helping those who need financial guidance. This is a truly impressive product that would typically go for at least $39 if you look around at other bloggers online, and it comes with Baker’s “as long as I have a pulse” money-back guarantee. So if you need to learn how to get the best of your personal finances, start an emergency fund, successfully get out of debt, and create a realistic budget that will let you achieve your financial and life goals, then Unautomate Your Finances is definitely something you need to check out.

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3 Ways To Be An Unconventional Giver: What Jesus, Gandhi and Spiderman Knew

This is a guest post I’m excited to host from Dwight Turner, founder of In Search Of Sanuk.

You’re already en route to your thrilling lifestyle so why are you still giving the same way? In the footsteps of Jesus, Ghandi, Spiderman and all four Ninja Turtles, here are three steps to make your giving as revolutionary as your lifestyle.

Stop Giving Only When It’s Convenient

The template lifestyle dictates that you should probably begin thinking about what you can give back a few years before you expect to die. How much have you bought into that mentality? Have you repeatedly postponed giving until you have more money, more stability, and more success? My first big project last year was to design a fundraiser for Bangkok’s Refugee Center. I ended up throwing an art show that provided much needed funds for the center and got more people in the city talking about my initiative. However, had I let the unpredictability of my personal life govern the decision to be involved, it would have been scheduled for 2030. To play a role in social change, we can no longer conceptualize giving the same way we think about clipping our toenails or doing our taxes. Break the mold and transform giving from a mundane task to a part of your thrilling lifestyle.

volunteering Thailand orphanage

Embrace Risky Giving

As a society we have bought the idea that giving should be feel good and secure. Sometimes it can be, but we are wrong to believe putting others’ well being before our own will be all smiles and rainbows. My hunch is this is because we’re not giving for the right reasons to begin with. I cringe when I hear, “Give and you WILL RECEIVE.” How much of what you give is steeped in what you’re hoping to receive? Are you doing it so more people will buy your product or read your blog? In reality, the people giving the most are hardly recognized or rewarded. Stop and think about your teachers and I know you’ll get my point. Why then do you expect some selfish reward for doing what we know is right? Really want to be an unconventional giver? Try this:

Give when no one is looking. Give and expect nothing. Be risky, be taken for granted and give purely.

Give From the Bottom of your Hurt

Your parents tried it. You tried it. So where did giving from the heart get us? Well, besides forcing smart non profits and NGOs to scramble, rearranging budgets or compromising their services for overpaid marketers who know how to tap into our vanity. To our detriment we’ve created an environment where cause marketers have to dupe us into repeatedly buying a latte laced with ‘feel good’ to do something noble like saving the rain forest. It works, so everyday we fall out of bed and into line for innumerable magic lattes until we’ve purchased such a monstrous caseload of feel good that we honestly believe we can end poverty without ever changing our daily routine. Nothing wrong with a laced latte, right? But, if you’re reading this it’s because you’ve already fallen off the bandwagon. So I challenge all former bandwagon riders to start giving from the bottom of your hurt. You don’t have to be hungry for long to have enough of an idea of what starving might be like. Likewise, you don’t have to travel to countries where every meal is an appetizer just to realize more should be done to relieve the suffering of those less fortunate than us. Pain is universal. Give when it hurts and because it hurts.

Thrilling Heroics Consulting is a regular supporter of In Search of Sanuk and fully sponsored their December teaching initiative in the Bangkok slums. Begin your unconventional giving by donating today.

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Why You Need to Listen to the Legendary Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk embodies authenticity, transparency, passion, and hustle. His dedication to his community has made him a juggernaut in the social media space, so if you don’t know him already, you need to.

Garyvee, as he’s called, can teach you a lot about following your passion.

Gary’s a wine guy. He’s the 33-year-old director of Wine Library in Springfield, New Jersey, where he has successfully built up a following of over 80,000 viewers a day through blogging, Twitter, and Facebook. Wine Library TV, the company’s video blog, now has over 750 video podcasts. To quote his bio:

With a wealth of knowledge and an entrepreneurial spirit, Gary spent every weekend of his college years at his parents’ store, rebranding the family business as Wine Library and establishing himself as a respected expert. As the store’s only wine buyer, he sampled every wine that entered the store. Customers depended on Gary for his advice and within a five year time period, Wine Library grew from a $4 million dollar business to a $45 million business.

But Gary’s career took a new turn with the advent of Wine Library TV. Gary’s key goals are twofold: “First, I want people to try different wines. How can you have a favorite if you only know a few? Second, I tell people to trust their palates. If a wine appeals to your palate, then it’s a good choice. Don’t feel pressured to like popular brands or what experts recommend. Buy what ‘brings the thunder’ for you.”

Even if you’re no wine connoisseur, Gary’s experience in social media and business has far-reaching implications in this new economy.

In internet currency, Gary Vaynerchuk has more reach than Tim Ferriss, who you should be familiar with if you’re a reader of this blog. Gary has spoken around the world and been called the “Social Media Sommelier,” and he’s successfully leveraged all this exposure into a 10-book deal with HarperCollins, national TV appearances, and much more.

At the Web 2.0 Expo, Gary put out a call to action: he says it’s time to stop doing shit you hate and embrace what you love. The web makes it possible to go out on your own and make a living doing what you care about. In his new book out this week, Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion, he’ll share his path to success and teach you how to do just that.

He was kind enough to take a few minutes to record answers for two of MY biggest questions for our growing community here:

  • How can Gen-Y start applying your advice to “stop doing shit you hate” and the lessons in Crush It! to gear their career around their passion?
  • How can the non-profit & social entrepreneurship world leverage social media & transparency to be successful?

Gary still runs this huge multimillion-dollar business like a mom-and-pop store. He makes time to answer virtually everyone, to interact and respond with the little guys like myself, and I’ve watched him take full ownership of his mistakes. He’s someone who knows how to provide superior customer service, and how to go above and beyond. He treats everyone like a rockstar.

He’s incredibly enthusiastic and engaging in his videos. He’ll be uniquely honest and transparent about his feelings. He’s authentic and entertaining, and all of these things have made him a success. He’s REAL and Raw. He gives a shit. He’s himself.

He’s not afraid to call people out on their B.S., he advocates radical transparency, and Doing The WORK to make a living doing what you’re passionate about.

If you want to make a living with your passion, pick up your copy of Gary’s new book Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion today.

 

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My Secret Recipe for 100% Guaranteed Happiness

My friend Dwight is slowly convincing me that I’m a philanthropist.

I’ve talked before about the impact Dwight Turner is making in Bangkok—making it easy for people to volunteer and contribute to charitable causes in Thailand. We have gone to hand out food to the homeless near Democracy Monument here in Bangkok, we’ve taken the great kids at Chonburi Children’s Center to the beach, we’ve volunteered with the infants and toddlers at Friends For All Children (F.F.A.C.) nursery, we’ve held events to raise money for an urban garden installation project here in Bangkok and for medical aide for refugees. Dwight’s hard work has even earned him the attention of CNN’s new local Asia site.

I’ve met incredible people with touching stories. I’ve made incredible friends with some of the other volunteers.

To commemorate September 11th this year, In Search of Sanuk hosted Bangkok’s Twestival celebration. Twestival is a Twitter-inspired social event where attendees can meet other Twitter users (much like our monthly Bangkok Tweetup), but also be a part of a global awareness and fundraising campaign for charitable causes around the world. We raised money for two orphanages near the Burmese border—Baan Unrak and Baan Dada.

The event was spectacular. Over 350 people came out to party on the Fraser Suites’ poolside rooftop bar and support our cause. People recorded and shared our social media-powered event live. We raised over $2400 US, which can go a long way in Southeast Asia. The founders of Digital Democracy even showed up to interview volunteers Jen, Danielle, and myself about emerging technologies in Thailand and about how the global Twitter event was helping make a social change:

So here’s the secret: Some of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had have been volunteering with children throughout Thailand.

A few days after the event successfully wrapped, Dwight and I took a 7-hour van ride to hand-deliver donations and visit the two children’s homes with our travel buddies Mark, Joel and Agnes.

Baan Unrak and Baan Dada educate and empower orphaned or otherwise impoverished kids—not only Thais but also Karen and Mon refugees who’ve been driven from their homes and persecuted by the Burmese military dictatorship. The children are instructed in playing musical instruments, sewing, fixing motorbikes, art, languages and technical skills. They’re taught to respect all people, creatures, religion and to practice vegetarianism. The homes also provide jobs for refugees and local families who help care for the children, assist with farming, construction and weaving projects.

Wandering through Sangklaburi farmland with the Baan Dada children

Hanging out with kids like these is a transformative experience. They are some of the poorest people in the world, often living in crummy conditions, many have lost their families, yet they are the most cheerful and gracious little people you’ll ever meet.

Words cannot describe, so I’ll let this video do the job for me. This is a montage of many of the great kids I’ve had the opportunity to share time with while helping out at Baan Dada, Baan Unrak, F.F.A.C., Chonburi Center, and more.

Whatever you do, watch this video.

Spending time with children in need will change your life. Once you begin to understand the loss some of them have experienced, the disadvantage they are at—and yet they still exude love—it should cause you to reevaluate how you look at your own life. You can’t help but smile around some of these kids.

The only activity I’ve found yet that is guaranteed to keep a smile on my face.

Find children in need (they are everywhere, unfortunately). Go and give generously with your time and any other resources you can share.

Some of the awesome kids at Baan Unrak

Some of the awesome kids at Baan Unrak

This message is dedicated to a gracious, playful little tyke who lost his life way before his time. Ali Baba lost a battle with disease on Thursday, September 17th, just two days after we said goodbye to him and the other children at Baan Dada. The loss was unbearable and affected a lot of us. Rest in peace, friend.

Cody with Ali Baba

If you’d like to make a donation on his behalf, the home is building a new medical clinic and needs your help. You can sponsor a child’s food and healthcare needs for three months for only $187. Donate to Baan Dada.

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Having Fun and Making a Difference

Making a difference and having fun don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Today I’d like to highlight someone who’s definitely living a thrilling life—making a huge difference in the world and serving a great example of how to choose the path less taken. Dwight Turner is a close friend whose passion is to help the less fortunate in any way he can, and he runs an organization here in Thailand called In Search Of Sanuk, where he promotes worthwhile humanitarian causes.

Sanuk is a Thai word roughly translated as fun or enjoyment. Sanuk, however, is much more. This value permeates Thai society giving people a jovial, lighthearted outlook on life. We combine this aspect of Thai culture with our goals to help needy people. To us, sanuk is a lifestyle. This lighthearted outlook naturally translates to those we’re trying to reach and becomes a powerful mechanism of hope and healing for all involved.

Dwight worked as an English teacher in Thailand for about two years off-and-on, and he was my only contact in Thailand when I first came out to Asia in 2008. We currently both live in central Bangkok, and Dwight spends the majority of his time promoting good causes and organizing mixers and fundraising events to raise money for charity projects around Bangkok and throughout the region. I do my best to help him promote his events, but he’s the mastermind—the real passion and drive to create change around here. He has worked with Burmese migrants, Balinese orphans, refugees, and much more. He’s the real deal.

Doing Good and Having a Blast at the Same Time

Together, Dwight and I host monthly Bangkok Tweetups—tech-centric Twitter meetups for charity. People get together to have some dinner and a few beers, meet interesting new folks (expats and locals) from around Bangkok, and a portion of what they spend on food & drinks goes to support In Search Of Sanuk projects in Thailand.

Ryan, Dwight & the Lub D staff

To recognize World Refugee Day on June 20th, Dwight hosted a Taste of Sri Lanka dinner at the Lub D hostel, attracting people from our Tweetups, from Facebook, and Couchsurfing. Everyone mixed and mingled, had some delicious food cooked by Tuan, the cook at the local refugee center, and proceeds went to support the medical needs of asylum seeking refugees.

And just recently, along with the good folks at Green Networking Days Bangkok, Dwight co-hosted a huge nightclub event at Fraser Suites called LUSH, Bangkok’s Green Night Out. There were over 250 people in attendance at this spectacular upscale rooftop bar, everyone danced and drank and enjoyed the DJ music, and we were able to raise 35,000 Baht (over $1000 US) for In Search Of Sanuk’s Urban Garden Project to put vegetable gardens in the Bangkok Refugee Center and slums.

 

Cody, Pom & Mint at LUSH

ISOS’ events allow people (especially young people and travelers) to do things they’d already want to do—get together with friends, go out dancing, grab dinner and drinks, or attend music & art events—and easily contribute to making a positive difference at the same time. I think this is a world-changing idea, and I know Dwight will leave a big impact on the world.

I’m sure there are people doing this elsewhere, but I’ve never witnessed someone so dedicated to empowering others to make a change. I’m excited that my lifestyle gives me the time to invest in travel, hanging out with friends like Dwight, and participating in good causes.

Announcement: My Charity Commitment

For a long time, I wanted to contribute to something like 1% for the Planet, Kiva.org, or local charities. When I visited Cambodia, I really felt compelled to contribute to causes in this region. One day I realized, ‘Hey I know Dwight personally, I trust him, and he’s committed his life to doing good for others!’ So I decided to work more closely with him. We’re making plans to travel to neighboring countries across Southeast Asia every three months and volunteer for good causes wherever we go. And starting this week, 5% of my business profits will go toward ISOS projects. Anyone who signs up for my consulting and services will help us make a difference.

Improving a Broken System

Sadly, the state of philanthropy and volunteerism in Thailand is pretty convoluted and decentralized. Dwight works painstakingly to get non-profit organizations and NGOs throughout Thailand collaborating with each other and to turn volunteer opportunities into something more organized than they already are, so that people can more easily contribute and make a difference.

When I’m in the US, watching mainstream media, it feels like there is a 24-hour-a-day bad news feed directly into your brain. There is the war in the Middle East, the ongoing argument over global warming, shrinking resources and a growing population. Watching the news makes people afraid and helpless. In the face of this negative hype, I think most folks tend to retreat from the “real world.” We look for ways to escape (me included): You go see the new Terminator movie. You go get a drink downtown with your friends. You play online games for hours on end. You do your job, you go home… But we ignore the genocide, hunger and poverty going on around the world. We even stay selectively ignorant about the issues in our own backyard. Like Dwight says in a recent post, maybe we are Over Entertained and Under Challenged:

Consider what avenues exist to discuss helping the less fortunate or marginalized in your community. What are they? Are you a part of the discussion? I fear so few of us are not even having these discussions. When they do occur, it happens in niches so isolated that they’re inaccessible to both other groups having similar discussions or people who are not members of these segmented communities.

It’s my passion to change this where I can.

LUSH mixer at Fraser Suites, Bangkok

In Search Of Sanuk makes it easy for anyone to get involved and support good causes by making it fun! If you want to volunteer, Dwight makes it easy, but if you want to make contributions without having to go out of your way or spend a lot of money, we also host mixer parties, art shows, donation drives, and other fun events in Bangkok to raise money (and awareness) for local charity projects. If you’re not in this part of the world, you can still show support by following the ISOS blog, connecting with Dwight on Twitter, signing up for our services, and helping us spread the word.

Dwight is a shining example that you can have fun and make a difference at the same time! He’s a selfless, hard-working guy who genuinely cares about making the world a better place. He understands that not everybody is able to or willing to make the same commitment, so he does his best to enable others to contribute in simple and fun ways. Bangkok wouldn’t be the same without him.

Photos by Sascha Steinhoff.

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Vinod Khosla: Innovation Heals All Wounds

A colleague forwarded me some information this week about ethanol and Flex cars, a video in which Stone Phillips interviews Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and now head of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Khosla Ventures, a group whose interests in biofuels, solar power, web 2.0, microfinance, education, health, and more line up quite perfectly with mine. This quote from Khosla’s site exemplifies some of the sentiments I shared in my call for grassroots collaboration to solve global problems:

Innovative, bottom-up methods will solve problems that now seem intractable–from energy to poverty to disease. Science and technology, powered by the fuel of entrepreneurial energy, are the largest multipliers of resources we have to solve our many social problems.”

-Vinod Khosla, venture capitalist and ethanol fuel evangelist

The May Dateline NBC report, The answer to sky-high prices?, examines the tremendous success of ethanol in Brazil, which has recently gone completely energy independent. There, “flex” cars give consumers the choice to use ethanol, gasoline, or an 85% mixture thereof (E85). Three out of four new vehicles sold in Brazil are equipped with flex-fuel engines, and automakers like Ford Brazil are pulling in profits, even while their domestic counterparts are failing. Drivers say the ethanol is cheaper in almost every case, and Khosla gives three reasons for making the change here in the States:

  • Economic: The fuel costs significantly less to produce, and he argues that prices at the pump could go as low as a dollar or even 70 cents! What more incentive do you need?
  • Environmental: Khosla also discusses alternate methods of processing the alcohol from waste materials such as leftovers from paper mills, fruit peels from food processing plants, and even from prairie grass. Such methods would be even more economical and go further to reduce and recycle waste. = Happy Earth!
  • Social: Ending our energy dependence on the Middle East would put more money into U.S. agriculture and new energy markets rather than into corrupt regimes and terrorist groups. Not to mention, make us INDEPENDENT! Which is always good.

Dateline also reports that WalMart has committed to install E85 pumps at all of its gas station locations. For a full transcript and links to more information, see A simple solution to pain at the pump? And for those of you with a little more technical understanding of ethanol, watch extended footage of Phillips’ interview with Khosla here: Fuel of the future?, in which he discusses the science and process behind ethanol in more detail.

Note: Ethanol is a very disputed topic among environmentalists. I’ve seen the argument that ethanol from corn delivers only very little excess energy than is necessary to produce it. (But that’s why it’s Khosla’s comments about ethanol from other, ready sources that interests me!) Get the other side of the argument at Robert Rapier’s R-Squared Energy Blog. Robert is a chemical engineer in the energy sector, and he takes a critical approach to Khosla’s claims. Very interesting piece.

I don’t have the answers. But it’s certainly worth looking at!

The only thing standing in the way? BIG OIL.

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Remembering Chris Cravens, a Young Drummer with Many More Dreams

Chris Cravens drummer

[feature_box style=”13″ title=”Christopher%20Cravens”]

Born: Sept. 16, 1983
Died: June 20, 2004
Remembered for: His kindness, confidence in the future.
Survived by: Parents Joyce and Brent Cravens and sister Crystal Cravens, all of Carmichael.
Services: Have been held. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any donations be made in his memory to the Sacramento Children’s Home.

[/feature_box]
Like many young people, Chris Cravens was excited about the future, even if he hadn’t settled on a career.

As the drummer for Avington, a Sacramento rock band, he contemplated becoming a professional musician.

Other times, he thought of joining the U.S. Air Force and being a pilot, or simply staying in college to pursue a business degree.

Mr. Cravens’ dreams ended tragically the night of June 20 when he died as a result of a motorcycle accident on Antelope Road.

The California Highway Patrol said he lost control of his 2004 Yamaha motorcycle and it slid into a steel pole—ejecting Mr. Cravens. He was transported to Mercy San Juan Medical Center, where he died of his injuries minutes later.

He was 20.

“My son was my hero in every way,” said his father, Brent Reid Cravens. “Sometimes I looked to him for guidance on certain things, because he had an uncanny ability to see certain things a little clearer than I do.”

For instance, Cravens said, he sought his son’s insights on how to relate to today’s youth.

No one could have asked for a better son, said Mr. Cravens’ mother, Joyce Cravens.

“Chris was truly too good to be true,” she said. “He was just a happy soul who loved everyone.”

Christopher Reid Cravens was born in Sacramento in 1983.

Initially he played the piano but switched to percussion in middle school.

An “A” student, Mr. Cravens graduated from Rio Americano High School in June 2002 and enrolled in American River College three months later.

He was considering various professional avenues.

One option, he told friends, was to obtain a business degree, then open a club where young people could meet and hang out.

Or would he be better off studying engineering before joining the Air Force, where he might become a pilot?

Mr. Cravens was also exploring the music world as the drummer for Avington, an indie rock quartet that formed last fall.

The band had recently completed a six-song extended-play CD and had performed what may have been its final concert on June 19, at the Underground Cafe in Roseville.

News of Mr. Cravens’ death was posted this week on www.avingtonmusic.com, the band’s Web site.

Along with a photo tribute, the site contains an announcement that Avington is on a temporary—if not permanent—“hiatus.”

Neil Irani, the band’s lead singer, said he and the group’s other two remaining members, Matt Jones and Josh May, are grieving and haven’t discussed whether to remain together or break up.

“We haven’t talked about it, but I don’t see how we could continue playing in the band without Chris,” Irani said. “Chris was really an important part of the band.”

Irani, 19, said Mr. Cravens “was almost like an older brother to me. He was a really great person.”

Irani remembered that Mr. Cravens loved extended drum solos.

“When our morale was low, he was always there to keep everyone happy,” he said.

 

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Originally published by The Sacramento Bee, by Edgar Sanchez, Bee staff writer

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