10 Steps to Financial Preparedness for Any Situation

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Besides the widely publicized shootings which have affected a great number of people, a friend's young husband died unexpectedly while he happened to be traveling out of the country and another friend lost his job when his company went out of business without so much as a hint of warning to the employees about what was about to take place. In all of these situations, good financial preparedness would have made a huge difference. While it wouldn't have helped with the emotional damage, being financially prepared would have alleviated some of the stress that comes with facing a disaster. Here's a quick ten tips for being financially prepared for anything:

1. Always have a hundred dollars in your wallet. This gives you a small bit of security and allows you to handle any minor emergency (low on gas, an unexpected business lunch, etc.) without batting an eye.
2. Stop using credit cards IMMEDIATELY and pay off your consumer debts NOW. This may take a few years depending on the size of your debt but it is imperative (not to mention a huge psychological boost) when you don't have a stack of bills to pay each month along with ever-increasing debt.
3. Have an emergency fund. It may look something like this: $500 stashed in various places in your car, $10,000 stashed in your home (in fire proof safes), and $100,000 in various banks. Absolutely no one should know about your emergency fund as this makes you a target. Find a way to provide this info to your significant other in the event of your demise and not a moment before.
4. Pay off your larger debts such as car, home, vacation home, etc., and don't be in a hurry to move up to "bigger and better" as soon as you pay off these debts. Stay where you are and drive your paid off car for a while.
5. Control your spending at all times. People usually get into debt with out-of-control spending. Aim to live on 60% of your income while saving and investing (and tithing and paying taxes as well) with the rest of your income.
6. Check out your insurance coverages to make sure they are sufficient. Insurance for auto, home, life, disability, et al should be more than enough to protect you from financial ruin should life take an unexpected turn.
7. Start a side business. This can be a part time or full time gig but the most important part is that it is yours and you have full control over what happens with it. A side business should require only a very small investment of funds to get started...the point is to make a little money, not dig yourself deeper into debt.
8. Act as if a job loss, loss of a spouse, or natural disaster is imminent and prepare accordingly. Your home should be fully stocked (food, supplies) to the point that you could technically go six months to a year without having to go to the store if necessary. Make sure all of your important documents are where you can find them at a moments notice, prepare your will, gather all of your financial documents and organize them accordingly, etc.
9. Pay attention to what is going on around you. If your company starts bouncing checks, that's one indicator that they are on weak financial footing. If your roommate has a psycho ex who never let a restraining order stand in his way before, take appropriate precautions. If you live in a hurricane prone area and the newscasters are warning everyone to evacuate, then evacuate! No amount of money can make up for not preparing adequately when all of the signs are pointing to what you need to do to survive a disaster and you don't do them.
10. Enjoy what you have and enjoy what you are doing irregardless of what "everyone else" is doing. So what if "everyone else" buys a new car every other year, they are probably up to their eyeballs in debt. So what if everyone else in your office thinks they have a job for life and lives accordingly, you know better and have the good sense to plan ahead whether it turns out to be needed or not.

Random Thoughts and Road Trips

Just back from a couple day road trip. No news, lots of open country, and long rural roads--an excellent way to decompress from 24/7 news, recent tragedy drama and talking heads. Here's some random thoughts and questions...

• Why so many school shootings? Does it have anything to do with schools being "gun free" zones and therefore relatively defenseless targets?
• How should the media balance the public's insatiable appetite for sensationalized news (and the higher ratings and more advertising dollars that come with it) with the caution necessary to not encourage other would-be assassins with a manifesto they want publicized?
• Nothing like farm country in the spring. There is something centering about the basics of farm life--plowing, irrigating, planting--the cyclical wheel of life. Refreshing.
• Why is it that the public jumps to symptom suppression rather than dealing with underlying problems? This is often done in medicine (a person gets a cold and takes a cough suppressant instead of taking steps to improve their immune system and washing their hands to curb the spread of viruses). This is also done with gun control issues (mentally ill people--John Hinkly and the VT shooter for example--go on a shooting rampage and instantly people call for more gun control measures, meanwhile the mentally ill are roaming the streets). If the government and their gun control cronies would have put half as much effort, publicity and funding into treatment of the mentally ill (the underlying cause) as they did towards getting the Brady bill passed (the symptom), I wonder where we would be today.
• One of the students injured during the Columbine shooting was interviewed after the V Tech shooting. She noted that where ever she is, she always pays attention to the people around her, analyzes anyone new who enters the room, and is always thinking about ways to escape from where she is should it become necessary. This is good advice for everyone. Most people spend their days in a routine, semi-oblivious state. Personal safety dictates that everyone should heighten their awareness of their surroundings.

Virginia Tech

Still waiting for more info on the Virginia Tech shootings. Not so much the 'why' as that is less important for preparedness and mitigation at the individual level than the 'how'. Often people want to know why such tradgedies happen, but knowing that someone is homicidal, a loner, mentally unstable, et al, has very little bearing on how the average person can protect themself. In other words, it is virtually impossible to prepare for a potentially lethal situation just by knowing that a person is more likely to start shooting everyone in the vicinity because they suffer from mental illness. Often victims of these types of mass shootings are random targets who had no prior knowledge of the shooter or their mental status.

Which is why the 'how' part of these incidents becomes so important. Logistics, timelines, what security measures were in place, what security measures would have made a difference and prevented loss of life, what individual preparedness tactics, if any, would have made a difference, how training, heightened personal and group awareness, advanced personal safety planning, etc. could have made a difference...all of these are important facts to know.

As a side note, it is interesting to see the huge role technology played in this incident. Students immediatly started posting details of what was happening on their blogs and webpages. Notices to students from the school were sent out via email. Contact with families was made via email or cellphones. Video of what was happening was immediatly relayed via cell to news outlets. One teacher pointed his webcam out the window so he could see what was happening outside via his computer while at the same time keeping himself concealled under a desk.

We may never fully understand why these tradgedies happen but with learning how these incidents happen we can better prepare and hopefully mitigate the outcome of future incidents.

Welcome to the CNI Blogspot

Welcome to the new Code Name Insight blog. After years of working on the website (www.codenameinsight.com), I figured it's about time to add a more personal point of view to the site. It is the goal of CNI to update the Daily Insight section with articles and information that will make our readers better prepared, better educated, and better able to take care of themselves in any situation that they may encounter. In this section, however, readers will get the editorial version of the latest news, reviews of the most useful products, random thoughts and any other thing that strikes us as important.
p.s. A huge thank you to our thousands of CNI visitors each month.