Low Profile Living

When many people think "preparedness" and "survivalist", they think lots of camouflage and lots of guns, hoarding things and reclusive living. While this may be true for a few, the majority of the best prepared people I know are so "average" as to be indistinguishable from everyone else. And that is a good thing. The best way to be insanely rich or insanely prepared is to not make yourself a target so you end up dying due to how successful you were at reaching your goals. Thus the need for low profile living. Here's some tips:

• Dress like everyone else. If you live in rural Texas, wear boots and a hat. If you live in New York, wear a suit. If you live in Arizona and are of a certain age, go ahead and wear the Hawaiian shirt, shorts and (God forbid) socks with your summer sandals. The idea is to blend into the crowd so you won't stand out like a sore thumb and make yourself a target.
• Never brag about what you do, how much money you have, your extensive collection of firearms, or how you just purchased 200 pounds of wheat berries. The only thing this will accomplish is to make you a target, if not now, then later. If someone hears you talking about the five hundred pounds of rice stored in your garage, they may think you are a bit daft now, but should TSHTF, the person who overheard your previous conversation will have stored that little factoid in the back of his mind and may come looking for you.
• Never give out personal information. People like to make conversation so if you are going to talk about yourself, be as non-specific as possible. Your best bet is to ask a lot of questions and direct the conversation away from yourself because, as I said, people like to make conversation and their favorite topic is usually themselves.
• Aim for the middle of the road in everything...the car you drive should be inconspicuous, the clothes you wear should be average (not overly flashy nor overly grungy), the way you spend should be neither excessive nor stingy. Average is boring and tends not to draw too much attention.
• Try to remain above the fray. People who have to be in the middle of everything that is going on tend to draw a lot of unnecessary attention, and in certain situations, unnecessary hate and discontent, towards themselves. This makes them a target. Don't be a target.
• Don't be known as "the guy with a lot of guns" or "the old lady with a lot of money in her house". If you have ever wondered why Asians tend to be the favored targets for home invasion robberies, consider that they work in mostly cash businesses, have a number of staff who see what they do everyday (such as carry the deposit home at the end of the day), and may be known for not trusting banks and/or always having cash on hand. This is not how you want to be known. If your staff knows that you deal with a lot of money, be sure to be consistently inconsistent with your habits, maybe complain a bit about the tight money situation, and make sure people know your money goes to the bank and then to creditors whether you are swimming in profits or not.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

While you go about being boringly low profile in your public life, you can secretly make the most of what you have. Without drawing too much attention, maybe by shopping at a number of different gun stores, buy up an armory worth of weapons if you like. If you must have flashy jewelry and can easily afford a dozen Rolexes, perhaps purchase one and if anyone asks, tell them a rich uncle died and left it to you. Your house may look quite middle-class and maybe even a bit dreary from the outside but there is nothing stopping you from transforming the inside into the height of luxury (people used to do this years ago in some locations where the county tax man judged the value of a home based on what the outside looked like).

The bottom line is to keep your private life private. Even though society makes a big deal about being the richest, the best dressed, having the newest and greatest toys, and making yourself as famous (or infamous) as possible by broadcasting your life all over the internet and beyond, it just makes sense if you really want to survive in a dangerous situation, or even just survive everyday living with a society of unpredictable people, that you keep your business on the down low.