Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I've Been Ramseyed

A month ago, one of my employees said she wouldn't be able to work on Thursday evenings for a few months because she was taking a class at her church. I said fine, but what class was so important that she would change her whole schedule just to be able to attend? She said it was Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.

Of course I had heard of Dave Ramsey over the years and had even checked out his website a few times but I had never heard his radio show or saw his daily TV show. A couple of weeks ago I just happened to catch his show on TV and have been hooked ever since. Now it is the only show that I make sure to watch each day and will tape it to watch at another time if I won't be home.

The reason why I feel his message is so important? It's simple. He states blatantly and often that everyone needs to be debt free. Period. This includes car and house debts as well. He also hails the cash only lifestyle and absolutely hates credit cards. He will tell callers point blank "you can't afford that!" be it a house, a car, or other consumer item. How many times has a salesman told you "You can afford this! It's only small monthly payments!"? Most people don't have any idea what they can afford. If the payments are small enough, they figure they can "afford" it. According to Dave, you can only afford something after you have an emergency fund, after your credit debts are paid off, and after you have saved the cash to pay for it. Common sense is the norm on his show and that is something that is sadly lacking in many people's financial lives.

Resources:

Stuff to Do Before Your Next Vacation

You have your plane tickets, hotel reservation, and list of "must see" attractions all ready to go for your next vacation. Here's some other things to consider doing before you go on vacation:

  • Research the location you are going to and find out what types of disasters (natural and man made) could happen there. Especially if you are going to a location that you are completely unfamiliar with, know how to identify and how to survive the most common types of disasters that could happen (ie: tsunami, typhoon, earthquake, civil unrest).
  • Scan all of your important documents (passport, driver's license, birth certificate, Will, vaccination card, etc) into your computer and carry the file with you on vacation on a micro thumb drive.
  • Make a hard copy of your passport and driver's license and keep it in your suitcase.
  • Leave anything at home that may get you into trouble (weapons, drugs, porn, etc). The penalties for what we consider minor crimes in the US can be quite stringent in other countries.
  • Update things that may come in handy when you are on vacation (your Will, your tetanus shot, etc). You don't want to step on a rusty nail in a third world country then wonder when your last tetanus shot was.
  • Make sure nothing important will expire while you are away--passport, driver's license, credit cards, concealed carry permit, etc.
  • Do a bit of online research and write down the phone numbers to a variety of useful places (cab company, hospital, pharmacy, etc) that you can carry with you. At least if you are stranded in an unfamiliar location you will be able to call a cab or figure out where the nearest pharmacy is.
  • Bring along: spare prescription medications, a spare pair of glasses, spare hearing aid batteries; basically anything that you may run out of and have a hard time replacing.
  • Put an ICE (in case of emergency) listing on your cell phone--this should be the phone number of a trusted friend or relative. Also, carry a laminated card with important phone numbers on it in case you can't access the numbers through your cell phone.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

CNI Challenge #4--Can You Walk a Marathon?

A marathon...that's 26 miles. Could you do it with now? With practice? In a dire emergency? It sounds crazy and I wouldn't expect you to run 26 miles but it is necessary, in many survival situations, to be able to walk yourself away from a disaster, a war zone, or other unsavory situation. Besides being a necessary survival skill, walking is also an easy way to exercise, and best of all, it can result in lowered blood pressure, lowered blood sugar levels, and lower cholesterol.

Think of all of the people who suffered in the Louisiana Superdome for more than a week after Hurricane Katrina. Yes, people said they couldn't flee the city because they didn't have a car or couldn't afford gas, but aside from the ill, elderly, and those with many small children, I wonder why they didn't use the two feet God gave them to get to higher ground. I know, it's easy to say "why didn't you...?", I wasn't there and have no idea what other factors influenced these people's decisions, but the ability to take yourself from one location to another (no matter the distance) under your own power is necessary. If nothing else, walking a few miles or more every day will result in better health, but in a disaster it could save your life.
Here's some walking resources:

Monday, April 28, 2008

What Will You Spend Your Tax Rebate On?

Tax rebate checks should be appearing in your mailbox soon. As a "stimulus" rebate, the government would be more than happy if you spend your rebate on:

  • Big screen TVs
  • iPhones
  • Eating out
  • Computers
  • Clothes
  • Any other in a long list of consumer goods
Here at CNI we suggest you spend your rebate on the following items:
  • Pay off debts (credit cards, taxes, back child support, any other consumer debt)
  • Put it towards your emergency fund (you should have at least six months worth of household expenses saved for a rainy day)
  • Put it with your next house payment to pay towards the mortgage loan principle (the goal is to be totally debt free as soon as possible, including your house and car debts)
  • Buy a firearm, gold, or any other item that holds its value (TVs, computers, cars, clothes, etc don't meet this criteria)
  • Purchase items to add to your emergency preparedness supplies: food, fuel, tools, other survival supplies, etc.

Like anything, you can do what the crowd is doing or you can use your own good sense and decide for yourself the wisest way to spend this money.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Your Long Term Food Plan

At the grocery store today, there was not a single grain of rice left in sight. As pointed out by the editor of Survival Topics (http://www.survivaltopics.com/) in the comments section of this post http://codenameinsight.blogspot.com/2008/04/rice-crisis-and-how-not-to-panic.html people who run out in a panic and start stockpiling food without a plan or the knowledge to do this will probably end up with an expensive mess on their hands some time from now.

Before you start randomly stockpiling food, you need to have a plan. Here are some things to consider:

  • Like all of the plans here are CNI, we do not focus on a single effort or a single source for anything. The more comprehensive and varied your plan, the more likely you will be able to survive anything.
  • Figure out what kinds of foods you want to stockpile. Take into account how many people you will be storing food for, where you will store the food (under a bed, in a closet, in the garage, in the basement), what you will want to eat, how much you can afford to spend, and how you will work the stored food into your current menus.
  • Make a list. Hmm...four people, three meals a day, 365 days... Make daily menus if it helps you to get a better idea of what to start storing. For us, a 50-pound bag of rice lasts for about a month, so twelve 50 pound bags of rice should do it. I would throw in about four more bags of rice because a) I know it won't go to waste, and b) should we not be able to eat out once a week like we often end up doing, we would need to make an additional meal each week which the rice would work for.
  • Having some MREs on hand is a good idea. This will be one source of survival food which has a long shelf life and is easy to store.
  • Canned food is pretty easy to store, however if you are going to purchase boxed foods (like pasta) or bagged foods (like rice) you need to store the food so that bugs and rodents can't get to it. There is a science to this so check out the resources below.
  • Stock up on loss leaders and at case lot sales. After holiday sales are also good (I once bought 50 big chocolate Easter eggs for five cents a piece at WalMart after the holiday--they just wanted to get rid of them and I ended up with enough candy for all of the kids at a youth center for only $2.50).
  • Be sure to store the food in a dark, cool, dry place. Things like humidity, light, and heat lead to deterioration of the packaging and quicker spoilage of the product. Also, protect food in glass jars from breaking and protect both metal cans and glass jars of food from freezing.
  • Put in a garden and learn how to process the food for year-round eating. Canning, drying, freezing, and vacuum packing are some of the methods you can use to preserve your harvest. You will not be self sufficient in this area immediately, but each year you can expand your garden by learning how to be more efficient and effective with your gardening skills.
  • If it looks like meat, milk, and eggs may be a concern, consider raising your own. Rabbits and chickens are fairly easy to keep. Goats may be an alternative to a cow for milk. Killing and butchering your own meat if you have no experience with this may take some getting used to.
  • Make sure you have the necessary implements to use the food you have stored. A rice cooker isn't a must but if you will be eating hundreds of pounds of the grain, it may be well worth purchasing one. If you buy bushels of wheat or corn, make sure you have a grinder otherwise you will end up laboriously pounding it by hand. If you plan on cutting up your own meat and have previously only owned a paring knife, investing in a good set of knives would be a good idea. Also, many people forget about the need for a manual can opener until all of the power goes out.
  • Store water too. You will need water more than you need food so make sure you have adequate sources of this very necessary item.
  • Don't forget to store some comfort food (cookies, candy, etc) which is in high demand during a disaster.
  • Consider stocking additional food for trade and barter should such a thing become necessary.
  • Make sure to focus much of your stockpiling efforts on the basics (grains, protein, salt, oil, spices, vegetables, fruit, meat, etc). Most everything you want to eat (cookies, bread, noodles, pizza, even Twinkee-like substances) can be made out of basic ingredients.
  • Do you know any farmers or prolific home gardeners whom you can purchase food from directly? If not, you may want to meet some. Direct from the farm food is often healthier and cheaper than what you find in the stores and this gives you an opportunity to can/preserve food in quantity.
  • Figure out how you will cook all of this food. Right now you can use your electric or gas stove but it is also a good idea to ponder alternative cooking methods and fuel sources.
  • Go catch something and eat it. Many people have either never done this or they did this so long ago they forgot how. During a disaster is not the time to learn how to catch a fish or a squirrel. Go out this weekend (with a knowledgeable friend if needed) and procure your own dinner from the wilds.
  • Make it a goal that you will have at least a month's reserve of food stored by next weekend; three month's worth stored by the end of May.
  • Realize that sooner or later, should TSHTF, your stockpile will run out and food may become very expensive or hard to come by. Do you have a plan for when this happens?

Resources:

http://standeyo.com/News_Files/menu.food.store.html

http://ask.metafilter.com/34701/The-Mormons-and-roaches-will-outlive-us-all

http://fooddomain.msu.edu/mdafsce07/EMERGENCY_BULLETIN.pdf

Book: Putting Food By

Book: Square Foot Gardening

Book: The Encyclopedia of Country Living

Friday, April 25, 2008

10 Steps for Starting a Side Business

In my book, being self employed is the only way to go. However, for many people with a secure job, a family to support, and benefits to consider, launching themselves full time into an untested self-employment situation would be disastrous. A better way to move from employee to self employed? Consider starting a side business. Here are ten tips to get you started:

  1. Use your current talents, skills, and abilities as the basis to begin your side business. For example, becoming a blogger if you honestly have little writing ability is probably not the best way to get started in a business. Ditto for job heavy on sales if you don't have stellar people skills, or buying into a fast food franchise if you have no experience in the restaurant industry. Pick your strengths to work with and you will be half way to success with your new venture.
  2. Start with the basics. What kind of basic supplies and equipment do you need to get started? Simple business cards, basic tech gear, and some basic advertising will help launch your business in a much more cost effective manner than investing thousands for top notch advertising and computers that, after getting into the business, may not be what you really need.
  3. Have a plan. Iron out a basic business plan before you get started. This forces you to take a look at things such as demographics, permits, licensing, and market conditions that many people tend to overlook in the excitement of starting a business. A plan also gives you a direction to follow so that your daily "to do" list is focused and your efforts are not scattered. Remember, once you get your feet wet, you can always go back and refine/update your business plan.
  4. Make money. Many people do everything to start a business except make money. Once you have your plan and everything you need to get started, get started! Go out and get your first client, your first sale, or your first project and actually earn something from your business. This will give you confidence to to continue in your efforts, and help you to focus and refine your business offerings.
  5. Put half of all of your earnings in the bank. All kinds of financial issues come up when you own a business, not the least of which is taxes, so be prepared by having the money in the bank to meet all of these challenges.
  6. Advertise! You may be the best plumber, writer, sculptor, etc. but if you cannot sell your work, you will not have a business. Encourage your clients to refer you to others if they are satisfied with your work, and immerse yourself in the marketing section of your local library or bookstore for lots of good ideas on ways to promote your business.
  7. Refine your plan. When you started out, you had a lot of ideas and little experience. As you gain more experience, it becomes time to refine your plan. Look at what you are charging. Should you up your rates to match the market? Look at your services. Are your services too narrowly focused or too widely scattered? Often new business owners will work for peanuts and do anything and everything to get their business off the ground. As you gain more experience and credibility, you can afford to charge what you are worth and do the work that you want to do.
  8. Look at ways to increase your income with less effort. What related products/services can you offer to your clients? If you teach yoga, can you write a book on the topic? Can you sell yoga equipment? Can you offer one-on-one yoga classes to clients who can afford this?
  9. Consider whether or not to expand. If your business takes off, what should you do? Be careful about quiting your day job too soon. Be careful about expanding too quickly and taking on expensive leases or employees before it is absolutely necessary. Take your time and get all of your ducks in a row before you consider expansion.
  10. Don't be afraid to quit or change direction. Businesses fail quite regularly. Businesses get boring. Businesses turn out to be more work than they are worth. There are a number of reasons why the side business you choose may not be the side business you end up with. There is no shame in quiting a business that is unsuccessful or turns out to be something you don't want to do. Feel free to quit, change the focus of your business, or open a completely new business.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

CNI Challenge #3--Make A Fire Without Matches (Or a Magnifying Glass)

I actually don't know anyone who has ever been able to start a fire by rubbing sticks together. Can you make a fire without matches or a magnifying glass? It is easy enough to use a magnifying glass and the sun to set some kindling on fire and get a good sized bonfire going but can you actually rub two sticks together and get fire? This is one of the challenges I will work on myself in the upcoming weeks, but any input would be appreciated.

What this challenge will teach you: Having fire is one of the core needs of man so being able to make fire with just what nature provides you, should matches/lighters/other fire starters not be available, would be truly one giant step towards being prepared for anything.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The Rice Crisis and How Not to Panic

Two days ago there was plenty of rice and today there is a rice panic. Let's look at what happened. First of all, there is plenty of rice in almost all markets. Read the Asian papers--they are reporting about the panic in America, not in their countries. Yes, the Asian news has reported on increasing prices and how difficult it is for their poorest citizens to afford rice over the last couple of months, but the sky wasn't falling until today. So the American middle class sees all of the protesting and starving people (repeated over and over again ad nauseum by the media) and they all go into a hoarding frenzy and head out to Costco and WalMart and start buying up hundreds of pounds of rice and wheat.

I don't need to tell you that if these people had been preparedness minded and bought a dozen extra grocery items over a longer period of time instead of panic buying in the short term, they would have a year's worth of food already stocked and wouldn't need to run out and buy as much grain as possible in a few days thus causing a temporary market panic and skyrocketing prices. Anyway, this type of activity becomes a media event fueled today by a few managers at Costco and WalMart who suddenly limit the quantity of rice a person can buy, further causing people to believe there is a shortage which both causes a quick rise in prices and spurs others to start hoarding, which causes a shortage.

Now the commodities traders are loving this. Remember day trading a few years back? Stocks kept going up and for a while every trade made money. Well this is about the same. Commodities investors note the rise in prices, other circumstances such as the weakening dollar, consumer fear, the use of edible grains to make biofuels, etc. and start bidding the prices for commodities (rice for example) even higher causing even more panic in the market. It becomes a vicious circle and pretty soon everyone is gripped with fear...and prices go up...and people start hoarding...and it looks like there is no more rice to be had anywhere...and everyone is gripped with fear...and prices go up...you get the picture.

Here's how not to panic when it seems like everyone else is (and the media keeps repeating this message attempting to brainwash everyone into a panic):

  • Don't panic. Fear causes people to not think clearly and make stupid decisions.
  • Don't follow the crowd. If everyone is running to Costco to buy rice, go down to your local grocery store, and actually check out the sale ads. Pick up some loss leaders to add to your stores then go home and be content as you watch everyone else on TV scurrying around like rats in a cage.
  • Be flexible. Yes a 50 pound bag of rice has gone from $20 to $35 in only a couple of weeks. Meanwhile in my morning paper a local grocery store has a five pound bag of potatoes for 99 cents. Hmmm...50 pounds of potatoes would cost $9.90. Guess I'm going to have lots less rice and lots more potatoes in the near future.
  • If you haven't been through such panic economics before, ask an oldster about previous panics. There was the gas crisis in the early '70s. I seem to remember a coffee crisis years ago. There has been the tomato shortage, the romaine lettuce shortage, and the citrus shortage. There was a "Tickle Me Elmo" doll crisis that made the evening new for like a week straight and made some people a small fortune on EBay. Economics, like life, isn't a steady line on a graph--it is a continual period of ups and downs marked by some high highs and some low lows and a lot of in between areas.
  • Remember that markets tend to straighten themselves out eventually. And in every situation someone is going to benefit; right now it just happens to be farmers who, quite frankly, have been through hell and back over the last couple decades so right now I feel they have earned this period of increase for themselves.
  • Consider that in every situation, you get to choose how to react. Don't like high gas prices? Don't drive. Cut down your use of fossil fuel. The only time someone (or some entity) can have you over a figurative barrel is when you let them. The cost of rice is going through the roof? You still have choices--you can quit eating rice until the price becomes more reasonable, you can choose to pay the high price (it's your money you can do what ever you want with it), or you can even grow your own rice if you are irked enough about the situation.
  • Remember that fear breeds fear. Did you have three meals today? Most people in our country did. Are you afraid of something that is actually happening to you right now or is that ball of fear in the pit of your stomach brought about by something you think might happen?
  • Finally, we are a resilient bunch of people. The majority of us are going to survive no matter what happens. Taking the long view, there have been plenty of times over the course of history where people have suffered through the very worst (plagues, ice ages, tsunamis, wars, famines, etc) and lived to tell about it.

The bottom line is that you need to continue to be prepared for any eventuality. No matter what happens, you need to be astute enough, creative enough, and resolute enough to withstand whatever life might throw at you.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

DPT--Check Your Annual Credit Report

Have you looked at your credit report lately? Many people never check their credit report until they are turned down for a loan and are wondering why, with what they thought was their perfect credit, they were disapproved. You need to check your credit reports from the "big three" credit reporting agencies at lease once a year in order to make sure that a) all of the information is correct, b) you have not become a victim of identity theft, and c) if there is accurate but derogatory information about your credit, you can take steps to clean it up. You can request your free reports at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp. Don't fall for the other commercialized "free credit reports" which actually come with some strings (and charges) attached.

Monday, April 21, 2008

CNI Challenge #2--Live Out of Your BOB for the Weekend

You have a BOB. It's probably been packed, repacked, evaluated, and reevaluated, however have you ever had to live out of it? Here's the challenge: Some Friday after work, pick up the family and everyone's Bug Out Bags then head to your local park or campground for the weekend. See if you can live out of your BOBs--we're talking food, shelter, clothing, hygiene supplies, EVERYTHING--without having to rely on outside help or supplies. On Sunday evening trundle the family back home and create an "after action report". What went well? What went badly? What supplies did you need but not have? What supplies did you have but not need? How can you refine your BOB to make your next challenge outing (or disaster experience) less challenging?

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Business Continuity 101

Do you have a business continuity plan? Do you have a back-up plan to keep your business productive and the money coming in during a short term disaster (an earthquake, for example) as well as a long-term disaster (pandemic influenza, for example)? Business continuity plans for most businesses usually revolve a three-pound glob of paper with lots of power words but very little practical application. The tome is stressed over, drafted, re-drafted, finally approved by the Board, and then it sits on a shelf and is never looked at again. Unfortunately, most disaster planning can be compartmentalized into two distinct areas--the written plan that is politically correct and looks good on paper, and the actual plan where the core of the company, if they are savvy enough to realize the importance of actually being PREPARED, will hammer out a bullet-proof plan for their company's survival no matter what type of disaster strikes. Your company's plan needs to look like this:

  • Facilities plan. Are you able to protect your current facility (insurance, retrofitted for the possibility of an earthquake, adequate fire protection, intrusion security plan, etc)? Do you have a back-up security plan in the event of an emergency which would bring the public to your door in a panic (ie: if you are a grocery store or clinic)? Do you have an alternate location in the event you cannot use your current facility? Can your employees work from home?
  • Equipment plan. Are you able to protect your necessary equipment (insurance, theft prevention, updating)? What equipment is critical to the continuity of your business? Do you have an alternate equipment plan in the event you cannot use your current equipment? Consider power equipment (generator), communications equipment (internet and phones), production equipment (computers and widget makers), etc.
  • Information plan. What information is critical to the continuity of your business? Is the information secured? Is the information backed up? How can the information be accessed in the event of a disaster?
  • People plan. Which employees are critical to the continuity of your business? Can you reach them 24/7 in the event of an emergency from where ever you happen to be? Are your employees personally prepared so that they would be able to ensure the safety and security of their family then be able to report to work? Do your employees know how to contact top management in the event of an emergency? Do you have a plan in place to continue to pay your employees in the event of an emergency?
  • Supplies plan. Do you have a back-up set of supplies that can be used either at the office or at an alternate location? Do you have emergency supplies (food, water, safety equipment)?
  • Your core business. Will your actual core business be able to continue during an emergency? Will your customers still need and want your product/service? Will you be able to continue receiving the raw materials necessary for your business (food, widgets, etc)? Do you use more than one vendor for critical supplies and have a disaster agreement with them?
  • Other considerations. Do you have a triple-redundant communications plan (for phone, internet, TV)? What will happen with your mail and other deliveries? How will you do your banking? Do you have a media/public information plan? Do you have a reserve fund to cover business continuity costs after a disaster? Do you have a disaster supplies kit for the office and each employee's car is much driving is involved in their work?

The bottom line is that you want to be prepared in all of the above areas no matter what kind of disaster strikes. You need a simple, comprehensive plan that covers all of the basics and that, most importantly, all of your employees understand. For fun, make it a point as you go through your day to play "what if"--what if this computer gets stolen? What if there is a fire right now? What if I need to contact my vendor immediately?

Here are some resources:

http://www.drj.com/new2dr/samples.htm

http://www.continuitycentral.com/bcpd.htm

Food Shortages--What Should You Do?

If you've watched the national/international news over the last few months, you will note that the food crisis continues to worsen around the world. You may have noticed a jump in food prices at your local grocery store but the full impact of continually escalating food prices has probably not impacted you to any great degree yet. Of course those who can least afford extreme jumps in prices such as those in third world countries will feel the impact first; often with tragic results. Unfortunately, most Americans don't pay much attention to global problems until the problem lands on their door step. By then, in the event of severe food shortages, that may be too late. What can and what should you do now to prepare yourself and your family for the possibility of food shortages in the US?

  • The Mormon tenent of having a year's worth of food stored in your home is a good idea. The most important part of this, however, is to make sure the stored food in continually rotated into your normal meals so that you don't end up with a lot of expensive but expired/old/barely palatable food that ends up being thrown out. Properly stored grains and canned goods are a good place to start building up your food supply. Buying extra food to store during your regular shopping trips, especially loss leaders, is the best way to begin this process.
  • Learn how to gather and forage for wild foods in your area. Most likely you won't be the only person in these places, however the majority of people will walk right by wild edibles without any idea that they can be added to your family meals.
  • Think about, then think again about, buying a five year supply of MREs for the entire family. There are some good reasons to buy MREs: long storage life, easily portable (compared to canned goods, for example), wide range of meal options, better than nothing if you run out of regular food. Some reasons people often don't buy MREs: expensive, not very easy to rotate into your regular meals, according to the kids they are "yukky" after the initial thrill wears off (in about a day and a half), and what do you do with them after they expire? Consider having some MREs on hand but not making them the core of your food storage plan.
  • Grow a garden if you are so inclined. Gardening, and the necessary preservation process to keep your family in food over the entire growing season and the rest of the year, are a lost art for a number of reasons--lack of land, lack of enough people per family to do the required work, lack of knowledge both about gardening and food preservation practices, length of time between planting and harvesting--all are reasons that depending on a small garden for survival is unrealistic, however knowing how to grow even a little of your own food in an important skill to learn.
  • Know that most grocery stores only have a two to three day stock of food on hand at any one time and most rely on "just in time" delivery of their food stocks. When something disrupts this delivery (a natural disaster, closed roads, truck driver's strike, or worse, armed robbery of the food being transported in trucks as is happening in some areas of the world), stores start to look bare, the populace starts to panic, and the situation can deteriorate rapidly. In other words, don't count on grocery stores to keep you supplied with food during any type of crisis.
  • If you play the market (and the operative word here is "play" because it is more gamble than science), you may want to invest in commodities. You will, of course, need to know what you are doing as the commodities markets are some of the most volatile in all of investing.
  • Keep your food storage practices on the down low. Best not to advertise how well prepared you are food-wise unless you a) want to have all of your neighbors and friends begging food from you should things really turn bad, b) want to have to use deadly force to protect your stores/home/family from people who heard through the grapevine how well stocked your home is, again if things really turn bad, and/or c) want to make your home a target for burglary and theft since anyone who is prepared enough to have so much food on hand probably has lots of cash on hand too.

The bottom line? Only you can determine how important and/or probable storing food for a possible disaster is. In my case, I would rather err on the side of being too prepared than not being prepared enough. Besides, food is something that won't go to waste (such as the batteries you put in flashlights that rarely get used); food is something you need everyday anyway so why not have more than enough on hand? Should you not need it for a dire food shortage emergency, you can always use stored food to see you through lay-offs, injuries, or other times when you can't get to the store or can't afford the store, as well as for potlucks, huge holiday meals, and donating to the needy and food banks.

Here's an excellent food storage resource: http://standeyo.com/News_Files/menu.food.store.html

Saturday, April 19, 2008

CNI Challenge #1--No Spend Day/Week/Month

Here's a challenge related to money. Can you go an entire 24-hour period without spending a dime? How about a week? How about a month? We often don't realize both how much we spend and where all of our money goes. From the time you wake up in the morning, money is often leaving your pocket at an alarming rate--kids need lunch money, pick up a latte on the way to work, lunch out with the co-workers, pick up dinner on the way home, shop online in the evening, etc. Here's what to do:

  • Don't spend anything (money, debit card, credit card) for an entire day. Sounds simple but you will need to do a little pre-planning. You will need to have enough gas in the car to get to where you are going, bring your own lunch/coffee/water, not have any last minutes bills to pay, and say "no" to the kids when they ask for cash.
  • Don't spend anything for an entire week. Obviously this will require even more planning. You will need to fill up your gas tank before the challenge week then limit your driving to make it last for the entire week. You will need enough food in the house to feed everyone for an entire week. You will have to make sure the bills that are due during the week will have been paid.
  • Finally, for the hard-core challengers, could you go an entire month without spending anything? You would need to pay your bills for the entire month, buy some prepaid gas cards to use throughout the month (and make them last so you don't end up with more month than gas), you would have to stock your home with a month's worth of food and supplement it with produce from your garden. You would have to be strong when mid-month someone (the kids, the spouse, you) are having a consumer meltdown. You would have to get creative--bartering, trading, foraging for food, fishing, basically come up with a multitude of ways to meet you and your family's needs for an entire month without spending any money at all.

What does this teach you? A lot. It shows you how often we spend money mindlessly. It will save you A LOT of money. It will teach you how to pre-plan to be self-sufficient for an extended period of time. It will show just how creative you can be. It will show you what will happen during an economic disaster when money/consumer goods may not be available for an extended period of time.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Financial Preparedness Resources

Financial preparedness is the cornerstone of overall preparedness. Here are some excellent resources to get you on a positive financial path:

Also, go to the library and check out:

  • The Tightwad Gazette series
  • Your Money or Your Life
  • The Total Money Makeover
  • America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money
  • The Richest Man in Babylon
  • Think and Grow Rich

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Some Useful Information

Here's a few items you may find useful:
--Now that you are working on updating your first aid skills, take a look at this article about 10 Common First Aid Mistakes http://www.newsweek.com/id/132001
--Getting started on a food storage plan? Here's a quick calculator based on the Mormon's guide for food storage http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm
--Preparing for death? Here's a handy Estate Information Guide http://www.codenameinsight.com/ESTATE%20INFORMATION%20GUIDE.pdf

Advanced Steps: What You Need to Succeed

Here's the third part of this series: some extra things you can do to become more successful than you ever dreamed.

  • Work smarter, not harder. I'll never forget the story of a guy who was selling used cars. It was a slow and not very lucrative job until he noticed that people kept calling to see where they could buy specific parts to fix their used cars. That gave him an idea to start a junk yard. Now instead of selling one car at a time, he has hundreds of cars in the back 40 and lets people go out and get the pieces that they need. He sits in the shop and takes their money for these items while each car is earning him more money in parts than he would have earned selling it whole. How can you double your productivity with the lest amount of effort?
  • Use the efforts of others to make you a success. This is how businesses grow. One kid mowing a lawn will only earn a set amount of money for a given amount of time. If that same kid can use his time to round up ten jobs then have his ten friends mow ten yards at the same time while he gets a cut of each job, he can then can spend his time seeking other jobs to give his friends. He has basically increased his earning exponentially while doing little actual grunt work.
  • Use your money to make you money. How would you like to be on perma-vacation while your bank account continues to increase every day? The more money you save and invest, the less actual work you have to do. The magic of compounding interest in just that, magical.
  • Think spin-offs. Dave Ramsey started from where he was--broke. He then learned about personal finance to get himself out of debt, when this worked out, he counseled others on how to increase their financial freedom, he then decided to write a book, then he put together a radio show...get the picture? Each of his additional streams of income is now earning him exponentially what one single work task would; however the core ideas and education are all the same--he was able to use what he knows to basically set up a financial tree with each branch earning him an income. How can what you do be taken in another direction to benefit your bottom line? We'll go back to the food storage idea. Say you want to have a year's worth of food in storage. You can purchase just for yourself but decide to expand on that idea. How about if you purchase ten times what you need then sell the excess at a small profit to others you know who would like to store food as well? Others benefit and you get the food you need to store basically paid for by others. Next you think others may benefit from your food storage experience so you write a book about food storage. Next comes a website, public demonstrations of your craft, maybe you teach classes on the art of food storage, and become a consultant for companies that make food for long term storage.

Intermediate Steps: What You Need to Succeed

We covered the basics of success in the last post. Here are some intermediate steps to speed you along to your goals:

  • Have a plan. You need a goal or vision of what you want to achieve so you will know what you are striving for. If you don't know where you are going you won't get there. Instead of saying "I want a year's worth of food stored in case of an emergency", write down exactly what that year's worth of food would look like. It is much easier to have five bushels of wheat stored in your garage if on your shopping list it says "five bushels of wheat" and not just "food".
  • Get educated. Whether formally through schooling or informally through books and websites, you need to continually improve your skills in your chosen field. Sure you learned Basic in 1985 but that won't keep you in the computer programming field today. Every field, from preparedness to nursing to electronics, continues to change and evolve; you need to be right there, learning as each change is made, so that you will keep your knowledge and skills sharp.
  • Be useful to others. You get "paid" whether with money, a job, opportunities, gifts, job tips, stock tips, helpful information, etc. by how useful you are to others. If someone finds what you do helpful to them, they will reward you. If you are a beautiful 20 year old female and a middle age man finds you attractive, he is likely to reward you with trips, cars, money, and clothes. If you are a 12 year old boy who just posted the funniest video anyone has ever seen on YouTube, the media/your friends/advertisers are likely to reward you with fame and/or fortune. If a guy comes out to the range with a new handgun and zero information about how to use it and you educate him on the basics of safe shooting and responsible gun ownership, he will remember what you did for him. He may not reward you today but who knows, the next job interview you walk into may have that guy sitting on the other side of the table.

The Basics: What You Need to Succeed

No matter your situation, whether you are traveling through a foreign country, traversing the corporate culture, or pulling yourself up from a difficult financial/social/emotional problem, you really only need the basics to survive. You don't need a Mercedes, posh address, or lots of money in order for others to help you succeed at your goals, get that job you are after, or have people offer you things just out of the goodness of their heart. Like it or not, people judge you immediately on your appearance and next on your social skills. Would you help out someone who smells, looks like hell, has a crappy attitude, and basically doesn't care about themselves? Probably not. How about the person with the following attributes?

  • Good hygiene. A shower with soap is all you need. Deodorant is also a good thing. You don't need five kinds of body wash or $30 shampoo to be clean. It is amazing how many people live in tin shacks with no running water in third world countries yet they keep themselves clean and presentable at all times.
  • Clean clothes. A person shows how they feel about themselves by how they dress. Again, you don't need to go to Saks to buy super expensive clothes in order to look good. You can go to the Goodwill, pick out a couple of nice ensembles (if you are clothing-challenged, bring a friend with a good sense of style) and make sure they are cleaned and ironed each time you wear them. This is also very common even in poor countries--clothes are washed by hand, hung out to dry, then ironed to perfection and the person looks like a million dollars.
  • Good manners. This skill is sadly lacking in many pockets of society these days. Here's what grandma repeated time and time again in reference to manners: stand up straight, don't slouch, look people in the eye, acknowledge people with a smile like you are happy to see them, have a firm handshake, arms off the table, don't chew with your mouth open, don't interrupt people when they are speaking, don't gossip, be honest, say please, say thank you, talk don't yell, treat others like you want to be treated.
  • Good attitude. Be happy, be positive, and have a "can-do" attitude. Being grumpy, snipey, manipulative, and complaining incessantly is no way to win friends and influence people. Be accepting of others, helpful, and non-judgemental.

Those are the basics to being accepted basically anywhere on the planet.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

How the Oldtimers Survived the Great Depression and Why We May Not Measure Up

Anyone who grew up with relatives who survived the Great Depression and World War II probably have the stories that were passed down from those eras engraved into their subconscious. I know that whenever I go to purchase something expensive and not truly necessary, my grandmother's voice saying "do you really need that?" immediately comes to mind. If I open my wallet and find only a few dollars, my grandfather's warning to never leave the house without cold, hard cash also flashes through my memory. Now that we could quite possibly be heading for another depression, the lessons from family old timers about how they survived are quite telling, and, at the same time, it makes me look at society today and pick out many ways that we may not survive such a period as successfully as they did. Here's why:

  • Many people lived on farms during the Depression which softened the blow as far as food was concerned. They could pretty much grow the food they needed and not have to go to a grocery store for every single morsel to feed their families. How many people do you know today that can grow most of their own food including fruits, vegetables, eggs, chickens, milk, pigs, cows, etc? The only things that I remember they made a big deal of, and conserved like it was gold, was coffee and chocolate. There was no such thing as picky kids or food that went to waste.
  • The skills to acquire food were part of the fabric of life. Berry picking in the summer, foraging for nuts in the fall, growing food, processing food (ie: smoking meats, canning vegetables and fruit, making cheese), fishing, and hunting were skills that every kid learned from his parents and grandparents. How many people these days could take a live chicken and make it into a fried chicken? How many kids have no idea how something as simple as butter is made?
  • Skills in general were used to do a lot of work with very little material goods. Clothes were washed by hand, fertilizer was made at home (thanks to the cows) and not purchased, and home shops (wood, welding, etc) were quite common and thoroughly used. Many people today would have no idea how to wash a load of clothes by hand or dry them without the dryer telling them what setting it needed to use.
  • They didn't have credit back then. Granted some people received credit for various purchases (house, car, farm machinery, etc) but it was a BIG deal. You didn't sign a paper and wait for a shiny card to arrive in the mail. The banker had to know you, your parents, your grandparents, and practically receive the title to your first born before you would be given credit to purchase what you needed. With credit so easy to receive today, much of the population is up to their eyeballs in debt, setting up themselves and their lenders for bankruptcy at the slightest financial glitch.
  • They didn't have the bills that we have today. My bills include: gas, electricity, water, garbage, sewer, cell phone, home phone, cable TV, and DSL internet (not to mention the housekeeper, yard guy, car wash, and all of those other "have to have" services that we take for granted). My grandparents paid for electricity and didn't have a phone or TV until way after their kids were born. They filled up the propane tank when they could afford it but mainly used the wood stove for heat and cooking, water was from a hand-dug well, garbage was processed on their land (burned, recycled, composted), sewer was a septic tank (with an outhouse for backup), and there were no cell phones, DSL, or cable. Grandma was the housekeeper, grandpa was the yard guy, and the kids were the car washers.
  • They didn't go shopping or out to eat. I can count on one hand how many times my grandparents went out for dinner. They always ate at home and if they would be away from home at meal time, they packed up their food and took it with them. They also rarely went shopping unless it was for a necessity. It probably helped that they were in farm country and the number of stores and restaurants available could also be counted on one hand. These days if you don't go out to eat or shop regularly you are in the distinct minority. I know people today who would be hard pressed to go an entire week, possibly an entire day, without eating at a restaurant or purchasing a latte.
  • They didn't spend their money unless it was absolutely necessary. A yard of fabric would be made into a dress, grandma would add ruffles to keep the dress wearable as the owner grew, the dress would then be passed down to the next sister and the next, when it grew threadbare in places it would then be cut up into quilt squares or used for rags or doll clothes. How many clothing items have you bought that either are still hanging in the closet with the tags on or, worse, were worn once and since you didn't like it, tossed it into the Goodwill bag? Next time you go shopping, consider whether the items in your basket are absolute necessities or just stuff you want.
  • Life revolved around social connections. If more work was needed than one man could do, friends and neighbors would show up and help, knowing they could expect the same help in return. Families were closer and friendships were lifelong. How many people do you know would welcome grandma into their house to live with them for her final years? It's no secret that nursing homes and retirement communities are such big business. How many parents would know how to deal with their kids if the electricity was out for an extended period of time? Many parents rely on the TV, internet, texting, and video games to keep their kids quiet, socialized, and entertained.
  • They made money at anything possible. If they needed money, they didn't turn to credit, they turned to work; they had the skills and ingenuity that could be used to immediately make money. Among the jobs that my grandparents told stories about: they had farm stands and U Pick farms, grandpa was a welder who worked at Hanford and on various bridges in Portland, grandma worked in knitting mills and sewing factories as money was needed, they ran a dance hall on the weekends (grandma took the tickets and grandpa played in the band), grandpa raised and bred horses, and they both hunted/fished/trapped animals for food and to trade or sell to others.

The moral of the story is that although we are so "advanced" technologically, economically, and socially compared to decades past, it is imperative that we all develop the basic skills necessary to survive should all of the technology, economic infrastructure, and social structure that we have come to rely on suddenly disappear.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Radical Action 101

Now that everyone is in quasi-panic mode over the cost of gas, the cost of food, the War in Iraq, the climate, the job outlook, et al., it's time to take radical action. Here's some ideas:

  • Shut off the media (TV, radio news, XM, etc). The media can manipulate and influence the public with alarming speed and results. Remember HG Wells' Alien Invasion? Well, you may not, but it had such an incredible impact on Americans that it is still related in stories today. Nearly every day you can tune into the news and see how an off-handed comment can spur the public into action. Obama said this and the blogosphere is on fire! Gas prices will shoot up next weekend and there are lines at the local gas station within the half hour! A lone Arab man in New York did that and immediately all Arabs are suspect! Scary huh? I tend to like the news but after about five minutes to catch anything of immediate importance, I shut it off. Listening to doom and gloom tends to have a negative impact on my psyche which is really quite unnecessary. And since I tend to avoid following the crowd, I would rather not be told ad nauseum what "the crowd" would, should, or could do.
  • Look at situations logically. Yes I remember fondly double digit gas prices but if I look at the Starbucks latte in my hand and make a quick calculation, I will find that a 12 ounce latte costs $3, there are 128 ounces in a gallon, if I was filling my car's gas tank up with lattes it would cost $31.98 per gallon! So people will rebel, protest, and whine about the price of a gallon of gas, even take the bus to make a point about gas prices...all the while drinking their morning latte. Um...yeah...right.
  • Look at your situation. Just because one group of people is being laid off, some commodity prices are going up, and people aren't paying their bills, does that mean that all of these things will have a major impact on you? If you are a nurse (a secure job not likely to be cut), have a wheat allergy (so it wouldn't matter to you if the cost of wheat triples), have a massive garden because that's how you relax (provides some immunity to price fluctuations and improves your health to boot), have a mortgage payment that is incredibly low, no debts, and well diversified investments (you are pretty secure for the foreseeable financial future), and are basically happy with your life, then you can spend your time doing things to help your future situation instead of panicking because "everyone" is suffering. People are still buying Rolexes, cruise ships are still full of vacationers...each person's situation is different. What's important here is evaluating your own situation and making changes if necessary, not just because, as I said before, everyone else is hoarding/going bankrupt/losing their job.
  • Focus on basic preparedness. I heard a guy speak on preparedness a couple weeks ago and he made a lot of sense. Everyone is focusing their preparedness efforts, writing plans, and stockpiling for a variety of specific disasters (pandemic influenza, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc) yet it makes more sense to be prepared in general. You need to protect your core assets (people, information, equipment, and facilities) no matter what happens. Do you have a basic plan to protect yourself and your family no matter what? Do you have a plan to protect your home no matter what? Can you protect your health no matter what? For example, whether an earthquake, fire, pandemic, or financial implosion happens, you need to protect you home. How do you do this? Ensure that you have adequate and complete insurance, and take basic steps to secure your home from fire, intruders, earthquakes, and hurricanes. Have a mortgage that you can easily pay each month, pay down your mortgage as quickly as possible, and have a year's worth of mortgage payments in the bank in case you can't earn an income for a while. These are just basic steps that can carry you through a variety of bad situations.
  • Take action--the more unusual the better (because you will be doing something the crowd isn't doing...you know how they hate unusual...). If you need to pay off your debts in a hurry, get five jobs. Sure you may be tired for a short while but you will increase your income exponentially and quickly. One guy was in the news a few years back because he worked overtime for two years straight, he got rid of his apartment and lived in his truck in the factory parking lot (he was never there anyway because he was working so much), he saved all of his paychecks, then paid cash for a house! Another family was in the news because they took radical action to get out of car debt. They got rid of their cars and everyone in the family rode bikes, walked, took public transit, or on rare occasions, took a cab to get to where they needed to go. The result? They saved lots of money (no car payment, no car insurance payment, and no car upkeep costs), lost lots of weight (all of that walking and biking will do that to you), and they realized that just because "everybody" says you need a car, you really don't.
  • Check your usual response. If your usual response isn't working for you, then stop. If someone suggests walking to work instead of driving, do you usually have a half dozen reasons why that would be impossible? Next time, check your usual response at the door and come up with a half dozen reasons why something you previously though impossible may actually be possible. Always consider how you can make something happen, not reasons why you can't do something. If your usual response is a tepid, "um, maybe not", do a 180 change and answer with a burst of enthusiasm, excitement, ideas, and most importantly actions that will not only get you to where you want to be but catapult you far beyond your target.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Can You Spell Meltdown?

This article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/14/world.food.crisis/index.html is just the beginning.
I am no economist but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happens when a number of converging factors come together at the same inopportune moment. Consider what happens when gas prices increase significantly, food prices increase significantly, nearly a quarter of the population will soon be over 60 years old, emerging countries are churning out more technically skilled people than ever before, emerging countries are fighting for the same valuable resources that the US has taken for granted for years, the US is embroiled in a war with no end in sight, jobs are being cut and/or outsourced at a record pace, many in the US are buried in credit debt, the housing market is in mid-meltdown, and people are slowly waking up to the possibility that life may never again be the same.
Even in the midst of crisis and significant change, people still try to hang on to "normal". What people need to do now is anything but that. Embrace change, react radically, and seek new opportunities that will put you far and away from the crowd.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

How Prepared Are You?

It always interests me to find out how prepared people really are. I know people who should be very prepared (they work in industries where preparedness is paramount) but they would be hard pressed to put together a basic BOB, let alone have enough stored food/water/supplies to weather a multi-week disaster. They never exercise so the possibility of them out running a disaster is remote to put it nicely, and they are lazy about something as simple as backing up their files regularly. Then there is the quiet, librarian-type lady who always carries a concealed weapon, can rewire a car, and has a gardening "hobby" that could keep her family in food for months.
Now that I know there are a few people reading this blog, let me know about you. How prepared are you? What are your preparedness goals? What would be your ideal state of preparedness? What are your best sources for preparedness information, supplies, and training? What challenges have you faced on your path to preparedness? When have your preparedness skills, supplies, and/or training helped you out of a tough situation? Anything else?

Post #100 Thanks!

Well this is post #100 for this blog. I didn't think I had so much to say! Thank you to all who read this blog and especially to those who make comments (it lets me know I'm not talking to myself!). If you like what you see here, please tell your friends and forward posts for them to read. If you have ideas for blog posts, need information, or have something to share that would be appropriate on this site, please let me know. Thanks for your support!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

25 Medical Skills You Need to Know

You never know when you will be faced with a medical emergency. Would you know what to do? Here are 25 basic medical skills that everyone should know:

  1. How to do CPR
  2. How to use an AED
  3. How to do the Heimlich Maneuver
  4. How to take a pulse and a temperature
  5. How to take a blood pressure
  6. How to backboard and C-collar a patient
  7. How to clean, medicate, and dress a wound
  8. How to immobilize a fractured limb
  9. How to treat someone who is in shock
  10. How to control bleeding
  11. How to treat a burn
  12. How to recognize and treat an allergic reaction
  13. Appropriate use of medications (prescription, over the counter, and naturopathic)
  14. How to care for someone who is ill
  15. How to identify and treat common illnesses
  16. How to suture a wound
  17. How to treat infections
  18. How to identify and care for someone with a head injury
  19. How to prevent the spread of disease and infection
  20. How to deliver a baby
  21. How to give an injection
  22. How to identify and treat poisoning
  23. What Universal Precautions are and why you need to use them
  24. How to treat environmental emergencies
  25. How to know when to seek advanced medical assistance

Friday, April 11, 2008

Safety Tips...You May Never Have Heard Of

There’s no shortage of tips on how to keep yourself and your loved ones safe, but here’s some you may never have heard of:

  • You know those big puffy parkas you wear during the winter to keep yourself warm? Be sure to take off the jacket when you are riding in the car as wearing a seatbelt over the parka can cause the belt to ride up too high (instead of safely and snugly around your hips) and cause severe spinal and internal injuries if you get into a car accident.
  • Lap belts, in older cars which provide these as an only option instead of a three point harness, are decidedly dangerous. There are a number of reports showing that people have been literally cut in half by this type of seatbelt during a car accident.
  • Expecting a repairman or has a service person come to your door saying they need to be let in to fix a problem? If you don’t know the person standing at your door and have any doubts, don’t be afraid to call their office and request a physical description of the person before you open the door.
  • Going on vacation? Besides researching the best places to eat and not-to-be-missed points of interest, don’t forget to research the types of natural disasters most common to the area where you will be vacationing. Would you know the warning signs and what to do should a tsunami, tornado, hurricane, or other natural disaster not common to the area in which you live, strike?
  • Starting a nutrition and exercise program? You should see your doctor first. Most people think that sounds ridiculous since they probably never knew anyone who had a serious problem just from changing their diet and exercising and not consulting their doctor first. Consulting your doctor is smart for a few reasons. First you may have an unknown condition (diabetes, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, etc) that can be causing your weight issues and needs specific treatment if you want to get back to a healthier you. Second, if you have a doctor who is knowledgeable in sports medicine, they may be able to give you some tips and pointers to get you off to a safer and healthier start on your new exercise plan. And third, seeing your doctor first and running the gamut of basic tests will give you a base line to track your improvement (such as current weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels, etc.).
  • You have always been told that you need to drink “enough” water every day but did you know that drinking too much water over a short period of time can be deadly? Called water intoxication or hyponatremia, drinking too much water can cause seizures, coma and even death. In one sad example, a mother tried to win a video game console for her kids during a radio station contest by drinking two gallons of water in one hour and she ended up dead. Many people, including the ten employees who were fired and the radio station which was sued, were completely unaware that this sort of thing could happen.
  • If you are in charge of putting up those "Exit" signs that light up during a power outage, or any kind of safety sign that will instruct people where to go during a fire or other disaster, consider placing them near the floor. They look "normal" above the door, but when people are exiting in a smokey fire, they will be crawling on the floor and with a curtain of smoke above them, will be unable to see any signs placed above the door.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Crime Scene Tips

I told you it has been a crazy week. This morning I walked into a crime scene--nothing major mind you--but still, it made me wonder how many people know what to do when this situation occurs. Here's some tips:

  • Be aware. Most of us wander around on auto pilot and could be standing behind a guy robbing a bank teller and not even know it! Pay attention to your surroundings and notice when things don't look right.
  • When you notice something doesn't look right, stop. Right there in your tracks. It takes the brain a moment to process what you are seeing if it is traumatic/unusual/unexpected. Of course, don't ignore your instincts if every part of you is saying "run", in many dangerous situations this is exactly what you should do.
  • Once you have ascertained that there is a problem, exit the situation. Back up a safe distance. The only reason you should enter a crime scene is to save a life, everything else can wait until the investigation is completed. If someone is dead, don't touch them or alter the scene in anyway. Note if there are any immediate hazards and take corrective action if necessary (ie: turn off the gas if the line is broken).
  • Remember not to touch anything. Don't remove anything, don't walk through the scene, don't clean up anything. Try to leave the scene untouched. If you did touch something, move something, etc, remember (write it down if need be) what you did and report it to the investigator.
  • Make note of anything you feel would be important to the investigation: time of your arrival, who else was at the scene, license plate of any suspicious vehicle, any unusual events/smells/activities/etc. If you have a camera (and without entering the perimeter of the crime scene) snap pictures or video tape the event.
  • Call 911 immediately and wait for assistance to arrive.
  • Don't talk to anyone else who arrives on scene other than to say that you have called for help. Same with the media. Especially with the media. Sometimes things that are said can become misconstrued, misquoted, or mishandled and negatively impact the investigation. If necessary, do what you can to keep others out of the crime scene.
  • Be reasonably cooperative with investigators. Provide factual information as requested but refrain from guessing the what/who/how/why of the situation or theorizing out loud. Let the investigators do their job. Also, stay out of the investigator's way.
  • Ask the incident commander (whoever seems to be in charge) what you should do, where you should wait, or if you can leave. Also, ask for the card of whoever interviews you in case you remember something later or have questions after you leave the scene.
  • Sometimes a situation like this can be turned on it's head and you will feel like you are prime suspect number one. Remember that you should follow reasonable requests from the authorities but can also walk away if you are not being detained or charged. Once detained or charged, you have (and often should use) the right to remain silent and to speak with an attorney.

Evolve or Die

Yesterday I wrote a post with this title but after taking a look at it, it seemed more like a "how to" than a "here's why". So, I changed the name on the last post to "Problem Solving 101" in order to clarify things. Now on to today's post:

The reason I was all over the how-to of solving problems and the why-fors of evolving is because this has been a truly crazy week. For some reason, it seems as if people have more, and more kinds of problems, than usual. Therefore, the first step is to take concrete actions in order to resolve the various problems that arise (see previous post for details). The second step is to consider the reasons that these problems are happening. As in most all challenging situations, the purpose of problems is to help you evolve as a person and as a problem solver. How many people do you know that have the same problem over and over and keep using the same skills, ideas, and activities to try to resolve the problem and lo and behold, the same problem keeps coming back looking for a resolution that never seems to come?
The bottom line is that when it comes to life, problems, survival situations, disasters, et al, it requires new and different actions, new and different skills, and new and different attitudes to come to a resolution. It is actually called evolution because you move from one state to another instead of staying stuck in the same old situation. It becomes, in other words, a requirement that in order to succeed, as Darwin so elegantly stated, we need to evolve or we will die.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Problem Solving 101

The nightly news has done a pretty good job of telling the country that the sky is falling. I'm not sure if the planets are not aligned correctly or what, but the past couple of months have put reasonably sane people into a tail spin. I won't even go into the whole topic of whether the doom and gloom from the media is encouraging the swift downfall of our economy or if economic indicators are doing that job on their own. But I digress...

When everything is going along well, there is usually little impetus to improve or change what you are doing (from the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' theory of management), however, when there is doubt or uncertainly in any area of your life (financial, marriage, job, kids, et al) people usually enter into some predictable actions: panic, anger, depression, denial/head in the sand, and (hopefully, eventually) change.

Panic is usually the first response to a change of situation. A lost job, a wayward child, a wayward spouse, a financial disaster, basically any change from your "norm" can set forth a negative response. Flapping around like a chicken, losing hope, imagining every possible negative scenario--the usual "I'm going to freak out now" response. Although it feels comforting initially, you will find that this response is not very useful at improving your situation. The panic response is generally followed by anger and depression; also rather unuseful emotions. Some people will then go into a state of denial and figuratively bury their head in the sand and hope the entire situation blows over before they come up for air. Finally there is change--either for the better or the worse. It is up to you which one to choose.

So how do you whether an emotional/financial/physical storm? Here's some steps:
  1. Give yourself about ten minutes (alone) to release all of your negative emotions. Yell, scream, cry, punch a wall (not too hard--you have more important things to do after this step than waiting in the emergency room).
  2. Assess the situation. Unlike an immediate emergency which requires immediate action, storms of this nature usually give you some time for thought and response planning. Get out a piece of paper--or ten if need be--and list down each and every one of your immediate crisis. Get every worry, concern, situation, event, problem, etc. onto paper. Don't editorialize as this will send you back to panic mode (step #1).
  3. Detach from the situation and put yourself into General mode. A General doesn't have time to obsess about one issue--there are many fronts and each situation needs to be handled efficiently, effectively, and simultaneously as many soldier's lives depend on the decisions he makes. Detachment is necessary in highly emotional settings as people loose the ability to think clearly when they are too close to the action and too hung up on the outcome. How many times have you marveled that an otherwise competent friend can't see the disaster that is his love life?
  4. Make goals. Next to each problem, list the way that you hope the situation will be resolved. For example, next to "electricity will be shut off next week", write, "my electric bill is paid in full, the lights are on, and there is money in the bank to pay the next month's bill".
  5. Make a plan. And a back up plan. You have the situation clearly outlined in front of you, so the next step is to make a plan. Remember the old adage that "if you keep doin' what you're doin' you're going to keep gettin' what your gettin'". It is time for evolutionary thinking that will propel you past your current problems. With the electricity bill example, consider the steps it will take to move from the current situation to the resolved situation. Your plan may include: find out the total owed, ask for an extension until payday, look into community organizations that provide assistance with electricity bills, reduce electricity usage to the bare minimum to keep future bills lower, raise the money to pay this bill by selling something on EBay, babysitting the neighbor's kids, or collecting cans. Consider back up alternatives (such as taking in a roommate to help pay the bills temporarily), and put $1 a day into a savings account to pay next month's bill when it arrives. Most importantly, make plans that have a reasonable opportunity for success--if the spouse has moved out and filed for divorce, consider that planning to get them back may be unreasonable as it takes two who want to be married to make it work. Finally, realize that you can only change yourself and your responses--having a goal to change others, to make changes that clearly are against the law, or changes that rely solely on hope, not action, will be doomed from the start.
  6. Take action. Lists are great for organizing thoughts but the thoughts don't jump off the paper and go to work solving your problems--you need to do that. Get up and get going!
  7. After some time passes, review the results of your efforts. Continue doing what works to improve your situation and change tactics in situations that are not improving. This is called evolving. The opposite of evolution is called death. While you cannot change situations, you can change your reactions to them. It is often not possible to keep the status quo when everything around you is changing rapidly so it necessary that you plan your responses in a way that will help you to positively evolve out of your negative situation and put you into a positive situation where you will be comfortable and happy, at least for the time being.
The bottom line--if you are not succeeding at various aspects of life, it is you that needs to change and improve your reactions and responses. You cannot change other people, mandate employment in a profession that has moved overseas, or wish yourself into a better situation. Use your God-given talents and creativity to change your circumstances and change your life for the better.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Your Six Sources of Income

It is never a good idea to just have one source of income. Businesses close, companies downsize, even government jobs aren't always secure as RIFs and layoffs take place all of the time. Here are the six sources of income that you should have filling up your coffers each month:

  1. Interest income. A large portion of your emergency fund should be kept in an interest-bearing account. Passive income is good income since it doesn't require you to work for it.
  2. Income from your main job. Your main, full time job should provide the bulk of your income each month.
  3. Income from a side job. It's a good idea to put your skills to work creating an additional source of income. I know guys who were roofers in college who, even though they spend the majority of their time in suits, will take occasional side jobs roofing houses. Another lady I know picked up a paper route which she does in lieu of working out at the gym. Still another guy did a great job installing wood floors in his home and know has flooring jobs lined up for weeks just from word of mouth.
  4. Income from investments. Income producing investments are another good source of funds. Investments can range from stocks, bonds, and CDs to rental properties and businesses. While these investments can be great sources of income, note that they do require quite a bit of attention, education, and market savvy.
  5. Income from hobbies. You enjoy partaking in your hobbies anyway so why not include paying customers and make a bit of money while you are at it? Going fishing? Take paying customers with you. Love to knit? Look for venues to sell the items you make. Like scrap booking? Order supplies in bulk and sell the excess to other scrap bookers.
  6. Income from the internet. It has never been easier to set up an online stream of income. Everything from free blogs to which you can add advertising to your own website that can provide information or a product can provide income straight from the customer to your bank account.

I chose these six forms of income because, while it is quite possible to have dozens of streams of income, it can scatter your attention too much to suddenly launch into a dozen different ways of earning money. Start small with these ideas then branch out from there.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Fire Safety 101

It's amazing the number of people who are killed in fires each year. More often than not, it is because the homeowner (or usually the renter) would easily spend $6 for a pack of cigarettes but won't spend $20 for a smoke detector. Duh. Here's a few tips to keep you and yours fire safe:

  • Have working smoke detectors. You should have one in each bedroom, and one in a central location in each level of your home. The best detector to get is one with a sealed, 10 year lithium battery with alarm memory and smart hush (or something similar). This is the best choice because you don't have to change the battery, the battery is sealed into the unit so the kids can't take it out to use in a game or toy (this battery wouldn't fit anyway), and it has a quick reset so you can temporarily shut it off when (in my case) the spouse cooks dinner.
  • Have up-to-date, fully charged fire extinguishers in the kitchen and the garage. These are the two most common areas in the home for fires to start so having a quick way to extinguish a fire is a good option.
  • Do a quick fire safety check each time you leave the house or go to bed. Unplug space heaters, blow out candles, check to make sure the stove is off, put matches/lighters/firestarters out of kids sight and reach, take a quick look into the garage--this takes all of two or three minutes and is more than worth the peace of mind it offers.
  • Have an escape plan so the entire family knows two ways to exit each room in an emergency.
  • Drill your escape plan often. Obviously, you may want to open the window in an upstairs room and drop the escape ladder but not actually have anyone crawl out of a second story window for safety's sake. It's important to have an escape rope or ladder for each upstairs bedroom if this is how an exit will be made from the room. With kids, you need to drill often as usually when they are afraid, their first instinct is to run to the parents room--in too many tragic fires, rescuers go into the child's room but can't find the kid. Later they find that the child died of smoke inhalation because they ended up hiding in the closet, under a bed, or in the parent's room out of fear and lack of knowledge about how to escape when the house is on fire.
  • Practice stop, drop, and roll to put out a fire; practice crawling from the bed to the window; practice checking the bedroom door for heat then safely exiting down the hall, down the stairs, and out the door as a first option; and practice crawling from the bed to the window blindfolded as when a house is on fire it looks like a big black curtain of smoke hanging from the ceiling and you often can't see more than a few inches in front of your face.
  • Have a central meeting place outside of your home and have the entire family practice meeting there. This is the quickest way to muster the family and see if anyone is missing. Insist that everyone meet at this location first instead of taking shelter in a neighbor's house so that everyone can be accounted for.
  • Have the following items in each room for the escape: a pair of leather work gloves for each person in the room, a pair of shoes for each person in the room (in our case there are no shoes in the house so having a pair under the bed in case an escape is necessary is critical), a flashlight, a way to exit the window in special circumstances (ie: if the window is painted shut you may need a hammer to break the glass, if there are bars on the window be sure there is a way to quickly open them from the inside).
  • Other fire safety considerations: clean the chimney regularly, service the heating system regularly, use a firesafe can for the disposal of cigarettes or to store oil-soaked rags, use care when outdoor burning, never start a burn pile or barbecue with gasoline, keep the area around your home free of flammable materials (ie: keep the grass cut and watered and have the wood pile located away from your house), make sure you home is visible and accessible to the fire department, and if you are building a new home consider having a fire sprinkler system installed.

Reviewing My Bug Out Options

This is kind of a follow up on my last post about bugging out. Although each situation will require a unique bug out plan, these are some of my thoughts about my bug out options.

  • House. PROS: This would be an optimal location to bug out (I guess that would be bugging in?). My house is fully stocked with everything my family and I would need to hunker down for a good eight months to a year. We have a garden, water is generally plentiful, it would be fairly easy to defend, and the general location/neighbors are good. We are located close enough to an international airport yet far enough from the big city so as to feel relatively secure. Lots of gun owners in the area :) CONS: Generally "bugging out" means you need to leave for some reason. Obviously, such as in the case of a flood, tornado, earthquake, fire, or other disaster that would obliterate my home, staying here would not be an option. In the case of socio-economic collapse, it may make a good target for the desperate.
  • Office. PROS: My office is a ways from my house so it may remain standing should our home be unlivable. My office is fairly easy to access, has heat/water/food and would be a roof over our heads. It would be a comfortable place to hang for a while. CONS: The building would not be very easy to defend. We would need to basically live out of our BOBs as it is geared for working, not living. Once food and water runs out, that would be it--I would need to find a way to acquire more of both. The neighborhood isn't the greatest.
  • Family who live on the other side of the state. PROS: Would be an excellent place to live, having basic supplies/food/water for a short period of time. Where they live would have options for hunting and foraging, and there is plenty of water. CONS: Getting there would be nearly impossible if everyone else were evacuating at the same time...the freeway is nearly at gridlock during the normal, everyday rush hour. This may or may not (I really think not) be a long term option as the people we would be living with have very little desire/knowledge/skill to be prepared for anything...and aren't all that dependable on a good day.
  • Family who live on the other side of the country. PROS: There is a large group of close family members who live in near proximity to each other on the other side of the country. Some family members have excellent survival skills (one is a dentist, one is a self defense expert, most all have experience living in third world countries). CONS: Getting there would be difficult depending on the situation (for a localized disaster, flying there would not be a problem, however a country-wide situation would make getting there near impossible).
  • Friends. PROS: We have many friends all over the country and the world. Some would make excellent team members in survival situations due to their skills and experience. CONS: Getting to where they are may be difficult. Since we haven't actually lived with these people there could be issues that come up such as when any diverse group of people live together (think Survivor).
  • The RV. PROS: Is a complete home on wheels. It's portable so we could change locations when necessary. Can bring along a stock of supplies/food/water with ease. Would be good to use in the case of a localized disaster. CONS: Requires fuel. Is as big as a bus so no way to keep a low profile there--I'm guessing it would stick out like a very big target.
  • The Boat. PROS: Basically the same as the RV except for lots less space. Great access to fishing! CONS: Requires fuel. Would be hard-pressed for any ocean-going travel. Also, generally is quite easy to see thus making hiding our location nearly impossible. No real way to be self reliant and provide for food, water, etc.
  • The wilderness. PROS: Away from the city and crowds. Fishing, hunting, and foraging opportunities galore not to mention easy access to water. CONS: Any country-wide disaster will inspire many to "head for the hills" which will create quite a few problems (whether from the unprepared dropping like flies to the unprepared trying to take what others have built in the woods--such as a homestead--for their own use). Takes quite a while to set up a location there (gardening, hunting, and fishing are not sure sources of food at least right away) and making your home with your bare hands is no quick activity either. Truly living off the land is rarely done for obvious (and many) reasons.
  • A foreign country. PROS: Could be much more stable (politically/financially/socially) than our country depending on the situation. Could be able to set up a home and easily access food/water/medical care/education/etc (depending on immigration rules). Would be a good base from which to help save America depending on the situation. Would be a good temporary option to wait out certain disasters. CONS: During a country-wide disaster many others will be thinking the same thing. Will require a good supply of cash or the equivalent to get settled. Could make you feel like you are unpatriotic for abandoning your country. You know all of the problems that beset immigrants to America (racism, taking advantage of them, treating them like second class citizens)? Well in this case we would be the immigrants.

The bottom line is that each and every survival situation will require a plan. No two situations will use the same plan so it is nearly impossible to say "my bug out plan is X and that's it". Also, people react differently in each situation so anticipated problems in your plan could turn out to be nothing and the "pros" that you count on could not work out the way you expected thus causing you to rethink your plan on the fly.

My generic bug out plan is to gather the family, gather the BOBs, then decide on the best course of action depending on the situation--we may "bug out" to a hotel, in the RV, stay with friends or rent an apartment if a fire ravages our home, on the other hand, if the economy collapses we may weather the initial days in our home then make decisions on a day by day basis based on the best information we can get. Or not. If it looks like an American version of Baghdad/Sudan/Kosovo is coming to a town near me, I may determine it is best to remove my family from this country all together and live to fight another day.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

My Two Cents on Bugging Out

I just got back from a survival/preparedness conference and there was a lot of information about bugging out during a disaster. There were even more vendors selling stuff (everything from books and tools to land) for this same purpose.

I am not a hard-core, "head for the hills" survivalist. Not that I don't think having the land, skills, education, and ability to perform every subsistence task necessary to keep you and the family alive for decades isn't valuable, but for me it just isn't very feasible. As a rule, I am BUSY. I run two companies, travel a lot, and have dozens of other projects to work on each day (this website/blog for example). So here is how I balance the need for survival/preparedness/bugging out with the need to have a pretty "normal" life:

#1--My motto is to be prepared for anything. I keep things organized, updated, and flexible. In addition, I take any class/opportunity/experience that comes up because sooner or later the information you learn will be valuable in itself or relatable to another circumstance. Whenever or where ever a disaster strikes, I know that I always have with me basic survival skills and supplies so that any plan I come up with would be "do-able" whether I need to evacuate from a place where I am vacationing or travel surreptitiously from the office to my home.

#2--My house will be my primary bug out location. It is in a good suburban to rural area, is well stocked, easily defendable, has many natural water sources that are close by, plenty of woods nearby for fuel and small game hunting, and has many escape routes should the need arise. Conversely, I am not so tied to my house that I wouldn't leave it in a heartbeat if it became too dangerous to stay in.

#3--Bugging out to the wilderness will be my last resort. I would rather bug out to a foreign country which has a relatively stable infrastructure (think Nazi Germany--should a Jew have tried to live in the woods there or head for America?). I also generally avoid following the crowd (and there will definitely be a crowd out in the wilderness should things turn particularly terrible). And finally, I don't believe it would be particularly realistic or advantageous to try to grow my own grain while simultaneously fighting off marauders, bandaging up a broken leg, and reloading my ammunition (because you certainly can't carry all of the ammo you would need to your bug out cabin which is 20 miles from the closest road).

I guess the bottom line is that each person has to decide for themselves what degree of prepared they need to be for whatever may happen in the future.