20 Things To Do Before the Collapse of Civilization

Some would posit that we are already in the throes of societal and economic collapse, others say we have a bit of time left to turn things around.  I would say it is not "if" but "when".  And the when will probably be coming sooner rather than later.  Consider doing these twenty things while our society is slowly circling the drain...

1. Get healthy and fit.  Take care of addictions, reverse chronic diseases, get lasik surgery if it will relieve you of the need for glasses, etc.  Medical care now is a shit show, it will be worse--and less accessible--after collapse.
2. Diversify your income sources.  Having a half dozen sources of income is better than putting all of your financial eggs in one (job) basket.
3. Live in a place where you can survive and thrive for years.  I wouldn't recommend living near the coast anywhere at this point.  Ditto places susceptible to frequent flooding and recurring wildfires.
4. Diversify your money.  Cash, electronic bank funds, crypto, gold and silver--all can be useful in disastrous circumstances, most can be seized by the government on a whim...diversify wisely.
5. Learn how to barter.  Start practicing now.
6. Confirm multiple sources of water.  Tap water, stored bottled water, the creek down the road with multiple purification systems in place...there's a good chance you won't be able to rely on water coming out of your tap during and after a collapse.
7. Confirm multiple sources of electricity.  Again, most people rely on their electrical outlets to provide electricity on demand and again, this may not always be reliable.  Consider setting up your own solar or water-powered back-up system and learn how the Amish live without electricity.
8. Learn how to defend yourself.  Martial arts, shooting skills, wielding a knife or baseball bat...self defense skills require lots of learning and lots of practice.
9. Learn how to grow your own food to the best of your ability.  Even a small window garden is better than nothing.
10. Learn how to forage for food in your local area. 
11. Stockpile at least a year's worth of food.  When extreme shortages happen, you will at least have a little cushion before things like starvation sets in.
12. Be the grey man and keep opsec top of mind while doing all of these tasks.  You don't want people to know you are exponentially more prepared than everyone else in the neighborhood or you will become a target.
    
13. Stop with the doomscrolling.  There's more than enough doom and gloom on the internet (examples here, here, and here) to keep your attention 24-hours a day but by doing this, you take time, attention, and effort away from legitimate prepping activities like those on this list.
14. Determine what your top five threats are and prepare accordingly.  Don't waste your time prepping for a tsunami if you live nowhere near the coast.  Do prep for tornadoes if you live in tornado alley and environs.  Do prep for marauding hoards no matter where you live as this could happen just about anywhere. 
15. Keep a wide circle of friends and relatives you can depend on in a disaster.  For third-world countries where there is basically no safety net, this is how many people survive on a daily basis.
16. Be a minimalist when it comes to useless junk, be a maximalist when it comes to survival tools (garden tools, building tools, hunting and fishing tools, weapons, etc).  
17. Keep all of your documents in order (driver's license, passport, legal documents, etc).  These may or may not be useful after a collapse but better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them.
18. Practice now all of the skills you may need after a collapse.  Things like medical skills, defensive skills, food prep skills, dumpster diving, etc. are not things you want to struggle with after a collapse.  By starting now to develop a wide range of survival skills you will have the knowledge after a collapse, as well as connections in these communities, if you need help and you will also be able to learn what tools and supplies you should procure now since they may be difficult if not impossible to get after a collapse.
19. Practice being uncomfortable while you still have the opportunity to do this with a modicum of comfort.  Go backpacking for a couple weeks and practice living off the land without the creature comforts of home.  Practice walking or biking to work now before fuel shortages and blackouts make this a requirement.
20. Teach others all of the survival skills you know.  In an ongoing, emergent situation, you may need to rely on others to help you in part (should you be injured or sick), or in full.  You want to have competent help when you need it so make sure your family, friends, and neighbors are as useful as possible.
    

Keeping an Eye on the World Economy

Prepare yourself, which is the motto for this blog, and this week the focus should definitely be on the varying economic catastrophes slowly building around the world...

• The economic protests in France seem to going from bad (Yellow Vests breaking into the Ministry) to worse (calls for everyone to pull all of their money from the country's banking system).  Yikes!
• France's neighbor England is seeing some economic instability due to Brexit.
• Chinese investors are pulling out of Silicon Valley (it's unknown what type of economic impact this will have).
• If the government shutdown isn't resolved by February, 40+ million people will not receive their food stamps...I can't even image what would happen in that scenario.
• Air travel (among many other things) is also being impacted by the shutdown.
• Finally, there was this scary infographic about what would happen if commercial trucks stopped running.

Gird Your (Economic) Loins

It may be the happiest season of the year but the economy isn't looking so great...

• A major pension fund is on the brink of default...and so is the insurance company that guarantees these pensions.
• Trump is threatening to shut down the government this week.
• The Dow is on the verge of a death cross.
• In fact, this is the worst start to a December for the market since the Great Depression.
• Even the hot housing market is cooling off.
• Many are saying a recession is on the way.

No matter what the economy does, everyone needs to be as prepared to weather a financial storm as they are a winter storm.  If isn't if, but when, these sorts of storms will hit so be prepared by:

• being debt free
• paying off your home as quickly as possible
• having a fairly large emergency fund
• spreading your investments across a range of products
• living below your means
• knowing how to do for yourself (knowledge, skills, tools, etc)
• having multiple sources of income
• having good credit
• having as few bills as possible
• owning your vehicles free and clear
• having a stockpile of barterable items (and experience bartering)
• having a stockpile of food and supplies

Is a Collapse Coming?

The folks over at r/collapse sure think so.  And so do many of the people over at r/preppers.  There are several types of collapses to consider--economic collapse, government collapse, a real estate collapse a la 2008...but the end result of all of these will be about the same--economic instability, serious personal security concerns, and the inability of the average person to earn money to even buy food and other necessary supplies.  Since I've never lived through a wide-spread societal collapse, I can only point you to information provided by those that have.  Here's some reading material for this evening...

• A prepper survives the Venezuela collapse.
• Puerto Ricans get creative to survive.
• I will survive.
• How to survive a global disaster.
• How to survive societal collapse in suburbia.
• How Russians survived the collapse of communism.
• Surviving a full SHTF collapse in Bosnia.
• More on surviving Bosnia here and here.

My Five or Six Problems With the 'Occupy Wall Street' Crowd

It's a free country so of course people are welcome to protest anything they want. Do I think the 1% is a bunch of con artists and scammers, well yes but that is another post.  But for the 99%, the issues I have with the latest group of protesters to make the front page of the newspaper are thus:

• The masses want high paying jobs yet they want to pay the very least possible for consumer goods (clothes manufactured in third world countries, cheap imported consumer goods at Walmart, etc).  That doesn't even make mathematical sense.
• Ditto for services (they always seek the lowest bidder and look the other way at cheap, undocumented labor).
• The masses want more and more social services yet they don't want to pay any more in taxes than they absolutely have to (of course the wealthy SHOULD pay their fair share of taxes too, but that is part of that other post).
• They don't let their money do their talking.  Today's news about the protest was that their next target is mammoth banks.  IMHO, if you don't like their policies DON'T BANK THERE.  That should make mammoth banks smaller in no time.
• The masses also have a short term memory when it comes to politicians.  They believe the politicians are corrupt and don't do anything even though they keep getting re elected.  Well here's an idea--put all of this effort into electing people who will actually do what you want them to do.
• They want to compete in the marketplace but don't realize the market place is now an INTERNATIONAL marketplace and there are a whole bunch of Indian and Chinese guys with a lot more (and probably better) education than they have (and they will work at much lower rates too).  Yet another mathematical conundrum huh?
• Finally, there are a whole bunch of factors at work here, not just the obvious.  Consider the baby boomers, the largest demographic in history.  Thirty years ago they were having kids, buying big houses, shopping like crazy (mostly on credit they couldn't afford), had big incomes, etc.  These days they are down sizing, don't have kids to buy for, have lost their jobs or retired so are paying less in taxes, etc. That makes a significant impact on the economy.  The housing bubble is often blamed on banks but a large majority of Americans were buying huge houses with payments that made no mathematical sense so no surprise that when a crisis came up, they couldn't make their payments.  If they had been responsible borrowers and only took out loans for houses that came in at 25% of their income on a 15 year note, we would all be in much better shape but they didn't.  They took out balloon loans, interest only loans, and all kinds of other stupid mortgage financing loans for houses they couldn't afford.

The bottom line is that there is enough blame to go around and nearly everyone in this country has some share of responsibility for what happened.  To blame only one large target--banks and big companies for this mess (even though IMHO they should have been allowed to fail) doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  People need to quit complaining and start doing.  Start saving money so the next financial disaster doesn't take them out, start a small business to generate financial flow in their own communities, play an active part in the political process and vote people out who don't do anything, pay their fair share of taxes, volunteer in their community in order to help people who need a little extra help (instead of relying on burgeoning entitlement programs to which everyone feels entitled to yet no one wants to pay for).

Disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about economics.  But I do know the common sense that my granddad taught me: pay cash for everything, then you are never in debt and no one ever will repossess your stuff; if you need a loan (for a house only) make sure you can still make the payments on half of your income (and make the loan on the shortest term possible, you don't want to owe anyone any longer than necessary); don't take charity unless you will literally die without it; give to people in need when you can; always have a means to procure food (gardening, hunting, fishing, foraging).  If everyone did this, we wouldn't be in the financial quagmire that we now find ourselves in. 

Now That the Debt Crisis is (Supposedly) Averted, Should You Relax?

The short answer is Hell no.  While the political powers-that-be have supposedly averted total economic collapse (after acting like complete morons, but that is beside the point), people will think all is well with the economy and revert back to their usual ways with the (totally unsubstantiated) idea that once again the government has come to the rescue and they can happily go back to business as usual.  So, should you relax now and go back to spending more time worrying about who in America has the most talent or which Kardashian is getting the most buzz on any given day?
Of course not.  Mainly because nothing has actually been done to fix the economy.  Absolutely nothing has changed and the numbers that have been presupposed to (somehow, don't ask me how) fix the debt problems of the United States make no sense at all.  Pushing up the limit of how much the US can borrow does nothing to bring in more money to cover the current debt and cutting expenditures does nothing to increase the ability of people to spend and/or give them the impetus to create businesses that make money which will in turn create more money in taxes to go to the US Treasury.  So what does this mean to you?  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it means the same thing after the debt deal is signed as it meant to you last week when the news programs and financial markets were in a tizzy...

• You need to be out of debt. Now.
• You need multiple sources of income (a job is nice, a government job is nice too--but no more secure than a private sector job when it comes down to it, your own business or two or three is even better).
• You need to reduce your expenses AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.  If you can live on $1000 or $2000 or $5000 a month (depending on your circumstances) then you can always scale up to get some of the nicer things in life (after you have saved the cash for the item of course).  Much harder is to have a $15,000 per month lifestyle and have to massively scale down with only 30 to 60 days notice.
• You need an escape plan.  The US is, in my opinion, the best place to live in the world, all things considered, however that doesn't mean I don't have a plan to leave the country in a hurry in case of emergency.
• You need multiple sources of cold, hard cash.  I never recommend having ALL American dollars, ALL of your resources in gold, or ALL of your money locked into firearms or any other commodity.  What I do recommend is having a wide assortment of valuable items for use during an emergency (dollars, yen, euros, gold, other metals, firearms, tools, etc).
• You need to be able to shelter yourself in the event of a major economic storm.  Can you survive in your home for six months?  This means you have the food stocked to see you through this time period, you have at least six month's worth of living expenses on hand, you (preferably) have your house paid off so even if you lose your income, debt collectors won't be immediately at your door trying to evict you, you have a way to protect and defend your home, you have the skills to do all sorts of things (from foraging for wild food to growing a garden to taking care of minor medical problems to organizing your family and possibly neighbors into a team to get things accomplished to...the list is endless).
• You need to be flexible about many things.  Lose your job? Know where to earn income from other sources.  Government doesn't send your check? Again, know where you can access other sources of funds either from savings, selling items, picking up odd jobs, etc  Thinking 'my life has always been the American Dream' or whatever?  Quickly get a grip on the idea that things are changing rapidly and you may never see the traditional "American Dream" as was sold to a gullible American public over the past 50 or so years.
• You need to rely on yourself as much as possible.  Your health is YOUR responsibility, not the responsibility of Medicare or the free clinic (ie: if you think that you can live a completely unhealthy lifestyle and Medicare will shell out for the boatload of pills you need each day, think again).  The food you eat is YOUR responsibility (ie: in a crisis do what you need to do to eat such as going to a food bank, getting food stamps, or heading to a soup kitchen.  If you are continually in crisis and relying on these iffy sources of sustenance then you need to make some serious changes). 

The bottom line is that we have been pretty spoiled by our government but eventually the gravy train will end  (probably sooner rather than later at the rate we are going).  You absolutely must do what you can do now, at this very moment, to make yourself as self-sufficient as possible.  The "survivalist" mentality has been greatly exploited in the press in order to identify people who live "on the edge" as all kinds of crazy but I would rather be a skilled dumpster diver than be waiting in vain in my government paid for apartment when crisis strikes.
In other words, don't relax.  Don't think things will continue on as usual.  Be radical and be "on the edge" and be the person who will take tumultuous economic or political situations as something that is happening to others not something that will stop everything about your life on a dime because you have already set yourself up to survive any sort of catastrophe with a minimum of effort (ie: when other are out begging for food from the government, you will have your garden growing, plenty of food in storage, and the skills to both keep these sources of food secure and to stretch these sources as much as necessary).  Prepare now.

Possibly the 5 Best Sentences You Will Read About the Economy

Thanks to K.S. for this list that made me say yep, these are all so true...

"These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth
out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work
for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does
not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work
because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other
half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is
going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
Can you think of a reason for not sharing this? Neither could I......"

My Minimalist Response to the Current Economic Crisis

My last post outlined my ranty take on the current economic situation. Now there's plenty of reasons (and methods) to complain about what is going on but it really doesn't matter how much people rant about a situation, if you don't take steps to deal with what is happening then you are just expending your energy but not changing your outcome. Here are some things I am doing which I hope will help me deal in a positive fashion with the current economic situation:

• I don't use credit cards. I opted out of the "live beyond your means" game a while back. I paid off and cancelled my credit cards and now if I want something, I pay cash for it. I'm guessing my credit score is about 0 and I am quite happy with that. Thanks Dave Ramsey.


• We have one vehicle. For nearly 20 years we had up to five or six cars for two (!) drivers plus the random kid that would come back home to visit. About the time that gas rose to $4.50 per gallon a couple years ago, I realized that I could continue and play the game or not. While I didn't entirely opt out of the car ownership game, I stacked the deck in my favor to the point where we use much less fuel than before, we don't have a loan or a "fleece" on a vehicle, and we pay much less for insurance than in years past.


• We would like to sell our house which is too big for just two people and buy a smaller place with cash. This will help in a number of ways: owning the place you live free and clear rocks and a smaller place costs less to heat/furnish/maintain/cool/etc. Now some people take the minimalist concept even further and live in an RV, rent a uber-cheap place, or even trade living accommodations for services such as maintenance work or house sitting. I don't intend to go that far. Unfortunately property values are declining, but fortunately if we don't sell, it won't be that great of a problem since the house is on its way to being paid off. I just don't like heating a big house but I guess I will just have to deal with it.


• I am continually educating myself. This does not include taking out massive college loans. In fact, every time I hear of a new graduate who owes nearly six figures for a degree that may or may not get them a good enough job to even start paying back Sallie Mae I cringe. With a good education (not necessarily from college), the ability to figure things out, a wide variety of skills, and the desire to "hussle" in order to make a living, you can earn money just about anywhere. That is why I take all educational opportunities that come my way--community ed classes, university classes if they meet very specific needs, and even a class at the local Y--not only does having an expansive education make you a more valuable commodity in the workplace, it provides you networking opportunity over a depth and breath of industries which is unparalleled. People who think they can train very narrowly for a job then do that job for the rest of their life will be very disappointed when a) the job simply goes away, b) someone comes along who does the job better, or c) the job changes to the point that your skills are no longer useful.


• We are minimizing our possessions. Having a ton of possessions ties you down both literally and figuratively. We are to the point now where all of the most important things we own can be carried with us or stored in a safe deposit box. If we want to travel the world for a couple of years, I would have no problem simply locking the door to our house and leaving what minimal possessions we have behind. The less stuff we have, the less we will be worried about guarding it, protecting it, insuring it, etc.


• We are working towards "self insurance" for many of the items noted in the previous post. Healthcare, unemployment, Social Security...the things that people let guide their life, determine what job they will have, and where they will live, is another game I wish to opt out of. I plan on fully funding my own retirement so if Social Security goes away, it won't be a major crisis for me. This is done in a variety of ways including cash savings, having minimal expenses, investing in a variety of areas, and continuing to work in some form because I think I would be bored silly if I just decided I wanted to stop working all together and sit home collecting a tiny check from the government. Unemployment is, well, a non-issue for me as I am self employed and have been so for nearly my entire life. If I lose a client, I go find another one, if my product isn't selling, I find another product to sell, if the market totally changes, I better change right along with it. Plus, if I need some quick cash for a major expenditure, I am not above hiring myself out for the right price to the right company. This is the "hussle" I talked about above. People can make money, they have just forgot how with the "working for the man, do what you're told, collect your paycheck" mentality that is ground into people from the day they start school all the way up through retirement. Blech. And, while I realize that healthcare is a big issue which impacts people differently, I am fortunate that I have good, nearly free, health insurance. I am doubly fortunate that I use it maybe once every few years. My grandmother, from the time she had her last kid until the time she was close to death which was a period of over 50 years, saw a doctor exactly twice in that period. She preached keeping herself healthy and avoiding the medical establishment like the plague which is kind of my theory as well. Other options I will consider if necessary include trading services for care with a few doctors I know and traveling overseas to have pricey procedures done if for some reason my health insurance should go away.

The bottom line is that life is a game. Much like Monopoly, you can kind of keep track of who is winning the game by looking at the other's player's status'--are they running low on cash? Do they own appreciating assets or depreciating "assets"? Do they have the wits to pull themselves out of tough situations and not rely on someone else (like the government) to do it for them? And unlike the game of Monopoly, life is one of those games where you can actually make up your own rules if you like.

World Coming to an End? Don't Panic

The Dave Ramsey show was on today and a caller asked him if she should take out her retirement money and other funds from the stock market and buy something tangible like a house because she was sure that the stock market, and in fact the entire American financial system, was going to Hell in a hand basket. If you listen to many pundits these days, you may know why the lady feels this way. Even I feel this way on occasion. Dave was firmly against this tactic and so was I but for different reasons. Dave feels that the stock market will remain strong and that American companies are strong in general. My reasoning is that:

• Disaster coming or not, you NEVER put all of your eggs in one basket. You don't sell all of your assets and buy gold. You don't concentrate all of your preparedness efforts on a single bug out shelter. You don't invest ALL of your money in the stock market. Diversification works for the simple reason that you don't know what kind of disaster will strike and there is a very good possibility that if you put all of your money, time, and effort into one thing that you think will "save" you, it is a good bet that that one thing will be the thing wiped away by disaster.
• A house is a nice investment but like any investment, it has risks. Like black mold which isn't covered by insurance. Like an earthquake or flood which your insurance probably doesn't cover. Like you may need to move in a hurry and selling a house is a time consuming thing (not to mention sudden market drops as happened during the last year or so which can turn you "upside down" on your mortgage loan within a matter of weeks).
• I prefer to be lean and mobile as much as possible. I have seen way too many instances where people have been ripped from their fairly normal every day life and been forced to flee their city or even their country with only what they can carry. You can't carry a house, you may not have much left in your stocks if anything at all, and you can carry gold but not easily or safely.
• I can't read the future and when I gamble it is for fun and not profit so trying to guess what is going to happen then betting all of my money and assets on what "might" happen is, in my opinion, a bad bet.
• Panic is not good in any situation. It is not a good thing to act out of fear because then you make crappy, not well thought out decisions.
• Change is inevitable. Life is continual change so trying to "keep things as they always have been" in order to feel secure is futile.

So what should you do if you really think the world as we know it is coming to an end?

• Keep yourself diversified, both financially and in life. Spread your assets and investments around. Spread your learning around as well. While some people think it is a great idea to be ultra-specialized in their work (a great idea if you are a neurosurgeon or rocket scientist), consider developing multiple streams of knowledge along with multiple streams of income which will give you much greater flexibility during times of significant change.
• Determine if owning a home fits your life style. I enjoy my home and need a place to live anyway so paying a mortgage, for me, is a sensible idea. For others, like those who are deeply in debt, move frequently, or simply don't want to own a house, they should not own a house. There are plenty of other options for places to live that may fit their needs better.
• Enjoy the things you have and the things you want to have but know that you can survive just fine with less. I prefer being a minimalist while other friends have to have all of the latest everything and enjoy having lots of stuff around them. Whatever floats your boat.
• Use your own best judgement. I'm a news junkie but when it comes down to it, I will rely on my own analysis of a situation before any talking head that you find on TV or the internet. Things could get better or they could get worse. I won't spend my life worrying about what "might" happen. I will prepare as best I can but otherwise enjoy what is happening today.
• Don't panic over what "might" happen. Instead, I train and train some more and hope that "muscle memory" will kick in when I need it. A friend of mine told me his theory on worry and panic quite a few years ago and it still rings true today. When someone is worrying about something he asks them what they were worrying about exactly one year ago. 99.9% of the time they can't remember what it was. Case closed.
• Enjoy change and embrace change. People who have a good outlook on whatever happens and can easily roll with the punches usually survive much better than those who cling to the old ways and develop an all-consuming resistance to change. You can train yourself to deal with change by starting small and building up your tolerance to it. Take a different route to work tomorrow, eat at a restaurant featuring foods you've never heard of before, or try something really off the wall (apparently, as my nephew tells me, it is all the range in school these days to eat dried worms and bugs which kids can buy at the mall. How's that for embracing something new with both hands?).

It's Not If, But When, The Economy Willl Collapse Part 2

So like every problem, large, small, annoying, or hugely traumatic, there is not much value in worrying about it incessantly. The only two things you can do with the problem of the economy or anything else, since you can not change the situation, is to prepare as best you can before something terrible happens and respond after the event as best you can. Here's some thoughts:

• Don't stress over the problem, or worse, panic. This impacts your ability to think rationally and takes up valuable time that you could be spending on more important things.


• I've posted some informative links on the CNI site (http://www.codenameinsight.com/) in the Daily INsight section on economic collapse--check them out.


• There's always hope that things will turn around...I'm just not holding my breath...


• Think preparedness, creativity, and as the comment on the last post said, look for new opportunities.

Some pros and cons in regards to preps:

• Home/land ownership: Pros--once your home is paid in full, all you need to worry about is getting together the money to pay the taxes; definitely a huge financial burden lifted. Depending on your lot/acreage your land can be useful for gardening, raising animals, and other cash crops from which you can earn a bit of income. Cons--governments have a way of just taking any land they want, especially right after they declare martial law. This is a huge amount of money to sink into one asset. You may be less than eager to leave your land even when it becomes necessary. You will need to protect this asset from the marauding hoards.
• Investing money in dollars/stocks/bonds/government securities: Pros--if the monetary system decides to stabilize, you will be ahead of the game and your investments will grow. Having a lot of cash on hand is a very secure feeling. Cons: If the economy continues to tank, so does your investment. Currencies can implode and lose all value and all you end up with is worthless paper. Overall, it's a crapshoot.
• Investing in materials (food, tools, fuel, firearms, items for barter): Pros--these items are there for your use no matter what is happening in the larger society. These items, during a total collapse, are the items of currency which will be mighty useful to barter with to get the things you need (you can't eat, plant a garden with, or defend your home with dollars or gold). Cons--like a house and land, you need to store, care for, and protect these assets. If you do need to flee, you can't carry all of this stuff with you.
• Investing in gold/foreign currency/foreign assets (like land in a foreign country): Pros--gold has been a standard currency for centuries. Foreign currency may be more stable than the dollar (this is iffy since all currency is intricately interwoven with the US currency system). Foreign land will give you a bug out location outside of the US and depending on the country may either have a lower cost of living or a higher stability in price. Cons--you can't eat gold; it's fairly heavy and you need to protect it too. Foreign currency, like I said above, is a crap shoot and isn't a good investment choice for the novice. Foreign land purchases are fraught with pitfalls including a line of red tape for foreigners that will make your head spin. Again, you will need to protect it (some countries squatters rights are amazingly bad--for the legal owner). And, you may need to flee from it.
• Investing in your own skills and social connections: Pros--these are things that will serve you well no matter what is happening in the society at large. The process of learning, both technical skills and social skills, will not only expand your abilities, it will increase your creativity and put you far ahead of the crowd when TSHTF. Cons--there aren't any.

The bottom line: No one knows what is going to happen to the economy or the overall state of the US. If someone tells you "you must buy gold now! you must buy land now!" or anything else where they want to part you with your hard earned money, they are feeding you a line of crap. It takes careful consideration of all of the facts, careful consideration of your own situation because everyone's situation is different, and your own best educated guess before you take action to avert any repercussions of an economic collapse or other disaster. Here's what I am doing:

• I am continually investing in my skills and social connections. Any class that comes up, I'm there. Even if it has no bearing on anything I am doing now, all knowledge is good knowledge. Usually classes are very inexpensive, they give you an opportunity to meet other people who are interested in the same thing, and you never know when a particular skill will come in handy. Ditto with social connections. Start by leaving all judgmental inclinations at the door. Then start acquiring connection with people from all walks of life--rich people, poor people, drug dealers, immigrants, doctors, scientists, homeless people...all people have something to teach you; close mouth and open ears.
• I pay for a house and land that I can easily afford. Some people are up to their eyeballs in house debt to the point that the majority of their income goes to support a house and leaves them very little to invest in anything else. I find my house comfortable and useful but I'm not tied to it. If I had to leave it tomorrow, it wouldn't bother me overmuch.
• I put some money towards cash and well diversified mutual funds but not a lot. Like I said, when you put all of your eggs in one financial basket you are bound to lose.
• I put more money towards hard assets. I feel comfortable having a year's worth of supplies in my home (food, toiletries, etc); this isn't a huge amount of items so I could leave them behind (but I would be real bummed). I also like finding very good deals on assets which have a high probability of being useful to me or for barter (firearms, ammo, tools, gardening equipment, etc) and which also hold their value.
• I am not so much into gold except for some baht jewelry as it is risky both value-wise as the price tends to fluctuate like currency and there is also the part of having to possibly carry it away and protect it. I keep some foreign currency on hand as this makes it easier when I travel but I wouldn't even think to trade in the stuff--too volatile. I minimally invest in foreign assets through others who I can trust however, again, this is a very small part of my investments because 1) I don't completely trust anyone, 2) foreigners tend to get ripped off if they aren't there to watch their investment 24/7, and 3) I don't want to go through the expensive, mind-numbing red tape to put these assets in my name so I certainly won't throw all of my money at such an asset.
• I am continually looking at the situation and making adjustments that make sense for me and my family. Right now I am looking at other housing options as the kids are grown and moved out, we travel often, and we don't need a big house. The idea is to be flexible, always keep your options open, and be prepared to take advantage of random opportunities as they come by.

That's all I have to say on the topic. Be prepared as best you can and hope for the best.

It's Not If, But When, the Economy Will Collapse Part 1

I make it a point to not go out of my way to stir people up, scare them, or otherwise be the bearer of bad news, but the more I look at the economy, the more I see no viable options for turning things around. I am no economist but simple math isn't that far out of my realm of abilities. Here's my concerns:

• The largest group in US history, the Baby Boomers, are beginning to retire. No longer will they be producing for the economy but rather withdrawing money from Social Security and pension funds.
• Social Security requires tax payers to support this fund. Fewer tax payers (look at all of the job loss) and less money (wages and income dropping) means less money in the fund.
• Ditto for pensions, many of which are invested in the stock market which has nosedived.
• EVERYONE is asking for a government bailout and seemingly everyone is getting one. Insurance companies then auto companies and now commercial real estate companies are asking for and often getting a bailout. The only problem with this is that the government gets this money from us, the taxpayers, or they just print more money. Neither one is an unlimited source of funding but it seems like the government hasn't figured that part out yet.
• People have stopped shopping and spending with abandon as they did through the 90's and early 2000's. Some because they came to their senses and decided to get their financial house in order and many others because they ran out of both money and credit. No shopping and spending leads to layoffs, business closures, and an economy that quickly comes to a screeching halt.
• You can't prop up an economy with sporadic injections of money. Even Warren Buffet couldn't pull this off. Economies aren't top down sorts of things, they are bottom up entities where the 310 million people in the US need to have confidence in order to shop, spend, open a business, invest in the stock market, etc.
• You can't prop up an economy with injections of money at the top. Of all of the bailout billions given to companies over the past year, how much have you or any of your friends seen? About nothing? I thought so. The money was used to prop up these companies books and did not trickle down in any way that impacted "regular" people.
• You can't reward bad behavior and expect to keep the economy neatly humming along. Integrity and responsibility go a long way towards building confidence in the economy. Now I can keep paying my mortgage because that is the responsibility I took on when I signed the contract but it looks like if a big bailout for homeowners comes along, it would make more sense (for those with less than stellar integrity) to not pay their mortgage until it goes into default so they can get a better deal. Honest, responsible people see these deals and wonder why they are being punished for doing the right thing.
• Accountability has gone out the window. If you ask where the bailout money went--even if you are a congressman or other powerful person--you will get the answer "we don't know". Apparently they forgot to put an accountability clause in the bailout contract. Duh.
• Oversight has gone out the window too. Can you spell MADOFF? And it wasn't like his scheme was a secret, people had been telling the SEC about it for years.
• The little people (the bulk of us 310 million US citizens) are getting hit in all directions: job loss, fewer new businesses being created, reliance on government support which will at some point run out, increasing prices, investments that are losing money at a furious pace, money that is losing value, high debt load, etc.

Where will this end? I have no idea. If a reader has a better grasp feconomics than I do, please enlighten us. It just looks like a steady, downward spiral with no natural stopping point before complete bankruptcy (in this case, from the top down) of the US government, US companies, other companies around the world, and then the little guy. I give it about eight months before all Hell breaks loose.

p.s. I hope I am wrong.