- Speaking of food, I was working away last night with the TV on in the background as usual. Many times the shows that are on are just background noise although I may look up if something interesting is happening on CNN or someone presents something unique on Antiques Roadshow. Last night, however, a show called Extreme Couponing came on and I stopped working for an entire hour to watch. What caught my attention was the actual "storehouses" of food that people who were very good at using grocery store coupons were able to amass for nearly nothing. I don't think that I will go out of my way at this time to accumulate a hundred bottles of shampoo or a thousand boxes of cereal (traveling greatly limits this sort of thing) but for those who may not be able to afford to stockpile a huge amount of food and other items for use during a disaster due to limited funds, this is definitely one way to do soon the cheap (or super cheap...most were able to purchase a thousand dollars worth of groceries for less than a hundred dollars). Check out the link here.
- The government is still debating the budget with the possible consequence of a government shutdown beginning tomorrow evening. If you rely on a government paycheck (federal workers; military, retirees, and those on Social Security will continue to get paid) are you prepared for this? Here are some potential consequences of the shutdown.
- I have received a couple of comments on the blog (with no email address for me to reply to) asking if it was OK for people to use content posted on this blog. My answer is that yes, you are free to use/print/repost the information presented here, with a link back to the source of course.
- Can you solve a mystery? CNI readers are pretty clever so it wouldn't surprise me if some from here was able to break this code and help the FBI solve a murder.
Showing posts with label readers questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label readers questions. Show all posts
Thursday, April 7, 2011
An Answer to a Reader's Question and More Info
First, a question from a reader... MP recently wrote in asking the question "I've tried to stock what we eat and eat what we stock. I'm wondering...in a "bad" situation, when we are actually dependent and eating our stockpile, should we plan for less than 3 meals a day per person?" The short answer, it depends. For localized disasters, assuming you have a six month to one year stockpile of food, you will probably be able to continue on as usual. Even the stores in the places worst hit by Katrina were restocked within six months. For catastrophic disasters that would impact the entire country or worse, the world, then definitely cutting back on the quantity of food that you eat each day would be prudent as supply chains would most likely be disrupted for more than a year. The good news is that, based on obesity statistics, the average American can easily skip a meal or two each day and be none the worse for wear. In fact, in this were to happen and people really did have to live on one or two simple meals a day they would probably be better off physically than they are now--calorie restrictive diets not only curb the obesity problem but also help with problems such as diabetes and high cholesterol, and do, in fact, make you live longer. On a side note, should a major disaster strike, you obviously want to have a good stockpile of food in place at your home, but also, immediately afterwards, it would be a good idea to go out and forage anything else edible that you can find (fish, animals, road kill, wild fruit and vegies, etc...I draw the line at looting but depending on the situation and your abilities this may go by the wayside) since in a lengthy shut down of the food supply chain, every morsel of food that you can get your hands on will be important to your survival. And More Info...
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Reader's Question: Becoming Self Employed
I'm sick of the rat race and working for "the man". I could care less about being wealthy, but would love the freedom of working for myself. Question is...how the heck do you manage to do it? Do I just start a blog, get the readers and go from there? I have no college education, which isn't as important nowadays as some people think. I have no trade, per say. I can work hard and do a good job. If you show me how to do something, I do it. And usually after a while I'm doing it better and more efficient than the other workers. How does this translate into a work from home/own my own business scenario? I'm not a salesman. I don't have any particularly amazing skills or talents to draw from. I play a little guitar, but I'm not a musician. I can fill a sketch book with some decent sketches, but I'm no artist. I know the basics of html, but I'm no computer guru. Do you make money off your blog or site? How exactly does that work? How do you get advertisers? I thought I'd take a stab in the dark and ask someone who's opinion I've really came to admire in the past year. Any word of advice would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and keep up the good work! J
I think a lot of people are feeling just like J. I've felt like J. After many years of being self employed (after having some pretty crap jobs like everyone else), here's what I have learned:
#1--You need to be as debt free as possible before you strike out on your own. If you have a $100,000 job and a $100,000 lifestyle, transitioning over to self employment will be exponentially more difficult because you will NEED to earn $100,000 immediately. Most self employment gigs take a while to build up to that level. So if you are deep in debt, take six jobs and get your debts paid off NOW. Resource: Dave Ramsey
#2--Blogs, most blogs anyway, do not make much money. This blog makes maybe $100 a month through Google Adsense (note to readers, feel free to click through the ads on the site which will give me an extra fraction of a cent). So this is basically a hobby for me. There is potential to monetize the site more but my regular business takes up much of my time and it generates a good steady income which I kind of like. Resource: Read this article.
#3--If you are self employed you are three things: a salesperson, a business person, and a person who provides X (your actual business whether you are a writer, widget builder, carpet installer, etc). You need to be well educated and practice all three of these things. I am not a salesperson by nature either, but it was still a skill I needed to develop. When your business has grown to the point that you can afford to hire a salesperson to sell your services/products and a business adviser/tax accountant/lawyer then you can slack off in these areas a bit.
#4--You don't have to be the best at anything (although it helps) but you do have to have a reason that people will pay you for what you do. I was in Chicago last week and there were quite a few people who would go down into the subway tubes, put out a bucket, and start singing or playing their instruments. They all made some money from this endeavour and I am guessing the ones who were good made more. So you don't have to be Mariah Carey to start a singing career. Just start!
#5--If you don't know where to start, solve someone's problem. Years ago when websites were new, I worked in an office and told the boss, hey you need a website. At the time I got some website design software and was playing around with it and found that I could put something up that resembled a website. I told the guy that if he gave me $200 I could set him up a nice website. I was in no way a website designer but I did see a problem (his business didn't have a domain name, website, or any idea how to do such things) and I offered to fix it for him (with a small fee for myself). By today's standards that site was a train wreck but it fixed his problem and he was quite happy with it (and has since hired real web designers to improve the site). I no longer do websites (CSS, Drupal...ayayay) but at the time, I took the opportunity to develop some basic skills that I could sell. Since then, this little jaunt into self employment has spring boarded me into a business that works with government contracts, critical infrastructure, occasionally the medical field, etc. It is just like selling your first skill/product to someone but on a larger scale (note, you develop the ability to sell your services/product to bigger and bigger players the more you practice).
#6--I would say "do what you love" but sometimes these things don't pay the bills. So, do what you like that can earn you an income. Or take what you love and figure out a way to monetize it.
#7--You have to just start. So many people say "I wish I was self employed like you". But that is as far as they get. They don't even actually try to be self employed. If you walk next door and offer to mow the neighbor's yard for $25 and he says yes, ta da...you are self employed. It takes balls to start such an endeavour (what will people think of me, what if I am not good enough, what if I fail) but if you let all of this stop you, you will never be self employed. Do something, anything (legal and ethical of course), that will allow you to sell your skills/services the first time and you will probably be hooked. Even making $10 is a start. Then you analyze the sale and figure out how to do it again in a better way so that you can earn more money.
#8--Employees are a pain in the ass. I've had employees and while most were great, some weren't and the overall deal with employees is that they are expensive and needy and there is a whole lot of laws governing their existence. I don't have the time or patience for that. So now all of my employees are contractors like I am. They work hard, pay their own taxes, and are really quite dependable.
#9--If you are self employed, you need to be good (continual study in your field is a must and you don't directly get paid for this although it will pay off in the success of your business), you need to be dependable, a self starter, produce an excellent product, meet your deadlines...and all the other stuff that you are supposed to be as an employee. When you are doing business for yourself, you can't slide in some of these areas like you would be able to do as an employee, however.
#10--Pay your taxes in full and on time! Most new business owners forget this part until the IRS is knocking on their door. You won't have an employer to do this for you so take 25% of every dime you earn and put it aside to pay your taxes. Don't touch it for emergencies, don't touch it for the vacation you have planned...it belongs to the IRS and they will make sure they get it.
#11--You are now financially responsible for yourself. You won't have an employer to pay your taxes (see #10), pay your medical insurance, set up your 401k, give you sick leave, et al. You need to plan these things into the prices that you charge, you need to be responsible for setting up these things and maintaining/paying them in a timely fashion, and you need to make contingency plans should something bad like and illness or a car wreck, happen to you.
#12--I am a fan of multiple streams of income. Working at one job for one client would bore me to death (it would also irk the IRS since it would kind of counter the fact that you are your own business and not an employee). Which is why my business has many clients and many ongoing projects. I may pick up a client for one short term project and never see them again or I may keep one client for years and do lots of projects for them. I also make a bit from this website, do some freelance writing which brings in some money, had rental properties which I have since gotten out of..in short, the more sources of income you have, the more secure you are.
#13--Read this guy's books. I read the original 'How to Be Invisible' book some years ago and it seemed to cover self employment in about one paragraph and it was crystal clear about the entire process. Now I see he has another book about skipping college and going into business for yourself which, while I haven't read it yet, probably does an excellent job of covering the topic based on his last book.
#14--Random stuff: take some gigs on CraigsList, have a garage sale, eBay stuff, offer to trade your skill for a friend's skill, go downtown and sing on a street corner, challenge yourself to do something that you have always wanted to do but were too afraid "of what others would think"...once you start doing things to break out of the little box you have been wedged into, you will a) find stuff that you like to do better than other stuff, b) enjoy the fact that you can earn your own income without a boss, c) develop your salesmanship skills, and d) learn to take risks which is what business is all about.
#15--Start small. Don't spend more than $500 to get your new venture off the ground. Some of your ideas are going to crash and burn and I would rather than happen with your monthly spending money than have you risk your entire 401k.
The bottom line is that everyone is good at something. I hope J will take his natural skills, brush up on them a bit, then monetize the Hell out of them and make some cash. Developing his business from there will be the easy part, getting started is often the most difficult.
Here's some more blogs/websites from people who have decided to be self employed. Notice how they have a blog but they earn their income from doing other things like writing e-books, giving conferences, etc.
I think a lot of people are feeling just like J. I've felt like J. After many years of being self employed (after having some pretty crap jobs like everyone else), here's what I have learned:
#1--You need to be as debt free as possible before you strike out on your own. If you have a $100,000 job and a $100,000 lifestyle, transitioning over to self employment will be exponentially more difficult because you will NEED to earn $100,000 immediately. Most self employment gigs take a while to build up to that level. So if you are deep in debt, take six jobs and get your debts paid off NOW. Resource: Dave Ramsey
#2--Blogs, most blogs anyway, do not make much money. This blog makes maybe $100 a month through Google Adsense (note to readers, feel free to click through the ads on the site which will give me an extra fraction of a cent). So this is basically a hobby for me. There is potential to monetize the site more but my regular business takes up much of my time and it generates a good steady income which I kind of like. Resource: Read this article.
#3--If you are self employed you are three things: a salesperson, a business person, and a person who provides X (your actual business whether you are a writer, widget builder, carpet installer, etc). You need to be well educated and practice all three of these things. I am not a salesperson by nature either, but it was still a skill I needed to develop. When your business has grown to the point that you can afford to hire a salesperson to sell your services/products and a business adviser/tax accountant/lawyer then you can slack off in these areas a bit.
#4--You don't have to be the best at anything (although it helps) but you do have to have a reason that people will pay you for what you do. I was in Chicago last week and there were quite a few people who would go down into the subway tubes, put out a bucket, and start singing or playing their instruments. They all made some money from this endeavour and I am guessing the ones who were good made more. So you don't have to be Mariah Carey to start a singing career. Just start!
#5--If you don't know where to start, solve someone's problem. Years ago when websites were new, I worked in an office and told the boss, hey you need a website. At the time I got some website design software and was playing around with it and found that I could put something up that resembled a website. I told the guy that if he gave me $200 I could set him up a nice website. I was in no way a website designer but I did see a problem (his business didn't have a domain name, website, or any idea how to do such things) and I offered to fix it for him (with a small fee for myself). By today's standards that site was a train wreck but it fixed his problem and he was quite happy with it (and has since hired real web designers to improve the site). I no longer do websites (CSS, Drupal...ayayay) but at the time, I took the opportunity to develop some basic skills that I could sell. Since then, this little jaunt into self employment has spring boarded me into a business that works with government contracts, critical infrastructure, occasionally the medical field, etc. It is just like selling your first skill/product to someone but on a larger scale (note, you develop the ability to sell your services/product to bigger and bigger players the more you practice).
#6--I would say "do what you love" but sometimes these things don't pay the bills. So, do what you like that can earn you an income. Or take what you love and figure out a way to monetize it.
#7--You have to just start. So many people say "I wish I was self employed like you". But that is as far as they get. They don't even actually try to be self employed. If you walk next door and offer to mow the neighbor's yard for $25 and he says yes, ta da...you are self employed. It takes balls to start such an endeavour (what will people think of me, what if I am not good enough, what if I fail) but if you let all of this stop you, you will never be self employed. Do something, anything (legal and ethical of course), that will allow you to sell your skills/services the first time and you will probably be hooked. Even making $10 is a start. Then you analyze the sale and figure out how to do it again in a better way so that you can earn more money.
#8--Employees are a pain in the ass. I've had employees and while most were great, some weren't and the overall deal with employees is that they are expensive and needy and there is a whole lot of laws governing their existence. I don't have the time or patience for that. So now all of my employees are contractors like I am. They work hard, pay their own taxes, and are really quite dependable.
#9--If you are self employed, you need to be good (continual study in your field is a must and you don't directly get paid for this although it will pay off in the success of your business), you need to be dependable, a self starter, produce an excellent product, meet your deadlines...and all the other stuff that you are supposed to be as an employee. When you are doing business for yourself, you can't slide in some of these areas like you would be able to do as an employee, however.
#10--Pay your taxes in full and on time! Most new business owners forget this part until the IRS is knocking on their door. You won't have an employer to do this for you so take 25% of every dime you earn and put it aside to pay your taxes. Don't touch it for emergencies, don't touch it for the vacation you have planned...it belongs to the IRS and they will make sure they get it.
#11--You are now financially responsible for yourself. You won't have an employer to pay your taxes (see #10), pay your medical insurance, set up your 401k, give you sick leave, et al. You need to plan these things into the prices that you charge, you need to be responsible for setting up these things and maintaining/paying them in a timely fashion, and you need to make contingency plans should something bad like and illness or a car wreck, happen to you.
#12--I am a fan of multiple streams of income. Working at one job for one client would bore me to death (it would also irk the IRS since it would kind of counter the fact that you are your own business and not an employee). Which is why my business has many clients and many ongoing projects. I may pick up a client for one short term project and never see them again or I may keep one client for years and do lots of projects for them. I also make a bit from this website, do some freelance writing which brings in some money, had rental properties which I have since gotten out of..in short, the more sources of income you have, the more secure you are.
#13--Read this guy's books. I read the original 'How to Be Invisible' book some years ago and it seemed to cover self employment in about one paragraph and it was crystal clear about the entire process. Now I see he has another book about skipping college and going into business for yourself which, while I haven't read it yet, probably does an excellent job of covering the topic based on his last book.
#14--Random stuff: take some gigs on CraigsList, have a garage sale, eBay stuff, offer to trade your skill for a friend's skill, go downtown and sing on a street corner, challenge yourself to do something that you have always wanted to do but were too afraid "of what others would think"...once you start doing things to break out of the little box you have been wedged into, you will a) find stuff that you like to do better than other stuff, b) enjoy the fact that you can earn your own income without a boss, c) develop your salesmanship skills, and d) learn to take risks which is what business is all about.
#15--Start small. Don't spend more than $500 to get your new venture off the ground. Some of your ideas are going to crash and burn and I would rather than happen with your monthly spending money than have you risk your entire 401k.
The bottom line is that everyone is good at something. I hope J will take his natural skills, brush up on them a bit, then monetize the Hell out of them and make some cash. Developing his business from there will be the easy part, getting started is often the most difficult.
Here's some more blogs/websites from people who have decided to be self employed. Notice how they have a blog but they earn their income from doing other things like writing e-books, giving conferences, etc.
Questions from a Reader: Tools
What would be the top ten tools you would recommend? B.P.
This list really depends on where you are and what you do. More than once I fell under the spell of the Craftsman Tool department and ended up with a complete auto mechanics set (I don't work on cars), a complete woodworkers tool set (I don't work on wood either), and other random assorted cool gadgets that caught my eye and led to visions of stuff I could do if I had the right tool set. Then I figured out that if I am not actually doing the thing now, it isn't likely that I will be doing it in the future.
I have sold and gifted quite a few tools that looked pretty impressive in the store but which I had no actual use for. Lesson learned. Expensively. So now my tool bench consists of the tools that I actually need for day to day use. I don't buy things that I rarely use (like a power washer) because the gardener can bring his own or I can simply rent the device if I really need it. I no longer have a winch on my truck and a chainsaw in the back because I no longer live in a rural, mountainous area that sometimes required clearing your own road if you wanted to pass by. A bolo (machete) is nice, but unless you are clearing jungle overgrowth, there really is no need for one.
So in a nutshell, start with the basic tools below that any average homeowner/apartment dweller may need, then expand as you do work that requires specialized tools (ie: you do a plumbing project, rewire the garage, paint a spare bedroom, build a garden shed, etc).
- Set of screw drivers (you don't need a 32 piece set...just buy a small, medium, and large version of both flat and Phillips head screwdrivers).
- Hammer
- Breaker bar (also known as a pry bar)
- Set of wrenches/pliers (needle nose pliers, crescent wrench, slotted pliers, etc)
- Hacksaw
- Level
- Drill and set of drill bits
- Ladder
- Utility knife
- Measuring tape
The three basic rules of tool ownership:
#1 Buy only the tools you need and actually use
#2 Buy quality tools not crap from the dollar store
#3 Build up your tool collection slowly. If you are 20 years old and think you should have a workshop that rivals your grandfather's, don't. Tools are usually collected over many years in just the way described above. You start with the basics, then decide to clean your gutters (add 25' ladder to your collection), the next year you plant a garden (add hoe and shovel), in a couple of years your garden now takes up an acre (add rototiller). You get the idea.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Questions from a Reader...And a Long Answer
I received the following email from a reader recently...
" I wanted to get my house ready for a possible disaster. You never know what
can happen. A bunch of my friends have been talking about the possibility of
something really bad happening in 2010. I wanted your take / advice as I
really enjoy your blog.
1. What should I do with my cash? I have it in the bank and do not
necessarily need to have it there. Should I buy a safe and put in that?
2. Should I buy a shotgun?
3. My wife and family are vegan and was wondering what the best food
solutions should be for our 5 person family?
4. We live by the beach? Should we be concerned about water?
5. What about gasoline? Should I get a generator?
I am 39 years old with little kids and our house is not paid for. We have no
debt and live fairly cheap. Let me know your thoughts as I really trust you
and want to put something together this summer. B.P."
These are common questions when prepping. Below are my answers but the readers are welcome to add their two cents in the comments section below because if I know anything about preparedness, it's that everyone will probably have different answers to the questions above.
#1. With my money, I like diversification. I have cash that I carry with me every day (usually $200-$400), cash in my home safe, cash in four bank accounts (four different banks) linked to debit cards which I use like Visas instead of using actual credit cards, gold, investments in mutual funds, a Roth IRA, a 401k, land, equipment (tools, guns, and other things that hold value fairly well), and businesses. I would never say to buy all gold, all guns, or put all of your money under your mattress because you just never know what will happen. If the stock market implodes, I will be out some of my money but the gold and equipment will see me through. If someone robs me, I may lose the cash I carry but will have other cash and resources to fall back on. It is the same with the diversification of your money--you want a little bit in a lot of places instead of all of it in one place...just in case.
#2. Depends. While I am a fan of gun ownership, I don't think everyone should own guns. I like shotguns for both hunting and home protection. Whether or not you buy a shotgun, or any weapon for that matter, will depend on a number of factors. What does the wife think? How do you both feel about having guns around your children? Do you know how to care for a firearm and most importantly, would you practice regularly? How would you feel about killing someone with a firearm? Firearm ownership is a very real responsibility that shouldn't be taken lightly. Should you decide to buy a shotgun or other weapon, I would suggest taking a class or two on firearm use, maintenance, and responsible gun ownership, then trying out as many models at the range as possible so you will be able to find the type of firearm you like before doling out your hard earned cash for it.
#3. Again, diversification is the name of the food preppin game. In my pantry, I have 50 pound bags of rice and 25 pound bags of dried beans and other grains. You will want to look into food items that can give you the protein you need (nuts? peanut butter? soybeans?) and have a good shelf life. Most vegans are heavy into being able to acquire fresh produce regularly which may or may not be possible post SHTF. Can you grow some of your own fruit and vegetables? Forage for edibles (plants, mushrooms)? Make your own bean sprouts? Food is something that I plan for somewhat (about a three to six months stockpile) but don't stress over unnecessarily. If it really came down to it, I believe people will do what they need to do to survive (I'll eat bugs or rats or whatever if absolutely necessary but it is not something I consider on a regular basis).
#4. Everyone should be concerned about water. Near a beach means...saltwater? If so, that would not be a viable source of drinking water. Again, I store some water, maybe enough for a month or so plus have a rain catchment system which I use to water the garden, but I also know where all of the lakes, streams, and rivers are in my area and I have enough bleach stored (plus the ability to boil water if necessary) to strain and treat what I will need.
#5. I store some gasoline and rotate it though our vehicle but I maybe only have 30 gallons stored. I also don't have a generator because #1 based on past experience, we are never without power for more than a day or so, and #2 if you do need to use a generator long term, you will need to be able to fuel it (plus the unsavory types that hear your generator running will know that you have something they want...no need to draw attention to yourself...).
I may be one of the lesser hard core preppers that you know. I make my prepping decisions based on a couple of important rules: is what I have/need/do based on an actual need or a pie-in-the-sky, Rambo-inspired vision? Am I doing the basics before going all out on the very expensive/probably never going to use/could become a liability type-things?
Americans are great at planning and apocalyptical scenarios. However, based on my experience, the people I know who have "survived" a broad range of disasters are often the third world poor who may or may not even have shoes! What they have, however, is a will to survive, as good a health as they can muster, a sharp mind, and a creativity/flexibility that allows them to respond to whatever disaster may strike (everything from a flood to machete-wielding invaders to being driven out of their own countries).
Here's the top ten prep tips I give to just about everyone:
" I wanted to get my house ready for a possible disaster. You never know what
can happen. A bunch of my friends have been talking about the possibility of
something really bad happening in 2010. I wanted your take / advice as I
really enjoy your blog.
1. What should I do with my cash? I have it in the bank and do not
necessarily need to have it there. Should I buy a safe and put in that?
2. Should I buy a shotgun?
3. My wife and family are vegan and was wondering what the best food
solutions should be for our 5 person family?
4. We live by the beach? Should we be concerned about water?
5. What about gasoline? Should I get a generator?
I am 39 years old with little kids and our house is not paid for. We have no
debt and live fairly cheap. Let me know your thoughts as I really trust you
and want to put something together this summer. B.P."
These are common questions when prepping. Below are my answers but the readers are welcome to add their two cents in the comments section below because if I know anything about preparedness, it's that everyone will probably have different answers to the questions above.
#1. With my money, I like diversification. I have cash that I carry with me every day (usually $200-$400), cash in my home safe, cash in four bank accounts (four different banks) linked to debit cards which I use like Visas instead of using actual credit cards, gold, investments in mutual funds, a Roth IRA, a 401k, land, equipment (tools, guns, and other things that hold value fairly well), and businesses. I would never say to buy all gold, all guns, or put all of your money under your mattress because you just never know what will happen. If the stock market implodes, I will be out some of my money but the gold and equipment will see me through. If someone robs me, I may lose the cash I carry but will have other cash and resources to fall back on. It is the same with the diversification of your money--you want a little bit in a lot of places instead of all of it in one place...just in case.
#2. Depends. While I am a fan of gun ownership, I don't think everyone should own guns. I like shotguns for both hunting and home protection. Whether or not you buy a shotgun, or any weapon for that matter, will depend on a number of factors. What does the wife think? How do you both feel about having guns around your children? Do you know how to care for a firearm and most importantly, would you practice regularly? How would you feel about killing someone with a firearm? Firearm ownership is a very real responsibility that shouldn't be taken lightly. Should you decide to buy a shotgun or other weapon, I would suggest taking a class or two on firearm use, maintenance, and responsible gun ownership, then trying out as many models at the range as possible so you will be able to find the type of firearm you like before doling out your hard earned cash for it.
#3. Again, diversification is the name of the food preppin game. In my pantry, I have 50 pound bags of rice and 25 pound bags of dried beans and other grains. You will want to look into food items that can give you the protein you need (nuts? peanut butter? soybeans?) and have a good shelf life. Most vegans are heavy into being able to acquire fresh produce regularly which may or may not be possible post SHTF. Can you grow some of your own fruit and vegetables? Forage for edibles (plants, mushrooms)? Make your own bean sprouts? Food is something that I plan for somewhat (about a three to six months stockpile) but don't stress over unnecessarily. If it really came down to it, I believe people will do what they need to do to survive (I'll eat bugs or rats or whatever if absolutely necessary but it is not something I consider on a regular basis).
#4. Everyone should be concerned about water. Near a beach means...saltwater? If so, that would not be a viable source of drinking water. Again, I store some water, maybe enough for a month or so plus have a rain catchment system which I use to water the garden, but I also know where all of the lakes, streams, and rivers are in my area and I have enough bleach stored (plus the ability to boil water if necessary) to strain and treat what I will need.
#5. I store some gasoline and rotate it though our vehicle but I maybe only have 30 gallons stored. I also don't have a generator because #1 based on past experience, we are never without power for more than a day or so, and #2 if you do need to use a generator long term, you will need to be able to fuel it (plus the unsavory types that hear your generator running will know that you have something they want...no need to draw attention to yourself...).
I may be one of the lesser hard core preppers that you know. I make my prepping decisions based on a couple of important rules: is what I have/need/do based on an actual need or a pie-in-the-sky, Rambo-inspired vision? Am I doing the basics before going all out on the very expensive/probably never going to use/could become a liability type-things?
Americans are great at planning and apocalyptical scenarios. However, based on my experience, the people I know who have "survived" a broad range of disasters are often the third world poor who may or may not even have shoes! What they have, however, is a will to survive, as good a health as they can muster, a sharp mind, and a creativity/flexibility that allows them to respond to whatever disaster may strike (everything from a flood to machete-wielding invaders to being driven out of their own countries).
Here's the top ten prep tips I give to just about everyone:
- Live below your means.
- Be debt free.
- Always have a BOB ready (only what you can carry may be all you end up with no matter how much food/gas/supplies you have stored).
- Be as healthy as possible (this will impact your survival-ability immensely).
- Be flexible. If your car won't start, take the bus or ride your bike to work. Some people, when things don't go their way, just shut down. Quick thinking and flexibility in your attitude are very important in a disaster.
- Flex your creative muscle. If you can't afford a (name some item), how would you make due? Could you trade for it? Make it? Use something else for the same purpose?
- Stock supplies if you normally use them or they would be extremely important to your survival. Stock bottled water and rotate it with the bottled water you normally use. Have camping gear that you would normally use (if you don't camp, you should do so at least annually as it is good practice for rustic living), stock food supplies that you can rotate into your normal everyday meals, etc.
- Get educated. I would rather be a highly trained shooter that can use any gun, than someone who has a stockpile of weapons yet never even practices with them. Take advantage of any and all education opportunities that come your way (community CPR class, a science project with your kid that teaches YOU something valuable) etc.
- Invest in your social relationships--the social relationships you work to develop today could prove to be very useful in the future. This includes the time spent strengthening your family relationships (do you do things with your kids or let them hide in their room with their computer every day?), chatting with/doing favors for neighbors who would then be inclined to help you out when needed, etc.
- Don't stress about the future. Stress will kill you but disasters, statistically, rarely do. I am all for being reasonably prepared but not at the expense of continually stressing about what might happen, spending the kid's vacation money on MREs, or building a bomb shelter unless there is a clear and present need. Since I was a child, there have always been people who say an apocalypse is just around the corner. Only it hasn't happened yet, decades later. What does happen, though, is continual change which we all need to be prepared for and react accordingly to. You may lose your job tomorrow. You may lose your spouse tomorrow. You may lose your home or your country tomorrow. Would you be able to handle these blows and keep on going? If not, what could you do today so that you would be better able to handle such drastic change? Now do those things.
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