Preparedness Basics: Finances

Almost every one of us will experience some sort of disaster in out lives that is either financial in nature or has a financial impact. A disaster that is financial in nature would include things like loss of income (job loss), reduced income (pay or hour reductions), or unexpected expenditures. A disaster that has a financial impact would include things like storm or flood damage to your residence. Since starting this blog our family has experienced each one of these and some more than once.

Financial disasters included both of us (at separate times, thankfully) being laid off. Both of my sons in law and my son have all experienced this as well. My daughter lost her job about a year ago. At the beginning of COVID my company cut salaries across the board for all employees. Wonderful Wife found a new job six months after being laid off but at a 15% decrease in salary. We have had unexpected major expenses including having to replace both central air conditioning units for the house at five to seven thousand dollars each.

After Hurricane Harvey our house was flooded. It cost nearly $50,000 for repairs (and a few upgrades). A disaster relief loan through FEMA helped with those costs but over half came out of pocket.

The recurring theme in all of these is that a little monetary preparation before the disaster helped make them a lot less disastrous.

Getting prepared for these types of disasters is really pretty straightforward and (for most folks) is more a matter of discipline than anything else and I covered it in detail several years ago in a post titled Thoughts On Financial Preparedness but here are the basics in a nutshell:

• • Get out of debt – especially unsecured credit card debt where the interest rates are ridiculous, 25% or more. Not being weighed down by debt payments makes the rest of these recommendations easier to attain and allows more flexibility when times get tough.
  • Build a cash buffer – save some money. We, currently,  keep 35-40% of my salary in savings and are building our investments for retirement as well as any unforeseen disasters. By cutting expenses we would live on that for almost a year with no other income source. Most statistics I have seen show that most Americans have less than $1000 in the bank…
  • Invest – Once your debt is payed down and you have some cash in the bank start investing. I suggest a mixed approach of hard assets like gold, silver, or land along with traditional stock/mutual fund accounts. Diversification of your investment help protect against catastrophic downfalls in any one area.
  • Skills – invest you time in learning useful skills that can help you earn income in a catastrophic economic crash.

Being more prepared financially is one of the most basic and most effective things you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones from disaster.

What Did You Prep This Month?

The pace of our prepping has accelerated this month and we were able to accomplish quite a bit. There are two reasons for this, Wonderful Wife’s income has been mostly replaced (at least temporarily) and we feel that the likelihood of needing our preps is going up. A quick look at the news should confirm why we are thinking that.

In addition to the items listed below we have started making repairs and replacing items around the house. Better to do it now while we have the income rather than later after the economy tanks or inflation begins to skyrocket.

Walk With God

I continued praying daily for my 50 closest neighbors, five each day.

I continued my study of the Gospel of Mark.

I also continued teaching Sunday School and attending church.

Self Defense/Hunting

We are continuing to stock up on magazines that the New Regime might want to ban in the coming months. We added four Glock 17 magazines, including one 21 rounder, three standard capacity AR magazines and one more AK magazine.

Since 7.62×39 is (currently) easier to find and cheaper than 5.56 we added five 30 round mags to feed my AR chambered in this caliber.

Yes, I always mark the 7.62×39 mags with a marker but also with the yellow tape in order to avoid potentially costly or even dangerous mistakes on the range.

Supplies/Gear

Rotated the emergency pantry.

We planted peas, peppers and basil in the garden and they are (so far) coming in nicely. The Cilantro generally reseeds itself but this year came up and went to seed almost immediately. I guess due to the crazy cold we had this year but none of it was worth harvesting.

We added more water purification tablets to our stock. The snowpocalypse forced a citywide alert that the water could be contaminated. It didn’t apply to us but I am not taking any chances for future incidents. The tablets don’t take up much room, are fairly inexpensive and last a long time. We also added a Sawyer Mini to the goody bag in place of the life straws I previously kept around. I plan on testing it out as soon as I can get into the woods.

I have been adding some Molle gear to my inventory including a holster for a sidearm in preparation for some training I hope to be taking soon.

I like to keep cheap emergency ponchos in my EDC, bag and get home bags. These are basically single use items and since I used a few in recent months I replaced the ones used.

I am hoping to do a little more camping this year and decided to add a good fixed blade knife for such adventures. I chose the Gerber Strongarm and hope to do a write up on it as soon as I get out there to give it a try.

Gerber Strongarm

We are also building up our inventory of household supplies as well; toilet paper, paper towels, sugar, seasonings, dry staples, etc.

We went into a large sporting goods store looking for hiking shoes and instead stumbled on a load of ammunition. We stocked up on 300 rounds of 9mm, 200 rounds of .223 and 100 of my preferred 7.62×39.

Score!

We put together two more blowout kits and purchased another tourniquet, this one a SWAT-T. This is supposed to be a better TQ for kids and with eight grand kids I want to be ready should the need arise. Stocking up on medical supplies is going to be a key goal while we have some extra money coming in.

Security

No activity this month.

Finances

Cashed out some dividends and used it to purchase precious metals and Bitcoin as hedges against economic collapse or inflation.

Fitness/Health

I had a bad week for exercise last week but I am still working to make myself tougher to kill by getting in better shape.

With the strong probability of financial and social disasters looming on the horizon I had decided to go ahead and take care of some outstanding medical concerns so they would be out of the way if things fall apart. Originally, I had planned on spacing all this out through the year but things at work are a little slow right now so I am taking care of all of them now. Just this month I have had an appointment with the Gastroenterologist for a check on my liver and a colonoscopy, a cardiologist to check my heart and lungs for any issues, and a urologist to check for kidney stones or cancer. The results on the kidney stones are back and, yup, like I told him (he didn’t believe me) I have three. I’ll have more information next week after another appointment with him.

***

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this month. How about you? What did you Prep this month?

Take care and God Bless

What Did You Prep This Month?

Walk With God

I finished two more rounds of praying for my 100 closest neighbors.

I continued with my Bible study of the book of Revelation (almost finished) and my daily verse study and prayer. I am also spending a few minutes giving thanks for at least one thing per day.

I also continued teaching Sunday School and attending church.

Self Defense/Hunting

We did an operational review of the AR with Wonderful Wife. Then practiced operational procedures in case of a break in that required her to employ it.

Wonderful wife snagged us some ammo. It took her most of the morning and several trips to multiple stores but she was able to buy us120 Rounds of 5.56 and 300 rounds of .22 Long Rifle.

I heard a local gun shop had primers and went in to see if I could pick some up. They were already sold out but I was able to pick up 40 rounds of 7.62×39.

Supplies/Gear

We rotated, inventoried and restocked the emergency pantry.

Security

No activity in this area

Finances

We took some stock dividends and invested them in precious metals. We also took some cash out of the bank to keep on hand in case of civil unrest or issues with the infrastructure.

For the first time since we lost Wonder Wife’s income we had to dip into savings to pay some bills. That was related to Christmas and so, we should be able to avoid doing so again for at least a few more months.

Fitness/Health

I jumped back into an exercise routine in order to get into better shape. Wonderful Wife has also been joining me at the gym more often as she is trying to get into better shape as well.

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this month. How about you? What did you Prep this month?

Take care and God Bless

What Did You Prep This Month?

Walk With God

I finished two more rounds of praying for my 100 closest neighbors.

I continued with my Bible study of the book of Revelation.

I also continued teaching Sunday School and attending church. Now that Wonderful Wife no longer has to worry about the possibility of bring the virus into her work we attending both in person.

Self Defense/Hunting

I haven’t been able to get away and hunt even though deer season is in full swing. Hopefully, I will be able to get out there soon.

My son helped me around the house moving furniture and such. I really needed and appreciated the help and I also knew he was a little low on 9mm ammo so I gave him 250 rounds of FMJ for his help. It won’t affect my readiness much but sure will help him out.

Supplies/Gear

As part of moving my office I consolidated storage bins stashed in several locations down to a single location in the house. I also used that to review what I had put away and reevaluate much of it. I found some gaps such as a gas lantern but no fuel canisters. I found some things we probably won’t need and I was, in general, able to better organize it all.

Without Wonderful Wife’s income we are trying to save money wherever we can so we probably won’t be adding much if anything to the inventory.

Security

With the increased risk we are seeing from civil unrest Wonderful Wife has been more interested in carrying her firearm. She did buy a new purse that has a conceal carry pocket to make that easier for her.

Finances

The gold I ordered with the dividends from one of my stock accounts arrived.

We received our income tax refund (finally). That went into savings. Normally, we would buy a little gold or silver or maybe a firearm or two with part of it but not this year. We may need it to live on.

Fitness/Health

I continued working out and trying to get into better shape.

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this month. How about you? What did you Prep this month?

Take care and God Bless

What Did You Prep This Month?

Walk With God

I finished another 2 rounds of praying for my 100 closest neighbors.

I continued with my Bible study of the book of Revelation.

I also continued teaching Sunday School and attending church. We are still virtual for both but considering going to “in person” attendance soon.

Self Defense/Hunting

Found some 5.56 in stock at a local store and picked up 260 rounds. I paid more than I would have liked to but not as much as I have been seeing online.

Supplies/Gear

Rotated, inventoried and restocked the emergency pantry. We are now adding some additional items we never stocked up on previously, like certain spices, gravy mixes and bullion cubes. These items don’t add much in terms of nutrition but will add to the flavor of the foods we have stocked up.

Packed away two five gallon buckets of black eyed peas and then purchased three more five gallon buckets and the “gamma lids. Filled one of those with dehydrated potatoes, one with beans and another with rice all as part of our long term food storage strategy.

Security

No updates this month.

Finances

We had some credit card points accumulated and I cashed those out and placed an order for a little bit of silver. I also requested the cash from a stock dividend and used it to purchase some gold. The silver has already arrived but the gold should arrive in a week or so.

We have been putting everything we can into savings which is a good thing since one of life’s disasters has struck our family. Wonderful Wife will no longer be employed as of October 30th. We have been anticipating this for some time and it is one of the reasons we have been so focused on building our savings.

Fitness/Health

As I have been posting about on Saturdays, I am working hard to get into better shape. I did not lose much weight but that is not my primary goal which is to get into “fighting” shape.

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this month. How about you? What did you Prep this month?

Take care and God Bless

What Did You Prep This Month?

Walk With God

Continued teaching Sunday school and attending church. I am still working through a study of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus.  We filled a Christmas shoe box for the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child.

Self Defense/Hunting

I purchased a bipod for my “long range” .308 rifle will be testing it out as soon as I have the opportunity.

Supplies/Gear

When the water started to rise after Tropical Storm Imelda we tried to get as much up above the possible flood waters as possible. The emergency pantry was carried up and dumped upstairs. We finally made the time to reorganize and inventory it.

Placed an order for a case of baby wipes. We do, in fact, have babies in the house now but that’s not what these are for. For long term storage, baby wipes take up a good bit less space than stocking up on toilette paper.

With cold and flue season coming up we went ahead and stocked up on cough drops.

Security

Nothing this month.

Finances

We have been building up our savings as much as we possibly could because we knew Wonderful Wife was in need of a new car. We spent a good bit of that savings and purchased her a new car. We also went ahead and bought me a truck at the same time. The Civic has been a great car and had many years left in it but for hauling, bugging out and other “manly activities (hunting and camping) it posed quite a few challenges. Now we have two reliable vehicles that can serve as bug out vehicles (both are all wheel drive) and that can haul quite a bit between the two of them. I think that was worth dipping into savings for.

We also used cash back from credit card purchases (we pay them off completely each month) to buy two 1/10th ounce gold Maple Leafs from Canada. I also went ahead and bought silver coins for each of the kids and grand kids. I give them an ounce of silver each birthday and for Christmas. This takes care of Christmas 2019 but I will need to make another silver purchase between now and February since that’s when the birthday’s start next year.

We are also continuing to contribute to our 401K plans.

Fitness/Health

I am not really sure the flu vaccine helps much but we went ahead and got them. We really need to start working out and get back on our diets…

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this month. How about you? What did you Prep this month?

Take care and God Bless

Precious Metals Advice

I am planning a purchase of some precious metals in the near future and in the process of doing research on that purchase came across this article:

Ten Commandments for Buying Gold and Silver

I am not endorsing this strategy. It seems to make sense to me but I am no expert.

Also, I don’t know about you but I don’t have the kind of money to make purchases that this guy talks about. I may build up to those levels someday but over a long period of time with numerous small purchases.

So, what do you think? Does this make sense? Do you have a better strategy?

Comment below and let’s share some knowledge and ideas.

By the way, $2,500 worth of silver is a big old pile of metal. That’s over eight and a half pounds of metal to store in a safe, secure location. Or, even better in several safe and secure locations…

Take care and God bless.

What Did You Prep this Month?

Walk With God

I completed two more rounds of praying for my 100 closest neighbors and continued teaching Sunday School and attending church. I haven’t been reading my Bible as much as I should. I’ll have to work on that.

Just to be clear, I am not saying that anything I have done is getting me into heaven. I am just a sinner like everyone else on this planet. I am broken and flawed. Which is why I needed and accepted the gift of salvation and the sacrifice Jesus made for me on the cross…

Self Defense/Hunting

We bough quite a bit of ammo, partially because I used so much testing several new firearms. This month we bought 300 rounds of 9mm practice ammo, 200 rounds of .22LR, 1,000 rounds of 7.62×39 and 40 rounds of 300 Blackout. The 7.62 Commie is “range safe” ammo. It is still fairly cheap and made in Russia but the bullets do not have steel cores and so they can be used at indoor ranges.

Supplies/Gear

We also bought a lot of stuff this month such as additional water purification tablets to keep in our emergency stores. We also purchased another “WaterBOB.” These allow you to store up to 100 gallons of water in the bathtub. They are sealed so you don’t have to worry about contamination from soaps or oils. They are a great way to supplement your water storage in case of a disaster…as long as you have enough warning to set them up and fill them ahead of time.

I purchased an additional headlamp. I used to have several but they have either died or been misplaced. I like to have one for around the house, one in my hunting bag and one in our emergency bin. They would be a good addition to our Bug Out/ Get Home bags as well. I will test this one out and see how I like it. If it works well I will buy more.

I bought one of the Mountain House Breakfast meals to try out. If we like it we will add a few to our emergency stores.

We rotated and restocked the emergency pantry.

The sausage we had made out of the hogs we killed on our recent hunting trip filled all our available freezer space. We will be buying a replacement freezer for the one we lost in the flood soon. The one we are using right now is not very reliable and I have to check it almost daily just to make sure we don’t lose any meat.

We keep a supply of frequently needed over the counter medications and extra vitamins in a bin along with a stock of first aid supplies. We purchased some additional of all and replaced those in the bins. The ones we took from the bins will be used.

Security

We updated one of the security lights on the outside of the house to one that is motion activated. We also installed a motion sensor light to overlook the part of the driveway where we park our cars and another on the front porch.

Finances

As I have mentioned before, I give each one of my kids and grand kids a one ounce silver round/coin for their birthdays. I went ahead and ordered these for the coming year. We have two birthdays coming up in February so these should arrive in the nick of time.

We also cashed in some credit card points that we earned over Christmas and used that to purchase some silver rounds for ourselves as well. Then we took some cash dividends from some stock that we have and purchased a couple of quarter ounce gold Maple Leaf coins and put the remainder in savings. With that deposit we are nearly half way to reaching the goal we set for savings this year.

Fitness/Health

I am really proud of the progress we have made in this area. I have lost over 20 pounds and I am much better shape that I have been in a long time. My blood pressure is going down and I will, hopefully, be dropping the dosage shortly. The doctor says if it keeps going this way I may even be able to stop taking them completely. I have completely cut out sodas and caffeine and haven’t had either in almost two months.

Wonderful Wife’s progress has not been quite as good but she is definitely on the right track and making progress as well.

That’s it for me. That’s what I prepped this week. How about you? What did you Prep this week?

Take care and God Bless

2019 Preparedness Assessment (Part 6: Financial Disruption)

Financial Disruption is something that will affect each one of us at some point in time. It is not really a question of if it will happen. The really important questions are how bad it will be and how widespread.

Unless you are Bill Gates or Warren Buffet we will all experience some level of personal financial disaster such as a job loss or an unexpected major expense. The world economy is cyclical. There are good times and bad times and again, unless you are one of the wealthiest people in the world everyone will feel these events to one degree or another. The scariest disaster that I can think of would be a financial collapse. If the US economy collapses it is a pretty good bet that other nations will also be impacted. A worldwide economic collapse would probably make the Great Depression look like a walk in the park.

So how can we be more prepared for these events?

Increase Savings

We currently have enough money in savings to cover my salary for for four months. We are currently working to build that back up to six months. This does not include investments or retirement savings. This is literally cash in the bank. Given the fact that most Americans (62%) have less than $1000 in savings this puts us head and shoulders ahead of most people. By they way, nearly 1/4 (21%) of all Americans have no savings at all…

This puts us in good stead for personal financial crisis and to an extent, economic downturns. But what happens in the case of an economic collapse? Well we have diversified our savings a bit to include some precious metals such as copper, silver and gold. We have also invested in some durable goods for barter items as well.

Reduce Debt

Over the last ten years or so we have come a long way in this area. We had two or maybe even three car payments, we owed a ton on the house and most damaging of all we owed nearly half a year’s salary in unsecured, high interest credit card debt.

The credit card debt is gone. We still use the cards to get the points but we pay it off every month. We have paid down the mortgage by about one third and have a ton of equity in the house now. We do carry some unsecured loans; student loans for one of my daughters (don’t ask it was my mistake), the home repair loan and a few smaller loans at 0% interest (sure I’ll use other people’s money as long as I have enough in the bank to cover the payoff). The mortgage is the only secured loan so if I have to “walk away” on any of the others I can tell the banks to pound sand. We are still  working to drive these down (no new cars for a while longer).

Increased Self-Sufficiency

I wish I could say we have a nice garden to sustain us should times get tough but with the size of out lot that’s not really possible. In the spring we will start our garden back up again (its been on hiatus since the flood) and I continue to hunt to hone the skills needed should that be required to survive. Until we have more land it would just be a drop in the bucket.

Which brings up a long term goal for us. We want some land. At least 12 acres so we can get an agricultural exemption from the state (to lower taxes). Enough land we can raise some livestock and have a decent sized garden. We will start looking again soon (another thing put on hold because of the flood) with the goal to actually purchase something in the next three years. That would give us another 5 to seven years to build a house before retirement.

So, that’s our strategy for being prepared for Financial Disruptions. What are we missing? Any other suggestions?

Take care and God bless.

2019 Preparedness Assessment (Part 3: Retirement)

Ok, so retirement is not really a disaster in and of itself. However, it can be if you have not prepared for it.

Social (in)Security

Most folks in the good old US of A don’t plan for retirement. After all, that’s what Social Security is for.

Right?

Most of us have been paying into it for all of our working lives and expect it to be available when we need it. Unfortunately, that probably will not be the case for my generation. The Social Security has pretty much always been a bit of a scam. Initially the plan would have supported only those who paid into it, like a retirement savings plan. However, that didn’t help all those folks who had already retired so it was changed almost immediately so that those working today pay for those who have already retired. That sort of a pyramid scheme worked great as long as the average life expectancy didn’t increase (it did) and each generation of workers was as large or larger than the previous one (not anymore).

As a result, the trust fund that was supposed to provide benefits for those with disabilities is already exhausted. Our elected leaders have not made any effort to fix this problem and it is being funded out of general Federal revenues and is one of the drivers of the Federal deficit.

Overall, according to the Social Security Fund Trustee’s Report, Social Security will continue to take in enough money to cover expenses until sometime in the next few years. At that point in time, the deficit will have to be paid out of the trust fund itself; essentially the program will begin eating itself.  It will take a bout 17 years to deplete the trust fund assets completely. Based on my age and expected date of retirement I will be lucky to collect on what I have “contributed” over my entire working life for a few years, maybe as many as ten, if I am lucky. The Federal government is obligated by law to make up the difference out of general revenues but with the current federal debt levels how long will that last?

By the way, the push from both parties to naturalize illegal aliens resident in this country is just a way to “kick the can a little further down the road.” By increasing the number of people paying in to Social Security they can postpone the inevitable until the current generation of politicians is retired from public office.

So, if we can’t count on so called Social Security can we count on? Well, nothing is completely safe so it is best to hedge your bets a bit…

1 – Pay Stuff Off

One of the keys to the plan we have put together is to make sure the big items in our life are paid off before we retire. House, cars, etc all paid off before that time comes. But it doesn’t stop there. We’re planning to revamp the major systems in the house and buy new cars before that time as well. Now, one of the biggest questions we are struggling with is whether to stay in our current house or not. The taxes in this area are skyrocketing and despite that the city, like most big cities in America, is on a slow(ish) slide into bankruptcy. Logic says we should sell an buy some acreage out a ways, off the beaten path a bit. But this is home…

2 – Investment-based Retirement Plans

We were poor when we first met and we stayed poor for a big chunk of the time we have been together; feed a family of five (later six) on less than $40 a week poor. We are no longer poor but we couldn’t start putting anything aside for retirement for a long time. This means we’re playing catch up so investment-based retirement plans, especially employer supported 401Ks that offer matching funds are super critical. We just can’t build the funds we need without such plans. Unfortunately, this means the performance of the investments is critical and we all know the stock market is (at best) a risk.

Another risk of such plans comes from the Social (in)Security shortfall. Like many other nations have already done, there is a real risk that private retirement plans could be “nationalized.” Call it nationalization or outright theft there is a risk that this money could disappear when it is needed most.

3 – Precious Metals 

To help balance the risks of investment-based plans, some of our retirement funds are channeled into physical assets like precious metals. Besides being a hedge against inflation and the loss of value that comes with fiat currencies it is a good way to store value in a way that is somewhat off the radar. We are also looking into investing in land as well.  Anyone who reads this blog knows I have been investing in lead, brass and copper for a while.

4 – Cash

While it is a losing proposition to have cash in the bank (where it also at risk of being seized by a cash starved government), having funds readily available for emergencies is also and important safety net for financial disasters. It is also another way to save for retirement.

So, that’s our strategy. What are we missing? Any other suggestions?

Take care and God bless.