Hurricane Sandy

on October 31, 2012 at 4:13 am
Posted In: Prepping

Hurricane Sandy

First, let’s remember to pray for those who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy.If you have the means to help, Samaritans Purse has been involved in disaster relief for several years and maintains one of the lowest percentages of overhead costs of any relief organization. Samaritan’s Purse is led by Franklin Graham, the son of the great evangelist, Billy Graham. They were here in South Florida shortly after Hurricane Wilma passed through a few years ago. They were also one of the first relief agencies to provide help in Joplin, Missouri after the tornadoes and in  New Orleans after Katrina. They have already mobilized three relief units that left North Carolina on Tuesday . To donate, volunteer, or read more you can go to their website at Samaritan’s Purse.org.

Fires destroyed 80 homes in NY.

Unless you have been under a rock, you have seen the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. At the time of this writing, the death toll was 55 lives lost. Hurricane Sandy brought massive property damage from flooding, high winds and more than 80 homes were lost from fires started by downed power lines. 8 million people or 2.5% of the population of America are without power.

NYC is dark without electricity.

Here are a few lessons we can take away even at the early stages of the aftermath. We are seeing first responders that are having to risk there lives to rescue people who did not evacuate when they were told. If you are told to evacuate and you chose not to, you are putting your own life at risk as well as the lives of those who have to attempt a rescue. It is selfish and irresponsible. Many people claim to not have the funds to evacuate. That is why Prepper Recon.com recommends having $1,ooo emergency fund as your first step in prepping. That is enough to get a ticket out of town and a cheap motel and meals for a few days.

The last minute is the worst time to become a prepper.

Most people didn’t even have the minimum 3 days of food and water recommended by FEMA. 3 days is far too little. 1 month of food and water is a good starting point. As millions of people tried to prepare for Hurricane Sandy, we got a chance to see how “Just In Time” inventory systems fail at periods of abnormal demand. In many areas, it will be more than a week before shelves are restocked. I hope we don’t see the types of chaos that we saw post Katrina. It is too early to tell.

Hurricane Sandy

Shelves were stripped the day before Hurricane Sandy.

Perhaps Hurricane Sandy will wake up more people to be better prepared in the future. If you have decided to get more serious about prepping  and would like to know how to get started, read our 7 Step Preparedness Plan. It will help you to build a foundation in readiness.

Have a blessed day and happy prepping!

1 Comment

Jim Rogers Sounds Alarm On US Treasuries

on October 29, 2012 at 3:21 am
Posted In: Economy

Jim Rogers Sounds Alarm On US Treasuries

jim rogers

In this interview with Capitol Account, Jim Rogers sounds the alarm on US Treasuries. Jim rogers points out that the US is the biggest debtor nation in the history of the world. Jim Rogers has been a very successful investor by spotting market trends. He has recommended purchasing hard assets and particularly farmland and timberland for the past several months.

At Prepper Recon, we agree with Jim Rogers and also believe that US Treasuries are in a bubble due to their real negative yield. The nominal yield on 30 year Treasuries are around 3% at the time of writing and the interest rate is closer to 6% after we strip away all of the government manipulation and stimulus money according to Shadowstats.com. That leaves the real yield of a 30 year Treasury at -2.5%. The bond market will not put up with this for long. They have been willing to accept the negative real yield because the dollar has had such an outstanding reputation of being a safe haven asset, but those days are drawing to a close. Once the confidence in the dollar cracks, the bond bubble will deflate rapidly. Those who are positioned to take advantage of this event will profit greatly. There are several inverse Treasury ETFs that can allow an investor to take advantage of the popping of the treasury bubble. Before deciding to use any investment vehicles, I recommend reading up on how they work as it is beyond the scope of this article. TYNS is a non-leveraged inverse or short ETF of 7 to 10 yr US Treasuries. TYBS is a non-leveraged inverse or short ETF of 20- 30 yr Treasuries. They are  designed to gain value at the same rate Treasuries of the same maturity lose value. 3x leveraged short ETFs include TYO for 7 to 10 yr and TMV for 20 to 30 yr Treasuries. They are  designed to gain value at 3 times the rate Treasuries of the same maturity lose value. Of course the opposite is also true. They can also lose value at 3 times the rate that Treasuries gain value. Investing is inherently risky by nature. Leveraged funds are even more risky. Be sure you understand them before investing.

As a disclaimer, I am not a financial adviser although I do hold a degree in Accounting and am currently studying for a degree in Finance. We do not hold any of the ETFs mentioned but do plan to purchase them once we see the bond market begin to show signs of popping. That could be next week, next year or ten years from now. I have been amazed at the willingness of the bond market to continue to accept negative yields from a borrower like the US who could never possibly repay all of her debt. While I do not recommend investment vehicles because every investor’s circumstance is different, I will let you know when we begin to step into the short Treasury funds that I mentioned.

Happy Prepping!

 

Comments Off on Jim Rogers Sounds Alarm On US Treasuries

Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Real Refuge

on October 28, 2012 at 3:46 am
Posted In: Bible

Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Real Refuge

refuge

Psalms 91

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

3 Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.

9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

Like many preppers, we are saving money for a bug out location. We see our society moving further and further away from God. As it does so, it becomes more corrupt and more evil. Our cities are  becoming less able to cope with the increase in crime and violence. I pray often for God to guide my decisions and to open the right doors at the right time. Besides prayer, I look for guidance from him through the Bible. There are several scriptures that I believe confirm that we are in for a difficult future in America. The most obvious is Deuteronomy 28. Take time to read it this week. I will be posting a study on it in the near future.

I think God’s word urges us to be prudent and to provide for the safety and security of our families. This is the reason I think it is prudent to save up for a retreat.  At the same time, I know the Bible tells us we can trust God to provide for our safety. It is impossible for us to live lives that are completely free of any threat. We will never be able to prep to the point of immunity to all disasters. That is why we do our best and trust God for the rest.  Psalms 91 says “I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”’ God is the ultimate refuge that is always there for us.

Some preppers find themselves getting anxious about the future. The Bible gives them the remedy for that anxiety in Psalms 91. Verse 1 predicates peace with the requirement of dwelling in the shelter of the Most High. Those who have the peace to rest in the shadow of the Almighty, are dwelling in the shelter of the Most High. One definition of “dwell” is to live as a resident, the other definition is to fasten one’s attention. If you are constantly dwelling on the problems that may come in the future, you may find you don’t have much peace. Dedicating some part of each day to dwell on the Bible will give you enormous peace. I start every morning with a chapter or two of the Bible and usually listen to pastor Chuck Smith as I am falling asleep at night. Pastor Chuck’s teachings of the entire Bible are available to download free in mp3 format at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa’s  website, The Word For Today.com

Have a blessed day, thanks for reading and happy prepping!

Comments Off on Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Real Refuge

Obama Care and the Coming Unemployment Crisis

on October 26, 2012 at 2:31 am
Posted In: Economy, Potential Threats

Obama Care and the Coming Unemployment Crisis

obama care

This post is a supplemental post to our previous post Financial Collapse – Threat Assessment Part 3: Obama Care. Please take time to read it if you have not  already done so. We are going to look a little closer at the numbers and how decisions by major  restaurant chains will affect unemployment and the broader economy in the future.

In our previous Obama Care post, we spoke of the decision by Darden Restaurants to cut most full time positions to 28 hours per week maximum. As it now stands, the provision in Obama Care that will force employers to provide health care for employees only applies to employees who work an average of 30 hours or more. This part of Obama Care goes into effect in 2014 and will be mandatory for all businesses with 50 of more employees.

The decision by Darden which includes several restaurant chains like Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze, Capitol Grille and Longhorn Steak House is out more than a year in advance of the Obama Care provision. It is also being considered by White Castle, a fast food restaurant chain. I expect several other restaurants to follow Darden’s lead.  Not only restaurants, it seems logical to think department stores like Target and Wal-Mart as well as most large hotel chains will look at similar cost saving moves.

Let’s look at the numbers.

Part of the sorcery in employment numbers can be found in the definitions. When you see employment number released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the first Friday of every month, this number is the U3 number.  U3 includes people who are completely unemployed and are still looking for work. Once people give up looking for work, they become “discouraged workers”. At this point they fall into the U4 and above categories for one year. After one year of not looking for work, they become “marginally attached to the labor force” and are then only included in the U5 and U6 numbers. U6, our final category includes everyone in the previous categories plus those who are working part time because they cannot find full time work. This number is probably the best indicator of the state of the economy. Each consecutive number gets lager as it includes a broader definition of unemployed. You can view all of the U1 to U6 numbers and the definitions on the BLS website.

Currently, the U3 number is 7.8%. That number does not look quite as scary as the U6 number which is 14.7%. Remember, 70% of our GDP is consumer spending. If we are honest with ourselves and admit unemployment is 14.7%, fear and panic will cause people to cut their spending. This will trigger a deeper recession than what we are currently experiencing. By reporting the U3 number instead, the sheeple get their monthly dose of hopium to make them feel better. This false sense of security facilitates the can kicking and delays our day of reckoning.

Let’s look at the following chart from the BLS to estimate the impact of Obama Care on employment numbers if we only count the food service industry.

obama care

As we can see, the food service industry accounts for about 9% of total employment. The total US labor force is approximately 155 million workers. That comes out to 13.95 million service industry jobs. We’ll call it 14 million to make the math quicker. If all of these jobs went from 40 hours a week to 28 hours a week to avoid the Obama Care employer mandate, that is a total loss of 12 hours per job. Ironically, this will make 168 million available hours for new part time jobs. At 28 hours, that is a total of 6 million new jobs. That will reduce the U3 unemployment number by nearly 4%. All else being equal the reported number would be 3.8%. Obama would be heralded by the liberal media as a messiah like never before. The rest of the people in touch with reality would realize that the U6 number grew by the same percent. It would skyrocket to 18.7%. The 14 million who lost the 12 hours per week coupled with those 6 million who took the new 28 hour positions will barely scrape by. Nearly all of the total 20 million of these two groups will depend on the government to supply their health care due to no fault of their own. Add these  to the masses that are already dependent on the government and we will soon see how fast a socialist government  can run up debt and self destruct.

If other industries pick up on this idea to avoid Obama Care, the results will be much worse. This is a best case scenario. The worst case scenario has no limits.This election is about defeating Obama Care and hopefully buying ourselves a few more years to wake up more of our fellow Americans. If we don’t vote for Romney, the collapse will be here sooner than many of us will be able to prepare for. Even if you are hunkered down and ready for TEOTWAWKI, every day there are new brothers and sisters waking up and joining the prepper movement. Think of them when you cast your vote. A few more years can make a huge differences in the amount of preppers who survive to help us rebuild. Dr Paul is retiring this year, but his ideas are not. If you have not read ” The Revolution” by Ron Paul, I encourage you to pick up a copy and pass it on when you are done. If we can bite the bullet and choose the lesser of two evils this time around, perhaps we will have a better choice in 2016.

Happy Prepping!

 

 

 

 

 

1 Comment

Resilience- Part 2- Financial Resilience

on October 24, 2012 at 2:44 am
Posted In: Prepping

Resilience- Part 2- Financial Resilience

 

Resilience: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.

Resilience is an essential aspect of preparedness. In this series of posts, we will discuss three different layers of resilience. We have covered  personal resilience, which is your  mental and physical ability to cope with adverse circumstances. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, here is the link to Personal Resilience. There is also financial resilience, which we cover in this post. Finally there is basic resource resilience. This envelopes all of your basic resources such as food, shelter, and water.

The foundation of financial resilience is a budget. It is nothing to be afraid of, it is simply any means you would like to use to track how much money is coming in and how much is going out. Once you know that, you can figure out your priorities and make adjustments. First, list all of your bills and grocery spending for the month. These items are your non-discretionary spending. Then list all of your shopping and entertainment spending. Most of this is discretionary spending and this is usually the easiest place to find ways to cut spending.

Now, let’s set some savings goals. Do you want to buy a house or pay off your mortgage early? Are you saving for retirement? There are only two other options to planning for retirement. One is working until you die and the other is dying early. We have some links to some very good budgeting forms on our Economy and Finance links. Dave Ramsey has an online budgeting form as well as free printable budget forms to get you started.

Once you get a budget going, you can start to look at ways to cut spending and increase savings.  Let’s say you can cut your spending by 20%. That 20% can go directly into savings. This builds financial resilience into your budget. The money saved is there to bail you out of unforeseen events without taking on more debt. You will also grow accustomed to living on 20% less. If your income is cut for any reason, the impact to your standard of living will be less. If you took a 20% pay cut due to cuts at your job, you may no longer be able to save the 20% you were saving before, but you would not have to cut your standard of living. You will still be living within your means because you had voluntarily cut that spending from you budget  previous to the pay cut.

One big budget buster is entertainment. Cable and satellite TV companies are always trying to get you to upgrade to a more expensive package.  How much could you save by getting the minimum package? Groceries are another budget buster. Stocking up when items are on sale is a great way to build resilience. You can also put coupons on the sale items to save even more. You will spend less and build a stockpile for emergencies. Our Coupon Corner has great tips on couponing as well as links to several coupon sites.

Our  nation’s biggest threats are financial, so financial resilience is the best way to prepare yourself and you family. Living below your means will actually increase the quality of life even if you reduce your standard of living. You will  have more peace and be better prepared for economic crisis on a personal or global level. If you have not read our 7 Step Preparedness Plan, I encourage you to do so. You will find much more information on financial resilience in step 1 “Budget” and step  6 “Bonds”.

Happy Prepping!

 

2 Comments

New James Wesley Rawles Interview

on October 22, 2012 at 2:24 pm
Posted In: Prepping

New James Wesley Rawles Interview

I know we just had an interview posted with James Wesley Rawles, but this one is very informative. His new book, Founders, was released on September 25th and he has come out of hibernation to talk about it. The book  chronicles the lives of several different  groups and individuals who endure the coming economic crash. I am a big fan of the books and always interested to hear what James Wesley Rawles has to say. It may be a year or so before he reemerges on the interview circuit, so let’s learn what we can from one of the most respected preppers around.

James Wesley Rawles is a former army intelligence officer as well as an accomplished author. He has written How to Survive The End of The World as We Know It, which is exactly what it sounds like. In addition to Founders, he has also written 2 other fiction books on the coming collapse; Patriots  and  Survivors.  James Wesley Rawles is also the creator of Survival Blog.com.

In this interview from Time Monk Radio, Rawles talks about the potential threats to our society and the possibility of a total collapse. He reminds us of the complete dependance on the grid and public water in major metropolitan areas. He points out that third world countries are much more resilient as they have to survive with much less assistance from the grid.Rawles suggests that a total collapse could cause a massive die of that could take out between 40% and 90% of the population.

He speaks briefly about the amount of people who are dependent on antidepressants and the hard withdraw they will go through in a collapse where their medication may not be readily available.

We have links to 2 of  James Wesley Rawles books from Amazon on the right side bar of this page, including Founders, which was just released on September 25th. If you are new to prepping of new to Prepper Recon.com, please read our 7 Step Preparedness Plan to get ready for the tough times ahead.

Happy Prepping!

4 Comments

Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Proverbs 22:3

on October 21, 2012 at 4:05 am
Posted In: Bible, Prepping

Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Proverbs 22:3

Proverbs 22:3 says:  “A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” This proverb is a favorite Bible verse of many preppers as it envelopes the  prepper mentality. I believe God has blessed us with the ability to think. With that blessing comes a responsibility. That responsibility is to assess our environment and take the appropriate actions to make the most with the circumstances we have been given. That is all that can be expected of anyone.

Bible

 

The Bible says the prudent man sees danger. To see danger we expect that the prudent man must be on watch at all times. He is not overly consumed with football or Keeping Up With the Kardashians. He is paying attention to  his economic environment and his political environment so he can make the most informed decisions for his family’s well being.

The Bible goes on to say he takes refuge after he sees the danger. Once you have figured out that there is a threat, some action steps are required of you. If there is a tornado warning, you need to find shelter, if it is an economic event, you need to cut spending and start saving. If you see the threat of a breakdown in society or simply an uptick in crime, you need to take steps to defend your family from harm.

As with many verses in Proverbs, the wisdom of the prudent is contrasted with the stupidity of the fool. The proverb says “the simple keep going and suffer for it.” I think we can classify the simple into two different groups. Those that see the danger and those who don’t. I am appalled at the number of people I have contact with that actually see the threats that our economy is facing, yet choose to do nothing. They seem to know that a day of reckoning is coming, yet go on spending and living it up. Their priorities are new flat screen TVs, new cars and new i Phones rather than paying down debt, security and food storage. The just keep going and as The Bible says, they will suffer for it.

The second group seems oblivious to the problems. They pay very little attention to their environment and live in a fantasy land. These are the people who can’t tell you the difference in GDP and National Debt. They don’t know who their Congressman is nor do they know why  the Revolutionary War was fought. But, they can tell you who was drafted to what team last season and who won American Idol 2 years ago.

It is our job to try to wake them from their sleep. Give them some facts and figures when you talk to them. Try to get them thinking. Shows like Revolution and Doomsday Preppers may have little practical use, but they can be conversation starters about preparedness.  The more prepared people are, the easier it will be on everyone.

If you are new to prepping or would like to learn more about how to prepare for tomorrow, please read our 7 Step Preparedness Plan. Come back every Sunday for a new Prepper Bible Study! The most important prep of all is knowing GOD. Jesus said “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his own soul?” Prepper interpretation: What good will it do you to survive the coming economic collapse, nuclear war or even a zombie apocalypse if you don’t know you will go to heaven when you die. A recent study claims that 10 out of 10 people die! On that day we will meet our Maker. It only makes sense to be prepared for that day. Click here to learn more about knowing GOD.

Happy Prepping!

 

Comments Off on Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Proverbs 22:3

Resilience- Part 1- Personal Resilience

on October 19, 2012 at 3:33 am
Posted In: Prepping

Resilience

resilience

Resilience: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.

Resilience is an essential aspect of preparedness. When I think of something that is resilient,  I think of  of something that is hard to kill. That is what we try to build into our prepper plan. In this series of posts, we will discuss three different layers of resilience. There is  personal resilience, which is your  mental and physical ability to cope with adverse circumstances. There is financial resilience. Finally there is basic resource resilience. This envelopes all of your basic resources such as food, shelter, and water.

Personal Resilience

You are are your best survival tool.  You need to be able to depend on your body to get you out of harms way. You may also need it to procure food and water in a TEOTWAWKI situation. Looking overweight or weak can make you stand out as a target.  There is no need to start training for the Olympic swim team unless you have the 12 hours a day to dedicate to such an aspiration, but start doing what you can now to be healthy. This  includes trying to maintain a healthy body weight and developing muscle and cardiovascular endurance.

This doesn’t have to be hard. Eat reasonable portions and plan your meals. Cooking at home will develop a great skill as well as put you in control of the ingredients that are going into your meals. This is about finding healthy foods that you like.  For those of us who fight the scale, fad diets may take off the weight, but it always comes back. We have to make a lifestyle that is healthy and enjoyable. If you have the space, gardening will build resilience in all three areas. It will build personal resilience as you get some exercise planting, weeding and watering the garden. You will eat much higher quality food than you find in the grocery as well.  It will provide financial resilience as you save money on fresh produce you don’t have to buy.  It will also build basic resource resilience as you become able to produce even the smallest percentage of your own food.

Push yourself to get in or stay in shape. This is what ever you like to do. Walking, biking, running and swimming are all great cardiovascular activities. This will enhance your ability to survive the everyday work week by reducing stress as well as give you an advantage in a post-apocalyptic world. Strength training will help to make you more physically resilient as well. Stronger muscles make heavy tasks easier. They also work to support weak joints.

Work with your limitations; everybody can’t be a gold medalist. My personal limitation is arthritis in my knees and back. I can’t do extremely heavy lifting, but I work out with lighter weights 3 days a week. I find I have much less pain when I make the gym a priority. When I skip a few days in a row, everything starts to lock up. Running would kill my knees, but I am able to put in 30 minutes to an hour on an elliptical glider that gives me the same cardiovascular work out. Swimming is another great exercise for people with back pain or arthritis. Do what you can when you can. Because you can’t do everything doesn’t mean you can’t do anything.

According to the CDC, the top three causes of death are Heart Disease, Cancer, and Respiratory Disease, in that order. Heart disease can be greatly reduced by maintaining a healthy weight and exercising. Cancer may be the cause we have the least control over, but even it can be mitigated by a healthy lifestyle and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Respiratory Disease is primarily caused by smoking. This is a no brainier. I know it’s hard; I quit smoking myself.  But it is absolutely devastating to your health and your finances. It will also put severe limitations on your ability to move fast and far if the need should arise. If you smoke, quitting should be your number one priority in prepping. As with all addictions, it will be a lot easier to quit now than when it hit’s the fan. If we were to suffer a collapse, you will be operating in one of the most stressful situations of your life while you are unable to get a fix from your vice or vices of choice. Even if you are able to obtain your vice of choice, it will come at an extreme premium that will eat away at your resources much faster than it presently does. This jeopardizes everyone around you. Quitting your addictions will never be easier than today. It is the single best thing you can do to be more resilient.

Maintaining a positive attitude is essential to personal resilience. Your mind is what will keep you alive in tough situations. If you allow yourself to lose hope, you won’t survive a tough situation. Being connected to GOD will give you hope. Knowing the Creator of the universe is helping you through it will give you great peace in hard times. Getting connected to GOD is as easy as reading The Bible or praying. Our Prepper Links page has studies from the entire Bible on mp3 for free downloads.

We can train our minds to be more resourceful.When things break around the house, see if you can fix it yourself before you call the repair man. Some things aren’t as complicated as they look. While learning to DIY, you will train your mind to be more resourceful as well as save a few bucks and build your skill set. Our friends George and GA over at Survive2balive recently posted an article on the Art of Scrounging. It speaks about seeing value in things we often take for granted. For example, I try to find old decking on bulk trash day to use for the walls of my garden beds and compost bin. This saves money in the present and trains your mind to look for uses of otherwise discarded objects.

More than anything, resilience is an attitude. It is an attitude that is always looking to do more with less; an attitude that is always learning and staying positive. By being resourceful in the good times, you build a skill set that will be there for you in the hard times. By living below your means, you have already trained yourself to live on less in times of scarcity. Resilience is about doing what you can, when you can.

God bless you and happy prepping!

3 Comments

Chris Martenson- The Crash Course

on October 17, 2012 at 3:52 am
Posted In: Economy, Potential Threats

Chris Martenson- The Crash Course

Dr Chris Martenson is the Host and producer of Peak Prosperity.com.  Peak Prosperity features experts from the worlds of energy, finance and resources. They discuss the potential threats that we face in the near future. The free downloadable weekly podcasts are available under the Featured Voices section of the website as well as  a direct link from Prepper Recon.com under Prepper Links.

The following video is Chris Martenson delivering a very condensed version of  “The Crash Course”. It is about 38 minutes long and covers possible causes  of an economic collapse in the near term future. He speaks briefly about environmental issues and difficulties involved with peak oil. The majority of his presentation is geared towards critical economic instabilities that will trigger the coming collapse. Chris Martenson gives a very direct presentation  that could be understood by a 10 year old who has never heard the word “economics” before. Yet he still provides fresh information in such a way that everyone will learn something, no matter how well educated.

I think there is great value in this video as a tool to open the eyes of those you care about. It is a window to a world that will be very different from the world of the recent past. If you have a spouse or family member who has been reluctant to start prepping, this may be the simple presentation that will get them to start thinking about it. If you enjoy this condensed version of  The Crash Course,you can watch the Full 3 hour Crash Course. It is very informative and presented in a very easy to understand way.

Peak Prosperity is not your average prepper site. It is not so much how we prepare, but it provides some of the most compelling reasons to prep that I have ever heard. In preparedness, it is very important to know what you are preparing for in order to properly plan. The Crash Course explains the instabilities in the financial system and the political hurdles to overcoming those problems. It also discusses at length, issues we will face in the future with resource scarcity. Chris Martenson has a new podcast available each weekend and most of his old podcasts are available to download free.

Leave us some feedback and let us know what you thought about Chris Martenson’s Crash Course and let us know what your favorite prepper and finance podcasts are.

Have a blessed day and happy prepping!

Comments Off on Chris Martenson- The Crash Course

Bug Out Location as an Investment

on October 15, 2012 at 4:03 am
Posted In: Prepping

Bug Out Location as an Investment

If any of you listen to The Survival Podcast, or TSP for short, you are probably familiar with their mission. Jack Spirko, the man behind TSP says at the beginning of each show that he is trying to bring you a better life if times get tough or even if they don’t. I think this is such a smart approach to prepping. We try to work it into every aspect of our preps. We buy the same foods for our long term food storage that we eat every day. My wife is in charge of this area of our preps. She uses coupons in such a way that we spend less buy stocking up on sale items than if we were to just buy what we need, when we need it. You can learn more about couponing in Mrs. Recon’s Coupon Corner. The effect is we have a better life if times get tough or even if they don’t. We maintain a 6 month food supply for 2 people at a cost of $50 a week or less.

We are also applying this principle in shopping for our Bug Out Location. As we comb realtor.com for good deals on a secluded retreat, we consider how we can profit from the bug out location between the time we purchase it and the end of the world as we know it( teotwawki). We try to look for an area that we can have some livestock  and a descent size garden. We also look for a property with established woodlands. If the bug out location can serve as a vacation home, that provides a great value. Since we live near the beach, our favorite place to get away is the mountains. We will not live there full time for now, so we are looking for a property that has enough trees to produce a small income from timber sales.

Millionaire investor Jim Rogers has long advocated farming and farmland as the investment of the future. The developing world is eating more grain intensive meat. Each pound of beef requires about 6 pounds of grain to produce. This is causing an ever increasing strain on global food production. Jim Rogers predicts it will be the farmers who are driving the Lamborghinis in the near future. While this prediction may be a bit tongue in cheek, the point is farm land is a limited resource and we are not making any more of it.

In this video from The Daily Ticker on Yahoo, Lester Brown, author of the new book Full Planet, Empty Plate discusses why he thinks food is the new oil and land is the new gold. Not only can a bug out location provide you a means of providing for yourself in case of a systemic break down, it is also very likely to hold or gain value over the near term future.

 

 

Read our 7 Step  Preparedness Plan to help decide where on your list of priorities a bug out location will fall. Make sure you have your budget, beans and bullets squared away before considering a large purchase like a bug out location.

 

2 Comments