I’ve mentioned it before, but, man, that complacency thing….it’s tough to get past sometimes. You let your foot off the gas, you feel less of a sense of urgency, and then -wham- something happens that makes you wish you had stuck with things.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve sort of shifted my preparedness efforts towards getting the finances squared away now that 90% of everything else is within an acceptable level of readiness. But that financial stuff…thats the hardest to keep on track with. I mean, when you’re working on your food storage you can see those shelves getting fuller and fuller, you can see the gun safe getting fuller and fuller, that sort of thing. But getting your financial preparedness taken care of? Numbers on paper. You don’t really feel it because there’s no real visual metric other than numbers on a statement.
Of course, just because you don’t feel your financial preps getting squared away like you do your physical ones…well…thats no excuse no to do it, right?
My motivation has been focusing on the opportunities that will be afforded to me once I get things like the house paid off. Thats a rather large chunk of money every month that can now go to…whatever I want it to. Silver? Gold? Ammo? Roth? Vehicle? Land? Savings? Six hours with Jennifer Lawrence? Anything I want. But…to do that, I gotta get these stupid financial obligations taken care of.
The unsexy parts of survivalism suck, but they tend to be the most practical ones, it seems.
The financials are what’s going to bring us down. It’s pretty obvious “The Emperor has no clothes” and has been been for a long time. People just do not / can’t/ want to see this fact. Normalcy Bias I guess. Too many folks depend on the status quo for their existence. Admitting or thinking otherwise is beyond them and the system that’s sustained it for – what? Last 40 years has gotten really bad in this regard.
What’s coming IMHO isn’t Venezuela on a larger scale, it’s the Dark Ages x 100 following the fall of Rome updated with modern weapons, communications, transportation, technology, and ideologies. Another words, hold on to your visor cause this is going to get rough. I give it no more than 3-5 years till it all implodes and it goes South in a manner that no living human in the U.S. has ever seen.
I live within my means and hold debt only for specific reasons to leverage my income but I pay less attention to a couple thousand fiat dollars that need to be paid back over a few months or a mortgage as to trying to get the biggest bang for my buck converting essentially worthless paper into the things I need / will need/ won’t be able to get in a worst case scenario.
The system isn’t going to last long enough to reach Nirvana prep wise. It just has to last long enough for those who care to be able to reach a state where you have a reasonable chance to survive what’s in store for most of the sheeple… However, whatever system arises, you’re always going to have to figure out how to pay the taxes that any system will levy on you.
Believe it or not, I’m the “pray for the best, prepare for the worst type” but after a career in the military seeing just what people are capable of doing to others, let’s just say I temper my optimism with a healthy dose of “God helps those who help themselves…” God, Guts, and Guns…
Best Regards.
Very to the point on the finance part. Especially being as it sometimes turns out that once you get two steps forward, something unexpected comes up and you are back to where you were. Even though it might feel like a real downer, the fact is that in that situation you are actually ahead of where you would have been if you weren’t trying to get ahead in the first place.
Even with the materiel…once you get a qty of 1 of whatever widget you are trying to stock up on, it can seem as if you barely moved an inch as all you can see is the 50 more you want to have stocked.
It really takes some deep breaths and setting small goals so that you can not just be making progress, but actually measure it in small victories.
Thanks for the posts. Good reading
I agree with the 2 steps forward and one back. I have an account I call my Ah S**t account. It ususally has $2500 in it. It currently is $300. CO-pay for dental work, home and car repairs, this month have brought it down. It usually takes me 6 months to fill it and 8 months to have it empties again. But, that’s what it’s there for.
Debt is our current major prep focus. I agree that it is hard to watch it slowly shrink, because almost any event will cause it to go up radiacally. It takes faith that you plan is working, and follow through.
I went through what you are going through now, and when (not if) you get debt free you will find that suddenly you have a lot more options. After paying everything off and getting the beans, bullets and band aids squared away, I chose the option of living my life for me. Yes, when everything was paid off I could have had a big fishing boat or a thirty-foot trailer with an F-150 to tow it, but instead I went Galt three years ago. I took an early retirement and didn’t look back.
Now I’m not saying everything is a bed of roses, but I work at doing things I want to do not following orders from some punk ass kid half my age. Yes, the unsexy parts of being a survivalist sure do suck but you ignore them at your own peril.
Yeah, numbers aren’t sexy at all. But they do help keep the bills getting paid and buying fun stuff so there is that.
Mebbe a small bitcoin account ? From what I understand, transferable the world over. You don’t travel with the money, just the information to later retrieve from your account wherever you land. You will need a place to access it, but way easier than getting on a plane with a suitcase full of loot.
Good luck with your choice.
Roughly 18yrs ago I was in a whole lot of debt and looking at a possible bankruptcy. The reasons will remain private. However I got out of it with some help from a bank loan and some personal financial discipline. Now I have been debt free for ten years and plan my finances based on needs not wants. Keeping up with the Jones’ is not where we need to be. Having monies available to plan with makes life a tad easier, no debt equals financial freedom.
A couple years ago I might have been in the group of “cash is dead, prepare for the worst”. I have a bit more hope that the Fed will be utterly defanged and the paper turned into true value. If not…at least you will own the house on paper, right? And that paper will need to be copied and stored in a number of places.
I am today regretting a lot of the wasted $’s of the last few years. But I chose to be ready for the worst case and, now that I feel it is moderated, am more willing to move back into the world of money will mean something again.
Apocalypse Scenario #253…………..
“Serenity”?
Help yourself by making a visual reminder,make a chart that looks like a thermometer that fills in from the bottom to the top and post it either where you see it every day or when you pay the bills(depending on your need of motivation). As you make progress on your goal it gives a visual motivator to keep you focused.
I have been debt free for a decade and the freedom and emotional wellbeing may have added years to my life.