Y’know, it’s not easy to open up a new post in WordPress and come up with something worth writing. (This, of course, flatters myself because it presumes that stuff up to this point has been worth writing.) Yet, here we are….so, let’s see what vaguely surivival-oriented topic we can beat to a slow death today.
Since it’s a three day weekend for me, I have an extra day to try and get stuff done that I normally would not have a chance to get at during the week. So what am I doing, mostly just regular household chores. But, in the midst of all that I had a Zoom call with someone and we were discussing guns. I mentioned that, by and large, I’ve really hit the point where I don’t really need more guns. Oh, there’s stuff I want…no doubt. But if the apocalypse happened today? Yeah, I’d be orders of magnitude past ‘just fine’.
The interesting thing is, that didn’t happen on purpose. Oh, it did in the sense that I didn’t somehow pick up dozens of guns without knowing it. It just means that for most of my gun-acquiring years there was no real set plan. It was only a few years back that I came up with the Magic Number of what I wanted. By then it was a pretty simple thing to round off what I already had and pretty much close out the Must Have For TEOTWAWKI list.
Whats worth noting here is that up to a certain point, I was taking a very undisciplined approach towards gun buying…see gun, buy gun. Without a specific idea of what I wanted, how many I wanted, etc, there was no real goalpost to run towards. It wasnt until after I set a goal that I was able to achieve gun-nirvana and say “Ok, done.”
I know it sounds like self-improvement BS, but it really is true: if you want to actually achieve a goal you need to follow the criteria of how to set it. Just saying “I wanna …..” isn’t enough. Here’s a short description of how, ideally, you should set goals.
And, as it turns out, it’s true. I had some very loose financial goals and I never seemed to hit them. Starting in late 2019 I opened up a spreadsheet, marked off 12 columns with one month in each, and started keeping track of exactly how much I was trying to achieve and I was progressing at it. And…I hit all my yearly goals early. Way early. I’m not saying that to brag, I’m saying that because I found something that works for me and it may very well work for you if you’re having trouble hitting your goals.
Whether the goal is five AR’s in the safe by Christmas, six months of food in storage by Thanksgiving, or a new-to-you truck by next summer, try setting your goals in a more concrete manner as outlined above. Worst thing that happens is you don’t make progress any better than you are now.
As an aside, my goals at the moment are:
- Double my emergency fund by 12/31/22
- Double my HSA by 12/31/22
- Increase my Roth by 50% by 12/31/22 (mostly through active trading by yours truly)
- Double my silver stash by 12/31/22
- Have enough in my ‘Buy a piece of middle of nowhere’ fund by 12/31/22 to do just that
- Increase my work compensation by 25% by end of 2022
We shall see how it goes. The next couple years will be full of opportunity for savvy and bold people. Sad but true, opportunities come from bad times and other peoples bad fortune. :::shrug::: Circle of life, baby. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to take advantage of some things (the coming magazine bans, for example) to achieve my goals. We’ll see. In the meantime don’t just say what your goals are…get it into a spreadsheet or something, in a quantifiable and recordable manner, and start making incremental progress.
My gut says a crash is coming, when it does anyone with enough cash will be able to buy nice stuff cheap, including land.
Referencing your ‘magic 10’, what’s your favorite variant of 10/22? As the only guy left in ‘Murica who hasn’t bought one yet (shopping now), I’d love your informed opinion.
Honestly, just by the cheapest one you can find and then tweak it out as you see fit with aftermarket parts.
take down stainless steel
The Grail Gun.
Link to post on Grail Gun needed.
https://ruger.com/products/1022Takedown/specSheets/21182.html
Recently a house in the county was burglarized – and more than a quarter of a million dollars in firearms were taken. Sounds like a lot, but really it was just a handful of shotguns. My goal – more like a dream not a goal – should I come by a similar amount of discretionary money for firearms, would be to stock an armory for a small company of militia. That is, standardized long arms and pistols with magazines and ammo for 80 – 100 people. They would have to volunteer and train to be allowed to draw those arms.
This is a pattern followed in the first 100 years or so of this country. Wealthy patrons would organize and arm a militia unit that would then be provided to the military during times of conflict. — I can see it now: The Commander Zero Brigade.
Commander:
It comes down to the point of deciding what you expect your firearms/ ammo/ mags to do. You need (X) for your own use. You need (Y) as trade items and (Z) as local handout units.
VERY few people could equip a Company. Not many could afford to personally equip a Squad.
What is right for your circumstances?
Don’t think that resources are infinite.
Prioritize.
Hard – but necessary…
I love that you note the goal of increasing your income by 25%. So many plans focus on saving every penny you make to the point of eating sawdust in your meat but never think to try to increase the size of the pie you’re slicing. There are so many ways to make yourself more valuable if you’re willing to put in the work and not make excuses.
I identified my next promotion level required an advanced degree. You and I can argue whether an MBA makes us any more valuable but it doesn’t matter, the people hiring and paying a minimum of $20K more starting think it does. So I found an online program, dug up my old GI Bill info and found out my company would pay a certain amount as well, all total I paid $550 out of pocket for the MBA. Last month after 2 years of classes I graduated and 3 weeks before I had my diploma in hand I already had a job offer with that promotion.
Any one that thinks it must have been easier for me than it would be for them is making excuses. During that time I managed to be very involved in my toddler’s life, have a second kid (in fact I had to write a paper that was due WHILE IN THE DELIVERY ROOM), achieve new physical fitness goals, hold down my full time job, finally turn my side hustle profitable after 4 years, and still see friends and family.
What I didn’t have time for was laying in bed each morning feeling sorry for myself that I had to get up extra early or I wouldn’t be able to squeeze in the only time I could work out, watch Netflix for 2 hours before bed, or tell my wife to shoulder my share of the family responsibility load because I wanted to “veg out”.
Yeah, rather than bitch about having a ‘right’ to $15 and hour for sweeping floors, I went and made myself worth more than $15 an hour. And…I know make more than that. Go figure.
But, to be fair, there’s also a lot of truth to the old “It isn’t what you earn, it’s what you keep.”
One of the best points in Ramsey’s article was in the 2nd sentence. Setting goals is one thing, but remembering them is another. You must write the goals down somewhere where you can see them and be reminded of them all the time, at least several times every day. It’s easy to slack off on anything but with constant reminders it helpful to achieving the goals.
I’ll also add, write to goals down so that they are not broadcasting to anyone else. Believe it or not, not everyone wants you to succeed. Friends and family will innocently put stumbling blocks in your path is they know what your path is. Keep your friends close but keep your goals closer. I’m talking about personal goals, not goals shared with others like, say, you want to go on a yearly kayaking excursion with your wife. The kayaking goal should be shared with your wife so that she can strive for that goal too.