,Rawles’ latest book was on sale at CostCo. I suspect that given the Current Situation the book will sell pretty briskly.
Prescience
Man, I have a talent for understatement. Historically, years divisible by five have been really bad ones for me. While 2020 has (so far) been annoying on a bunch of levels I like to think I have (thus far) weathered it better than many folks. ‘Course, the year ain’t over yet….
Paratus approaches!!
Two weeks from today (Sept. 18, 2020) is Paratus! The holiday of, for, and by survivalists.
Everything you wanted to know about Paratus is here in the glorious Paratus FAQ.
Got a business that’s running a Paratus sale? Lemme know and I’ll post a link. Let’s drive some traffic and get this holiday off the ground!
As for me, well…..I’m easy to shop for. Which reminds me, if you’ve signed up to support the blog on Patreon, send me an email with the email address you used to sign up and your mailing address if you would like to receive one of this year’s Paratus cards.
SureFire CR123 clearance
Taken from the Reddit Gundeals community.
Looks like Lowes is closing out SureFire branded CR123. Someone beat me to the punch but I still managed to get a buncha 2-packs for $1.89.
Check your local Lowes and hope youre the first one to read this.
Burn jel
As I mentioned previously, I ordered up some burn jel. Arrived:
The bottle and dressings will go in the big first aid kit, the smaller single use ‘ketchup packets’ will get distributed across the various small first aid kits.
This stuff is awesome for those (somewhat) minor burns. When you’ve got the kind ofburn that gives you an ache right down to the bone, this stuff really seems to put a damper on it. As I’ve mentioned, I once burned my hand so bad that the only way I could sleep was clutching a cold, wet washcloth or a bag of ice. This stuff, though, took the pain away so I could finally sleep.
Good product and I heartily recommend it. Skip a couple lattes today, spend the money at Amazon, and get some of this stuff. Next time you grab the wrong part of your Dutch oven, try to pick up a hot lawnmower by the exhaust, or parboil yourself by opening the wrong end of the lid on your pressure cooker you will be so glad you have this stuff.
Countdown to November
The election is almost two months away. Ah, how it seems like only yesterday we were watching Hillary admit that, once again, her ‘turn’ would be denied to her…again. Good times, good times.
You know, one of the things we used to pride ourselves on as a nation was that, unlike many other countries, when our government changed hands it was usually not accompanied by civil disturbances and gunfire. Funny how times change.
It’s a safe bet that no matter who wins, there’s going to be some ugliness. And, whoever doesn’t win will see their ‘side’ even more energized, galvanized, incentivized, and polarized than before.
Whats going to happen in two months and a couple days? Beats me. But I’d expect that there’s going to be a bit more of these ‘demonstrations’/’rallys’ where someone initiates a bullet party and the hand-wringing reaches epic levels.
Hats and bats. The latest in election year fashions.
This is about the point in the post where I’d say something like “Be ready for some sort of civil disorder”, “Get your magazines and AR lowers now”, or “Be ready for the market to drop like a rock”. But, I’m not going to say that. Honestly, if you haven’t come to those conclusions on your own by now you probably deserve whats going to happen to you. The greatest likelihood is that there will be a few ‘demonstrations’ cough*riots*cough with a few severe beatings and deaths, the market will yo-yo a bit, and you still won’t be able to buy .223 with a handful of hundred dollar bills. That’s the likely outcome. But, as survivalists, we try to prepare for the alternative outcomes. Only you know what you need to do between now and November; go out and do it.
Vehicle stuff
As I mentioned earlier, one of my regrets is that I didn’t take my FAK with me on my trip to Venus Jr. I was wondering if, in fact, I had in that FAK the items I would have needed for that particular episode…specifically, a non-adhesive dressing of some type, some rolled gauze, and some tape. Turns out, yes, I had all that in there. Cool. But then I figured I better double-check what might be lacking. As it turns out, I seem to have never gotten around to distributing burn jel into that particular kit. So, off to Amazon for Burn Jel…both the ‘ketchup packets’ of the stuff, individual dressings, and a bottle of the stuff. I’ve used this product in the past for some kitchen accidents and it works wonderfully. In fact, I’ve had some burns bad enough to keep me awake at night and this stuff has made it so I can sleep.
This little episode of gear-inspection was also driven by the need for me to review, update, replenish, and re-gear my in-vehicle supplies. In the winter I try to keep a big ol’ Pelican case of winter survival gear in the vehicle ‘just in case’. But, during the summer-ish times there’s not as much need for that much bulk and mass taking up space. Since the summer stuff doesn’t require as much bulky clothing and sleepgear as winter, I use a medium size pack. Its the well-made and highly-recommended SpecOps Brand Recon Ruck. Don’t let that MSRP fool you, they can be had for a lot less. I think I got mine on sale somewhere for around $80..but, that was a while ago. Anyway, the nice thing about it is that it can be used as a non-frame pack (like a Med. ALICE pack) but can also be used in conjunction with an ALICE frame, which are pretty ubiquitous and affordable. Yeah, the ALICE was supplanted by the MOLLE packs but this isn’t for humping the boonies, its for just keeping my gear in one place. Anyway, highly recommend.
The only real difference between the winter and summer gear is, as I said, bulky sleeping gear and extra clothing. I don’t carry extra water because SOP is to have a 5-gallon jerry can of the stuff on hand.
I live in one of the more densely populated parts of Montana, so sitting on a road somewhere and not seeing a soul for days at a time is fairly unheard of. However, I don’t plan to never stray from this part of Montana. Sometimes I like to go to gun shows in far and distant lands..like Kalispell, Butte, Helena, Billings, etc. And then there’s a much greater possibility that a vehicle issue might put you in a position to twiddle your thumbs for quite a while. But, between the standard vehicle gear and my Bag O’ Tricks, I like my odds.
And, of course, no matter the season the prevailing wisdom is Stay With The Vehicle. Or Else.
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If you find this entertaining, please consider ….
By request: financial stuff
From a comment:
A post on financial preps would be interesting. 401(k) vs IRS vs Mutual Funds vs Whole Life Ins vs Individual Stocks vs REITs vs etc. etc. Go it alone vs use a broker, etc.
This isn’t a financial blog, and my education on finance is very limited, but someone asked me what my investment strategy is. It’s stupid simple, it’s probably wrong or inefficient, but…. this:
I buy mutual funds that have been around for at least 15-20 years (preferably longer) and have a history of average annual returns of at least 12% or greater.
Thats it.
Depending on who you read, the market averages 10-12% a year. If you just want to get that without doing any homework, go buy index funds…it’s a fire-and-forget turnkey way to get into the market. I’ve a few of them too. I’d like to beat the average because I want as much return as possible, so I buy funds that have a (long) history of beating that 12%. I don’t buy bonds, I don’t (usually) buy single stocks (except just for the fun of owning some Ruger or CocaCola), and I don’t dabble in ETF’s or REIT’s. I’m doing well on the mutual funds, they spit out some occasional dividends, there’s usually a nice LT Cap Gains distribution, and I’m in this for the long haul. I buy and hold.
How’s it worked out? Right now I’m holding nine different mutual funds. The best one has returned 72.97% on what I’ve put in so far, the worst has done 2.46%. Across all nine funds, I’ve gotten a 39.73% return. For comparison, there isn’t a savings account, CD, or money market that will return more than 1.5%. Assuming 4% for inflation, just leaving your money in the bank, in money markets, in CDs, or pretty much anything else is a losing proposition as inflation eats away your buying power.
“But Zero, what if the stock market crashes?”
Then I buy more. Because then everything is on sale. If you dumped everything back in March because you panicked, you would have missed out on the tremendous gains that followed. Ride it out. When the market crashed in 2008, if you had just ignored that and let it sit there you would have several times over your money. Ride it out.
And if the market crashes to zero never to recover? Thats where the silver, gold, and disposable handguns come in. I don’t put all my financial eggs in one basket.
No doubt someone with a lot more education than I will say “But you should….” and they might be right. And I may investigate that avenue. But for my limited understanding of the market, and my limited resources, and my rather high risk aversion, I think I’ve found a system that works for me. And, as you may have noticed, this is pretty much the Dave Ramsey school of investment: growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international mutual funds equally split.So far, it’s worked for me.
Whole life vs. Term? Get term.
Roth v. 401(k)? I like Roth. I like the notion of getting the taxes out of the way upfront and letting the growth be tax free.
Broker vs solo? I go solo but a broker would probably be smarter.
Learn how to use a TVM calculator. Just that one skill, and using it when you start thinking about money (saving, investing, borrowing, etc) will probably do more for you than a dozen self-help books on finance. How fast can I pay off my house if I add another $100 to each payment? TVM calculator. If the market is returning 10% on average, how much do I need to invest per month to have a million bucks in twenty years? TVM calculator. I wanna buy this $15000 truck and I need to borrow $5000 at 4%. What would my payment be to pay it off in a year? In nine months? In six months? TVM calculator. Its five minutes to learn and it’ll be among the most valuable five minutes you’ll ever spend.
The question said ‘financial preps’. Here’s what I do: money in investments, money in cash, money in metals and guns. Pay off the house. Carry no debt. Live within your means. Budget wisely and purposefully (actually do a budget!). Always put money in the bank before you do anything else with income. Have an emergency fund of at least six months of living expenses. Use the 4S rubric on purchases or other financial activity. Have multiple sources of income (a rental, a side business, a pension, etc). That’s how I try to live my life. I’m not 100% where I want to be financially (yet) but I’m leagues ahead of many people. 2020 has been a dumpster fire for many people financially, for me it’s been barely a hiccup. Not because I’m bulletproof financially, but I’m a lot more resilient than at least half the population and I’m working towards bulletproof every day.
So..there you go. You ask, I answered. Thats what I’m doing for me, and for me it’s working. YMMV.
The dream is always the same
A masochist is what I am. I know that eating anything spicy before bed is going to give me weird dreams and, like an undisciplined idiot, I do it anyway.
First dream was me getting into some sort of car wreck, which, in the dream, I had a moment of lucidity and realized ‘hey, maybe this is just a dream’ and forced myself to wake up. Looked at the clock – 2:25am. Gonna be a long night.
Next up…I’m at the shop, its dusk, and I’m standing in the parking lot loading a vehicle. Suddenly everything dies. The person helping me looks around and says “EMP”. We hustle down to the basement and there’s a television that’s still working. All the channels are showing the same emergency message about a nuclear detonation. All I can think is that I need to get back to my house and that I’m glad I had stocked up heavily early this year…but is it enough? Unlike many dreams I have like this, this one actually induced a feeling of fear and realism that I don’t normally get in these dreams. All in all, not a pleasant dream.
You know how when you cut off the head of a chicken the body runs around for a while or flops all over the place? The reasoning is that by detaching the brain, all those reflexes, muscles, and responses are now uncontrolled and they can suddenly run loose. I think dreams are like that….when your conscious mind goes to sleep there’s nothing to regulate the rest of your brain and you wind up with dreams about whatever you’ve been processing lately. But, I also think that dreams are the result of numerous minute observations and inputs we receive but unconsciously ignore during the day. Thats where that ‘sixth sense’ comes from… that feeling that something is awry. You unconsciously notice little details about things and your brain puts them together without you even being aware of it. Some of that goes into your dreams.
Anyway, I’m open-minded enough to think that perhaps my brain picked up some details about the world around me and thinks they might point to something like that. So…make sure everything is in place, just in case.
This post brought to you by chicken and Spanish rice with salsa at 10:30pm.
Goal hitting
As I’ve mentioned a time or twenty, as of late I’ve adopted a three-pronged approach towards money – Some goes into cash, some goes into metals, and some goes into the market.
Cash, obviously, does absolutely nothing but slowly erode in value against inflation. But…thats the price I pay for the security of having actual cash on hand. I’m okay with that. A fat envelope of cash sitting in the safe is the hot asphalt that fills in the occasional pothole on the road of life.
The metals have been doing okay, but I’ve slowed down on them a tad because I think there’s a slump or drop in the pricing coming up. Frankly, despite what everyone pontificates about gold:silver ratios and whatnot, I think silver is a bit high and will come down to the low twenties or lower. It occurs to me I need to start setting goals for how much physical metal I want to keep around. I need to get that in the spreadsheet.
And, finally, the market…which has pretty much recovered, for me anyway, to it’s pre Wuhan Flu levels. Actually, it’s gone way past that thanks to my decision to buy like crazy back in March and April when things were, basically, on sale. How’d that work out? Really well. In fact, I hit my 2020 goals (you do make goals, right?) for my Roth yesterday after the market closed.
Mind you, this is what I do with the money that’s left after all the usual stuff like bills, emergency funds, savings, groceries, and that sort of thing. This year was a mad dash to fill some holes in the Preponomicom but once that’s (mostly) done I can focus on the other stuff like putting away the universe’s ultimate multi-tool – money.
What’s that got to do with preparedness? Being prepared means also being prepared for the world not to end. Or, being prepared for the years (or decades) that come before the end of the world. The world could end tomorrow or it could end in 2040…and if it ends in 2040 you have twenty years ahead of you of bills, car repairs, mortgages, taxes, and retirement.
Planning for the end of the world should also include planning for the continuance of the world.
