Tag Archives: money

Living on 55%

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Every month I have a budget that I use. It doesn’t really change from month to month in terms of who gets paid, but the amounts differ for some things. I pay the exact same amount for utilities every month, regardless of what the bill actually says, so i usually have a small credit balance with them. I like the predictability of knowing I’m paying the same thing every month. It makes planning a lot easier and builds up a little cushion in case things fly off the rails.

But…some things I pay a percentage, rather than a fixed amount. Every paycheck I put 10% into savings, 15% into my retirement, 5% into my HSA, 10% into my emergency fund, and 5% into my Piece O’ Nowhere fund. That means that 45% of my (after tax) paycheck is gone …whoosh!…before I even see the cash. Or, in other words, I’m living on 55% of what I make. And, trust me on this, I don’t make a lot. In fact, according to various sources on the interweb, I make well below the average median American income. Way below. So how can I live on 55% of my paycheck?

Well, it isn’t an existence of big-screens, $5 latte’s, new cars every four years, and trips abroad ‘because I deserve them’. I have a paid-for house, paid-for truck, no medical/student/creditcard debt, and I live within my means. I eat leftovers, I eat out once a week, I use the same computer for years at a time, I take the high deductibles on insurance, I shop around, and I am content with ‘good enough’ most of the time. The only luxuries I really indulge in are guns.

As a result of all this, I get to feel fairly secure. And it’s that feeling of security that makes it worth the effort. Althoguh, to be fair, after a while it doesn’t seem like an effort at all. I’ll walk through CostCo and, yeah, that 84″ high definition TV sure looks good…but then I ask myself which I would rather have when I break a leg or lose a job…the TV or the couple grand in cash? Then it becomes an easier choice and a small TV doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.

The economic craziness we’re in (thanks Joe!) is a lot easier to weather when you’ve got something set aside for just these sorts of emergencies. Can everyone do it? No…there are plenty of people who have come late to the financial responsibility party and are bringing in baggage….mortgages, car payments, student loan debt, etc. Its like starting a race with lead weights tied to your feet. But, you know what, even with lead weight tied to your feet you can still run faster than if you didnt try running at all.

I don’t like telling anyone what to do, youre a sovereign individual…you do you, buddy. But, I can only tell you what”s worked for me and you can decide if thats something that might work for you. I’ve been living on a budget, and not a very tight one, for almost twenty years and it’s made my life a lot easier than it would have been if I didn’t have it. You can go back in the blog and see where water heaters have puked and alternators have died and it never amounted to more than a minor hiccup in my life. Wasn’t always that way, I promise you.

I know, I know….this is a blog about preparedness, not personal finance. But the thing is, personal finance is part of preparedness. If youre the kinda guy (or gal) who keeps a spreadsheet of how much food, motor oil, and ammo they keep on hand then you shouldbe just as diligent about knowing where each dollar you make is going to go. Thats all a budget is…it’s a plan for what youre going to do with the resources you have. You make $3,000 per month? Write down how youre going to spend all $3,000 next month. Spend it all on paper until zero remains. Then stick to that budget as best you can. Next month, tweak it a bit. Next month, a bit more. Pretty soon you’ll know exactly what you need to allocate and where.

2023 promises to be no better than the last two years, so getting your ducks in a row regarding money…while you still have some….is probably not a terrible idea.

Goalkeeping

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My financial goals are usually pretty simple – increase amount of money in a particular account or fund by xx%. For 2022 my goal was to increase my emergency fund by 50%. I figured that might take me into the summer or late fall before I achieved that. But, 12000 rounds of .30-06 and .50 BMG later, I seem to have hit my goal 11 months early. Go me! So that frees up money I was allocating towards that goal to now be free to go to other things. Like what? Well, increase my HSA, gold, and silver stash by 50% also. And when that’s done, funnel every penny into getting that piece of land later this year. That’ll be the major accomplishment if I can pull that off.

If interest rates are indeed going up, then I am hoping that the real estate market will cool a bit and prices will come down to unreasonable from their current high of what-the-hell-are-you-thinking.

And, fortuitously, I got a raise at work so I can have a little more every paycheck to tuck away into things like gold and silver. I’d thought about keeping my emergency fund in gold to protect it from inflation but when you need your toilet back in working order right now, that is not the time to find out what plumber does and does not take 1/10 Eagles.

I know that financial stuff isn’t nearly a sexy and fun as gear-and-gun stuff. But…it’s gotta get done. Bunkers just don’t finance themselves. And 90% of the diasaters you and I are likely to face in the immediate future are resolved with fifty dollar bills rather than .50 BMG.

The War Budget

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Years ago, when things took a financial turn into the ditch, I figured I’d try living on a budget. It’s not as constraining as it sounds. You might think “But if I have to live on a budget how will I ever buy a gun?” Uhm…pretty easily, actually…you simply budget $xx each month for gun purchases. It’s not rocket science. My budget is, maybe, 20 items. And thats the budget I try to live on. Follow the plan and everything works out.

Financial resilience… simple, just not easy.

When I make my budget, obviously, I have a pretty good idea of what I need to purchase/spend each month. I know I need to put money away for property taxes, auto insurance, etc, etc. And my budget is predicated on bringing in a certain amount of money every month. Although you can write a budget without knowing how much you’ll have to work with, its a lot easier when you do know how much you’ll have to work with.

So, I have my usual budget. But, what if I lose my job? Or I can’t work? Or, for some reason, my income gets halved…or worse. Theres a plan for that. I call it The War Budget. It’s the budget for when belts need to be tightened, fat trimmed, and resources stretched as long as possible….without starving to death or becoming homeless.

I take my normal budget and start slashing through it… Cable, Spotify, entertainment, dining out, subscriptions, etc….all zeroed out. Grocery budget? Knock 25% off, at least…this is why we keep a lot of food on hand. Gasoline? We’re riding the bike more and traveling less. That sort of thing. It’s the budget that is used on what cash resources are left.

Of course, this means that you have to have something tucked away to fall back on ‘just in case’. After several years of living on a budget that includes setting aside money every month specifically for this sort of thing…I’ve got about six months of living expenses in cash. And, interestingly, another six months worth of living expense in gold and silver. Theoretically, I could have $0 income until this time next year and nothing would have to change. But, of course, I’d be an idiot to have no income and not trim my expenses. Thus…The War Budget. In the frenzied “OMG what am I going to do” mindset that follows when your boss says “Don’t take off your jacket”, the last thing you’re going to be able to do is think clearly enough to come up with a workable financial plan for how to make what you have last until you get back on your feet. This is why I plan the War Budget in advance. I can mope back to the house, flop into a chair disgustedly, have a nice pity party, and basically flip a switch and know how to spend money going forward.

Is it sexy? Is it exciting? No, of course not. But it’s what keeps me from having to carry an armful of beloved guns to a pawn shop three weeks later because the water, electric, and gas bill is due. It’s just another part of preparedness….no different than wargaming how you’re going to get out of your town and to your bugout location. Except this scenario might be a tad more likely to happen before the other one does.

At the moment, my job is pretty secure. But so what? For all I know the building may burn down tomorrow, the .gov may shut it down, the franchise may get bought out by corporate, the boss could get drunk and fire everyone…whatever. No job, even when you work for yourself, is truly secure. You. Just. Don’t. Know.

So, my suggestion, or recommendation, to you is that you might want to wargame a scenario where your income gets cut to $0 for a period of time. What will you continue to spend on? What will you stop spending on? What resources will you set aside for that contingency? It’s worth thinking about because sooner or later, you’re going to find yourself staring down the barrel of a job/revenue loss… especially nowadays. Go jump into Excel and write up your own War Budget. And here’s the most important thing: if youre willing to live on a budget in a time of crisis like that, then be willing to live on a budget when things aren’t in crisis…because that how you wind up being able to be ready for that crisis period.

When $50 bills are handier than .50 BMG

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Trying to be and a responsible adult. I wake up, shower, get dressed, get in the truck to go to work, turn the key annnnnnd…whirrrwhirrrwhirrr. Frak!

Ninety minutes late for work (on the second day of a new job!). And then there was the bill for dropping the fuel tank, pulling out the dead fuel pump, replacing it with a new one, and putting the whole mess back together.

Panic? Rage? Frustration? Nope. Barely even a blip on the heartrate monitor? Why? Because I’ve got a buttload of money sitting in an emergency fund for just this sort of thing. Gave the guy a buncha cash, got in my truck, drove away. No worrying about how I was gonna meet the rent, pay for groceries, keep the lights on, etc. Nope. Just give the man some money and be on my way.

Years ago it would have been a different story. I’d have been hadning over guns at the counter of a pawn shop or something. But, now? Not even a stressful thought.

Resilience. Brought to you by an emergency fund. I know I’ve said it before but it is so freaking true: you will need $50 bills more often  than .50 BMG. Prepare for the end of the world, sure…but also be prepared for the world to not end. And for that, there’s money.

My old self would be totally awed by my new(er) self. And probably want to borrow money from me.

A WTF moment from my finance adventures

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Yes, I dabble in the stock market. And I do okay at it. But I have literally no idea what the hell just happened here:

Did $54 worth of call suddenly jump up in value by $975 in one day? WTF? I mean, yeah, I pick a winner every once in a while but….

And, yes, I closed out that position.

Not sure why the call jumped like that, though. Ideas?

ETA: Glitch. It’s gotta be a glitch. The only way that call coulda jumped like that was if F suddenly discovered how to make a flying car.

Investments vs. wealth preservation

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First, some definitions –

conflate – combine (two or more texts, ideas, etc.) into one. Example: conflating clip and magazine when they clearly are not the same thing.

As I sometimes mention market investments, and then segue into things like metals and tangibles, people bring up ‘preserving wealth’. And then they go on to say that [xxxx] is a bad investment. Ya gotta keep in mind, investment is not the same as wealth preservaiton, broadly speaking.

I have $2000 cash in my hands. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that $2000 will buy me six months worth of groceries…or gasoline….or health insurance. As inflation works its erosive magic, the price of things go up. Next year, that $2000 buys me only five months of groceries, gas, or insurance. So, I need my $2000 to suddenly have the buying power of $2400, since it now takes $2400 to buy what $2000 bought last year. How can I do that?

Really, only one of two ways: either take the $2000 cash and ‘put it to work’ in such a way that in a year it is $2400. Investing is one way to do that. So is gambling. So is buying something for $2000 and trying to sell it for $2400 next year. Or buying something for $2000, renting it for $33 a month for a year, and then having $2000 and $400 worth of rental income. You get the idea. As inflation rises, you’ve gotta hit that blackjack table for higher and higher wins in order to purchase the same amount of goods as you did last year. Inflation is a sneaky bugger.

Plan B is to take the $2000 and turn it into something that will, very broadly speaking, always be worth what you paid for it across different currencies. Meaning: $2000 of gold today, buys what $2000 of cash will buy today next year. It ‘held its value’. There’s a very well-traveled (why doesn’t traveled have two L’s???) ‘fact’ about how a hundred years ago an ounce of gold would buy you [a new suit/a Colt pistol/etc.] and how an ounce of gold today would buy you those same things, thereby proving that gold ‘retains its value’ over time. I think there’s some truth to that, but it’s not a sure thing.

I invest in the market. When I want my money to make money, to grow, I go to the market. The market has never hit zero, and so far it has always bounced back from whatever the crisis du jour was. Does that mean it’ll never go to zero? Of course not. It just means that I have enough belief in the unlikeliness of a market-destroying event that I’m comfortable investing in it. However, I am not comfortable enough to put all my eggs in one basket. For some people, the idea of ‘letting it ride in the market’ is akin to betting it all on black at the roulette table. For some, their idea of investing is something like real estate or a vending machine business or something that puts their money (capital) in one place and it makes money by collecting rent or sales revenue. Thats great, and I do that too… but, honestly, I’d rather spend three hours a week on my keyboard with a brokerage wesbite than chase tenants and customers for money. But..suspenders-n-belt….I do both. I don’t buy gold/silver to increase a value, I buy it to retain a value…

I invest in the market, but I keep my critical money in in metals, property, tangibles, and some cash (even though the cash loses a bit to inflation I find it is pretty necessary to have a certain amount of liquidity in case things come up that require money in a hurry. I’m willing to expose some money to inflation by just having it sit in the bank for convenience.) As I’ve gotten older and more deliberate in financial matters, I know how much I need to keep inviolate and how much I can ‘play’ with and expose to various degrees of risk. If the market crashed to zero, today, right now, would it wipe me out? Nope. Would it hurt? Oh heck yeah. But I’d still have property, precious metals, food, guns, some cash, and, of course, mans basic survival tool. I’d take a hit alright, but I wouldn’t lose my lifestyle…I’d still have a house, hot water, a vehicle, electricity, and food. I wouldn’t have to start from zero.

I mention all of this because, as I said, it seems like when I drift into this topic many people conflate investing with wealth preservation. Investing adds to your purchase power, preserving keeps it at the current level. Big difference..especially in strategy and tactics.

Look, you will never, ever, ever go wrong by having ‘too much’ money. I hate to use that term because it implies that there is a ‘good’ amount of money to have and beyond that is simply ‘extra’. Thats the thinking of Bernie Sanders and his fellow travelers. But, broadly, when in doubt…add to your stack of cash/gold/property/investments.

I’m a cautious person, with some bad experiences, a fierce sense of self-preservation, a little bit of head-knowledge, and access to the internet….and it is my personal opinion that, yeah, we’re heading for inflation, maybe stagflation, and you can’t go wrong by being too ready for it. Weimar-esque inflation? Seems possible, of course, but I think it’s unlikely. I think what you’ll see is a drifting towards the economic situation we saw in the Carter years…maybe not a full-Carter economy, but certainly leaning towards it.

If I were a fixed-income type, living off pensions and that sort of thing, I’d probably very slowly start moving what I could towards inflation-resistant forms like metals while trying not to dip into principal to deeply. If reported inflation starts ticking up consistently I might want to think about accelerating things a bit. But thats me. You do you, man.

Anyway.. investments /= wealth preservation. The two are different enough that they call for different strategies and ways of thinking. Don’t conflate the two. Thats my inflation-adjusted $.02 worth.

ETA: If you want a dramatized but rather plausible (IMHO) of how inflation upsets your apple cart, pick up a copy of this book.

Classic wisdom from the movies

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Four minutes and forty-four seconds of perspective, philosophy, attitude and mindset that, in my opinion, is worth listening to. It’s called something else in this video, but what they’re really talking about is resilience.

Doesn’t matter if the economy is going gangbusters or if it’s swirling down the drain. Survivalism is resilience. How do we gain resilience from economic issues? By being where John Goodman says….you have  a solid car, a paid for house, money in the bank…thats your Fortress of Solitude. A good place to start.

But, as Goodman says, what you really want is to be in a position to say “F You” to…everything. To be able to have the freedom to not have to do something.

Inflation? I have a paid for house, a pile of cash, and gold. F you.
Food shortages? I’ve a basement full of food, a huge garden, chickens, and a pressure canner. F you.
Unemployment? I’ve no debt, money in the bank, and other revenue streams. F you.
Crime and violence? Me and my family are better armed than the local police. F you.

The position of F you is pretty much where you wanna be. How you get there…that’s up to you. Whats it worth to you to be able to just quit your job for six months and not have to change your lifestyle one bit? To be able to ride out a food/gas/power shortage? To have enough financial strength to weather pretty much anything? Is it worth giving up going out to lunch for a year? Quitting drinking and smoking? Driving the same crappy car for another two years? Working ten hours of overtime every week for the next year and a half? All up to you, man.

I’ve been increasing my levels of resilience over the last couple years and, if I stick to the plan, I should be at a pretty awesome level of F You in about three years or so. And then…the world can burn for all I care. Go get some F You.

For the end of the word, there’s 5.56mm…for everything else, there’s money.

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“I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor, and rich is better.” – Mae West

I’ve met a lot of survivalists over the years. All of them have their own flavor of apocalypse… war, plague, famine, pole shift, EMP, space invasion, religious events, comet strikes, economic issues, etc, etc. My personal belief is that the most likely event to send folks scrambling to their bunkers will be economic. You could probably make an argument that the Wuhan Flu has proven me wrong. I don’t think so… after all, one of the side effects of this pandemic has been a level of economic upheaval, hasn’t it?

I try to be prepared for most eventualities….power outages, blizzards, etc. But, for me, I believe that the small, personal, intimate EOTWAWKI events like a job loss, illness, unexpected expense, etc, will occur with a far, far higher level of likelihood than an EMP or Chinese invasion.

So, while I keep a buncha freezedrieds and ammo on hand, I have found that having financial resources has been a lifeline more often than parachute flares have. Or, as I’ve said before, I’ve needed $50 bills far more than I’ve needed .50 BMG.

I can’t tell you what I think a survivalist should do to cover their financial butt because everyone’s situation is difficult. YMMV. I don’t have a lot of money, nor do I make a lot of money, but what I do have is an exceptionally strong desire to not be hungry and houseless. So, my money goes into a few places –

  • Cash
  • Investments
  • Metals
  • Goods

I keep cash around because it’s basically duct tape – when the world isn’t coming to an end, cash (or money) is the ultimate multitool. It puts roofs on houses, fixes flat tires, paints living rooms, digs ditches, repairs cars, replaces hot water heaters, feeds kids, transports goods, etc. When civilization hasn’t hit the bottom, cash solves 99% of your problems.

I invest on a regular basis because cash loses value if you just let it sit there in an envelope in the gun safe. (Can’t get around it…some cash must be kept on hand, immediately accessible, and that means some exposure to inflation risk.) A thousand dollars next year will buy you less stuff than what a thousand dollars will buy you this year. Thats inflation workin’ it’s mojo. If you want your $1000 to be able to buy that same $1000 worth of stuff in ten years that it could buy today… you need to have your money ‘make money’. So..I invest. And, yes, if the big EOTWAWKI happens I could lose all the investments. Thats why I have more baskets to put my eggs in than just that one. And, while I recognize the possibility of an event happening that would wipe out my investments, I’m comfortable with it’s level of unlikeliness that I don’t mind putting some money into the market. Nothing fancy…just fire-n-forget mutual and index funds. It’s worked for me so far. At some point I’ll probably put money into some more real estate as well.

I stockpile cash, I feed investments, and I buy metals. I don’t buy metals for an investment because if I need to use metals to pay for the necessities of life then the odds are pretty good that the currency has gone haywire…and why would I trade a 1/10th Eagle for a wad of green paper that is short circuiting?  I set an amount, in ounces, I want to own by the end of the year and work towards that goal. I just buy 1 oz. silver rounds or bars. Eagles and Maples are nice but not worth the premium, IMO. Gold is never cheap, no matter what form you purchase it in. Just know that you will always walk funny after buying gold but it’s worth it for the peace of mind. I have a silver coin in my desk that was minted over 2000 years ago. It can still buy me things. No nationally minted currency can say that. Yeah, you can’t eat it, burn it, or shoot it…and yet it still works as a near-global unit of exchange. Go figure. And, historically, metals is the way to go in that ‘in between stage’ where the currency is going bad but before we hit the tradeing-cigarettes-for-food stage.

I don’t stock too many things expressly for the purpose of using them as trade goods because a) thats a lot of space and b) metals and cash take care of most of those needs. But…if things ever really hit Mad Max status, having desirable goods gives you bargaining power. Don’t stock anything you can’t use yourself if you need to. For me, handguns and ammo fill the bill. Compact, valuable, and in a crisis their value goes up exponentially. If you don’t believe that  then just go try to find a box of 9mm and a G19. If you can think of a ‘civilization’ anywhere in the world right now where the currency is worthless and its basically every man for himself, there is little more valuable in that place than a firearm and ammo. A cheap 9mm (S&W SD series, Ruger P or American series, anything by Taurus, HiPoint [kinda], etc.) and a box of ammo will probably be  the next smallest form of concentrated wealth after gold. Trading guns is always a risky business, so it’s never my first choice but when natives are restless there is no denying that people will pay whatever it takes to buy a talisman that makes them feel safer. (See Current Situation.) Also, as I’ve mentioned, I don’t stock anything as a ‘trade good’ that isn’t something I can’t use for my own needs. I can always use extra food, extra guns, extra fuel, extra meds…so for me it makes sense that if I was going to keep something as ‘trading stock’ it would be those things. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, and I don’t have a uterus, so stockpiling booze, smokes, and tampons doesn’t make sense for me. In short, if it has no utility to me if I wind up having to keep it, then I’m not spending resources and space on having it on the off chance of trading it to someone else.

I’m the most optimistic survivalist in the world… I think the likelihood of a localized EOTWAWKI (job loss, injury, hurricane, transmission replacement, etc.) will happen more frequently and sooner than the big one (EMP, comet strike, Xenu, etc.), As a result, my priorities, financially, are on cash and investments….metals and trade goods are in that order. I’ve needed plumbers far more often than I’ve needed combat medics, and my financial planning reflects that.

Anyway, thats how this particular survivalist arranges his financial resources. You do what you think makes sense to you and your situation, but do something. Don’t be caught flat-footed if the world ends, and more importantly, don’t be caught flat-footed if it doesn’t. A solid retirement if the world doesn’t end, and a basement supply depot if it does….that’s kinda what I’m shooting for.

Stimulated

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HSA goal for 2021? Met
Roth goal for 2021? Met.

And, since I just discovered a $1400 deposit in my checking account that wasn’t there yesterday….

Silver goal for 2021: Met.

And now I can take the money that, for the rest of the year, I would have been putting towards those three goals and instead direct it at the last goal of the year – meeting my Emergency Fund goal for 2021.

Gotta say, it’s a weird thing to see money going into your accounts from the IRS.

As an aside, since I started actually setting, and tracking (very important), financial goals a few years ago I have been surprised how quickly they are realized. It used to be “Ah, I’ll throw a few bucks in this account this month” and then I’d not really track the progress and that sort of thing. As a result, not much ever got done. At the beginning of the year I set a goal for that year (usually a 50% increase in balance over the previous year), figure out how much I need to do that, divide that amount by twelve so I know how much I have to put away each month, and put it in a spreadsheet. If I’m over/under/skip a month the spreadsheet adjusts the information to reflect the new amount I’ll need to put away each month. This way, if I have an exceptionally productive month and put more away than I was supposed to, I can see my ‘amounts due’ for the following months get reduced. Very motivational.

At the moment, I only do this for four accounts: metals, HSA, Roth, and Emergency Fund. Of those, the Emergency Fund and HSA have a goalpoint at which no more additions are needed. Period. At that point all the resources go into metals and Roth. Eventually the Roth  will cap out (can only put in about $6k annually*) and then I just keep buying metals with the money I would have normally been directing into those other accounts. Todays little bit of cash from the $1.9trillion boondoggle bailout bill will finish off my metals acquisitions for the year.

Money (unless youre talking about precious metals) isn’t usually considered part of ‘preparedness’ but if you think it isn’t you are seriously hamstringing yourself. You should be stockpiling cash (or cashlike instruments) just as diligently as you rack up .223 and canned soup. Between now and the apocalypse youre going to need $50 bills a lot more often than you’ll need .50 BMG.

* = Although my contributions to my Roth are capped at around $6k, there is no cap on what I can do with investments inside that Roth. As a result, although I’m limited to putting in around $6k I can buy/sell securities and whatnot within that Roth and make a lot more than $6k by being clever, taking some risk, doing a little due diligence, and that sort of thing.

Weaponized autism

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As my education has grown, I’ve been managing my own portfolios. Not to brag, but I do okay with it. In a case of right place, right time I seem to have inadvertently caught a break. (Like I did with the AirBnb IPO last month.)

There’s apparently a group of day trading kids on a Reddit group who have determined that if they all coordinate to buy the stocks of companies that are being held short, they can get the prices up and make a killing. Go Google ‘Gamespot’ and see how the stock has jumped a couple thousand percent in the last week. It seems this group has targeted several stocks that it thinks are being heavily shorted. Turns out one of those stocks is one I already have a strong position in. I woke up this morning, looked at my brokerage website, and found that my holdings in that stock were up about 350% overnight. (Whcih means my Roth hit its 2021 target almost 11 months ahead of schedule.) I, of course, don’t hang around and wait for the music to stop….I dump enough shares to get back my investment and the remaining shares are now free to go to the moon or drop like a lead balloon…won’t make a dollars worth of difference to me. If this thing goes the way Gamestop (GME) did, there’s an M82A1 in my future (assuming someone has one in stock somewhere.)

As a survivalist, it seems a tad incongruent to invest in the market when I  have a reasonable belief that it’s going to come down like a house of cards. I see that…but, I’ve been wrong before so I hedge my bets..I buy equities, I buy silver, I buy materiel, and I hold cash. That way I’m covered no matter what happens. Although life has a way of surprising you with things you never foresaw.

Anyway, I’m watching the markets closely for the next few days and searching my vendors for an M82A1…just in case the stars line up and this goes the way I would like.