This report was originally published by Sara Tipton at Tess Pennington’s ReadyNutrition.com.
Tess is the author of The Prepper’s Blueprint: How To Survive ANY Disaster.
Many financial analysts believe the United States economy is in a dire situation. Peter Schiff, who accurately predicted the 2008 recession, has come out and declared we will all live through another Great Depression – only this time, it’ll be much worse than before. But there are ways to prepare for such an event, and we’ve gathered some helpful tips and tricks to help make the process a little more smooth.
“The bad news is, we are going to live through another Great Depression and it’s going to be very different. This will be in many ways, much much worse, than what people had to endure during the Great Depression…This is going to be a dollar crisis.”
“When you are talking about the magnitude of the debt we have, that extra money [raising interest rates] is big. That’s going to be a big drain on the economy to the extent that we have to pay higher interest to international creditors…a lot of this phony GDP is coming from consumption, while the average American who is consuming is deeply in debt and they are going to impacted dramatically in the increase in the cost of servicing that debt…given how much debt we have, and how much debt is going to be marketed the massive increase in supply will argue for interest rates that are higher.” -Peter Schiff
According to Financial Times, it is becoming clear that the global monetary policy is now caught in a debt trap of its own making. Continuing on the current monetary path is ineffective and increasingly dangerous. But any reversal also involves great risks. It stands to reason that the odds of another crisis blowing up continue to rise.
So how can you forecast this economic disaster and best prepare? For starters, you should pay off as much debt as possible. There are many reasons for this, the obvious being if it truly belongs to you and you have the title in hand, no one can take that property from you. Pay off your unsecured debts first and as quickly as possible, however. Credit card debt will become more expensive as interest rates rise, making those already only able to make a minimum payment stuck choosing between a credit card payment or another bill. Make sure you stop putting things on a credit card in order to pay it down with the goal of eliminating that debt. Cut things out of your budget if you must to pay things off. A good tip from Surviopedia is to tackle your debts one at a time starting with the smaller ones. Once the smaller one is paid off, apply the money for those payments to the next biggest debt, paying it off early. Once things are paid off, you’ll also have the added benefit of having extra money to buy things of value that can be used as currency during a crisis, such as gold, food, or ammunition. Remember, when paper money is of no value, food or ammunition could very well be a powerful form of currency as bartering for goods and services inevitably returns.
Everyone knows they should store a little extra food “just in case,” even if it’s only to wait out a harsh storm. But accumulating ammunition is a great way to prepare for a post-apocalyptic world, especially one in which no one has money (or money is worthless) and grocery store shelves are empty. This is a great primer article to learn more about SHTF Firearms. Rifle and pistol cartridges will always have value if you store them right because ammunition could mean the difference between life and death. An unloaded gun is merely a club, while a loaded gun can kill an animal for meat or protect one’s life from a violent attack. Hoarding ammunition and having a safe and dry place to store it could be almost seen as a “savings account.” Even if you don’t own a gun capable of shooting a cartridge you are storing, someone else likely will. One strategy to use, though is to arm yourself with firearms and ammunition using very common cartridges. This will increase the chances that someone else, will have a gun that can shoot what you are offering. The most common pistol cartridges are 9mm, 38 Special and .45 ACP. The most common rifle cartridges are .22 Long Rifle, 7.62x39mm, and 5.56x45mm. Ammunition is often overlooked as a possible form of currency during a financial crisis but it will be necessary and difficult to come by making it a highly valued currency. Make sure you have a safe place to store your ammunition and keep its availability quiet to prevent theft or violent attacks against yourself. Rifle cartridges will represent months worth of food, even if you don’t own a rifle. The trick is to find someone who does and trade them for something of equal value.
The final tip to best prepare yourself for a financial crisis is to learn how to make things, such as biodiesel or vegetable oil. Vegetable oil can be extracted by the proper processing of corn and other seeds of your choice and during Venezuela’s collapse, this was one of the first staples that disappeared from the market. Most of the oil producing companies were seized and nationalized. Now their production is a small fraction of what it was when they were private, and the military controls the supply and sales in the black market. Once the vegetable oil has been used for cooking, it could be used as fuel, to improve the heat output of wood stoves, or even as a makeshift a water heater that runs with WVO (waste vegetable oil). But you should also consider learning to make biodiesel, especially if you own a vehicle or a generator that will run on diesel fuel. It is possible to make biodiesel using vegetable oil too. If you’d like to try it, Thoughtco has put together a helpful guide that will walk you through the process.
Remember the three things that will be the most impactful during an economic collapse: having no debt, having items that will serve as a currency, and being able to produce things of value. If you can accomplish all of those, your chances of survival will go up.
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Additional Resources:
The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster
Prepper’s Home Defense: Security Strategies to Protect Your Family by Any Means Necessary
The Survival Medicine Handbook: A Guide for When Help is Not on the Way
SAS Survival Handbook, Revised Edition: For Any Climate, in Any Situation
Tess Pennington is the author of The Prepper’s Blueprint, a comprehensive guide that uses real-life scenarios to help you prepare for any disaster. Because a crisis rarely stops with a triggering event the aftermath can spiral, having the capacity to cripple our normal ways of life. The well-rounded, multi-layered approach outlined in the Blueprint helps you make sense of a wide array of preparedness concepts through easily digestible action items and supply lists.
Tess is also the author of the highly rated Prepper’s Cookbook, which helps you to create a plan for stocking, organizing and maintaining a proper emergency food supply and includes over 300 recipes for nutritious, delicious, life-saving meals.
Visit her web site at ReadyNutrition.com for an extensive compilation of free information on preparedness, homesteading, and healthy living.
GAAAAWWWDDD!!!!!!!!!! Not another one of these.
This statement is TOTALLY FALSE. “Pay off your unsecured debts first and as quickly as possible”. Total BS. Telling you to pay the credit cards payment before your house Mortgage? Huh? Are you freaking kidding me?
You pay off your secured debts First like your car loan, mortgage and any other secured debt first. You tell the unsecured Credit Card Co’s to go pound sand. Screw the bank money changers.
This is an uninformed fear porn food sales person advertisement, giving bad financial advice.
um let’s test your logic shall we…you’re saying to pay off a low interest rate mortgage (3-5%) first vs. a credit card balance with a rate of 29% plus??….”are you freaking kidding me”.
lol,,,yea we are still waiting on the other ones
“the obvious being if it truly belongs to you and you have the title in hand, no one can take that property from you.”
Oh really, BullShit……….
You may have paid it off, and hold a title, but all that means is instead of owning the bank, you now owe the local government, you stop paying your “assessed” taxes on your “paid off property with your title” and find out who ends up “owning it”. Weather that’s personal property taxes or real estate taxes.
Ain’t that the truth! You can have your house paid off (if it is a structure or a piece of land) you will pay endless taxes until you die. If you do improvements your taxes go up. If your neighbor does improvements your taxes go up.
You can have your truck and car paid for, you can pay cash for your off-road vehicles, boat, and tractor, but if it has a motor and you can ride it there is a forever semi-annual or annual tax on it until you sell it or give it away, then the next person resumes the ongoing tax payments. This does not include mandatory vehicle registrations, insurance, and vehicle inspections,
If you have a building on your property where you conduct some business like welding or landscaping you pay business taxes on top of the property taxes. It doesn’t end. You pay ongoing taxes on everything except what you wear or what you can pick up and carry by hand.
Then they force you to go on county sewer and water, whether you need it or not, and there is a tax on that. They won’t be happy until they got it all. Then local zoning wants to decide how you can use your property. They want to make private ownership of property prohibitively complicated and expensive.
You got it buddy………. Some just seem to blow right by what I said. You must be in a state like mine 🙂
The way things are, you can’t just buy an old van and hold up in some woods by a river, there is NO place you can go , all land is either owned privately or by some form of government. I don’t care if you hike to the top of a mountain, they will find you and arrest you for trespassing, unless you have your “permit, and paid your hiking taxes, smirk.
You are pretty much forced to be homeless, even if you paid cash for that Van, And since your required to register that van, you need a valid address just to be able to even possess the damned thing. Cause like we said, you are ALWAY’s going to be taxed on what ever you “own”.
Welcome to the land of the “free”
Land of the FEE, and Home of the SLAVE.
Not all states have property taxes on vehicles. My state has a one-time sales tax when you buy a vehicle.
As far as paying property taxes until you die, actually, that is not true either. In many places, if you are over a certain age (61 to 65 yo) you can apply for a property tax exemption for the property in which you live. How do you do this? Go to your country or town / city assessor and fill out a form. It can take a few months to be processed.
In my area if you are over the age of 61 and your earned income is less than $40K per year, you can apply for a property tax exemption. Same for disabled veterans although this varies by state and county.
If you don’t like living in a place run by commies, move.
You’re absolutely correct there, “wkwcs”! “Taxes” are a euphemism for feudal rent. Nothing’s changed since the Middle Ages and Antiquity–including the people who won’t learn how to stand up to Goliath.
“the obvious being if it truly belongs to you and you have the title in hand, no one can take that property from you.”
Oh really, BullShit……….
You may have paid it off, and hold a title, but all that means is instead of owning the bank, you now owe the local government, you stop paying your “assessed” taxes on your “paid off property with your title” and find out who ends up “owning it”. Weather that’s personal property taxes or real estate taxes.
While what you say is true its a lot easier to pay the property taxes than the taxes and a mortgage. $135 month even in hard times is doable, $1000, maybe not.
Oh, if you unfortunately live in NJ where the property taxes are often $1000 month its even more critical.
Property taxes are $10,000 per million in Arizona. 🙁
1% is cheap. Be happy.
Omg I cannot believe what’s on the news.another shooting only what is shocking is that it wasn’t one of those evil black ar15 guns killing people but they say a shotgun went Rouge and killed them people. Oh wait a minute nevermind guns don’t kill people people kill people but you know how it will get spun prob make it out the shooter was a right wing fanatic bla bla bla only thing that concerns me is how they gonna criminalize shot guns now
Is it time to break out the sand rail and the assless chaps yet?
After 10 years of “the coming apocalypse” I need to change the oil and check the tires.
I have been hearing this since th eearly ’80’s, still waiting. Y2K was supposed to cause a massive collapse, nothing.
Hi,
I often hear “getting out of debt” as being the most important thing to do before the collapse. I don’t necessarily agree with this. I have debt, although I wish I hadn’t. However I think when things go for a $hit its not really going to matter if you have debt owing to the bank. I’m thinking we are going to see an economic collapse and not a recession or real-estate bubble burst. Tptb want to bring north america down, and they want a reset and start a one world currency and government. This is biblical.
The best thing to do is to get prepared. As Greg Hunter from USAWatchdog says… prepare yourself mentally, physically and above all spiritually. You might not think the “spiritually” part is important or even real but I assure you it is.
First thing to do for physical preparedness is to have some food and water stored. A few cans of soup and a bag of rice isn’t going to cut it. Store enough food for 3-6 months minimum for everyone under your care. Don’t forget your pets. The importance of water is very much overlooked. You should store as much water as you can and also ways to purify water. A few Sawyer mini filters are a good start, along with some bleach and possibly some water purification tabs.
Next make sure you have other essentials such a s batteries, flash lights, crank radio, medical supplies and medication. Stock up on any medications that you are currently on. Also be sure to stock up on some over the counter meds such as Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Aspirin, Ora-Gel, Polysporin, Triple Antibiotic Ointment, Benadryl, Zantac, and a antihistamine. If you can get your hands on some antibiotics that would be great as they will be a life saver when the $htf,
I would get a few solar modules (250W) and a charge controller, inverter and batteries. Solar PV have come down in price considerably but the entire set up is a bit expensive but it will be worth it.
For financial preparation, store some cash. Cash will still be accepted initially. Perhaps after a few months the greenback might not be recognized as money any longer so silver and gold will be required. Stock up on some 1 oz bars of silver, as opposed to all 10oz bars for example. The smaller 1 oz bars or rounds will be good for smaller purchases. Try to get some fractional silver which is 1/2 or 1/4 oz. These will be of value for smaller items or quantities.
Amm0 is a must I think as well. Not only for hunting game but also protection. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that but it might. Desperate people do desperate things.
You can’t eat ammo so don’t spend thousands on that and not have food, water etc already taken care of.
Get right with the Lord. It’s not His fault this world is like it is. Bad things happen, to good people also. God gave us free will. He does intervene at times and always redeems situations even if you don’t see it. God sees the whole picture not just what we see. Jesus is real regardless if you believe it or not. Everyone has to make a decision. You can’t take your ball and go home and say “i’m not playing” everyone is in this and has to make a decision. Also to not make a decision is a decision.
Don’t put this off any longer…
Time is a ticking….
SolarGuy out…
Five dead at Maryland newspaper.
Didn’t anyone tell this shooter not to kill the messenger.
_ I know it’s not funny when another human being dies, but with so many false flags, it’s hard to take anything reported in the news as anything but fake.
_
The sky is falling AGAIN!!!
Sgt.
Yeap, I just getting done making some 15.lbs beef jerky, next is to vacuum pkg. all of it and store in refer. I’m getting as much as I can, as I’m no spring younger, age is gain on me , but trying anyways
One of the key points to remember about the next financial collapse is that you want to be properly positioned to acquire assets at prices you would have never dreamed of seeing in your lifetime. That means physical gold and physical silver in your hands. You’re also going to need physical currency to use right out of the gate.
Understand what you have in the White House. You have a hard, physical man who believes hard, physical assets are to be acquired with hard, physical money. He will also make the hard, physical decisions that need to be made, and not even blink an eye. When the banking system goes down, and credit freezes up, there are going to be no bail-outs. As far as the major banks are concerned, the only one I see surviving is JPM, and that has to do with their two silver vaults. One has 240m ounces of silver bullion to settle Comex stand for delivery. The other has over 600m ounces of silver bullion to settle bounced US Treasuries that the rest of the world will no longer need to hold as trade settlement paper for contracts. Guess where the price of silver goes when that happens.
I have a unique perspective on what’s about to happen because my work takes me inside of literally hundreds, if not thousands of houses. I can re-con a house pretty quick to see what the occupants have, or don’t have, in terms of real resources. Almost all of these houses are in the $300-$500k, $500k-$1m, $1m and up ranges. And very few of them have even a few extra cases of bottled water for a weather or water contamination emergency. Forget about Mountain House or MRE’s. That tells you their focus is on going to the beach at 9AM this morning or going to their beach house for a four day weekend, and not where it should be, namely on the tightening 2-10 yield curve, which should be inverted by Labor Day.
What does that say about what’s going to happen to these people when the collapse does happen? They’re going to get margin-called on their mortgage. The mortgage house is going to give them 72 hours to cough up the whole nut, or some privates are going to show up on the doorstep and put them out. They’ll offer up their stock portfolio, which will be worthless if they don’t have actual registration certificates in hand. Without the certificates, all you own are credits for shares, or a beneficial interest in a pool which is more than likely insolvent. They’ll try to raid their 401k, which is also insolvent because it owns mortgage bonds and Argentine century bonds (in other words, complete garbage).
Banks are going to grab these properties in a heartbeat because they think Americans are hoarding all kinds of assets they can pony up to settle the mortgage, when that just is not true. They’re going to be loaded down with real estate when there will be only a small number of potential buyers with real assets to put to work. What does that mean for prices? Fire sale of the century. You will literally be able to walk away with multiple premium properties for a single ounce of gold bullion.
The end game is going to be a re-allocation of wealth into the hands of responsible stewardship who had the presence of mind to acquire physical gold and silver ahead of time to be ready to take advantage of the mother of all fire sales.
Smart answer. I’m ready and waiting to go shopping!
make your own biodiesel fuel, really ? this guy isn’t realistic.
if you live anywhere where you do not have you own water supply like a water well; it’s best to have supplies for 3 months during a real collapse; as if the collapse last longer than that; it’s going to be venezula from there on out; you’ll be lucky each day after that when roving bands of gangs and police do and take what they wish.
Literally all you people do is visit this site and trash its content. What on earth!!! Nothing better to do??? Geesh!! Complacency is another tool of Satan.
How to best prepare for the coming financial crisis is to dump finance (the monetary economy) and be free from it and its crisis that’s rigged to keep the poor dependent on the rich. If the rich love money, give it all back to them so they can eat it (Matthew 22:17-21, Mark 12:12-17, Luke 20:20-26). That’s how to stop playing the rich man’s game that only he can win. “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4) Learning how is imperative for the poor to win in the real, Natural way that the rich man can’t play to his sole advantage.