Prepare for an Economic Collapse
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Preparedness Posted by:
Rob Richardson
Experts are warning that the economy is going to get worse over the next couple years. If things get bad, and money starts to become scarce, or worse yet it becomes totally worthless, do you know what you will do? What if we suffered a total economic collapse? Are you prepared?
If you haven’t already, it’s time to put together a plan of action.
So what should you do to prepare for an economic collapse?
- Start Prepping Put together an emergency kit that includes extra food & water, clothing and a portable shelter (tents, tarps, sleeping bags.) For more information on prepping, check out our article on the top ten prepping tips for every SHTF situation. Everyone one of those tips can help prepare you to deal with an economic crisis.
- Knowledge Knowledge is key, and now is the time to get some. During any kind of disaster, including an economic collapse, knowledge will be your most powerful ally. Start reading books on survival, and start collecting information on how to live off the land.
- Stock up on Supplies not Money Now is the time to buy the things you need! I’m not talking about T.V’s or Ipods, but instead buy things that you will need to live and survive in the future. Things like clothing, food, and survival gear will never lose their value, but money will. It’s better to buy the supplies you need now when they are cheap, than later when inflation drives prices through the roof. The price of everything is going up, stock up while you can. Everyday supplies will be worth their weight in gold.
- Put together a Bug Out Bag Should this country face an economic collapse, chances are pretty good it will be followed by riots, violence and something much uglier than the initial collapse of the economy. A Bugout bag should be filled with everything you need to survive in an emergency situation.
- Survival Laptops – Knowledge is power, but it can be hard to remember everything. Start Collecting as much information as you can on survival, prepping, food storage, and living off the land. Putting together a survival laptop or tablet, that stores all the valuable information you find, can help you during a crisis situation. A small laptop or tablet can fit thousands of survival books in a small portable device that can easily be carried with you anywhere you go. I also suggest picking up a small Solar Laptop Charger
that can keep your laptop going indefinitely.
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all very good advice. I’m 25 now and ever since i was a kid i have felt something major on the horizon causing the collapse of all comforts in North American society as we know it. once food can’t be shipped around to grocery stores on trucks from afar, what are you going to eat? we people in major cities will be forced to return to nature sooner than later so, yes, stock up on supplies and knowledge for change is inevitable and those supplies could very well save your life and the life of others.
PS. Don’t forget… money will mean nothing in the last days of civilization as we know it but don’t be afraid. Humanity will persevere. If we as a species are to survive we must (and i trust we will) work together.
I am pleased to see that I am not the only one who see’s this coming…The last 2 months, I have this feeling, odd vibe in the air… What I’m scared of?? 40 million people’s welfar cut off..
Talk about crime and saftey?? Forget it.
Its just like the Military, you have to break it down before you can rebuild it. This is going to be a bad one.. I hope I’m wrong……I am in Texas,so I feel More hope for the future! Might have to secede, we would be better off.
I’m thinking we have 2 years or les…. Thats with printing money.
I’m sorry… but you guys think that this will happen SOON? Ha. The UN, IMF, World Bank, and hundreds of NGO’s that the entire world relies on is in the U.S.A.
We will not falter that easily. Though I believe it is the duty of a responsible citizen to educate themselves on surviving for “war torn” nations etc. to think we are anywhere close to a doomsday scenario is asinine.
Even if the U.N. Assembly Building was blown up, the IMF was torn apart, the Federal Reserve Banks demolished in napalm (destroying reserve currencies), and Fort Knox was robbed of our gold reserves, it would not be just us going down if that status quo was kept but EVERYONE.
You see, when WE lose we ensured it to mean ALL lose (The European Union, China, Northern Africa, and even OPEC and Saudi Arabia).
So people can cede from the U.S. if they wish (and have the incomes of a 3rd world country, go ahead, makes MY money and reserves stronger resources) or they can break this red/communist left-over scare from the 50′s and realize it is no longer that easy for a nation with its hand and money in EVERYTHING to fail.
Prepare, as I do, all you want, but paranoia is a completely different and uninspiring thing.
*steps off soap box*
Even if the U.N. Assembly Building was blown up…we can only hope.
Your advice is spot on. I just started a blog chronicling my family’s preparations for the coming collapse.
http://prepyourfamily.blogspot.com/
Anyone and everyone should prepare.
Nice article but with all due respect, forget the laptop idea. I say this with the following in mind:
1. Cost. Speaking from personal experience, nowadays it is possible to get a nice (basic) little netbook for around $300 and a 320GB external hard drive for around $100. In my opinion, your $450 would be better spent elsewhere. A collection of books– namely military training/field manuals, as well as medical, agriculture, etc.– can be had for less than $20. The rest of the money can be put toward silver, food, ammunition, or whatever else you like.
2. Reliability. A computer is a device that requires maintenance and delicate handling, and unless you have the foresight to stock up on extra fans, replacement keys, and an extra screen or two (more $$$)– as well as the tools and ability to make the repairs– then AT MOST you are looking at a source of information with a 10-15 year shelf life. This also leads me to…
3. Practicality. In all likelihood, an economic collapse would also result in a complete stoppage of something we all look at as just part of life, something that will always be: utilities. If SHTF, it is safe to assume that PG&E will be non-operational in short order and will not go back online quickly. Unless you are completely solar- and generator-dependent or have somewhere to go that already is, then you likely won’t have access to or be able to find a useful source of constant electrical output. You don’t just switch out computer batteries like you would a flashlight, and in order to charge a computer battery you need electricity.
4. Ease of use. Flat out, not everybody (seniors and young children) know how to use a computer and many are frankly incapable of grasping even the most basic computer skills, but reading is something that is easily taught, learned, and passed down from adults to as young as toddlers. If going electronic as a means of keeping volumes of literature small and compact is the goal, a better choice would be a Kindle or similar device– just make sure you know how to rewire the thing to standard batteries when the time comes.
More than having a library of survival manuals or a hard drive full of them, it is important to familiarize yourself with what is actually in them. It’s all fine and great to have a large amount of information at your disposal, but if you don’t know what’s in them or where to find a piece of info in a pinch, then the point is moot. Read up, educate yourself, practice the techniques, and have a plan for implementing the information when it is needed.
Computers (or netbooks/pdas/Iphones/etc) are one of those things that we can become over-reliant on.
You might be saying to yourself, “Self, I’m not over-reliant on technology. Am I?”
Well, If you can’t tell me what day it is or recite your mother’s phone number without looking at your phone, you’re over-reliant.
I think technology is great- having the world and all the answers right at our fingertips is awesome! But, if you use it as a crutch to real knowledge and skill, then you are preparing to fail.
Get a survival laptop. Sure. But don’t rely on it for survival. Use it to supplement your core strengths. You might use it to put on a digital encyclopedia or a number of things that would be impractical to store in hard copy. But, without it, you could survive.
especially now with the kindle, you could have a lot of info and the battery life is soooo much longer than a computer. i would definitely have a hard copy of a few really important things though, just in case.
The Dow Jones was down $198 today, looks like the disaster predictors of the past few months are correct. “Off Grid” reallly works for me, I suggest getting Solar Panels and live off the government-corporate grid.
I take the collapse seriously, only God can prevent it from happening now. My thoughts have gradually shifted from, can I survive? to, do I really want to survive? Everybody wants to survive, right? Well, almost none of my family or friends are preparing, so when the time comes I know I will have to live with the knowledge that even the young will be overcome with starvation, stealing, murdererers, rapest ect. Okey, I put back everything I need, I manage to survive, but for what? You cant trust anyone, you cant grow a garden or even collect water fron a stream without the threat of constant life threatening danger. The simple pleasures of driving a car, eating at a restaurant, taking in a movie, going to the supermarket, are gone. Every fire you build to warm yourself, cook, make tools, bathe, ect is sending a beacon to others that says, I’m here, come here and take what I have. alright, lets say I plan for all eventualities, I dont particularly want to have to kill men, [possibly women and even worse, young people] on a simi regular basis in order to exist. Survive, possibly, really live, not a chance.
If you can make it thru one year in a worst case senario then you might make it if you have a vast knowledge of food production and preservation. Almost no one knows how to do that today. Farmers buy their food from grocery stores and have no more idea how to make it than city folk. Older people had grandmothers that knew exactly how much to grow and put up for survival, but we don’t. I’m a farmer and haven’t a clue, but do know how to grow things. I buy at walmart…
Sam
No one? lol actually, there ARE a few of us who pride ourselves on providing for our families by old fashoned ways… and i’m in my mid twenties. Know how is useless without means… and means are useless without know how. But most importantly, that know how must be tested and practiced prior to need.
instead of an laptop i suggest an Ereader like the kobo – it uses far less energy so will be easier to maintain – it only uses power when the page is changed – and with a free program called calibre – E-book management you can bypass the web and put any epub file on it – it also converts pdf’s – would be easier to charge – and is not affected as much as a laptop to heat and grime. it can hold 32000 ebooks and they’re cheap and practically indestructable.
Ok so I’ve looked at so many different “Websites” about S.H.T.F. & Economic collapse. But I run into a huge problem, I’m only 16 & I strongly believe something of that sort of problem I listed above is going to happen, & I can’t prepare because my parents think I’m crazy for thinking so. I understand the characteristics of survival I’ve had experience in such things I know a little over basic weapon skills but that’s the other issue I can’t utilize my knowledge in such matters!!! WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Thank you.
Very similar situation here. I’ll give you a list of what I’m doing
I have an e-ink Kindle, chainmail, a horde of medieval arms, a few bows and many arrows, a tent, a lawn-chair, a first-aid kit, empty-bottles, survival books, empty backpacks, harmonicas, glasses, notebooks, clothes, and one or two other things that would be useful. I believe such a collapse, if it occurs, would do so after I enter-into college (this fall). If I go to college in Indiana, I’ll only be a couple hours away from a large portion of my family, who live predominantly on farms (and with whom I will leave my horde of arms before attending college). If I go-to college in Florida, I’ll have to make due with starting out sans weapons and without a guarantee of basic needs, which would be a problem.
My main advice to you is:
1. Invest in silver. Even if the economy doesn’t crash (99% chance that it will, just a matter of when), you’ll still make large sums of cash from it.
2. Start / continue working-out.
3. Prepare a survival kit
4. Learn to make a weapon out of anything, as well as how to fight.
5. Learn a very compact instrument (I learnt the recorder and harmonica); this will keep you busy when you have nothing to do.
6. Be very nice
7. Aprenda una otra idioma que ingles (learn another language). This will not only help you to communicate with people and trade / negotiate, but it will also give you a spoken code to use with your allies. Din dit majt Spraga Madjin Mej (I’m making my own language). O, lernu Esperanton; if you’re looking for a secret language that is easy to learn, Esperanto is only spoken by 2 million people, but is considered one of the easiest languages to learn in the world. Also, languages can keep you from getting bored (like when you are performing nightime watches with your allies).
8. Humans naturally have a biphasic sleep-cycle (really, I would argue triphasic), so don’t freak-out if when you go to sleep at sundown you wake-up around midnight before going-back to sleep. Also, in the English language, the first sleep is called “beauty sleep” (although the term’s meaning has been perverted since the invention of electricity).
9. Make friends. Amigos. Amici. People who will back you up in a fight. Hell, even start a micronation. Have a civilization formed before the collapse. I started my own micronation two years ago.
10. If you live near water, for God’s sake: learn to fish! Make fishing poles from scratch, make a boat from scratch, etc.
11. Get-over the notion of showering daily. The Norse did it once weekly; the British did it once or twice yearly. There used to be a joke about losing children in dirty bathwater…
12. In tandem with #11, get used to dirt. Also, get some leather gloves. Oh, and a few pocket knives.
These are a few things you should be able to do. At the very least, following these steps, you should be able to be at least a well-prepared forager, as well as more in shape than your competition.
Natural selection,:)
me and my dad just started to prepare for an economic collapse. if you are here are the things you will need medicine,water,caned food,an electrical box,a gun,flashlite,batteries,matches,and a radio. good luck :]
hahaha funniest shit ive read in a while.
this is exactly why me and my husband became consultants to sell freeze dried food and emergency supplies with shelf reliance. not only are we getting our family prepared, were helping others. it never hurts to have extra food around and if something does happen, you cant eat gold and silver! if you dont know how to get started, check out my website. you can get what you need, or find out how you can help others prepare and make some extra money too! thanks!
how do I access your website
Hi awake people, I’m in the UK and there seems to be a monopoly on freeze dried food here. There is only one company (listed at the top of google results) who takes it seriously and I ask WHY? is it not bloody obvious what is happening. We are being led up the garden path of debt,government handouts & supermarket/food dependence. When this comes crashing down the scale of mayhem is unimaginable.
Food is going to be of life/death importance if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail
1. Learn to farm and stockpile seeds.
2. Stockpile hunting tools, doesn’t necessarily need to be firearms but would certainly help.
3. Learn how to handcraft tools to enable 1. and 2.
Pretty much how the rest of the world lives day by day. Silly Westerners.
hello im 14 years old and i no that things have been bad and its not getting better. im old enough to know how to survive and what i need so im saving all my money. theres just a few things i need to know. when shtf i will be ready. if anyone could tell me some of the essencials ill need please let me no. thanks for the time
“Things like … food … will never lose their value”. But food does lose its value once it becomes inedible; many items, however well stored, will be inedible within six months! Folks, please research food storage and rotation before buying food. If you are starting out, buy imperishable supplies such as tools and learn a trade. Learning to grow food is more important than having food supplies. For the average prepper throwing out food which has not been stored properly is unsustainable from a cost perspective (and completely immoral).
Not true, food properly stored can last 30 years! See foodstoragemadeeasy.net.
i have been perpairing for the last 20 years. i have tought prepariness in my ward for 15 of those years. and i can not understand what people think. i lived thorught a truckers strike in omaha neb in 1969 and the stores were emptyed in matter of one day. the strike lasted 2 weeks and if you were not prepaired you starved. i lived through 2 strikes where my father worked and saw on food in our house for 3 months and the other one 4 months. the so called union gave us a ham a week and that was all we had. i know what is happening and fore saw it years ago. i try to teach those around me and i get the old story ” ill just share yours” who the heck said i was going to share what i have. i pick who i will help. i gave a class on it not to long ago and was asked why i would not share will all. i told them that my storage would only last 2 weeks if i gave it up. it is for my family and that is that. if a child shows up at your door begging for food whould you help that child. next day a sister shows up with them the next day the father and mother the next day others along with the first group show up. where does the line be drawn and what would you do.
it bothers me that those around me do not wish to prepair like my church tells us to do. they want toys. they want vid games. they dont think of what is about to hit us like a ton of s#$@ and it is all is well eat drink for tomorrow we die how true that may become. they also tell me the goverment will step in to help. haha look at new york and new jersey and say that again. have no worrys for we will just share but they tell me no if i wish to share their toys.
for the love of your family prepair prepair prepair and much as you can. time is short and it is about to turn nasty. if you are prepaired you shall not fear. never never never give up. doomer
Ouf…….
Start with the basics: physical health, employment, education, finances, emergency preparedness, food storage, gardening…First, get post high school education, so you can support yourself, while avoiding debt. Then get a rare decent job and live well below your income. You need some kind of shelter, so many buy a home but we have learned the pitfalls of homeownership. Before you leap read some books on homebuying, it may not be the right thing to do for a number of reasons. One dilemma is that most jobs are in cities and it you bug out then you have no job and no shelter and most cannot survive long with a backpack of supplies surrounded by nature. So start with surviving unemployment in the city. Get out of debt, have savings, home/food storage. Start with home storage, see foodstoragemadeeasy.net. It can take several years just to get this far. You need to focus on immediate needs first, and then get enough education so you can buy what you need to be self reliant. Think about having a year supply of the basics: food, clothing, shelter: safety, roof, wood burning stove/insert and wood for alternative heat, fuel to cook with…
Oh, and a couple things I don’t see mentioned enough. 1. As for physical health, do the best you can to improve what you have. For instance: consider lasik, once your prescription stabilizes, if it applies to you. You won’t need prescription glasses and sunglasses. Yes, you are likely to need reading glasses over 40, as well as sunglasses but they are easy to come by vs YOUR prescription which if done cheapest, involves a wait. It is best to be able to see, to do the basics to care for yourself. 2. If you buy a home, spend less than YOU are comfortable with so you have funds to keep it in good condition. I know people who removed failing bathroom floor and instead of buying inexpensive remnant bin glue down vinyl, they just let the subfloor rot, which make the eventual fix even more expensive. 3. Good friends/relationships are easy to keep but hard to find and they are most important so make friends, get married and have a family. Note that anything worth doing is going to involve work, including relationships.
I agree H, this is the soundest advice so far. Unfortunately “prepping” takes money. I won’t make my family suffer now to survive a possibility later. We are selling our nice suburban house and downsizing to a stable rural community to free up budget enough to start prepping. It is a long process if done properly. Knowledge is always power.
People. Get real. You cannot eat, wear, or live in a laptop. Grow a garden, learn how to preserve food. Stock up on non-perishables and pray!
I’m 14 years old, and I’m just waiting for the crap to hit the fan. I want to be prepared when it does.
I want to start a survival kit. I’ve saved up enough allowance (can’t get a job yet…) that I can easily do this. But. I have some problems/questions. One is that I don’t have a place for a full-on everything-I-need kit. My parents are pretty much on board, and they even tried putting one together, but that kind of fell through. I need to talk with them about doing it for real, but we still have the space issue. Do we even try to compact it (if so, HOW?), or do we just “suck it up” and find a place?
Next, how would we get Wi-Fi for the laptop?
We eat paleo, which is basically hunter-gatherer mentality (look it up). There’s not a wide array of canned or freeze-dried food that’s paleo. Straying isn’t an option as we (especially my mom) get really sick otherwise. My mom doesn’t need to be basically bedridden, the way she was for the first 8 years of my life, in the middle of an economic/governmental collapse. What do we do for food? Do we truly hunt and gather and hope for the best, or is there actually some sort of non-perishable food that’s paleo?
Finally, as I am a minor, I don’t know if I’m allowed to purchase a gun with the new gun control measures in CO. My dad has a 22 that I can shoot pretty well, and I have a bow and some arrows that I’m fair with, but I’d like a gun of my own if possible.
Will weapons such as bows and arrows actually be useful, or will they even stand a chance against better armed citizens?
Sorry I have so many questions. I really just started investigating this, and so I’m pretty new. Please let me know what your thoughts are.
P.S. Miles, does Latin count as a useful foreign language in your opinion? I’m already learning it, so I was just wondering.
Currency collapse is an inevitability at this point. The math simply will not allow it to do otherwise. We now owe over 16 trillion dollars to bond holders. The fed now purchases 60% of all new debt that is issued. At some point the system will realign itself. The way a huricaine realigns the the excessive build up of ocean tempatures. It will happen in a very similar way. Look at the fundamentals. By the end of the Obama administration the nation will be carring over 20 trillion in debt. We take in 2.2 in taxes and send 3.6 hence the deficet. If the market deamands just 5% to purchase our debt than 1/2 of all current tax reveues will have to go to just pay the interest. There is no way to retire this debt expect through massive and I mean mssive inflation due to the devaluation of the currency. So what does that mean to you and me. That means everything that is imported to this coountry becomes essentially unattainable. Oil coould go to hundreds if not thousands of dollars a barrel. So the price at the pump is now 80$ dollars a gallon making transportation unafordable in a society based on the car. Food prices would similary skyrocket and would become lagely unafordable. The welfare crowd will burn and loot thier own neigborhoods in response to the unaffordability of goods. Basic services start to shut down. Cant get to work cant do work. Cant buy anything with the funds received so why go. It is going to be a hughe mess for quite a while until the storm ends. I guess that is why Homeland Security is buying thousands of assualt vehicals and billions of rounds of ammo. It is not a pretty forecast. When the faith that backs up that paper in your wallet is gone all hell is going to break loose! Good luck folks. Those who prepare for the comming storm will have a much better chance of survival.
The more pressing threat will be from Russia and China disabling our information systems through cyber attacks sending us into the dark ages. Technology impacts virtually everything we do.