As the nation is finally starting to open up for business again, v e r y s l o o o o w w l y, we’re all wondering how things are going to pan out. Early indicators show that we might manage to have managed to flatten the curve with all the lockdowns, but at what cost? How badly is this going to damage the economy and just how far are we going to fall? Those questions are still to be answered.
It seems rather clear at this point, that the real victim of this pandemic is going to be the economy. The current count of people who have applied for unemployment due to COVID-19 is 36 million. Nearly half of Americans are out of work; and nearly half of those jobs aren’t coming back. Of the nation’s 30.2 million small businesses, the SBA expects 40% to shut down permanently due to the financial setback they received. On top of that, some of the nation’s top retailers are in trouble and filing for bankruptcy.
If anyone thinks we’re going to come out of this mess anytime soon, I have to wonder about their understanding of economics. No country can lose that many businesses and jobs, without it having a major impact on the overall economy. We’ve already gone way past the statistics from the Great Recession, next stop is to see if we beat out the Great Depression.
With that in mind, we need to be preparing for whatever form this coming economic collapse takes.
Reevaluate
Economic collapses usually mean two things, at least for those of us who aren’t money moguls on Wall Street. Those are high unemployment and runaway inflation. Even if you manage to keep your job, you’re going to have to deal with the inflation aspect of it.
That will mean that your money won’t go as far as you’re used to. In preparation for that, it’s a good idea to find your unnecessary expenses now and do what you can to get rid of them. If you don’t do it now, you’ll probably have to do it later and that’s going to be much harder.
Downsize
As part of reducing your expenses, take a look at your big-ticket items, your home, and vehicles. Do you need that big a home and that fancy a car? Could you get by with something less, without it totally messing up your life?
It’s a buyer’s market right now, so it’s a good time to be looking for homes and cars, especially if you can reduce your monthly payments in the process. Reducing those payments could make all the difference to your family, especially if you or your spouse loses your job.
Related: A Small, Super Survival Shelter
Debt
The people who suffer the most in any financial collapse are those who are in debt. When they can’t make those payments, either due to job loss or inflation, they end up losing whatever they bought on credit or whatever they used as security for those loans.
This can mean losing your home, not just because of mortgage debt, but because of other debts and expenses that leave you living from paycheck to paycheck. Eliminating other debt can make it easier to keep paying your home; you don’t necessarily have to get rid of your home mortgage.
I realize that getting out of debt requires a long-term strategy and isn’t something that people can do overnight. But at the same time, we might have debts that we can liquidate rapidly. Those are the ones to take care of, especially if they’re at a high-interest rate.
Job Security
Some jobs, like being a teacher, are more secure than others (such as making and selling decorative items for the home). The question is, how is yours? If you’re working in a “non-essential” occupation, you need to realize that when the economy goes south, chances are pretty good that you’ll be out of work. We’ve already seen that with all the layoffs due to the Coronavirus. If you can find a job which will offer you more security in these difficult times, it seems like a good idea to do so.
But there’s another type of job security too; that’s the security that comes from being the indispensable person in your workplace. I don’t care if you’re an emergency room surgeon or a cosmetologist, there are always people whose jobs are more secure than their peers because their bosses can’t see how they would make it without them.
If layoffs happen, these people manage to keep their jobs, even if they don’t have seniority. Why? Because they’re the people who go the extra mile and do the things that nobody else wants to do. Their bosses will do whatever they can to keep them because they’re worth their weight in gold.
Side Gig
No matter what your job is or how secure it is, it’s a good idea to have something on the side. Many financial gurus today are recommending that everyone have “multiple income streams,” as a means of protecting themselves financially. In other words, that side gig.
I’m not talking about revitalizing your high school rock band here. Any side gig you try to do, in order to give yourself more financial security, has to be something where you are providing an essential product or service. It’s got to be something that people are going to need, regardless of how bad things get, like electronic repairs, food service, or selling medical supplies.
Related: 11 Unexpected Ways To Earn Money In The Next Depression
Invest
One of the things that goes hand-in-hand with a financial collapse is the reduction in value of most investments and of the currency in general. That’s what inflation is, a reduction in the value of the nation’s currency. It manifests in the value of everything “financial” going down, with the exception of one thing… precious metals.
Whenever the value of the currency goes down, the value of precious metals, especially gold and silver, goes up. Surprisingly, it seems that silver goes up more than gold does, even though gold is a more expensive commodity. If you have the money to invest in these precious metals, especially in the form of coins rather than ingots, then now’s the time to do so; prices are down.
If you don’t have enough to invest in gold and silver, then there are still ways you can invest. There are many things that run short in times of financial crisis, not because producers are unable to produce them, but because the rapid inflation makes it hard to get them to market profitably. Things like food. Stocking up on these items will give you something you can later use as trade goods in bartering for things you need.
Related: Investing For Preppers – 12 Things That Won’t Lose Value In A Crisis
Stocked Up
Speaking of buying food and there being shortages of common necessary items, you might want to check your own food stockpile and make sure it’s okay. During the Argentinean collapse of ’99, there were extensive food shortages in the cities. Barter groups rose up, where people were trading foodstuffs and other necessities. So, having a good stockpile of food not only can help you feed your family, but also put you in the position to trade for other things you need.
There’s another really good reason why you want to make sure you’re stocked up on food and other necessities. That’s to help make sure you’re not one of those people who are stuck deciding between buying food and making your mortgage payment. You will be able to eat out of your food stockpile while making your house payment.
Related: Cheapest Foods that You Can Stockpile
Stocks & Savings
If the economy really does tank, as I suspect it will, it’s not the time to have money sitting in the stock market or a savings account. When times of high inflation come, the relative value of money invested in both of those goes down proportionately. You’re better off getting your cash out and investing it elsewhere.
So, where should you invest that money? In any of several of the things, I mentioned above. You could use it to pay down debt, buy precious metals or just stock up on food. For that matter, you could also use it to get that side gig going, so that you have a secondary income stream.
Homeschooling
This one might get me shot at, especially in the wake of everyone having their kids home during the lockdown, but it might be a really good time to consider making homeschooling a permanent part of your life. I raised all three of my kids that way and it was well worth it.
During the Argentinean collapse of ’99, kidnapping kids for profit became a cottage industry. People who were financially desperate would kidnap the kids of those they thought had money and hold the kids for ransom. It didn’t just happen to rich kids either; a lot of the kids kidnapped were middle-class. When people are desperate, they’re not all that picky.
Homeschooling your kids is a whole lot cheaper than hiring bodyguards for them and it keeps you from having to take time out from your work to be their bodyguards. It’s something worth thinking about.
Your Home
Speaking of security, now’s the time to make sure that your home is secure. I’m not talking about just installing a deadbolt here; but really making it secure. Did you know that your deadbolt won’t stop a criminal? They can just kick the door open and the deadbolt will break right through the door frame. You need to add a good security striker plate, with long screws that go into the studs behind them.
Windows are even harder to secure than doors since they are glass. If you don’t want to install steel burglar bars over them, then put security window film on the inside. Not only is that cheaper than the steel bars, it looks better. But it’s not a perfect solution; a criminal who wants in can still breakthrough. It’s just going to take him a lot of work.
Crime rates go up in any time of the financial crisis. That’s a natural result of people being desperate. In order to avoid becoming a statistic, you need to make sure your home is secure; one that those desperate people can’t break into, either while you’re home or when you’re away. That mostly means making sure that your doors and windows are protected, so that they can’t be broken, giving criminals free access to your home.
Related: 10 Home Security Secrets from Venezuela
Shooting Range
No, I didn’t add this to the list just for fun. While I like going to the range and practicing, there’s a practical side to this as well. That is, if crime rates will be going up, you’re going to need to be ready to repel any home invaders who are patient enough to break out your windows, even with the security window film on them.
Contrary to Hollywood’s image of firearms, you can’t just pick up a gun and start blazing away, without even aiming. Shooting accurately is a skill that takes time to learn; and you’re going to want to be able to shoot accurately, especially with your family there.
So there’s my list of 10… make that 11 things to do. Did I miss any?
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The situations in the large liberal controlled cities will get exponentially worse. The ongoing war on law enforcement and the threats of defunding law enforcement will exacerbate lawlessness. How many supply chain companies will be willing to risk the hijacking of their trucks and injury to their drivers. No level headed person would venture into an environment where lawlessness rules. This will get worse.
We left the city 3 years ago.
We have a 3 acre property with vegetable gardens, fruit trees and chickens. We are becoming more self reliant daily. It is hard work but extremely rewarding. God Bless.
Good for you Moe. 3ac is a nice size, you can do a lot with that. Whether anything happens in cities or not, you’ve made a good move toward becoming more self reliant.
The problem with that is the police are now the thugs! They killed our unarmed neighbor, beat the hell out of my friend’s neighbor and sexually molested a friend’s daughter.
Step one trust in the lord, step 2 pray and step 3 prepare
On social security so I’ve already cut debt to a minimum, downsized to a 1 bedroom, 1 bath mobile home, went solar but something isn’t working so living mostly without electricity. Have power at a well. Manual winch at the other well. Don’t have credit cards. Eat frugally and can and grow some garden. Planting grapes and berries as I’m able to buy some. Have started stands of wild plums and wild cherries. One of two elderberries survived. Will get more later on. Have a few ducks and chickens and getting started over with rabbits after dogs killed most of them and destroyed cages. Still live carefully but these changes all helped.
A good tool for installing 3 inch screws into your door striker plate and hinges is the common wood drill brace. The chuck grips any type of screwdriver bit solidly and drives long screws anywhere, silently. Know that every door is framed with 2×4. Make sure that the screw goes thru the 1×4 casing into the 2×4 framing. Also most doors have a gap between the casing and the frame. Cut a piece of wood to fill that gap and it will double the locks strength. Thank You!
When you live in a house hold where one’s spouse thinks these warnings and being prepared is silly. Very difficult and impossible to convince her to move to a rural area and heat with wood, grow a garden and spend very little. Oh what a decision, leave or stay.
Leave
The problem with the head in the sand approach is it means everything is too late.
fortunately my wife gets it. The daughter is like your wife.
Me being me LOL I would do it anyway and let them laugh or call me names. The moment what happens outside of your window what is happening outside in the Democrat cities your wife will then sneer at you and wonder why you did nothing. If what is happening right now does not change their minds not much more you can say.
I saw an article that really opened my eyes though. For some this may be too much to handle if too much for their brain to process. I would “force” the issue and call it good.
Lousy marital advice I am sure!!!!!
2 years til retirement off grid house being built as I am writing this. EXTREMELY heavy construction. Traded sq ft for High quality and heavy exterior walls.
Prepare around your spouse.
Wives are easy to find… You need one twenty years younger and twenty pounds lighter…
If you love your wife, prepare anyway. What’s she going to say? If you show her what the future is probably holding, it’ll scare her enough to say, “Oh!”
If 2020 wasn’t bad enough, look at what’s going on in 2021.
http://www.academia.edu
Rockefeller Foundation, 2010
“Scenarios For The Future Of Technology And International Development”
Scenario “Lock Step”, page 18
That’s the game plan, laid out a decade ago. And no, that’s not the only source showing that this was a long-planned event, with precisely the intent of crushing the world’s economic growth and creating a Nanny State of utterly dependent people under authoritative rule.
Anyone want to hear how the “authorities” will now fully abrogate your Constitutionally-protected rights and freedoms to achieve this objective, not in contravention of the law, but *totally legally*, no matter how you protest at law? Care to see how to find the legal proof of that truth in your own current statutes, and what one can then do to restore their rights?
I tried before here and was told to “shut my pie hole” by someone who hasn’t ever done a stroke of true research in their life. Ignorant defensiveness won’t ever help anyone to escape what’s intended.
I mean well… but it’s time the people learned why their whole world keeps getting turned upside down, and why they never seem to have any power to stop it, no matter what rights they may believe they have. I invite your intelligent curiosity.
this will only get worse,read your bible. Me and my husband live in a rural small town in Oregon,the trouble is , everyone is moving to Oregon, there is No more cheap land here, we were lucky when we found our place, we have fruit trees, nut trees, chickens and geese and a few sheep and a few other animals. We have a huge garden and I can or dry just about everything, it is hard but it is worth every moment,peace and quite is qood for the soul no matter what.Keep praying and do all that you can to get self-sufficient.
Well we found out real fast that teachers are Not essential. Homeschool your kids ..:0)
Let us remember that the “real victim(s) of this pandemic” is not the economy, but the over 105,000 human lives that were taken. The economy will come back. Those lives won’t.
Sparky: A man is involved in an horrific automobile collision. He has lost lots of blood from internal bleeding which the paramedics can’t stop. He is almost flatline by the time he gets to the ER and in the transfer process he does flatline and all efforts to revive him are in vain.
Among other tests, on orders of the hospital administrator, they do a throat swab and find COVD19 virus. The ER doc goes to list cause of death as massive injuries from auto collision. The hospital administrator says, “Wait a minute. You found COVD on a throat swab. He died of COVD 19. He’s is worth more money to us if he died from that.”
The doc is only a senior resident and needs to complete his residency before he moves on. He changes the C.O.D. to Corona virus.
From what I understand, that scenario has played out numerous times over the last three months in hospitals all over the country. No matter how terminal the patient was from other causes, if COVD was discovered (and I suspect in some cases even where it wasn’t discovered.) that disease entity was listed as the C.O.D,
Considering that in past flu epidemics up to 60,000 people in the U.S. died without the panic and disruption of U.S. Commerce, and, in fact, world wide commerce, and considering that the numbers are admitted to have been inflated to get increased federal dollars, I hope you will pardon me if I say this whole thing was a tempest in a teapot. I don’t know the real reason for the world wide hysteria. I suspect we won’t know for several hundred years, I am puzzled by the reaction of other countries. If it were just the U.S., I, being the paranoid tin-hatter that I am, would suspect some move to try to discredit Trump in time for the 2020 elections. I am sure in certain speeches severe criticism will emirate from various democratic party speakers.
There is a five day holiday in Japan annually around the first week in May. Every Japanese who can travel somewhere does. The whole country is on the move in country and out of country. Today in a program talking about excursion rail lines, train trips that people use on holidays because they are a special train with unbelievable amenities, the president of one excursion railway said that passenger travel on his rail line this past May was down 90% over May of last year. That is a staggering drop in revenue. So we are not the only ones who jumped on the panic bandwagon.
While Japan is admittedly a much smaller country than the U.S. and as one would expect, their deaths from the epidemic were significantly less than the U.S., proportionately, they were also significantly less. Some pundits aver that it is due to the Japanese already having the habit of wearing face masks if they feel sick or if there is sickness going around. In my tin-hat paranoia I would suggest it is also due to the fact that Japanese hospitals didn’t have a financial interest in inflating the actual number of deaths attributable to the disease.
Not an attempt to diminish the loss of life due to the virus. We are all a part of the main. Each person’s death diminishes the whole. That said, each week in this county between 25 to 35 residents of the county die from assorted causes. Over the course of the epidemic, 35 people in this county have died from the virus. That’s the total figure, inflated or real.
Without access to the actual individual death records and their medical histories, it is impossible for me to delineate how many of that 35 were struck down in otherwise good health in the prime of life and how many were already on death’s door from other causes and the flu opened the door and ushered them through. For that reason I won’t speculate, but I will say that unfortunately, in all areas, the biggest segment of the population who expired from the virus were the elderly and folks who already had serious health issues.
The reason why Los Angeles’s death rate was out of proportion to other counties, in my view, is because of the very high number of folks living on the streets who already have serious diseases or serious health problems.
If one wanted to be ghoulish, one could speculate that incidents of hepatitis, cholera, typhus, typhoid, kaposi’s sarcoma, and pneumonocyticosis and sundry sexually transmitted diseases will be somewhat reduced in the next few years. People who might have expired from those diseases might be spared because carriers died of the flu before they could pass it on.
LA City Hall already has several employees out on workers’ compensation because they contracted typhus from the rats that infest city hall from the refuse of the people living on the streets near city hall. I fail to understand why the city doesn’t shovel off the streets on a daily basis. They assuredly will pay more in workers’ compensation claims than it would have cost to shovel the —ahhh —refuse off the streets. There is a cruder term for what is on the streets that you are free to guess at.
As to the sequella of this panicked period, it will be very interesting and perhaps somewhat painful to see how well the country can rebound. Even with businesses reopening, if a restaurant can only have 25% of the patrons they formerly had and they were just getting by before, the restrictions on the number of patrons they can have at a time will be the death of a thousand cuts.
If the socialists get their way and police forces are radically reduced in funds available and in what proactive actions they can take on the streets, crime is going to blossom like we have never seen before. Already in this county the sheriff’s department is complaining about serial arrests in very short periods of time due to the no-bail laws passed by the socialist legislature last year. No bail meaning that short of an arrest for a significant felony, rape, murder, maiming, voluntary manslaughter no bail is to be set in order to not deprive the alleged criminal of his freedom while still in an “innocent” status as to his guilt.
Crime will easily reach the levels it reached in the 70s and probably significantly surpass those crime figures.
chuck: Corona started in sanctuary cities and spread form there.the dems were, in effect, killing off their own constituency to promote themselves as ‘real’ leaders in a crisis. niio
If 60,000 people die in some flu seasons without disruption to normal life .. imagine how many would have died if we didn’t shut down for covid19. We are over 110,000 already.
Con: We suffer a new plague every two years. If Trump had not listened to Fauci, a man in love with Hillary the Genocidal Beast, he would have shut down the borders immediately. When he did, Pelosi and the rest screamed racist! 28,000 people came in from China, alone, before he could stop it. As it is, states with the highest death toll are being watched and studied. Cuomo and other pandemic-rats are looking at arrest for purposely killing off the elderly and so on. niio
“Never let a good crisis go to waste”.
We had zero reported cases before Memorial day. On Memorial day weekend, there were bumper to bumper campers at all the camping spots, the grocery store parking lot didn’t have a vacant spot, people were running around without masks or any concern for social distancing. Now we have five reported cases. I’ve learned in my lifetime that, left to their own devices, people are pigs and have no respect for anything but their own sociopathic desires. A bit of common courtesy and common sense would have stopped this virus in the first week without any government intervention.
LCC – I understand your skepticism but the exact opposite of what you’ve said is true, in my opinion. In most civilised jurisdictions if someones dies of Covid19 anywhere but in a hospital they’re not counted in the official death toll.
Its believed, for example the death toll in the UK is in reality up to 30 000 higher than official figures.
No one would ever accuse the Chinese govt of being free with honest information, its speculated that their death toll is really between 130 000 and 500 000.
But the human toll is only one part of the story. A large part of the shut down effort was aimed at protecting the health systems from collapse, as happened in Italy.
Speaking of the “victims of this pandemic” I wonder what the REAL number actually is. I’ve heard from some sources that it might multiples of what we are being told.
One way to calculate that real number is to look at the number of deaths in a given jurisdiction (let’s say New York City) during a given period of time (let’s say February 1, 2020 through March 31, 2020) and compare it to the number of deaths in the same jurisdiction during the same period of time in 2019. THAT analysis will give the TRUE effect of Covid 19 on human life.
The lack of bail and possible defunding of police plus the early release of many criminals may add up to some very interesting times ahead.
Big cities to be avoided as much as possible.
A gun by every rural country home door may become a necessity as well.
During the nights of protests in my nearest city off in another area a gun shop was robbed. 105 handguns plus long guns were taken. That increases the necessity for being armed in your home. The only ones profiting in this weird time of 1/4-1/2 opened for business may by gun sales. I’m seriously considering more shotgun shells and another handgun. Perhaps another 38. Smaller amo is cheaper but larger is better stopping power. A 45 is going to cause serious damage but a 38 is easier for me to handle. Husband preferred 9mil. Too light for my taste.
Between Gates desire to vaccinate everybody and put a tracker in you at the same time, increased lawlessness, the continual loss of employers, frustrations and fear, and the government wanting to track everyone ….excuse is covid 19…it is an interesting time were looking to survive.
My Sweety is 66 and deadly accurate with a .45, you girls are amazing in many ways. Always grateful for your heart felt posts.
Mike: someone once said, women are deadly enough without giving them guns, too. A woman replied, that’s just our way of civilizing teenage boys. May you and the hottie have many more years of love on the target range together. “At the start of every war is an angry woman.” Mine’s in Mexico trading her goats for more M16s. niio
Make sure that you have a current passport and $5-$10K liquid to buy yourself a way out of the US. We’re a violent people that are heavily armed and deeply divided. There will be safer and more charitable places to ride this out.
organic: And those more charitable places demand a heavy toll to be paid to their police charity, usually 5-10 bucks at a time. That, or if they can, you just get shot and your body is found months later. If mafiosos like drug lords aren’t on you list of fav madcap places to go, then note that groups like al-Queda and others are very quietly buying their way into most nations where China has some pull. Also, most of these nations have very strict gun laws that make certain the average person will never own one and thereby defend himself from criminals who pay off the government.I have family in Mexico, and believe me, Mexico is much more American oriented/friendly than most nations south or east of them. 2 friendliest nations I know at St. Kitts and Belize. But, Belize has a perennial problem with Guatemala invading. Guatemalans don’t stay long, or don’t live long enough to leave.
Your passport will become worthless overnight when the Gov’t bans travel outside the US and starts confiscating them.
Festus: new passport: 5 bucks in the right hands. Viva la frontiera! I don’t think you need a passport in Belize. I have family there and they come and go. St. Kitts is a good spot I hear. They allow dual citizenships.
niio
organic gardener, that really sounds like a great idea BUT, those in high places won’t want people just getting up and leaving with their wealth. They will try to get money out of you, by taxing you before you leave. Who knows what they will charge for that. When deciding to leave, you can’t wait until you see things have gone well down the hill. Wishing you the best
And miss all the fun? Never! Why would I run?
Consco: You do walk in beauty 🙂 niio
arye: I have fam 100 miles south, in Mexico. While tempted, no, I don’t think I would go unless forced to, and I cannot see how they would force me out. As it is, people south of the border are gearing up for some fun and excitement. Thanks to PRI gun laws, few can legally own a gun there, but guns are popular, and hidden. This corona thing was good for the left, it kept people from coming over the border to buy, sort of. Word is, the trade is still thriving along the Tohono reservation. Cattle come north, guns and ammo head south. niio
Thanks for sharing this.