Why do I need to prepare...for what?

The events this week of Japan and the earthquake are not only saddening and upsetting but also I think bringing back into view that none of us have a secured guarantee on life. None of us live in a protected environment and we have not been promised that each day we wake up will be filled with singing of birds and laughter of children. That would be great and when it happens it is a gift and requires appreciation and thanksgiving. Events either man-made or natural can catch us off guard so easily, I guess that is why people are so shocked when things do happen and ask the million dollar question, "why doesn't the government have something to tell people when this is going to happen?"

I have a link here of a small camp stove not unlike one you can find in a big box store of your choosing: http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/CAMP355-1.html

This is to give people some idea of what can be gotten to add to what is referred to as a "Bug-Out-Box" a Tupperware box large enough for you to keep canned and dry foods to make meals for your immediate family for up to a week. Enough plastic plates, utensils and drinking supplies (a filtered water bottle is very good here: suggestion: http://www.directive21.com/accessories-sport-berkey.html

Copy of your important documents (originals should be kept in fireproof box in safe location) address book of close relatives, maps of local area, know what your official evacuation safe places are in your community. If you should have to bug out and relocate to a designated evacuation shelter you and your family will have what you need as far as medical supplies, prescriptions and food and water to not be a burden to the larger community. If all families were to do this there would be no strain put upon local government officials to supply a family's needs and wants. All persons staying in a shelter would not only have what they need but would also be able to share with the less prepared. Those unfortunate guests of the New Orleans stadium basically walked to the stadium with no food in hand, no water, no sleeping bags, no medical prescriptions...nothing and with an expectation that all their needs would be provided by local government (and Federal) officials to provide all they need and we all know from history how drastic and tragic that turned out. If each family took responsibility for their own needs and prepared for power outages: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROyER7YT4DM    This self built system can also be done by purchasing a "power inverter" from Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-mart, K-Mart, Northern Tool that could be easily connected to the battery of your automobile and it can provide electrical power for your immediate, emergency electrical needs such as running a television or emergency radio to hear announcements and news. Remember that as long as power is being taken from the car battery for A/C current that the D/C current will need to be replenished by starting and running the car's engine for fifteen to twenty minutes. Please keep in mind not to run down the car battery so much that it will not start the engine. Such steps can help and enable your family to have alternative methods opposed to those who do not prepare for common emergencies and are at the mercy and reliance of local emergency planners. They are only people themselves who have families of their own who are just as worried about providing food and water to their loved ones as you are about yours. Emergency planners are people who study the scenarios of what is most probable and has the most potential to happen, they develop guidelines and suggested methods for preparing. Preparing during a time of calm is much more manageable than waiting until an emergency happens and scrambling to gather bottled water, fill the bath tub, buy batteries and flashlights and more.

Waiting until an emergency is at our doorstep also encourages hording, a definition of hording would be if a person walks into a store and offers the manager a ridiculous amount of money for "all" the bottled water in the store. That person has created and entered into a deal with the manager that will help the manager's bottom line and the person will have all the water but what about everyone who comes in after them? Instead, going to the store this weekend, while there is no urgent threat to public safety and acquiring a single flat of water thus securing 24 bottles or more of portable, potable water for your family and have not inflicted any lack of supply upon your neighbor, your neighbor has just as much opportunity to acquire the same supplies as well and neither of you are subject to price gouging or illegal or immoral business practices. Preparing for emergencies whether within your family, local community, city-wide, county wide, state wide or national does take some mental change in thought process. Many of us do not want to walk around under a dark cloud and I am not suggesting that for anyone. What I would like to suggest is looking at what is currently happening in your local community, i.e., job loss. Having little or no credit card debt will give someone security and peace of mind should they encounter job loss to themselves or to their spouse. Having medical supplies, food and emergency items on hand will give peace of mind that there will be no empty bellies in the home and basic needs are met with calmness and clear thinking while looking for future employment.

It is about changing priorities of what is important or rather redirecting more energy, attention and focus on those important priorities. For some time now it has been fun to go shop for wider televisions, louder stereos and faster boats but the grip of a slumping economy requires us to slow down and gather up all the crumbs and left-overs of our finances and take a look at what we have available as far as liquid assets, what is our level of available income and how much is already spoken for to the credit card companies as well as mortgages and 401K's and IRAs. As the saying goes; if more is going out than what is coming in do you want to continue in that direction? When I was young a older wiser person told me that the mortgage on my house or rent for my apartment should equal one week's pay, another way to see it is a car should cost you no more than one third the cost of your home's value. Many people in the last ten years or so have not stayed within these guidelines and have become victims of easy credit and the wanting of shiny things. Many people today are upside down with their home mortgage and that has put them in a category of not being able to qualify for refinance of their existing mortgage. If a couple or a single individual finds themselves in this predicament then their financial reality is very fragile and missing even one month on a payment will put them into foreclosure, people are spending to their limit and not allowing a buffer. I am not talking about people who are on limited income due to chronic illness or disability rather people who are able to work for as much money as they want and spend it on what they want. A change of thinking is required if a person or persons wish to be out from under the pressure of debt. Debt can be an obstacle to purchasing necessary and needed supplies as well as having an ample supply of cash on hand. If electricity goes out and you do have to travel to a store more than likely that store will only transact with cash because telephone lines and computers will be off-line until power is restored. In Japan more than a million people are without power and there is no time line as to when that power will be safely restored, it could be months.

Changing our thought process, the bible gives it a name, mentanoia -changing of the mind. Re-organization of personal and professional priorities, what and who is important to you and are you willing to change your life of convenience to a more sustainable and self-reliance way of living. I am not talking about hiding in the woods and hunkering down, I am talking about using the monies that God has blessed you with and directing it in a more secure and productive way. I realize many may disagree with my thinking and that is fine, for those of you who find the simple and truthful way I suggest appealing to you then I hope you find this encouraging. What I suggest is not acting out in hysteria but rather a methodical and well planned approach to allow yourselves to not be reliant upon lines for food or ice, to be totally and helplessly dependent upon local authorities to be the only ones who act on behalf of your family's safety and well-being. Each head of a household has already been given that role by God Almighty Himself. Please consider what I have shared with you and if you believe it to be of use to someone else you have my permission to pass it along. The way I see it, the more people around me that prepare and plan for emergencies, the less I will have to turn away when they knock on my door for help. I have no problem with helping those who are caught off guard and are in need, I do have a problem with people who ask for help and were to busy watching premium cable television to go to the store and buy what they needed to take care of their own responsibilities, thus taking food from the mouths of my family members and giving it to someone who had little to no care for their own well-being, that to me is disgusting.  Please prepare.

End of America15

The video of End of America is going around again and being promoted by Solutions From Science and also Alex Jones of Prison Planet dot com as well as Dick Morris. Porter Stansberry is the guy who narrates the video and at the end (I know because I've listened to it) he tries to lure you into subscribing to his financial newsletter. While he does use true factual information about the Federal Reserve and what they are doing to this country's economy he still goes through the whole presentation without one free bit of advice or education. Well, if you decided not to send money to get a one year subscription then you would be among the wiser people walking around today. He was convicted of defrauding his subscribers back in 2007. Read for your own knowledge here: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_is_Porter_Stansberry
(Google sometimes is your friend)

It seems that is the new craze right now, to sell financial information for a subscription price. We can all see what is happening to the economy by watching the Federal Reserve (not a true division of the Federal Government according to their own website information). The Federal Reserve continues to pump more money out into circulation which in turn cheapens the money we already have because now there is too much of it in circulation. When cash money begins loosing value to the people we trade with then we must look for a new type of currency the rest of the world acknowledges; enter gold and silver. Food could also work for this or ammunition or anything else you might have that is valuable to the person you want to trade with. If a person has coconuts and you have violin strings and both will trade fairly for what each other has you have just created a currency between each other. If more people will trade their coconuts for your violin strings then you have a standard of currency going for you. Gold and silver is acknowledged around the world and is held in great value by many people. Today unless you can afford 1,400.00 an ounce to buy gold (resist credit card purchases) silver is the better option for most of blue collar America. At an average of $34.00 an ounce it is more available, more affordable and can be traded in smaller denominations such as dimes (tenth of an ounce) or quarters (1/4 of an ounce) half dollars (half an ounce) and the silver dollar made before 1963 (one full ounce) unless something is marked as one Troy ounce.

Ten percent of the value of your total assets (money cds, IRA's , 401Ks, bank accounts, money under the bed can be made up of gold and silver. More than that is not advisable but can be done if that is what you choose. Cash is still king and is what gold and silver sellers want in exchange for their gold and silver because it is still considered the standard currency for America and many places around the world. Even though the value is going down on the dollar most states in America are not set up to trade in gold or silver coin on a statewide scale, individually maybe but not inside local big box retail stores. Food is good, beer is good, ammunition is good, coffee is good for barter purposes. When things can be traded such as food for services rendered (you fix my toilet and I'll make you pies for a week) whatever can work for your situation. An ounce or two of gold is good but a majority of silver is the best going choice right now.

Mr. Stansberry is a proven crook who is out doing the same thing that got him into trouble to begin with, no one is owner of a crystal ball and there are no Jeanies who tell the future.

Who killed the electric car? (1of10)