2020 was a wonderful reminder that all it takes is a flu that kills already sick people for the governments of the world to turn 100% authoritarian.
I remember buying toilet paper from a guy 25 miles away in a parking lot for $5 a roll.
Imagine your utilities are shut off, there is no more food in the store, the gas stations are closed down.
I don't see the point in focusing 100% of your energy on living as if nothing will ever go wrong for the next 60 years. If you open a history book for just a minute, you'll see that war, genocide, starvation, etc. is the default state of human existence. This period of wealth and comfort is incredibly abnormal.
It seems silly to build a business, make your millions, and not spend at least a few grand in covering your a$$ to be able to live completely independently for a year. You're free to do as you wish, but I would rather be a little prepared.
In our society of total interdependence, all it takes is a minor hiccup to disrupt everything. How many times have you heard "supply chain issues" this year?
1.3% of people are farmers and they feed 100% of us.
I can only imagine what will happen when there is no food, no water, no electricity. Nearly all people will be completely F*cked and totally desperate.
So, for that reason, it only makes sense to spend a small amount as an insurance policy against the default state of nearly all human history: chaos.
With that said, I do not live life on defense. You should still travel, take risks, do everything in life you want to do. Nearly all people who do any sense of "prepping" are complete losers and sit in their basement. That's a shame. Do not do that. All I'm saying is if you have a few grand, maybe spend it on a little bit of a backup plan before you buy a new watch.
Here's some things I think will be the most important for you to focus on, and it's what I'll be focused on too.
1. water
If your utilities shut off, where are you getting water from? You will die very quickly with no water.
Do you have a well and live in a house? Are you in an apartment? Is there a river nearby?
The easiest thing to do is just store 50 1-gallon jugs of water. You should be good. I live on a lake so I'll just be buying a proper water filter.
2. Food
Food is the most likely thing to be hard to find and the stores will be empty once anything goes wrong. You can live without food longer than water but it is still very important.
You have a few options. You can cook your food and have stuff like rice and beans stored for cheap for a long long time. You can have food stored that doesn't need cooking. Or you can try to farm. It's pretty unrealistic to farm or at least in the short term, so you should have a year of food planned out.
We have a fireplace and live in a house and I can store plenty of firewood. So I'll just keep food I can cook stored up like rice and beans and it'll be cheap. If you're in an apartment you will only be able to cook with electricity and if you don't have that, you're screwed. So you should have food stored that doesn't need cooking. Companies will sell you some expensive emergency meals ready-to-eat, which will work just fine.
3. Hygiene
Where are you going to go to the bathroom? When there's no power your toilet will likely back up eventually. You could go outside but that really sucks long term. We are on sewer and need a grinder pump to pump waste up to the sewer at the street. So I would need to hookup the generator to our house and turn on the pump for a bit at the breaker. We can use the lake water to fill the toilet and flush just fine. So I'd have a generator, enough gas stored with some fuel stabilizer, and I could be using the toilet just fine even without electricity or water coming from the city. It would only need to run once every few days only for a short time. We'll have about a years worth of toilet paper and soap stored up.
4. Self-defense
You need SOME gun and $300 worth of ammo. Hunting is not realistic for most people. You just need enough to not be F*cked with. People will be going door to door in groups and killing people. If you keep your house boarded up, and put a 00 magnum buck shot round through the forehead of anyone that tries to come in, you'll be fine. Any gun shot at anyone will F*ck them up.
If you are european and gay then you'll have to focus on hiding and not being noticed.
You can have all of the other stuff taken care of and have water, food, toilet paper, etc. If I have nothing and you have something and you have no way to defend yourself, I'll take your something and you now have nothing.
5. Something for when you're away from home
In your car it would be smart to carry a weapon, some emergency supplies and whatever you can fit in a backpack if you get caught in a bad situation.
You can do all of this for pretty cheap. I'll be getting some supplies and stocking up on some basics. My goal is to be able to live for a year without any dependence on anyone. I'll have water, food, be able to cook, use the toilet, stay clean, defend myself, etc.
This should take up like a day or two of your time. Once it's checked off the list, forget about it and get back to work tackling your goals.
I remember buying toilet paper from a guy 25 miles away in a parking lot for $5 a roll.
Imagine your utilities are shut off, there is no more food in the store, the gas stations are closed down.
I don't see the point in focusing 100% of your energy on living as if nothing will ever go wrong for the next 60 years. If you open a history book for just a minute, you'll see that war, genocide, starvation, etc. is the default state of human existence. This period of wealth and comfort is incredibly abnormal.
It seems silly to build a business, make your millions, and not spend at least a few grand in covering your a$$ to be able to live completely independently for a year. You're free to do as you wish, but I would rather be a little prepared.
In our society of total interdependence, all it takes is a minor hiccup to disrupt everything. How many times have you heard "supply chain issues" this year?
1.3% of people are farmers and they feed 100% of us.
I can only imagine what will happen when there is no food, no water, no electricity. Nearly all people will be completely F*cked and totally desperate.
So, for that reason, it only makes sense to spend a small amount as an insurance policy against the default state of nearly all human history: chaos.
With that said, I do not live life on defense. You should still travel, take risks, do everything in life you want to do. Nearly all people who do any sense of "prepping" are complete losers and sit in their basement. That's a shame. Do not do that. All I'm saying is if you have a few grand, maybe spend it on a little bit of a backup plan before you buy a new watch.
Here's some things I think will be the most important for you to focus on, and it's what I'll be focused on too.
1. water
If your utilities shut off, where are you getting water from? You will die very quickly with no water.
Do you have a well and live in a house? Are you in an apartment? Is there a river nearby?
The easiest thing to do is just store 50 1-gallon jugs of water. You should be good. I live on a lake so I'll just be buying a proper water filter.
2. Food
Food is the most likely thing to be hard to find and the stores will be empty once anything goes wrong. You can live without food longer than water but it is still very important.
You have a few options. You can cook your food and have stuff like rice and beans stored for cheap for a long long time. You can have food stored that doesn't need cooking. Or you can try to farm. It's pretty unrealistic to farm or at least in the short term, so you should have a year of food planned out.
We have a fireplace and live in a house and I can store plenty of firewood. So I'll just keep food I can cook stored up like rice and beans and it'll be cheap. If you're in an apartment you will only be able to cook with electricity and if you don't have that, you're screwed. So you should have food stored that doesn't need cooking. Companies will sell you some expensive emergency meals ready-to-eat, which will work just fine.
3. Hygiene
Where are you going to go to the bathroom? When there's no power your toilet will likely back up eventually. You could go outside but that really sucks long term. We are on sewer and need a grinder pump to pump waste up to the sewer at the street. So I would need to hookup the generator to our house and turn on the pump for a bit at the breaker. We can use the lake water to fill the toilet and flush just fine. So I'd have a generator, enough gas stored with some fuel stabilizer, and I could be using the toilet just fine even without electricity or water coming from the city. It would only need to run once every few days only for a short time. We'll have about a years worth of toilet paper and soap stored up.
4. Self-defense
You need SOME gun and $300 worth of ammo. Hunting is not realistic for most people. You just need enough to not be F*cked with. People will be going door to door in groups and killing people. If you keep your house boarded up, and put a 00 magnum buck shot round through the forehead of anyone that tries to come in, you'll be fine. Any gun shot at anyone will F*ck them up.
If you are european and gay then you'll have to focus on hiding and not being noticed.
You can have all of the other stuff taken care of and have water, food, toilet paper, etc. If I have nothing and you have something and you have no way to defend yourself, I'll take your something and you now have nothing.
5. Something for when you're away from home
In your car it would be smart to carry a weapon, some emergency supplies and whatever you can fit in a backpack if you get caught in a bad situation.
You can do all of this for pretty cheap. I'll be getting some supplies and stocking up on some basics. My goal is to be able to live for a year without any dependence on anyone. I'll have water, food, be able to cook, use the toilet, stay clean, defend myself, etc.
This should take up like a day or two of your time. Once it's checked off the list, forget about it and get back to work tackling your goals.
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