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How many here prep for financial disasters first and foremost? Sure, I've got rice, candles, propane, mountain house, etc. for short term SHTF events. At my last house I even had livestock and a huge garden.

But I think a lot of people forget about the fact that financial SHTF such as a job loss, car break down, etc. are much more common. Health issues are also far more common, and I would know since I've survived an illness that kills more people than AIDS, Cancer and car accidents in the US COMBINED...TWICE. Do you have health insurance and money to pay the deductible/out of pocket max?

From where I sit, 6-12 months expenses for the average person is important IMO, and favor given to having more, all of it liquid. But having your own home where you can grow food in the yard and have livestock is also good. Bonus if it's close to everything and paid off.

Always helps to be a two income household too and minimal debt or expenses.
 
Financial disasters have a way of snow balling out of control. Usually, but not always, such take some time to get started. My family got through the Great Depression in the hills of Virginia. It started slowly and did not hit hard until about 1932-34. It did not end until WW 2 production kicked in about mid 1943.

Lots of us here in SW OR USA try to take a long term point of view. The exceptions would be that always possible major wildfire that can and has stuck literally out of the blue. Last time we had only about one hour, then a hard 15 minute evac request. A close call. Wind change. We could have been burned out.

A financial plan is very necessary. A 12-24 month ability to function without any other income is always a good idea, but usually non doable for the average family. Right now some of us are only good to go with a 2 month cash stash. Several places. We know it is not enough, but right now things are tight money wise.

We have friends who are considering cashing out their IRAs and retirement pensions. Probably not a good idea. It is all about risk mitigation. What are the odds of EVERYTHING economically falling apart? Very low. Even back in 1929 my family had several years of seeing it coming on. It could happen again?
 
We're set for a family financial loss (injury, illness, job loss).

I don't think anyone's really set for a national or global financial crisis. It's all a giant house of cards, due to come tumbling down. How far down, is the question, and that's where most preparedness minded folk are "more set" than most, IMO.
 
We've been working toward that goal for some time.

Only debt we have is the mortgage - and we're paying an extra $1k on it every month, even while cash flowing 2 kids through college. I still contribute to the 401k. We've both got life insurance. Work provides disability insurance in case something happens to me and I don't die. We've got some cash reserves, live on a cash budget each month, and have some precious metals (including lead as well as silver). Most importantly, we are healthy and pay attention to that aspect of life as well.

Not sure what more we could do at this point?
 
If SHTF bad will money have any value? I've got some stashed, but I'd think usable commodities are a wise investment as they can be bartered or traded.
 
For those of you who have brokerage accounts, check out what happened recently in terms of "Settlement Accounts" and how purchases/proceeds are handled by way of a "Federal Money Market Fund". Pretty interesting, I thought. Doesn't help me sleep at night.
 
We've been working toward that goal for some time.

Only debt we have is the mortgage - and we're paying an extra $1k on it every month, even while cash flowing 2 kids through college. I still contribute to the 401k. We've both got life insurance. Work provides disability insurance in case something happens to me and I don't die. We've got some cash reserves, live on a cash budget each month, and have some precious metals (including lead as well as silver). Most importantly, we are healthy and pay attention to that aspect of life as well.

Not sure what more we could do at this point?

Smart family. Only debt we have is mortgage too. And that will go away in two years when we sell this place and move to our paid for property in Central Oregon. We will have enough equity to build a decent home and shop. We have IRAs that we still contribute to. We have cash reserves in the bank and some at home as well. We take a week to the sun somewhere every spring. We take mini vacations around the state several times a year. We have a 10 year old travel trailer. We drive paid for vehicles. We have enough life insurance to cover each others needs.

The American people love debt. Car payments, oh hell you will always have one. You must have the latest, greatest and the newest everything. Pity the millennials and their free spending, we want it all and we want it now ways.

We used debt and leverage to build our business, but have pretty much been debt free for over 10 years now. Should have been that way for the last 20 years. 2 of our 5 kids are in their early 30's and are debt free except for mortgage. The others not so much. Debt free and cash in the bank is a good feeling.
 
Thanks Bushman, glad to see this thread!! This is a frequent topic between Jeannie and I. We too are debt free except for mortgages, this house and three rentals, all of which will be paid off on or before our 60th birthdays. We have miscellaneous 401(k)s from jobs, but I'm sure they will evaporate before we ever get a chance to withdraw from them, especially if things go bad. We have accumulated quite a bit of cash over the years, both in the bank and in hand. The big question for us is what is the best way to hold the cash?? If the financial S really HTF, how much will green money really be worth?? What are the odds of being able to get it out of the bank?? Not a big fan of precious metals as I see them hard to broker in a serious situation; "how much must I file off this silver bar to buy that loaf of bread??" Useful commodities are my first choice for intrinsic value but they are difficult to store, transport and protect. So many questions and possibilities!!

In reviewing this thread I realize the OP was interested in relatively short-term, personal SHTF, not so much big picture stuff as the thread has drifted to. In regard to that I would suggest the two books, The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind. These are not how-to books, but will give insight into how people who accumulate wealth do so. They were real eye-openers. Following some of the principles in the books has made a significant difference in our finances. The best way to address the OP's concerns is to have as much liquid capital as possible. Both books have realistic guidelines to help you with that.

Looking forward to the further input of the members here.
 
If SHTF bad will money have any value? I've got some stashed, but I'd think usable commodities are a wise investment as they can be bartered or traded.

Useable commodities-not only can they be bartered / traded, but just by having them & using them in rotation you save money. Amidst a financial collapse, you would likely have things that are no longer available at any price.

As for precious metals & a collapse? Our feelings are they would be of extreme minimal use during & after a collapse. However they might be useful very long term after a collapse, like years after a new stability occurs. What would there value be? Who knows, it'd be whatever someone wants to pay for it. Now ... what would good toilet paper be worth, when there isn't any toilet paper for sale? Folks would have long switched to the Eastern method of cleaning they're bottoms...butt (pun intended), you would still have incredible value if you had a pallet of toilet paper to sell/trade.

Even if you could trade precious metals for goods or services amidst a collapse, you would then have painted a very large target on you & yours. Not only have you let it be known you have precious metals, you also have the goods you traded for. The goods alone may be worth the risk for someone to attempt to kill your entire family & steal...

...so...for us, we're not thinking on putting up to barter/trade in quantity, small things, perhaps. It would take a particular set of circumstances, in an extremely "safe" setting for us to consider trading anything of high demand/high value in quantity, something we think would take litteraly years to get back to following a collapse. Not worthwhile, unless you were allready a shopkeeper of some sort, with a secure storage site for goods allready in place.
 
I have prepped for financial issues for well over a decade.

I've probably told this story more than once here, but back in 96 or so, I was maxed out on all my credit cards, using one to pay the other, I was buying guns and ammo and other stuff to prep.

Then I crushed my foot and that cost me about $7K for the surgery (no insurance), and then about a year later I lost my job. That put me in a bind. I borrowed from my family and got a new job but barely avoided bankruptcy it was that close.I learned my lesson.

It took me almost ten years because I lost my job again and was unemployed for two years, but I paid down my debt to the point where I was eventually debt free. Then I had some savings.

The main thing is to be debt free, or as close as you can be to no debt. The only debt I have now is my mortgage, and theoretically my equity is almost equal to the amount I owe on my mortgage, although I would not rely on that.

Over the 45 years of my adult life, most of the times I have been between a rock and a hard place have been when I had debt and either was unexpectedly unemployed and/or had some unexpected expense.

Now I expect both and I prep financially for those problems and to a point they cease being a problem because I can throw money at them. For example - my kids car broke and became useless so they had to junk it. So they are now shopping for a "new" (used) car that I will pay for (there is no way they can buy it). The last couple of times I was unemployed I easily survived because I had no debt and I had savings.

Now it looks like my current job may be in danger due to market conditions (I would probably keep my job, but others may lose theirs), but I have been maxing out my retirement preps so I could retire tomorrow if I had to (if I could not find a new job) and survive on what I have now. I don't want to do that because I have some retirement plans beyond just surviving and I know from experience that the older I get the more likely I am going to have some healthcare expenses that I haven't had in the past - but at least I wouldn't be homeless if I could never get another job. Worst case I could eventually sell my property and move back into town in some low cost housing or something like that.

So yeah, my preps are primarily financial - I only have my mortgage as debt, I put a third of my gross income into retirement every month, and I have enough in my checking account to live on for two years.

Also, I got a bit antsy about where my investments were so I moved from 80/20 stocks/bonds to 80/20 bonds/stocks. I took a little bit of a hit in fees and the market being down, but no more than it was fluctuating on a daily basis and now most of those funds are protected, to a higher degree, from the market crashing. I am still pushing money into the market; my contributions still go there, but that is my plan. If the market crashes then I will jump back into significantly - buy low, sell high.
 
If SHTF bad will money have any value? I've got some stashed, but I'd think usable commodities are a wise investment as they can be bartered or traded.

When was the last time during your life, or the life of your parents or grandparents that money had no value in the USA?

I don't ever remember such a thing happening. My parents and grandparents went through the Great Depression and when they had money it was still worth something. My parents generation is almost gone now - not many left.

Could it happen? Sure. But what is more likely?

Unemployment - BTDT multiple multiple times. When I was first starting out I was unemployed more often than I was employed, and I had a family to provide for.

Car wreck? BTDT. Hospitalization? BTDT.

Multiple unexpected expenses? BTDT.

A lot easier to deal with those things when you have cash than when you have bullets. The problem with barter goods is bartering them. I had a rifle on here for almost a year that no one would buy. I once had a 4x4 truck that took years to sell and I sold it at a loss.

It is much more likely that you will be unemployed, or you or some member of your family will be sick or injured, or that you will be unable to work for whatever reason, or your roof or car will need repair, or a family member will need dental work, or eyeglasses, or whatever. These don't seem like SHTF scenarios until they happen and you don't have the money to deal with them. A dentist is not going to take freeze dried food in trade for a root canal. My mortgage holder will only take money, not bullets, not guns, not food, not bottled water.
 
The only debt my wife and I have is the mortgage and at the rate we are going it will be gone before summer. We also have 6-8 months of living expenses set aside. We feel very blessed that we are able to do this knowing so many cannot.
 

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