Hard-Core Financial Preparedness—Part 1

Desperation Reigns Supreme

[caption id="attachment_4933" align="alignright" width="300" caption="hard money lending photo c/o peachstonecapital.com"][/caption]

Many years ago I frequently rubbed elbows with the hard-money world of commercial lending.  As an expert educator in the world of commercial finance, I simply could not have a functioning knowledge of the industry without being exposed to what was known as “hard-money lending.”  Hard-money loans typically come with some steep prices.  The first fee one would usually have to pay is an “application fee.” This particular fee is

Do You Believe in an EMP?

EMP“Do you believe in an EMP?” questioned an older woman in one of my classes this weekend. Until she asked me this question, I suppose I never considered whether or not an EMP was to be “believed in” or not. None of my readers will be shocked to hear that I responded “Of course I believe in EMPs.” My follow-up question to her should have been “What’s not to believe?”

Mylar the Magnificent

mylarDo Mylar bags have a place in your preparedness efforts? Absolutely. While I store a lot of food and non-food items in four gallon square buckets, #10 cans, Mason jars, and five gallon round buckets, there’s still plenty of tinsel in my pantry in the form of Mylar bags. Why?

Mylar bags make your food access more convenient.

The California Water Crisis

Every once in a while it’s good to bring the “what if” scenarios a little closer to home. Sometimes an emergency doesn’t need to be brought on by Mother Nature, or a major financial collapse. Sometimes it can be brought to the forefront by a lack of common sense. So today I thought I’d share this clip with you regarding a very real, man-made water crisis in California. This is indeed a man-made disaster. But it is real nonetheless, with real consequences, dire in nature. It gives us just one more reason to remind us that we need to be prepared with appropriate stores of food, water, and financial strength.

The Virtue of Powdered Milk

powdered-milk

 

OK, I admit it. I used to hate powdered milk as a kid.  But I have to admit, it’s come a long ways in 30 years, thank goodness.  With the cost of milk nowadays, if you’ve got more than 2 mouths to feed, it can cost as much for milk as it does to fill up your car with gas.  And if you’re a “dairy freak” like I am, you’ll wonder what in the world you’ll do in the event of an emergency when you may be FORCED to use powdered milk regularly.

“Meet My Friends, Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson”

You’ve Got it All—Now How Do You Keep It?

 

food-storage

 

 

After years of concerted efforts, budgeting, canning, lifting, organizing and educating, you feel reasonably confident that you finally have enough food, water, and other emergency supplies to last you one year.  But here’s the real question.  Now that you have it all, how are you going to ensure that you’ll get to use it when all heck actually does break lose?