Beo's Guide to Surviving the Collapse of the US Economy

[Otohiko]

To expand a little on my experience - that's the reason we avoid savings accounts and investments into anything but real, hard assets. Around 1991, all savings that anyone in my family had went down the drain. My grandparents suffered most from it, having lost maybe the equivalent of $15-30,000 each. In 1993, our "share of former state property" which was invested into a supposedly respectable venture on the market also went AWOL and was never seen again. During this period, prices inflated somewhere around 100,000 times.

In 1991, my dad started buying up anything he could that he knew would never be out of demand. He bought a whole stack of huge rolls of plain grey cloth, and gradually bartered them with other people, eventually converting this stack into a much smaller collection of valuable metals. He decided to quit that business when someone offered him to help re-sell some uranium. However when he sold off these assets, the worst of the inflation was over and it made for a very valuable supplement to the family income. Noone saw it getting that bad in Russia - but having a little bit of precautionary thought and distrust towards commercial optimism helped my family. When shit goes down, it's the people with big connections and big titles that get away in the market. The little people get burned. We've seen this in the US a lot over the past year. So if you have a survival mindset, buy real things. Now, noone says you have to and by no means are things that bad. However it can and does happen. And when it does, it usually happens well before anyone can do anything about it, especially the people most liable to be hurt by it.

As I say though, poverty is an overrated bogeyman. For most of the first half of my life, I lived in a family of four that had an income equivalent of about $600 a month - with prices levels for most staples being near-identical to present-day US equivalent. How was it? I know it wasn't terribly easy for my dad, but honestly, as a family we were doing just fine. And as a kid, I pretty much had an awesome time that hasn't been matched since.

[ZephyrStar]

Yeah, don't buy gold now. Buy shit you can use and save. Gold would have been great back when it was only 300$ an oz. I shoulda bought it then. Oh well. One big big big thing is, GET THE FUCK RID OF ANY CREDIT CARD DEBT YOU HAVE. That shit will suck the lifeblood out of you. Pay that fucker off and cancel it if you're the kinda person who leaves a balance on there.



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Either that, or max it out buying survival things like guns and ammo? :> It pisses me off that I have to spend 20$ for a box of 9mm rounds :/

[Knowname]

If my bank account went down I'd lose about the equivalent of $15 too :/

[dwchang]

Indeed, the bones of what I said is that there is no reason to have a savings account. Take all that money and put it in gold. Even though its completely recovered from its Q4 2008 plunge, it still needs to double imo.

Fair enough. In reality I don't have much in my savings and most of my money is invested so I'm already doing that, but I was basically taking what you said as a "take your money out and put it under your mattress" which I strongly disagreed with.

At the same time, it's good to have some money somewhere as a rainy day fund. I've had one since I graduated college and had a job. My mom recommended it and it's a nice little safety net in case things do go terrible. It's not difficult either. Just save ~3 months worth of living expenses gradually or better yet, spend frugally until you have it saved up. It's nice to know I have something and I recommend all new graduates or newly employed folks to do the same.

[Zarxrax]

I have a lot of my money in gold. I usually go with coins because they are pretty, even though there is a bit of an extra markup on them.

It's also important to know how to plant a garden, and get REAL seeds for them (a lot of the seeds on the market today are genetically modified so that the resulting plants wont have any seeds in them). But then if the shit hits the fan, you are definitely going to need some guns to protect your crops.

[Kitsuner]

I have a lot of my money in gold. I usually go with coins because they are pretty, even though there is a bit of an extra markup on them.

It's also important to know how to plant a garden, and get REAL seeds for them (a lot of the seeds on the market today are genetically modified so that the resulting plants wont have any seeds in them). But then if the shit hits the fan, you are definitely going to need some guns to protect your crops.

Zarx makes a good point. We need to grow some plants, because we don't want zombies on our lawn.

[guy07]

Moving to Canada won't save you. A large portion of our economy is reliant on the American economy. I keep wishing we'd try to be more self-sustained but at this point if the US goes under, I don't see things going well here at all.

[CodeZTM]

if the US goes under, I don't see things going well here at all.

That's pretty much true of every country in the world that actively trades with us, and vice-versa. If China/India/Canada/Mexico/ect were to collapse and fuck up, the whole world would feel that pain in some form or another.

But this is a good thing.

With countries around the world having vested interests in us [and the large debts we owe them], they're not only less likely to attack us, but also more likely to support our economy. This is pretty much the same of any country in any sort of trade alliance like NAFTA, EU, and SAFTA.

I keep wishing we'd try to be more self-sustained but at this point

Any country that tries to do this isolationist self-sustaining market will not only fail, but fail hard core [eventually]. That or prices will be so ridiculously high that poverty will be pretty much widespread. Just look at the middle eastern countries where trade/loans is not only illegal, but it's against their religious beliefs. That's what isolationist countries look like [minus the sand, ect..] There's mathematics and economics 101 that proves this without a doubt, I'm just too lazy to go open my class notes that far back.

[ZephyrStar]

At the same time, it's good to have some money somewhere as a rainy day fund. I've had one since I graduated college and had a job. My mom recommended it and it's a nice little safety net in case things do go terrible. It's not difficult either. Just save ~3 months worth of living expenses gradually or better yet, spend frugally until you have it saved up. It's nice to know I have something and I recommend all new graduates or newly employed folks to do the same.

Yes. This saved my ass when I got unexpectedly laid off. (And I say unexpectedly, but I was paying attention to the signs in the office, economy, etc, and pretty much saved every dollar I could for about 6 months)

[guy07]

So when do the zombies start taking over? I got a really nice hatchet i wanted to put to good use...