Saturday, November 25, 2017

Prepper Savings Plan

Getting ahead in life means saving your money, so here is what I believe is a good plan to be financially prepared.  Note:  A real Prepper is prepared for anything, including losing your job and getting old and retiring. Disclaimer: I am not a Financial Advisor. 

We will have short, medium and long term (retirement) savings.  Many Rich people get/stay rich by acting poor, while many Poor people got/stay poor by acting rich.  So it is important to live within our means, or even better, below.
  1. First save have some Emergency Cash stored at your house. Start with enough to buy a weeks worth of groceries if the power & ATM's are out of service.  This Emergency Cash link can give you some ideas on how much and why.
  2. Then save the equivalent of three months net income (minimum).  Loosing a job is fairly common in today's job market, and this will protect your home, automobile, and more importantly, your family. I would keep about 2/3 of this in the bank, and 1/3 in cash at home in a hidden safe. There are some very affordable fire proof boxes and wall safes.
  3. At the same time, sign up for your company 401K for the maximum that the employer will match. For example, a small (5%) 401K savings deduction costing us $62.50, we will realize a huge savings of $192.31.  This should generally be invested in a mutual fund that is appropriate risk for your age, but there are many options.

  4. Set up a budget and stick with it. Include savings as well as a modest Prepper Budget.  The Beginner Prepper Plan has a starter budget for just over $500.  You should also have several weeks worth of Food and Emergency Water, stored in your home.  These links will assist.
  5. Short term savings for things like a car or down payment on a house are next. Don't buy new cars because they depreciate too much in the first year.  Instead buy a 2+ year old model that will cost much less but should be in good condition for many years to come.  The payments will be less, so take the difference between between the used car payment and the new car payment and save it to apply to your next car. When that savings account reaches a dollar amount sufficient for buying another car, then you can do so, but not before.
  6. When it comes time to buy a house, select one below your means.  If you qualify for a $100,000 home loan (for round numbers and to make it easy to do the math), buy a $50,000 house and make payments as if it was a $100k house.  Within approximately 5 years, you will own this house.  Sell your $50K house, use this to make a down payment on your $100k house.  Make payments as if it was a $100k loan, and again in about 5 years, you will have this $100k house paid for.  Then take these house payments and start saving them, or at least 50%. At this point consider a Prepper Retreat.  Building your own energy efficient solar powered home is worth considering.  At the very least, you should have some Emergency DIY Power Supply for an Extended Power Outage.  
  7. Where your home is located is important. There are Common Home Security elements however City Home Security is different from Country Home Security, and a country home with woods allows some Wilderness Survival potential as well as a Prepper Garden.
  8. In time, you have a paid for house, a car you bought with cash, money being saved for your next car, so now you are ready for investing.  Diversity and regular additions to your investments are the key, but more important is that you start early. Let me explain why. 
  9.  Suppose two twin brothers start saving $2,000 per year.  Brother 1 starts at age 21 and saves for 6 years.  Brother 2 starts saving at age 27 and saves for 36 years.  When they retire at 65 years of age, Brother 1 has more money than Brother 2, because of the magic of compound interest.  This is how the Rich get richer by investing and loaning money to Poor people who borrow money to buy everything and get poorer.
  10. In our home buying example above(#6), IF we had financed a $100,000 house for 30 years and paid 7% compound interest, we would end up paying about $250,000.  This is again, how the Rich get richer and the Poor get poorer.  You want to be earning compound interest, NOT paying it!
  11. Stock Market Mutual Funds,  Real Estate - rental property and about 10% Silver are my favorite investments, but there are many options that you can consider.  You should consult a financial advisor on where to put your money. This should give you a few ideas.
Disclaimer: I am not a Financial Advisor.

For additional information see the following links:
Blog Table of Contents


Urban Survival Plan
Intruder Detection
Sustainable City Survival

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Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Primitive Shelter

There are many forms of primitive shelter.  First is a survival shelter, which is temporary vs a Sustainable shelter which is long term with more comfort.

The best advise is usually to stay put so that you don't wander too far away and are easier to find. In that case start with a temporary shelter and improve it over time. 

In a wilderness survival situation, a quick, easy structure is the goal, especially if you are on the move; the more natural your shelter, the better.

A natural overhang, or a large healthy tree can be a good starting point but avoid widow makers (trees likely to fall). Instead of cutting trees down, bend some saplings over to serve as a frame. Use brush and leaves as cover and insulation.  In cold weather, make your survival shelter small as it takes less to insulate it and keep it warm; make your sustainable shelter large enough to safely burn a fire and store fire wood so they can stay dry.

If you are building a longer term shelter, the Native American Tipi is an excellent choice, that will support a small (uses less wood) inside fire. The Native Americans moved frequently, but had regular places they lived during the different seasons.  While nomadic, this still permitted primitive gardening.


The Tipi is very functional with many good design features.


Plus it is not overly hard to build, especially if you have a tarp.  It is also portable, which is important for a Nomadic live style, which is essential to primitive living. Imagine a similar stationary shelter using live tree saplings, bent over to form your structure, covered with branches and leaves.

Ben Hunt, author of some good books drafted this detailed design below.


For additional information see the following links:
Blog Table of Contents

Complete Sustainable Living Plan
Naked & Afraid Survival Plan

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Sunday, November 5, 2017

Prepper Livestock - Pigeons

Another sustainable source of food are Pigeons.  They are excellent foragers and require minimal care. Pigeons can breed at 6 months of age and reproduce all year round laying 2 eggs 4-6 times per year that hatch in 17 to 19 days.  The Squabs grow to edible size within 4 -6 weeks.   With 8 pairs of pigeons, you could have two 10 ounce squabs for dinner every week.   Pigeon lofts need 2 square feet of floor space per bird, so for up to 32 birds, you would need 64 square feet or about an 8 x 8 area.  A small high door will allow them to enter & exit with less risk of varmints.  

In addition to a food supply, they are good pets, security - flying when spooked and they can carry messages back home when carried off on regional travels with an easy 50 - 100 mile range when worked up to it slowly starting about 6 months old after freely flying their area daily for 4 weeks.  Start taking the bird a mile away. Go North, South, East, and West so they know how to return from all directions. Do this a few times and then two miles, then five miles, ten miles, and so on up to 50 miles where most homing pigeons will do fine. A true homer will return from hundreds of miles and some have found their way home from over 1,000 miles.

Historically, pigeons carried messages only one way, to their home after being carried off.  However, by feeding them at one location and housing them at another location, pigeons have been trained to fly round trips up to 100 miles daily.  

Multi-purpose is important in prepping.  Pigeons serve many functions outlined above; chickens provide eggs and meat while goats provide milk and meat.  Rabbits provide fur and meat. 

If you don't have pigeons, you can trap some in hard times for food or breeding stock.

For additional information see the following links: 
Prepper Livestock
Blog Table of Contents

Complete Sustainable Living Plan

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