• What is more likely to happen tomorrow morning, you loose your job or we all face a complete collapse of the U.S. economy?
• Is it more likely that a person living near a large metropolitan area will have to deal with localized riots over a local issue or that a global pandemic will cause the death of 50% of the planet’s population?
• Will a California resident be more likely to be effected by an earthquake or a global nuclear war?
• In the next six weeks are we more likely to face a domestic trucker’s strike that disrupts the food supply or a global climate shift that destroys 50% of the world’s agriculture?

The reality is that there is the potential for each of the above and countless other factors to radically effect our lives, yet if you are honest and don’t buy into sensationalism answering the above four questions is very easy to do. With that in mind I created what I call the Threat Probability Matrix when I formulated my modern survival philosophy. The rules of the matrix are quite simple: the fewer people effected by an event the more likely it is to occur to an individual. That statement may seem counterintuitive but it really isn’t, just consider the following line:

Individual — Localized — Small Region — Large Region — National — Global

Now think of one disaster for each of these and ask yourself how likely you are to actually experience this event in the next year or next ten years. You can think of any disaster and then just assign it to one of the six categories and you will quickly see that in most instances the larger the effected area, the lower the probability that it will actually happen. Here are some examples…

• Individual — Job Loss
• Localized — Damage From Strong Storms
• Small Region — City Riots Spreading To The Suburbs
• Large Region — Large Scale Hurricane Damage To A Coastal Region
• National — A Well-Organized Terrorist Attack on 25 Major U.S. Cities
• Global — A Rapid Climate Shift Brings On An Ice Age

Again I just plugged in some common disaster scenarios; you can plug in any that you can think of, assign them to an area of effected individuals and like clockwork as you move from Individual to Global the honest probability of occurrence will decline as the affected area grows.

Why is this so important? Why does it even matter? Simply because if you want to properly prepare for potential disasters there is simply so much to do that it is very easy to become quickly overwhelmed. Due to this many people begin to start preparing but end up “falling out” simply because they come to the conclusion that, really being ready is just not possible. There is just “too much for anyone to do with out spending a fortune,” is a common statement.

It doesn’t have to be this way. By considering the probably and preparing for the most likely first and proceeding from there plans, preps and actions naturally fall into place as you develop your plan. As you progress through you own disaster preparation plan you will start to realize that by the time you prepare for individual, neighborhood and small regional disasters you are very well along your way to being as prepared as is honestly possible for just about anything.

Jack Spirko [send him mail] is a former U.S. Army Airborne soldier and the host of u201CThe Survival Podcast,u201D a daily online broadcast that helps listeners learn ways to live the life they want if times get tough or even if they don’t.

The Best of Jack Spirko

As the host
of the survival podcast
I have been approached by a lot of media lately and recently was
approached by a producer from “The Today Show” about helping them
with a segment. When the producer stated to me, “well we have already
filmed one family and they had a huge pantry, I
got what I needed from them," I was done and politely
choose not to be involved. A few weeks later the actual piece aired
and after viewing it I am very glad that my name and brand will
never be associated with it, you can view the segment on the NBC
Website here. Make sure to watch the end when they sample a
bit of the poppy seed cake.

One thing you
never hear mentioned in any of these media segments about preppers
storing food is the investment value the food represents in today’s
marketplace. In a recent LA
Times Article a simple list of foods used in most American
homes posted an 11% return on 16 common grocery items between 2007
and 2008. This trend of rising food prices has continued at the
consumer level right on into 2009 despite drops in other commodities
like oil. Compare that to the performance of stocks, mutual funds
and other common investments from 2007–2009.

The key with
storing food is you don’t run out and just buy 50 cases of military
style rations and put them away for a decade in a basement. Instead
modern survival philosophy revolves around the mantra of “eat what
you store and store what you eat." When you follow that concept
you soon realize that storing food for the most part doesn’t cost
a dime more then you will spend anyway.

Food
Storage Rule One – Store What You Eat

Follow the
simple logic that if you primarily store food items that you use
everyday in your home that every dollar you spend was going to be
spent anyway. Those six jars of spaghetti sauce you buy today would
have still been purchased just over a few months rather then in
one day. Keep in mind that when you go to the grocery store just
about anything in the center of the store is storable. Most common
food items we purchase today have shelf lives of at least 6 months
and by making sure you check dates you can almost always find stuff
that will easily go a year. Check in the back of the row for the
items that were most recently stocked; sometimes this little trick
adds 3–6 months of shelf life if new product was just brought
in.

When you store
what you eat you are not only spending money you will spend sooner
of later, you actually spend less of it in total. How? You mitigate
inflation. Buy a year’s worth of an item today and six months later
go see what the price of the item is, you are now eating that item
and you have cheated the inflation. When I explain this to people
the common objection is that “sure but sooner or later I have to
buy more of it and at that point I pay the higher price." This
is true and note I said you “mitigate inflation” not eliminate it.
What you didn’t pay was all the higher prices during the inflation
curve. That may sound complex but it is a simple and proven business
principle; it is exactly what Southwest Airlines does with fuel
purchases and it is a huge reason why they stayed profitable even
when much of the airline industry tanked.

Food
Storage Rule Two – Take Advantage of Opportunity Buys

This concept
is why you can win big beyond beating a portion of the inflation
curve. It is also a two-pronged strategy. Prong one of it is during
the build-up phase and simply involves watching for sales and quantity
discounts. This concept has been discussed at length in just about
every article ever written about the concepts of “thrift” and trimming
family budgets so I won’t belabor it now. Just understand that by
watching for sales you can speed up the cost-effective aspect of
getting at least a few months of reserves into your storage program.

Prong two of
this concept comes into effect pretty much around the time you get
to a 90-day sustainability point in your storage program. While
long-term I think you should strive for six months and a year is
certainly not overkill, 90 days is a huge accomplishment and it
will get most people through 90 percent of the disasters we are
most likely to face. Something almost magical will happen at this
point though if you are truly “storing what you eat and eating what
you store," you will find an ability to take the “opportunity
buy” to a new level.

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you for supporting LRC with your online orders

The way it
works is choosing what you don’t buy. Sound confusing? It isn’t,
in reality it is extremely simple. During any given 12-week interval
you will find that for at least one week almost every common item
in your pantry will go on sale. In most instances they will go on
sale 2 or 3 times. Over a few months you will identify a few items
that just never seem to go on sale and you will simply have to buy
those as needed. For everything else though all you do is don’t
buy them when they are not on sale or if you are into coupons you
don’t buy them unless you have a coupon.

Now look, I
am not talking about being “cheap” here or scraping by like a pauper.
I am simply stating what should be obvious if we didn’t look at
stored food as being something sensational. When you have 90 days
worth of an item in you home, you don’t need to buy any more of
it for 90 days. Now you don’t want to run out, so you will have
to buy more at some point. What you can do differently then the
typical consumer though at this point is wait until the item is
on sale, you find a quantity discount or you have a coupon for it
before you buy it again. Just by doing this you will end up with
a natural rotation of your stored food. In doing so you won’t end
up with a closet full of items that are all about to expire next
month and need to be donated to a homeless shelter.

Food
Storage Rule Three – Integrate Long-Term Items as Extenders/Adjuncts

When I speak
about “storing what you eat and eating what you store” I am often
asked if that means that you don’t also store very long-term storage
items, the answer is a definitive no. It is simply the case that
a solid 60–90 days worth of stored everyday goods will be easier
to acquire (or sell a spouse on acquiring) and provide more day
to day utility then a case of military style rations and six buckets
of wheat, beans and rice. Once you have 60–90 days of sustainability
it is time to begin thinking a bit more long-term. As you acquire
commercially produced storables you should seek ways to use these
items from time to time as either main courses or at least adjuncts
in your day-to-day meals.

The beauty
of a hybrid approach to food storage is instead of say buying up
a bunch of things you will only eat if you are forced to and then
stocking six months worth of it somewhere in your home you can slowly
over time get to a ratio of about 60% everyday goods and 40% long-term
storage. With this ratio by the time you reach six months of sustainability
you would have 4 months worth of everyday goods and 2 months worth
of extreme long-term storage goods. A home pantry made up of such
a ratio has a massive amount of utility, portability and adaptability
to a variety of emergency situations. Additionally those who wish
to stock up to a full year's worth of food will often find it almost
impossible to do so without some of these items making up a portion
of their supplies.

For simplicity
in my lectures I divide long-term storables up into two primary
categories. While there are many more ways to divide and think about
long-term storage this approach is a practical way for people to
do the most important thing, get the food stored for the future.
The first classification is what I refer to en mass as “commercially
prepared storables," these include the infamous MREs (meals
ready to eat) that our soldiers rely on for field rations and the
far more useful products built specifically for the preparedness
industry. MREs are another subject the semi-informed media at once
associates with modern survivalists. They always seem to picture
us sitting on a thousand cases of the dreadful things in some dark
bunker, chewing on some beef jerky and waiting for the black helicopters
to show up.

The reality
is while a few MREs never hurt to have around or specifically to
have in a BOB (bug
out bag), for long-term storage you will be a lot better served
by the great products from companies like Mountain House, Provident
Pantry and Yoder’s Meats. These items are available from companies
like Ready
Made Resources and Safecastle
Royal and provide you two primary benefits. First they have
extreme storage life well into and over 10 years in the right environments.
Second and just as important is they are actually very good food
from a taste and usability stand point. I can’t overstate how important
it is for you to ensure that any of the commercial long-term goods
you choose to rely on are something you will actually enjoy eating.
For this reason I recommend purchasing a few cans of a few varieties
and using them in preparing meals right away. Then over time acquire
a supply of the ones that you and your family enjoy. That may sound
really obvious but if I had a silver dollar for every person that
told me they had “X number of cases stored of items they have never
tasted," I would be a very wealthy man.

The second
main category of long-term storables are items with huge storage
life that you can acquire and store simply in containers like sealed
5-gallon buckets. The primary ones are rice, beans and wheat. This
is another area where I have seen my fellow preppers “go off the
deep end” and stock some ridiculous quantity at the expense of more
practical goods. We have to understand that as preppers we have
two primary finite resources, one is money and the other is space.
While grains can help us manage our financial limitations they can
also when relied on to excess consume our spatial resources beyond
what is practical.

Food
Storage Rule Four – Become a Producer

In becoming
a producer you kick your food storage program into overdrive. There
are really two main aspects when it comes to producing vs. simply
consuming in regard to stored food. The first and the one most people
think of when I say “become a producer” is various methods of growing
your own food, foraging wild edibles, maintaining small livestock
and perhaps hunting and fishing. Each of these takes upon a level
of production vs. consumer-level activity. When properly leveraged
they take your efforts beyond what a finite concept like storage
can ever do alone.

Of them all
hunting and fishing are the most limited. I enjoy both of these
sports and see them as a great way to add protein to my home without
a trip to the grocery store. However, when we honestly assess them
for use in a true disaster scenario we have to accept that we are
not going to be the only ones that see wild game as a source of
food. In a true long-term disaster game and fish will quickly become
scarce, in a personal level disaster we still have seasons, limits
and access to contend with. Hence when it comes to wild game your
best use of them is in preserving them via canning, drying, etc.
(which is part of the second aspect of production).

Moving on to
foraging, this is a slightly improved upon method of production.
The chief advantage is that you don’t really put any work into cultivation,
planting and weeding – you simply harvest wild edibles like
blueberries, blackberries, miner’s lettuce and countless other sources
of wild food. There are some commonalties though when it comes to
forage with harvesting game. You also have seasons, in this case
seasons when the items are available. You won’t find beechnuts in
March or blueberries in October. You also need access to wild areas
where the items are available and once again in a long-term disaster
these items will quickly come under pressure as more and more people
have to rely on them. Hence again they are best as adjuncts and
will do the most good if you utilize methods of preserving them
when they are most abundant.

The final methods
of direct production revolve around planting gardens, permanent
crops (like nut trees, grape vines, fruit trees, etc.) and keeping
various forms of livestock. Going deeply into any of these is beyond
the scope of this article but suffice to say by practicing seed
saving, breeding, etc. these options can represent wholly renewable
sources of food. This can include things like your annual apple
harvest, eggs from chickens, meat from rabbits, salad greens (often
in all seasons) and other options like cheese from fresh milk or
even making wine or mead from grapes or honey if you keep bees.
When you add even a small amount of gardening, permanent crops or
livestock to a well-stocked pantry it greatly extends sustainability
and independence. It also compensates for the simple fact that total
storage capacity is finite.

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you for supporting LRC with your online orders

The second
aspect of being a producer rests upon being a producer of storable
items no matter how your possession of them originates. In other
words if you grow peppers and dehydrate them or if you buy a bulk
deal on beef and can it with a pressure canner doesn’t matter, either
way you are taking on some aspect of production. When you take on
the production role of preservation you give yourself options and
resource unavailable to the standard consumer. Say you visit a Farmer’s
Market during heavy harvest and find a great deal on beans. The
consumer eats a few meals for a low cost while the harvest is in
peak. The producer that cans or dehydrates can buy a large quantity
and preserve them for well over a year for a fraction of the cost
of a prepared storable item and at a much better quality as well.
Additionally he supports local agriculture and trust me, that farmer
you buy from today, is an ally you want if we ever have a food shortage.

There are many
methods of preservation we have lost touch with that have been used
a great deal over the years. These methods were quite common right
up until we had a freezer and a refrigerator in every home. To truly
increase your independence and preparations there are a few you
should consider. These include root cellaring, canning, dehydration,
salting, fermentation, smoking and pickling. If you take the time
to slowly develop the resources and skills to use a few of or even
all of these methods you will reach a level of self-sufficiency
that most modern Americans can no longer even conceive of.

Conclusion
– Seek a Holistic Solution Not Magic Bullets

If you think
about these four rules as a single process you begin to quickly
see how each supports and improves the results of the other. By
combining opportunity buying with a method of preservation, you
do more for your stability then either could do alone. By purchasing
commercial long-term storables that provide quality protein and
growing high-quality vegetables in a garden each provides more adaptability
to the other. In time with patience and dedication each rule changes
the way you think and you soon find yourself empowered. Food storage
is not a fear-based activity as it is often painted by the media.
Done with rational logic and a well-crafted plan it doesn’t appease
fear, it abolishes fear and frees you from the gerbil wheel that
most Americans call the economy.

A food storage
plan based on the four rules is extremely robust and flexible. If
any one component fails or falls short during a disaster the others
can compensate for it. If a disaster becomes extreme in duration
your production capacity allows you to sustain what a finite storage
supply can never accommodate. On the other hand your stored reserves
give you the critical time to ramp up production without an immediate
need that is impossible to meet with pure agriculture, foraging
and livestock from a standing start. In short when you have food
getting more is relatively easy, when you are out of food finding
enough to survive on is very difficult.

Today a person
that practices these rules is often referred by names such as “survivalist”
or “extremist” or even perhaps they are called an “alarmist."
Yet it was only a century ago that such people were simply called
Americans. These people were your grandparents and your great grandparents
and we can learn a lot from how they lived when putting food on
the table involved more then a trip to the drive-through. By practicing
the common sense wisdom they left for us, we can live a better life
today, if times get tough or even if they don’t.

August
5, 2009

Jack
Spirko [send him mail]
is a former U.S. Army Airborne soldier and the host of u201CThe
Survival Podcast,u201D a daily online broadcast that helps listeners
learn ways to live the life they want if times get tough or even
if they don't.

The
Best of Jack Spirko

In addition
to the limitations of stored food the “green movement”
is huge right now and new gardens are popping up in every corner
of the nation. From those that simply want better quality food to
those that actually think carbon footprints matter, it seems millions
Americans are putting in gardens in a new “back to the land”
movement. Many in the media are claiming the recession is driving
people to garden, in some ways it is true but the reality is in
the first year a garden is often a financial loss. In my view what
is really driving the new gardening revolution is that people are
actually becoming aware of the many risks to our food supply.

Consider for
a moment the actual cost of starting up a garden in year one. Most
people when starting up a garden will go with the “raised bed”
model for many very good reasons, such as soil quality, productivity,
ease of installation, etc. Additionally given that most “new
gardens” are started by “new gardeners” most won’t
be starting plants from seeds and will therefore have the expense
of plants in addition to the expenses of construction, soil, amendments,
and tools. In the end putting in a few raised beds, providing the
necessary soil mixture, getting plants, etc. will often set many
back 300–500 dollars in initial expenses.

It certainly
doesn’t have to cost this much but this is quite typical because
people choose to spend the money to get into production faster with
less physical effort. In the first year, if you are successful,
you may very well grow 300–500 dollars worth of food but odds
are breaking even is the best you will expect to do. People “feeling
the effects of a recession” the way the media describes it,
don’t make this type of expenditure for a possible output while
still paying for necessities day to day.

The individuals
putting in gardens today are not thinking solely about today’s
recession, they are thinking about tomorrow’s possible depression
along with probable future food shortages. They are thinking long-term
and understand that while today’s cash outflow is a break-even,
next years and subsequent years represent independence from at least
some portion of the “food system.” They also realize that
long term much of our global agriculture system is in real trouble
and it may not be very long before capacity of production becomes
heavily eclipsed by the most basic need the global population has,
the need to eat every day.

So what are
the biggest threats we have to our food supply today? They include…

• Grain production
  has been maxed out and we have failed to meet global grain demands
  for 6 of the past 9 years.
• Enough
  U.S. produced grain to feed a half billion people for a year will
  be converted to ethanol in 2009.
• Many nations
  are now creating long-term contracts with other nations to lock
  up the grain being produced by the few remaining large net exporters.
• China, India,
  The U.S., The UK, Malaysia, South Africa and Japan are now all
  “net importers of food.” Translation: a combined population
  of over 2.7 billion can no longer feed themselves without foreign
  dependence.
• Many shallow
  aquifers have been fully depleted and the largest fossil aquifers
  in the world are now being depleted. 70% of global water usage
  is for agriculture and we are running out of the water used for
  that purpose.
• Companies
  such as Monsanto are altering food at a genetic level taking massive
  risks with our food supply by releasing altered genetics into
  the biosphere via cross pollination.

These six threats
are just the beginning; we have also lost a huge portion of genetic
diversity via the practice of “monoculture,” soil is losing
fertility faster then it is being replenished and soil erosion is
turning previously fertile land fallow. In short global population
and demand for food is rising while the long-term trend of increasing
food production is flattening and threatening to soon go into a
decline.

This is an
area where many modern survivalists are finding common ground with
an unlikely ally, those heavily into the eco movement. The two sides
are sill miles apart on many issues; survivalists tend to be conservatives
or libertarians and the eco crowd tends to be quite liberal and
tends toward a socialist or statist viewpoint on many issues. Even
on the issues of gardening and permaculture there are often huge
differences on why the need exists but what is agreed upon is the
need itself.

Hence even
some of those of the edges of both movements are finding a common
bridge in understanding the need to create individually managed
sustainable agriculture. In other words it doesn’t mater if
it is “global warming” or “incompetent politicians”
that will be the cause of a coming food shortage; either way the
solution is individual action. That action is as simple as beginning
to produce just a portion of your own food. The potential production
on even small suburban lots is shocking. One family led by a self-proclaimed
“agrarian revolutionary” named Jules Dervaes is currently
producing about 6,000 lbs of food per year on 1/10th of an acre!
While that is the extreme, if perhaps 30% of suburban homes would
produce even 10% of what Mr. Dervaes is producing, can you see how
large the impact would be?

(This
video of Mr. Dervaes’ home is quite inspiring and well
worth the 10 minutes required to view it.)

Here is the
real beauty in producing some of your own food via sustainable agriculture
and long-term permaculture techniques…

• You can
  do it now even with containers if you are an apartment dweller
• It has
  an immediate impact on your personal situation
• It has a
  positive impact on your health and property value
• It provides
  insurance against a future shortage of food (personal or global)
• Entering
  into your second year the savings of cash is significant
• It reduces
  your dependence upon several systems (agriculture, distribution,
  etc.)

In short it
embodies the primary tenet of the modern survival
philosophy, “Everything You Do Should Improve Your Position
in Life Even If Nothing Goes Wrong.” Additionally unlike
so many things that create change no waiting or government action
is required. Developing some level of food production is something
anyone who really wants to can just do. In fact over 10 million
Americans have chosen to do so in the past two years.

In the end
we should ask ourselves, “What is the real difference between
a modern survivalist and a permaculturist?” The two may often
be quite different in social philosophy and politics but their end
goal is creating a sustainable and independent life. I firmly believe
that the only way to ensure long-term survival is to create that
sustainable life and it is impossible to do so without some level
of personal food production capacity. The good news is getting started
can be quite simple and you can slowly phase into it as you get
more comfortable with the process.

I’d like
to leave you with a final thought to make you think about how much
opportunity we have to produce more food within the United States.
Consider that what I am about to propose will requite almost no
real sacrifice or effort. Simply ask yourself this question: if
we were to replace just 10% of the ornamental trees planted in our
cities and towns with a similar tree that produced some type of
food, how much free food could we be producing right now? The next
time you are in your car just observe how many trees there are planted
in our cities, towns, urban and suburban areas that produce nothing
edible. Start counting them and simply think of the production capacity
if one in every ten were an apple, pear, pecan, walnut, etc.

In our arrogance
instead we have genetically modified pear trees to not produce pears,
selected pistachio trees that do not product pistachios and embraced
the fruitless mulberry. Why? Because homeowners consider the fruit
that falls from these trees to be “lawn litter”; only
an arrogant people would consider food to be garbage while many
others go without a full stomach. The danger we face if we remain
apathetic and arrogant is that one day many of us could be the ones
going without a full stomach.

June
1, 2009

Jack
Spirko [send him mail]
is a former U.S. Army Airborne soldier and the host of u201CThe
Survival Podcast,u201D a daily online broadcast that helps listeners
learn ways to live the life they want if times get tough or even
if they don't.

Think of a
typical image of a “survivalist” even the stereotypical
view: tough, able to live off the land, resourceful and ready to
deal with any disaster. Does this sound like the guy who whips out
a Visa Card when the going gets tough? Would you expect to see a
person working to build a homestead and a sustainable life using
a credit card “just for airline miles”? Or perhaps, would
you expect someone living by the mantra of adapt, improvise and
overcome to finance a lifestyle with a home equity loan?

When I speak
to mainstream media and they ask “what is modern survivalism”
I always include debt reduction in the basic explanation and the
response is generally some form or “that is another topic all
together,” the reality is the two are so intrinsically bound
that you can’t really discuss modern survivalism without addressing
the cancer that is eating away at America, consumer debt.

Now there is
a place to properly leverage debt; very few people could afford
to ever pay cash for a house, let alone a first house. Still, even
with the purchase of an asset like real property, debt is and has
been abused for decades in the United States. Say what you want
about derivatives but it is debt that allowed their creation and
default upon the debt that brought them to bear on our economy like
a financial atomic bomb.

Survivalism
is about far more then continuing to breathe tomorrow; for the modern
survivalist it is about sustainable living and above all survival
of the family unit. It is a sad fact that the number one cause of
divorce today is debt and even when something like infidelity is
blamed it is often the stress of debt that was the root cause.

When I refer
to debt as a “cancer,” many people consider that an over
statement. Common responses are “oh come on isn’t that
over reaching” or “how can a person live without a credit
card in 2009.” So is debt really a cancer? To answer that let’s
examine exactly how cancer attacks and kills many people every year.

Most cancers
that kill are at first unseen, the individual appears quite healthy
and strong. They go about their day-to-day lives as productive and
happy individuals and look no different than those around them.
Yet inside the cancer is reproducing at an exponential rate, growing,
metastasizing and spreading throughout the body. This can go on
for months or even years in many types of cancer. The person might
even go to their doctor often for checkups and be told everything
is just perfect. Cancer may be spreading to the pancreas and liver,
setting up for a fatal blow but no symptoms are evident even to
a trained professional.

Then one day
the person starts to feel weakened, certain things that never caused
pain now are creating discomfort. Off to the doctor they go and
even now are often just given a pain killer or some other drug and
told they are “just getting older” all while the cancer
is eating vital biological systems from inside. In time the symptoms
grow, tests are run and a diagnosis is made, often the prognosis
is fatal, it is too late now to save the patient because the cancer
has gone too far.

Faced with
such a diagnosis patients first go into denial, then deal making
(usually with god and self), then anger, then acceptance. They may
still fight but they accept the reality that they will probably
lose. They try to live healthy, take any and every step to prevent
eventual death but sadly for many, a lifetime of chemicals, stress
and ignoring initial symptoms push the body too far and the battle
is lost.

Now let’s
examine the effects of debt on an individual and see how it compares.
Consider a man (we will call him Frank), Frank is 28 years old and
got out of college about 5 years ago. He was a good student but
like many got through school on student loans. For five years he
has worked hard and paid minimums on his loans while climbing the
corporate ladder. He also met his wife, got married and now is about
to buy his first house. He buys a house with a payment of 25% of
their income, nicely inside the limit of 28%. Frank and his wife
start a family, take vacations, use credit cards, have kids and
live the “American dream.”

He keeps getting
promoted so they upgrade the home (everyone is doing it). Frank
is no fool; he has a financial adviser who he meets with for checkups
twice a year. The advisor is comfortable with his debt because he
is putting money in his IRA/401K like a “smart investor.”
Frank even suggests at times reducing contributions to increase
his available cash and pay off debt but is advised to think “long
term and stay the course.”

Everyone looking
at Frank from the outside sees his success, two new cars, and great
kids in all sorts of activities. One car is a huge SUV so mom can
take the kids to soccer, etc. He has a beautiful house, successful
career and seems to be living a perfect life. Yet inside his financial
body all the debt is compounding exponentially and it is spreading
too. He gets a home equity loan, pays off some credit cards because
it is “smart.” After all he cuts the interest rates and
the interest becomes a tax deduction. Unfortunately in time the
credit card balances go right back up and end up even higher then
before.

More promotions
come and more debt with them, trading up cars, now leasing them
(it’s what wealthy people do according to his financial adviser)
so he can trade them in every 2–3 years. Everything is going
just fine, minimal payments are made with ease and then the first
symptom begins. His wife take a break from shopping and does a bit
of math and realizes that now at the age of 45 she and her husband
will be 65 by the time all their debts are paid off if and only
if they stop spending now.

She goes to
Frank, they look at things and realize there is a problem, Frank
talks about paying down some of the balance again with his advisor
who as always says keep investing in tax-deferred accounts for retirement
and to use other funds to pay on the debt, perhaps even get another
home equity loan since the house has appreciated.

Then one day
the full-blown problems come to a head! The economy tanks (as it
does from time to time) but this time Frank gets laid off, his six-figure
job becomes 450 a week in unemployment. He is now looking at savings
that might take him 3 months maximum with a huge house payment,
huge credit card bills, funding for activities, huge car payments
and no idea what to do about it.

Frank and his
wife are now having marital problems, his investments are cut in
half by a market crash, his bills are overdue, fees and interest
compound and the lifestyle they have come to love is ruined. Frank
started in denial of the problem all while it continued to destroy
his life, he then tries making deals with the creditors, deals with
his wife and deals with relatives to try to get out of the mess
and of course deals with god in the form of prayers. His next step
was likely anger, blaming everyone from the credit card companies,
to the bank, to his financial advisor and even the company that
laid him off.

The last step
will be acceptance that his life has been torn apart; often a divorce
is the result if not major damage to the marriage. The kids either
deal with a broken home or massive stress from fighting parents
and may have to do without many things they have come to expect.
There won’t be any money for college for them, but hey at least
they can get a loan. For 17 years anyone looking at Frank thought
he was the picture of financial health; then almost overnight he
appears to have been stricken with a financial death sentence.

Of course there
was nothing “overnight” about it, the debt started at
18 when he was full of dreams and told that “an education was
priceless,” now at 45 during what is supposed to be the best
time of his life he is dealing with a bankruptcy and often far worse.
The parallels between debt and cancer are so similar that they should
honestly send a shiver up your spine. Each allows the victim to
appear healthy, perhaps look in even better shape than most of those
around them, grows silently and at some point becomes “terminal.”

Yet the good
news is debt is 100% under your control, can be easily managed and
responsibly used only for the purchase of assets of sufficient value
to mitigate any real risk for both lender and borrower. Cancer can
and does kill people that live very healthy and stress free lifestyles.
You can reduce the risk of cancer but you can’t be 100% sure
it will not strike you. With debt you can, you are the one that
signs the contract, accepts the shiny credit card and uses it to
buy shiny stuff.

Survivalism
is about sustainability more than anything else. The survivalist
evaluates threats not just to life and property but to his way of
life, his liberty and to the security of his family. When honestly
evaluated consumer debt or over-purchasing anything with debt is
like bringing a venomous snake into your home. The snake may never
bite anyone, or if it does bite it may not kill but cause disfiguration,
trauma and extreme pain. Hence people don’t tend to go out
and capture rattlesnakes and turn them loose inside their homes.

The snake is
useful, it has a purpose in controlling rodents and may even be
beautiful to many people. However, it also has a place, outside
in the wild not inside a home crawling around the floor with your
children. In much the same way debt has a purpose, it is useful
to leverage as a tool for investing in solid affordable assets.
Yet just like the snake if not 100% controlled, disaster will be
the result.

While debt
reduction is not one of the “sexy” survival topics like
home defense, alternative energy or stocking up on food it is absolutely
necessary in the creation of a sustainable lifestyle. Remember tenet
one – “everything you do should improve your position
in life even if nothing goes wrong.” Modern survivalism is
not just about planning for disasters, it is also about planning
for a lifestyle that you can maintain in good times or bad. Most
people in debt struggle with that during the best of times, to think
that such a person can succeed when there is a disaster is foolhardy.

Finally you
have to consider that while long-term the survivalist saves a great
deal of money compared to most Americans, initially there are expenses
in setting up a sustainable life. These expenses revolve around
the creation and purchase of long term assets. The survivalist seeks
to accumulate assets such as surplus food, functional permanent
food production, paying for a home in full as quickly as possible,
additional land to act as a fall-back location, etc.

The list of
expenses for a survivalist to be self-sufficient seems unreachable
for most working Americans. Many never actually own a home let alone
own second homes or land and by "own" I mean paid in full.
Most pantries are 2 weeks deep in food at most and even with that
they can barely get by. Why? The money they earn is spent on debt
and attached interest before it is earned. For many Americans their
next 20–30 years of income has already been spent. Yet once
free of this cancer even a modest income can, in just a few years,
create very a sustainable lifestyle.

So while not
something most people generally consider a survival topic eliminating,
paying down and staying out of debt may be the most critical actions
you can take as a modern survivalist. Once you eliminate debt you
will truly understand the meaning of the word freedom. Freedom after
all is the driving motivation in developing a sustainable life where
you are free to choose your destiny rather than being forced to
accept it.

May
26, 2009

Jack
Spirko [send him mail]
is a former U.S. Army Airborne soldier and the host of u201CThe
Survival Podcast,u201D a daily online broadcast that helps listeners
learn ways to live the life they want if times get tough or even
if they don't.

The real key to modern survivalism is the Modern Survival Philosophy which is a group ten key principles that guide the actions of many survivalists. While all are important it is tenet number one that really sets the stage for separating the doomsday stereotype from the reality. Survivalists are generally thought of as people who prepare to deal with disasters, shortages and anything that disrupts society. Modern survivalists do this but they do so in a way that improves their lives even if nothing major ever goes wrong.

For example many survival-minded individuals grow gardens and develop more permanent food-producing crops like fruit trees, berry bushes etc. on their property. They generally stick to organic production methods, focus on water harvesting and attempt to maximize production per square meter. This is a classic survival technique designed to remain sustainable if anything hits from simple loss of personal income all the way up to a collapse of US infrastructure. So yes in the event of economic collapse this makes a tremendous amount of sense as a modern survival tactic.

Now let’s examine the other side of the issue. What if we never have an economic collapse, what if there are no food shortages in the next 30 years and what if the survivalist never even has a layoff to contend with? Flat out for the foreseeable future absolutely nothing goes wrong. If you have your property landscaped with sustainable organic food-producing crops are you not still better off?

Consider that by setting up sustainable and productive organic agriculture that your property value will be increased if for no other reason than environmentalism is a huge movement right now. You will spend less money over the years on buying food which can be saved, invested, used to reduce debt, etc. Further your health will be improved by eating high-quality fresh produce not to mention the exercise you get. Of course the list of benefits from having a solid sustainable edible landscape on your property is exhaustive and could go on a lot further but hopefully this begins to make the point.

Let’s examine more briefly a few more common things that survival minded individuals do and consider what benefit they have to us even if nothing ever goes wrong.

• One key to modern survivalism is debt elimination. In the event of a disaster from personal up to global those in less debt are better suited to handle what comes their way. Yet even without any type of disaster having low to no debt will result in a much more sustainable and rewarding lifestyle.
• Having firearms and the training to use them is useful in anything from a garden-variety home invasion to a true societal breakdown and it can be the difference between life and death. Yet if nothing goes wrong the armed citizen is still more confident and makes decisions based on reality vs. fear.
• Storing extra food is “Survivalism 101” and there are many things that can go wrong from a personal up to a global level where such stored food is potentially life saving. Yet by following the mantra of “store what you eat and eat what you store” modern survivalists actually spend less money via a classic method known as “capital deferral.” This is accomplished by purchasing what will be used anyway at today’s prices to beat inflation, much the way Southwest Airlines does by purchasing fuel contracts while prices are lower.
• This concept simply continues though just about every facet of survivalism. If you put in solar panels and/or wind generators, and you are ready to handle a black out no matter what the cause or how long it lasts. Yet even if nothing goes wrong, and you pay less for you electric bill and increase your property value.
• Learn to “live off the land” with hunting, fishing and foraging and you will be more likely to survive a disaster but if nothing goes wrong you are enjoying the outdoors, getting exercise, saving money and eating better quality food all at the same time.

This formula is practically bullet-proof as long as you keep the first tenet in mind as you make lifestyle and purchasing decisions; again that tenet is,

“Everything You Do Should Improve Your Position in Life Even If Nothing Goes Wrong”

This keeps you from using survivalism as a convenient excuse to blow money and go into debt, which would violate one of the other tenets anyway. For instance fishing is a great way to add another low cost protein source to the household if done with practical and modestly priced equipment. Yet if you go out and purchase a 25,000-dollar bass boat and fancy equipment you will never get an ROI on your production. Now if you want a nice boat, this is America, there is nothing wrong with that but if you want to be a survivalist, save your money and buy what is adequate with cash. One version is an expensive hobby, the other is a way to improve your lifestyle.

It is really a simple core guiding principle: each time you are making a decision about where to spend time, money or resources you simply ask the question, “Will this action improve my ability to live a sustainable lifestyle if we have a disaster or even if we don’t.” When the answer is yes you make it part of your survival planning. If the answer is no, that doesn’t mean you don’t do it, it simply means it is a luxury not an investment in an asset that provides for your future and hence you prioritize it accordingly.

There is a fundamental reality that most Americans are living beyond their means in an unsustainable way. They are one or two paychecks from poverty, consuming food that is unhealthy, working far to hard for far to little and above all many are miserable. Yes miserable! They work at a job they hate, drive on a commute they hate even more and give up the best parts of their lives simply to earn enough money to pay the interest on their debts. They then retire with a social security check that keeps them just to the south side of the poverty line and by the time most 30–40 somethings retire they won’t even get that.

The modern survivalist simply realizes that is not good enough, that life is precious and as humans we have a fundamental liberty that many choose to sell for far to low of a price. The good news is you have a choice, you can choose to walk though life with a credit card at the ready or you can choose to live a life that can be sustained in both good times and bad. It all starts with asking the simple question, “will this choice improve my long term sustainability,” on a daily basis. Simply asking that question will put you on the path to becoming a modern survivalist.

Jack Spirko [send him mail] is a former U.S. Army Airborne soldier and the host of u201CThe Survival Podcast,u201D a daily online broadcast that helps listeners learn ways to live the life they want if times get tough or even if they don't.

The core of my philosophy about being prepared, life style planning,
self sufficiency and energy independence can be summed up with in
the following 10 core values…

1. Everything you do to “prepare” for emergencies,
   disasters or economic turmoil should be blended into your life
   in a way that improves your life even if nothing disastrous
   ever occurs.

2. Debt is financial cancer! Minimize it, pay it off early and
   stay away from credit cards.

3. Growing your own food is for everyone not just people that
   want “organic” fruit and vegetables. To produce your
   own food, even as little as 10% of what you use reduces your
   dependence on “the system”. If nothing else gardening
   is good for your emotional and physical health and increases
   the value of any property.

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the rest of the article

May
1, 2009