economics and finances 1 of 3

ECONONOMICS AND FINANCES

Today, let’s talk about your finances as if economic collapse matters.  It would seem that all of us think economic collapse is already here ( and we are just waiting for the water to overlap the deck of the Titanic ) or it will be here any time ( as in, months to single digit years rather than decades ).  Yet, how many of you conduct your financial affairs as if this is the case?  I can hear you all mumbling now, “well, I’ll just enjoy the good life until I can’t”, or “I can’t disrupt my life too much or the Old Lady will kick my ass”.  And that is pretty much the standard attitude.  Hell, those are MY attitudes.  But if the ass falls out of the economy tomorrow ( as opposed to civilization collapse-the difference is that with an economic collapse you can still buy food if possible even if there are no jobs and with a civilization collapse you can’t get food shipped to you no matter what.  They will merge one into the other but here we speak of the initial pre-die off phase ) I have all my ducks in a row.  Do you?  Or are you still encumbered with debt and an untenable location? 

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We’ve talked about this many times before, as I imagine we’ll discuss it a few more times ( perhaps-I really do think we are mere months away.  Although, truthfully, this is based on little more than a fear factor inspired on increased instances of remembering cataclysmic dreams whereas prior I haven’t recalled ANY types upon wakening for many years ).  You can’t be living the American Dreamscape of all encompassing debt if you really believe economic collapse is nigh.  You don’t just wake up one day and all the banks are closed and the angels dart from behind clouds and a beautiful chorus is bellowed out about the Jubilee arriving.  No, reality is that you lose your job first, there are no others,  the banks and creditors strip you of your ability to live beyond a bare ass savage existence, THEN and only then do the banks close up and the ghettos vomit forth their brand of savage who are a lot more scarier than your unshaven unkempt malnourished tent under an overpass living sad sack-ness. 

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How shackled are you to your obligations?  You can leave tomorrow if you wish?  I’m not talking about emotional entanglements, but legal ones.  You may love the pay or security of the job you hold now ( I can’t imagine very many like the work itself or the layers of idiots you answer to ) but could you leave it tomorrow if you changed your mind?  More importantly, if THEY changed their minds and laid you off.  Or are you stuck in a mortgage with two vehicle payments and college loan obligations?  If your job disappeared tomorrow and you could get no other, could you escape your current location?  This isn’t just an amusing wargame you play as a prepper.  Not anymore.  To my mind this is the reality right around the corner.  Of course, yes, I could be wrong and the can is kicked down the road some more.  I don’t see that myself-the Fracking Industry which was responsible for most of the last eight years of reprieve is imploding now.  We might very well be at the cusp of the EROI energy critical threshold ( some calculate the global average is under 10:1 which in anyone‘s book is bad ), whereas before things barely worked with almost enough energy inputs and suddenly there isn’t quite enough even for that.

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I don’t think the Dow Jones or the bond market or waiting for a critical signal in the demise of the petrodollar or any other “flashing light indicator” is going to warn you in time.  I think that one day the system is smoking and clanging and noisily crawling along and the next it just all goes to crap.  You didn’t get to time the housing bubble popping ( whether you were aware of the danger or not ), so what makes you think you can time this collapse?  If you don’t act prior, you won’t be able to act after.  Not this time ( if you disagree with this, I can’t change your mind.  I’m acting pessimistically and you are optimistic.  The twain shan’t ever meet ).  You really should be “three days early rather than three seconds late”.  And it isn’t difficult at all.  It might be uncomfortable, but it isn’t hard.  Living without food is hard.  Living without a McMansion or a SUV is merely uncomfortable.

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Anyone can find cheap shelter.  You don’t even have to leave your present job.  You just need to decide to downsize.  If your mortgage is $1500 a month, giving that up and moving into a travel trailer in a park is one third the cost, with a storage space included ( sell all your expensive house crap to buy the used trailer for cash ).  If you locate that trailer in a park close enough to work you can bike and give up a car payment.  Suddenly, you are saving half your income whereas before you were in the red every month.  Then, when your junk land payment is complete you can move the trailer out to it while you build a better shelter.  Then you can survive on a casual income.  See what no rent/mortgage, no car payment and no debt can do for you?  There is no need to get into debt to live free in the country ( and “living free in debt” is an oxymoron ), all you need is to downsize.  And, no, a trailer isn’t mandatory.  When I was in Florida renting out my mobile home rooms ( which almost paid the payment and lot rent ) we had a married couple as renters.  They were the best we ever had, single men being a whiny worthless lot.  For one third the cost of most other types of rent, they lived in town on grid near jobs.  They just had a much smaller space.

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They just had to decide to make a short term sacrifice.  You think it is too hard to give up a car?  For the cost of insurance alone I could have had a unlimited bus pass ( I didn’t want it because it was faster to bike-and this was in Florida with heat, humidity and always getting rained on ).  Now, why would I want to go back to a motor vehicle?  A bike is how I get my cardio and it costs me under $100 a year in replacement parts.  Why do you have a gym membership when you could save money by NOT having one, and NOT having a car, but by having a bike.  Yes, of course, some areas are dangerous on a bike.  Not for long, as an economic collapse will do wonders for road congestion.  But I’m not saying YOU must have a bike.  It certainly works for me.  You can bus or walk-believe it or not there are plenty of fully functional people who don’t own a car.  And they can afford to live on half hours. 

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This stuff isn’t rocket surgery people.  It is called living below your means.  Now add to that living below your perceived future means.  Done.  Simple.

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