Financial Preparedness: A Survivalist Perspective

By Tim Gamble

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Financial preparedness involves taking steps to ensure that you have the resources and knowledge necessary to manage your finances effectively, both in the short term and long term. This is true during relatively normal times, in severe recessions (such as 2008-2010), in times of major disruptions (2020/21), and even in the midst of any future economic and/or political collapse.

Here are some key aspects of financial preparedness, from a survivalist's perspective:

Budgeting / Living Within Your Means: Create a budget to track your income and expenses, ensuring that you are living within your means and allocating funds to essential items like housing, food, and utilities. Living within your means may include reducing your lifestyle, giving up credit cards, and even doing without while you save for major purchases. Don't let your ego, or your need for instant gratification, get in the way of securing your financial situation and future. 

Emergency Fund: Establish an emergency fund containing enough money to cover 3 to 6 months of living expenses (more is always better). This fund can help you weather financial crises, such as job loss, surprise repair bills, or unexpected medical expenses. Keep most of this money in a savings account or CD at a local credit union or small regional bank. Keep a small portion of it in a hidden place at home in case you need it when the banks are closed and ATMs aren't working.

Eliminating / Avoiding Debt: "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender." --Proverbs 22:7.  The dangers are debt should be obvious to everyone, but sadly most of us fall into this trap at some point in our lives. 

You should read my article, Building An Emergency Fund While Paying Off Debt (article link) for suggestions and two big debt busting ideas. 

Insurance: I learned to value of good insurance this year with my cancer diagnose. If I didn't have good insurance, I would have been financially ruined. Yes, insurance is expensive, but you need to figure it out before you need it. Obtain appropriate insurance coverage for your assets, such as homes, cars, and health. Life insurance is also a necessity, particularly if you are the major bread-winner in your family. It won't be easy, but you have to figure it out. 

Risk Mitigation: Identify and assess potential financial risks, such as high inflation, economic downturns, job loss, home fires, and other disasters. Develop strategies to mitigate these risks, such as maintaining an emergency fund, eliminating debt, maintaining and expanding your job skills, diversifying your investments, and having adequate insurance. For preppers and survivalists, your stockpile of food and other supplies is part of this risk mitigation.

Planning for Life Events: Prepare for major life events, such as getting married, buying a home, starting a family, caring for aging parents, or retirement, by setting financial goals and creating a plan to achieve them. This may include reducing your lifestyle or even delaying major purchases while you save money for these events. This does not include maxing out your credit cards. Getting yet another credit card is not a financial plan. 

Saving for Retirement: Start saving for retirement as early as possible, taking advantage of employer-sponsored plans like 401(k)s or Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) to maximize your contributions and potential returns. As preppers and survivalists, we must plan for both disasters AND for things remaining relatively normal. Planning for retirement that may be decades away is part of this. 

Financial Education: Continuously educate yourself about personal finance topics, such as investing, tax planning, and estate planning, to make informed decisions and stay ahead of financial trends. Three older but excellent books I recommend are:

• The Millionaire Next Door (Amazon link)
• Rich Dad Poor Dad (Amazon link)
• The Richest Man in Babylon (Amazon link)

All three of those books are fairly easy, enjoyable reads without a lot of jargon, statistics or charts. They are highly motivational with lots of food for thought. Most importantly, they will help you adjust your attitude and thinking in ways that will positively impact your life and finances.  

Investing: Learn about investing and diversify your investments across various asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, and real estate, to reduce risk and optimize returns. The classic investment book by Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor, is a must read (Amazon link). For a prepper and survivalist, investing should come only after securing your financial foundation of living within you means, eliminating debt, and building an emergency fund. After doing that, then you can start investing part of your excess. Yes, I do think a homestead that provides resources (food, water, food, wood, income opportunity, etc.) could be legitimately considered an investment. 

What about gold, silver, bitcoin? These are not truly investments, but potential safe storehouses of wealth. Keeping a part of your savings and even investment money in these assets may make sense, but only after securing your other financial foundations, and should never represent the majority of your wealth. 

Regular Review: Periodically review your financial situation and adjust your strategies as needed to ensure that you remain on track to achieve your financial goals. You circumstances, concerns, and opportunities constantly shift throughout your life, and you financial planning needs to shift with it. 

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