One basic economic survival skill that everybody needs to master in today’s world is the ability to function in today’s economy without a bank account. Everybody needs to do this because it is entirely possible that you will find yourself without a bank account in the near future. There are several reasons why you need to seriously consider the possibility of not having a bank account. Changes in the banking industry make it harder for working people to get or keep bank accounts. The growing number of fees attached to bank accounts often makes it
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If you listen to the financial industry’s propaganda, you might believe that having a poor credit score means you will end up sleeping under a bridge and foraging for food in garbage cans. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s fairly easy to live with a poor or even a bad credit score; in fact, tens of millions of Americans are doing it. And guess what? The vast majority of those people have homes, cars, jobs, and washing machines, just like the rest of us. This doesn’t mean that a credit score isn’t important.
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Making fire and sanitizing water are perhaps your most important skills to utilize in the wild.  Coming straight out of the U.S. Army Field Manual 21-76, your survival depends upon the “rule of 3’s.” You can survive three minutes without air (this shouldn’t be a problem in the woods, as oxygen is rather abundant).  You can survive for three hours in the cold without shelter.  You can survive for three days without water.  Finally, you can survive for three weeks without food. Keeping this “rule of 3’s” in mind will help you know how you
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Simply surviving a catastrophe or collapse is not enough. You need to consider what happens after everything has fallen apart and starts coming back together again. You need to start considering how you will support yourself and your family if your job is no longer there and government benefits like food stamps or unemployment insurance disappear. Even if civilization doesn’t collapse, we all know that jobs, investments, benefits, savings, and businesses can vanish in the blink of an eye in today’s economy. Almost anybody can be left with no salary or no income at almost
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The United States might be on the verge of another collapse that is potentially more devastating than those in 2007 and 2008. This isn’t the opinion of survivalists, but the opinion of executives at the world’s largest retailer, Walmart. Internal emails leaked to Bloomberg News indicate that some Walmart executives think an economic collapse is under way. In the emails, Walmart’s vice president of finance and logistics, Jerry Murray, called February sales a total disaster and the worst he’s ever seen. Another Walmart vice president, Cameron Geiger, even asked, “Where are all the customers? And
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A disturbing trend is afoot these days with the federal government’s recent purchase of over a billion of rounds of ammunition – which on the surface, doesn’t seem particularly troubling, until you learn that this purchase is not for the military. Who’s buying up all this ammunition then, if not the military? The Department of Homeland Security, that’s who. If this thought leaves you scratching your head as to why an agency like DHS needs to have 1.6 billion rounds of .40 S&W and .223 Remington on hand, you aren’t alone. Many people don’t really
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The answer to the above question is yes, both economists and the media are definitely lying to us about the economy. The recovery they keep promising us has turned out to be limited, and if you live in the real world, nonexistent. The interesting thing is that there are some economists and people in the media that tell the truth. The problem is that we rarely hear what they say; editors and producers cherry-pick the information they put out. That is, they put out the news that people most want to see. There are several
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The age-old question of whether one should invest in stocks or bonds is still the most important issue when taking positions in the financial markets. Both stocks and bonds offer investors advantages and disadvantages, and depending on what your outlook is on the economy, that should help dictate which market to invest one’s capital.  Many folks ask the question, which security is better? And the answer every time is, neither, as each market has its pros and cons, offering different return and risk. Let’s start with stocks. Stocks are equity securities that offer investors return
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Precious metals such as gold and silver have been in high demand ever since the real estate bubble began to negatively affect the stock market in October 2007. The metals offer investors something tangible and real that ordinary folks feel they can quantify. Ever since the gold standard was eliminated in 1971, precious metals are thought to be more of an investment and not directly linked to a currency. When the real estate bubbled popped, it resulted in a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the global financial markets, as many believed the system was going
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Ever wondered what you would do if you were stuck without a tent or a tarp to protect yourself from the elements?  Should you ever find yourself in the wild without appropriate shelter, here’s some good news: you can build your own.  Within just a few short hours, you can build yourself what many refer
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