Posted: 11/15/2008 7:39:53 PM EDT
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I have a question for everyone.
We all have priorities when it comes to preparing for bad things that we feel may come our way. It may be an oncoming storm season, the depression that may be coming from the bail-outs and the growing debt of our country,food shortages, gas shortages, pandemics, legislation,bans and possible confiscations of our arms that we would use to protect ourselves and our freedoms. The list is a large one for sure. So... with all the bad things that are just waiting in line to gobble all of us up and then spit us out without a single thought or care.....WHAT IS YOUR TOP PRIORITY AT THIS PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME ??? |
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Paying down debt is my number one priority. My plan is to get down to just a house payment by the end of the year. +1 My most significant risk now is not being able to make the house payment, keeping a job is priority 1. Continuing to add to preps - mostly food for long term storage. |
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Quoted: well said. i gave up on the notion of getting a raise, now my goal is just getting to keep my job. in 7 years my house will be paid off (my goal is to do it in 3) and i can live pretty cheap from there. Quoted: Paying down debt is my number one priority. My plan is to get down to just a house payment by the end of the year. My most significant risk now is not being able to make the house payment, keeping a job is priority 1. |
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I don't own a home because I refuse to pay $250,000+ for a house that sold 10 years ago for only $90,000. I will be almost debt free at the end of the month and will only owe on my truck. But that payment is small.
Next priority is to keep doing what I have been doing for a while now and ensure that my family is taken care of and won't goto bed hungry if the economy keeps going where it is going. |
Paying down debt. I am less than 2 years from being debt free. 
Second is having food for my family. Third is having the means to keep them warm and protected from the elements. Fourth is having enough firepower to keep them safe. I already have this well covered so it is not high on the priority list any more. |
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I don't own a home because I refuse to pay $250,000+ for a house that sold 10 years ago for only $90,000. In Wyoming? You must live in Gillette. Nope West Centeral. Most any town in Wy that has oil, gas or coal close to it is booming and driving up the prices. |
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Quoted: I don't own a home because I refuse to pay $250,000+ for a house that sold 10 years ago for only $90,000. I will be almost debt free at the end of the month and will only owe on my truck. But that payment is small. Next priority is to keep doing what I have been doing for a while now and ensure that my family is taken care of and won't goto bed hungry if the economy keeps going where it is going. the problem with not owning a home is that someone else does and if they default then you are out of luck. also, they can kick you out, if they need the space for their family. i understand that you dont wanna pay too much for a house thats overpriced. your best move might be to buy some land and put a prefab on it. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I don't own a home because I refuse to pay $250,000+ for a house that sold 10 years ago for only $90,000. I will be almost debt free at the end of the month and will only owe on my truck. But that payment is small. Next priority is to keep doing what I have been doing for a while now and ensure that my family is taken care of and won't goto bed hungry if the economy keeps going where it is going. the problem with not owning a home is that someone else does and if they default then you are out of luck. also, they can kick you out, if they need the space for their family. i understand that you dont wanna pay too much for a house thats overpriced. your best move might be to buy some land and put a prefab on it. Already one step ahead of you. I own free and clear 25 acres of land and own a nice 5th wheel. If need be I can live in that long enough to get my house built. Have the kit but don't seem to have to time to build it. Guess I should find the time and get it done one of these days huh. |
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My wife and I have no house payment (we rent), and no month to month balance on our CC's.
The way I see it, Is when the hard times come my way, will I be glad I saved 2 years worth of payments, or used those funds to aquire the tools to harvest food, water and build shelter before they rise in cost 300%. Can I eat money?. Can I harvest game by throwing quarters at it?. Can I build a cabin with a roll of hundreds?. We have 9 plus months of bill money put away, but rushing to pay ahead on my wife's school loans, or pay off my truck is just not a priority. what is a priority, is the basics. food, water, and shelter. luckily I have a family BOL(cabin) so I have been focusing on food and hand tools(including tools for defense). Where we are at in life, and our level of preparedness, by the time we are forced to bug out and leave our obligations, 90% of society will have hit rock bottom, and making our payments will be the LEAST of our problems. |
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All debt is NOT created equal.
Secured - Cars, houses, etc. You don't pay they take your car/house/etc. Unsecured - not secured, credit cards. You don't pay it off, your credit rating sinks, so what. Most people can't get loans now anyway, so the priority is NOT paying off unsecured debt unless you have piles of cash. Better to make minimum payments on the unsecured and SAVE CASH so that in case TSHTF personally you can make the payments on the SECURED DEBT so that you can keep your house. Most people know all this, but just in case... |
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Well I do my normal day to day stuff but im not putting forth any extreme effort to pay off depts that wont matter when the shit hits the fan.
Ammo Water Food In that order repeat over and over again untill you have no more room to store it. Have multiple routes if you live in a city and a cach of goods stored somewhere else if not hunkering down in your home. Orginize with members of your family and friends that you trust to do the same. When something happens you dont want to be the one with everything on your own. Within my family and friends we have over 50 "troops" if we need to get out of town by force. Thats just what we are doing. Dont gear up like your in the military when it comes down to it they are going to be the police and people arnt going to like them so dont look like them. Blend in until its time not to And if you dont know when its time not to then dissregaurd this message. |
| We have no debt, and we have sufficient food and supplies. We are saving cash for home improvements (only the supplies, I plan to provide the labor), and increasing the cash savings fund to 3 years living expenses in preparation for my job loss/change in 18 months. With no debt, it does not need to be that large an amount of money. |
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We've been trying to achieve a lifestyle that is as close to self-sufficient as possible for the last 20+ years.
We have the basics covered and are really pushing to get the place paid off ASAP. You NEVER have all you want/need though. Getting back into hogs as of tomorrow. |
| 6 months expenses in savings is fist and paying off the house is 2nd.......hoping for both by june.......Then gonnad dig in...save every penny I can and increase long term stores...think its gonn harden the house as much as possible im afraid its gonna be bad, real bad |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I don't own a home because I refuse to pay $250,000+ for a house that sold 10 years ago for only $90,000. I will be almost debt free at the end of the month and will only owe on my truck. But that payment is small. Next priority is to keep doing what I have been doing for a while now and ensure that my family is taken care of and won't goto bed hungry if the economy keeps going where it is going. the problem with not owning a home is that someone else does and if they default then you are out of luck. also, they can kick you out, if they need the space for their family. i understand that you dont wanna pay too much for a house thats overpriced. your best move might be to buy some land and put a prefab on it. Buy the land and pay it off.........build yer own slowly.......yore smart not to get caught in the buble.....ask the folks in FLA and CA |
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Quoted:
I don't own a home because I refuse to pay $250,000+ for a house that sold 10 years ago for only $90,000. I will be almost debt free at the end of the month and will only owe on my truck. But that payment is small. Next priority is to keep doing what I have been doing for a while now and ensure that my family is taken care of and won't goto bed hungry if the economy keeps going where it is going. the problem with not owning a home is that someone else does and if they default then you are out of luck. also, they can kick you out, if they need the space for their family. i understand that you dont wanna pay too much for a house thats overpriced. your best move might be to buy some land and put a prefab on it. Already one step ahead of you. I own free and clear 25 acres of land and own a nice 5th wheel. If need be I can live in that long enough to get my house built. Have the kit but don't seem to have to time to build it. Guess I should find the time and get it done one of these days huh. yah, id say asap........a 5th wheel in a wy winter doesnt sound like the place id want to be |
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1. Family
2. Country 3. Self (God would be number one but I figure that she can take care of herself) Got no debt outside of the home which was purchased in 2002 and I'll own it outright in 2013 as I'm making extra principle payments. Food and water are pretty deep. About the only thing I'm thinking of doing is adding +300 gallons of additional water storage. I draw a pension from the USN and now working for the DoD so my job is pretty secure. I'm no longer the junior guy at the command and hold an important position and I'm a valuable contributor to the mission. 
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Quoted:
All debt is NOT created equal. Secured - Cars, houses, etc. You don't pay they take your car/house/etc. Unsecured - not secured, credit cards. You don't pay it off, your credit rating sinks, so what. Most people can't get loans now anyway, so the priority is NOT paying off unsecured debt unless you have piles of cash. Better to make minimum payments on the unsecured and SAVE CASH so that in case TSHTF personally you can make the payments on the SECURED DEBT so that you can keep your house. Most people know all this, but just in case... They sue you and force the sale of your car and house........The way things are a large emergency fund is a good idea I agree........but getting the monkey of CC debt off your back is wonderful. interest rates on CC are going nowhere but up.......to each their own but I am sure glad I paid mine off.......now working on my emergency fund.....I was gonna just continue on with the house then do E fund but changed my plan due to the recent developements |
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Quoted:
I don't own a home because I refuse to pay $250,000+ for a house that sold 10 years ago for only $90,000. I will be almost debt free at the end of the month and will only owe on my truck. But that payment is small. Next priority is to keep doing what I have been doing for a while now and ensure that my family is taken care of and won't goto bed hungry if the economy keeps going where it is going. this is where I'm at too. We had a big expansion and housing boom when I got here and I saw rundown $44k village homes get some plastic siding and repriced at $180k in less than a year. My landlord is a real estate agent and advised me to buy if I wasn't going to sell or wait until things readjusted. Well, I've been waiting. |
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Glad to hear from everyone that posted so far.
I thought that these three things would probably top the lists: 1 Paydown/off CC & MORTGAGE Debts 2 Food & Water 3 Defensive Weapons purchases Nailed that one alright. My wife and I have had our home paid for from the begining...we were lucky. We never had Credit cards, so we did not have to worry about bill collectors, of course we have a low credit score, but who cares, we don't owe over 20% intrest each month either. The only debt that we carry as of this moment, is a truck payment for myself ( my last vehicle took a dump,and I needed reliable transportation ) on a brand new Chevy Silverado Work Truck. I know that there are a lot of folks out there that are reading this and shaking their heads, so let me explain the reasoning behind my madness before you blow me off as some kind of nut case. 
Yes I pay a $355/ mo. payment, but I have a new truck ( 2 mo. old ). Yes it is a NEW truck. I got tired of buying used ones. This is the first new one that I've ever had. So sue me. Yes it is a full-sized truck, but it is not the gas guzzeling V8's that everyone wishes that they did not have, but the same little Vortec V6 that was in the last two Chevy S-10's that I owned, and it has more than enough power for the thing. It is the basic Work Truck, but it does have the cargo handling rail system in the bed, and I also got a bed liner thrown in for free ( courtesy of my wife talking to the salesman while I took our son to the restroom ) while we were waiting on a bit of paperwork to come back from the front office. Man, I love that woman so much. 
Yes I have to finance it, but I do so thru the local Credit Union that I financed my last used S-10 with, and I earn money in a savings account during the life of the loan. Granted, its not a lot, but it is something, and something is better than nothing. 
Even with debt, we are still in pretty good shape. And we still add to our food and water stores, we have a fairly safe place to keep it all, and the means and the determination to protect what is ours. We are still a good ways from what we would consider our ideal lifestyle or " our place in the sun ", but we are working on it every single day, and I feel that the ownership of this small amount of debt will be offset more than enough by the fact that it is a brand new truck with a larger cargo capacity than my last one. Keep up the great posts. It does my heart good to read the comments and ideas from all you folks. It just goes to show that the truely smart people are the ones who live the "ANT" type of life, and this is what really scares the hell out of the powers that be. Their control only comes from the fact that weak people give it to them.
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Right now I'm stocking up on dry foods and canned stuff. Mostly beans, rice and canned vegetables and meats/stews. Aside from that I always try to increase my stash of ammo.
I use to think that I could supplement my food stash by hunting on my property, but I have come to realize that my hick-assed neighbors pretty much poach year round and that would only get worse if a food shortage becomes reality. I can't think of harvesting wild game as a fall back option. |
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Keep the job.
Keep preps at current levels or increasing. Not worried about guns or ammo or aluminum foil hats. By preps I just mean winter heating stuff like propane and kerosene. Food and water and ways to prepare that food or filter questionable water from other sources. I have a car note but am not the least bit interested in paying it off early right now. I need the cash to build up a reserve again since life came along and chomped up my cash cushion again. Once things get back to a decent level then debt can get paid off early, but until then I will keep some cash on hand and make payments on time. |
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Quoted:
All debt is NOT created equal. Secured - Cars, houses, etc. You don't pay they take your car/house/etc. Looked into this once about a car. If it gets repoed, they can still hold you liable for the loan in many cases. At least that is the info I came up with. |
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PS: I always have a wish list - a list of priority purchases that I add to year-to-year.
When I run into some extra money I can go to the list and pick something off as a treat. The only things still on it for me are a set of 3rd generation night vision goggles ($$$$), an older Browning Hi-Power (hard to find), a jolly big water tank <––- that's the guy I'm going to get next time, and 300-500 watts worth of solar cells ($$$$). For years I'd put little sub-$100 items on it - Ten 20-round magazines, a new sling, more MRE's, first aid goods ... on and on. Worked well for me and I always made sure that I was paying attention to the toy list. |
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Financial survival.
Short and to the true point.. +100. c0 ____________________________ Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. http://Tpass.org |
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All debt is NOT created equal. Secured - Cars, houses, etc. You don't pay they take your car/house/etc. Unsecured - not secured, credit cards. You don't pay it off, your credit rating sinks, so what. Most people can't get loans now anyway, so the priority is NOT paying off unsecured debt unless you have piles of cash. Better to make minimum payments on the unsecured and SAVE CASH so that in case TSHTF personally you can make the payments on the SECURED DEBT so that you can keep your house. Most people know all this, but just in case... They sue you and force the sale of your car and house........The way things are a large emergency fund is a good idea I agree........but getting the monkey of CC debt off your back is wonderful. interest rates on CC are going nowhere but up.......to each their own but I am sure glad I paid mine off.......now working on my emergency fund.....I was gonna just continue on with the house then do E fund but changed my plan due to the recent developements They can sue you and get a judgment against you. Best of luck for them to try and get any money on that judgment. They can't force the sale of your car or house. (Now if you owe $100,000 or more on a CC and own a $1,000,000 house and a Ferrari, that's different.) Anything under $10,000 per card and it's just not worth it for them to sue you, they get a better return writing it off/selling it down the line to debt collectors. And when they write it off, the IRS then hits you up for the "income" a few years later. That's thanks to the new bankruptcy laws. The IRS you DO HAVE TO PAY. Having said all that, I have no debt, and have paid off (small) houses. 1 city, 1 country BOL. My trucks are paid off, etc. I'm sure I could have "leveraged" all that OWN and bought (borrowed) a MANSION, and a few new Hummers, but maybe I'm just not that kind of American. |
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Quoted:
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All debt is NOT created equal. Secured - Cars, houses, etc. You don't pay they take your car/house/etc. Looked into this once about a car. If it gets repoed, they can still hold you liable for the loan in many cases. At least that is the info I came up with. Yes, this is true, you do still owe whatever difference there is between what they sell it for and what you owe. This is why so many people are so screwed now. They bought a $500,000 house when they could only really afford a $100,000 house, the house is now worth $200,000, the bank can't sell it, it's foreclosed, they have no place to live and still owe $500,000 and own NOTHING. |