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Category: Survival Tips

We think it’s important for families to be as prepared as possible for any natural or other disasters that may come their way.

What Can I Pay Out of My HSA?

In my humble opinion, the HSA is highly underrated and underused by many here in America. The more I look into this gem of a product, the more excited I get about contributing to it. We upped our contributions to our HSA this year because one of the kids needs braces and I want to make sure we deduct every bit of our out-of-pocket costs for those things. We’re working to maximize tax deductions, especially while the kids can still be counted as dependents. So that got me thinking; What can I pay out of my HSA? What other regular purchases do we make that we can be purchasing with HSA funds so that we can minimize taxable income? Read more

How to Stock a Winter Car Survival Kit

Being sure you have a properly stocked winter car survival kit is vitally important to the personal safety of you and your family. Enjoy, and stay safe!

In the lovely state of Minnesota, winters can be harsh. And by “harsh” I mean freeze-your-tail-off cold. Three winters ago, we had one of the worst I’ve ever seen. We had more than a month of sub-zero days. Read more

7 Tips for Beating the Winter Blues

Studies indicate that as much as twenty-five percent of the population suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder or what’s commonly known as the winter blues. Especially if you live in colder, northern states, winter can be depressing borderlining on debilitating. Having suffered from clinical depression for seven straight years, I can tell you that winter can be really tough on those suffering from winter-related blues.

It feels like you’re trapped in a frozen tundra and will never escape, to put it mildly. Winter used to be a tough time for me, but following the tips below has helped me to kick the winter blues to the curb and manage to almost enjoy winter. 🙂 Read more

Job Layoff Survival Tips

Your position at work might not be as secure as you think it is. Because of that, we’re going to help you prep for a job layoff. Now, my hope and prayer is that you never have to experience this. But we’d rather have you be prepared for it and it never happens than have it happen and you not be prepared at all. The job layoff survival tips listed here came from two places:

  • Our own experience with losing a job
  • A post a blogging pal (who no longer blogs 🙁 ) wrote here

So get your pen and paper out and make yourself a plan that will help ensure that if you do experience a job layoff you’ll be prepped and ready to handle it. Read more

How to Build a 30 Day Emergency Food Supply Fast and Cheap

If you haven’t gotten on board with the whole prepping thing yet, now might be a good time. Less than 24 hours after it was announced that Donald Trump had been elected president, the protests are starting.

This is the kind of thing we are talking about when we talk about situations rising up quickly where you may not be able to – or be comfortable – leaving your house.

This is the type of scenario that has preppers everywhere begging with readers to at least have a small stockpile (7 days or so at the least) ready to go.

In an ideal world, a minimum of 30 days for a stockpile is best. Today I’m going to share how you can maximize your money and use as little of it as possible to build yourself a quick storehouse for an emergency type of situation. Read more

Dealing With Spousal Abuse

 

In honor of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, I’m republishing this post about my ordeal with domestic violence. If you’re suffering with domestic violence in your home, please don’t give up hope and please go to a safe place, such as a battered women’s shelter, as soon as possible. You are not alone!!

Here we go again.  I’m feeling led by the Lord to share intimate details of my past life, which I’m none too happy about sharing ;-), but I know that a large part of my purpose here is to help and encourage others, so for that purpose, I will share.

Today I want to talk about the Ray Rice incident.  Let me start off by saying that I have no personal knowledge of the situation or their relationship other than what we’ve all seen on TV.  But when you hit a woman so hard that you knock her clean out, that is a serious danger sign in my opinion.  But I digress: this post is not about the Rice incident specifically, but about the dangers of spousal abuse.

I spent four long years in an abusive relationship, Read more

How to Protect Your Finances against Another Recession

purse-522622_640What will happen to my savings and wealth if there’s another recession like the one in 2008? This is a question I often get asked, and I wonder about it myself. Just recently, a friend of mine from Europe talked about Brexit. It was so unprecedented and quite disastrous to people like my friend who had retirement savings in British pounds. Brexit, in case you didn’t know, sent pound values into a tailspin.

All families must think hard in advance about how to ensure financial security in the future. When it comes to money, there are some things we can control, like spending. Then there are other things that are beyond our individual control, like economic downturns. I firmly believe that we should protect our wealth no matter how bad the economy gets.

Most people I know think that saving money religiously, in cash, will protect them in the future. This is a major misconception. Of course, you must save money for retirement, emergencies, children’s education, and so on. However, it’s important to keep in mind that if the economy collapses again, the value of these savings will plummet. Currency is highly vulnerable to market fluctuations. That’s why it’s very important to hedge your currency savings against an economic downturn.

So, exactly how can you protect, or even increase, wealth in the face of an economic collapse? Here are several tips:

Diversify Investment Portfolio with Precious Metals

If the economy collapses, some of the stocks, bonds, and other similar currency-based investments you have will lose value incredibly. Some stocks may end up even being utterly useless. However, there’s one investment option that actually increases in value if the market collapses: precious metals.

Precious metals like gold and silver are valued against the currency in an inversely proportional manner. That means that when the value of the dollar goes up, the value of gold goes down. But when the value of the dollar goes down, as in a recession, the value of gold skyrockets. Investing in gold and silver coin therefore is a great way to protect your overall wealth in case the unthinkable happens.

Spend Some Savings on Assets

Do not keep all your savings in the bank. If you have fat savings accounts, it’s worthwhile to invest this money in assets like property. Sure, if the economy goes down, the value of property can plummet. But property has intrinsic value. When you own a house, you can move there or rent if needed. So, think about buying assets that can be of use in case of a recession.

Keep an Eye on Financial News

Don’t forget to read the economic news and monitor financial markets. If the country is headed towards a recession, you will know in advance. When you know, you can quickly trade in your stock and prepare yourself for impending disaster. Don’t let something as important as economic collapse catch you by surprise.

Generally speaking, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Hedge your wealth against a currency devaluation with precious metals. Above all, have a plan about what you are going to do in case the market crashes or something like Brexit happens.

How to Prepare for a Natural Disaster

how-to-prepare-for-a-natural-disasterLast week Hurricane Matthew hit the shores of Florida. By 11 a.m. EST on Saturday more than one million residents were left without power. Four people were dead: two people killed by falling trees while in their home and camper, and an elderly couple died from carbon monoxide fumes from the gas generator they were running in their garage.

In Haiti the damage from Hurricane Matthew was far more intense: over 800 dead as of this writing.

My friends, natural disasters do and will happen, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. You can call prepping for war, economic downturns and zombie apocalypses “paranoid” but the threat of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, heavy rains and massive snowstorms are real and they happen regularly. Read more

What You Should Consider Before You Buy a Farm

 

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It will be four years ago next month that we sold our home in the ‘burbs and moved to a hobby farm about forty-five minutes out of town. The farm life is in many ways a much harder life than suburbia life, but the blessings are well worth the effort and we wouldn’t trade it for anything. Since a fair number of people seem to be considering moving out to the country these days, I thought I’d share a to-do list of things one should consider before making the move to a farm, whether it be a smaller hobby farm like ours or a larger working farm. Here are some thoughts. Read more

How to Prepare for a SHTF Situation

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There’s been lots of talk in the prepping world that America’s fluffy existence is soon coming to an end – or at least taking a long break. Massive government debt (currently over 19 trillion) and personal debt (3.4 trillion and rising) numbers in America alone are causing concern for many economists and governments. If a major financial, political, natural or terroristic disaster occurred, how would stressed out Americans handle it? Would there be widespread riots? Cleared out grocery store shelves?

According to a popular prepping article, Germany has warned its citizens to be prepared for potential impending disasters by having a ten-day supply of food and five-day supply of water on hand. Other warnings are being given throughout the world, even in the United States. Read more