New Year, New Dawn
Dr. John Woods 01.01.18
With the holidays now passed, it is time to start a new chapter. As usual, preppers hardly know what will be coming next. We continue to hope for the best, but ideally prepare for the worst. Though the swamp seems to be draining slowly, the leftist beavers are hard at building back the dams and mucking up the system. That much we know for certain.
For most preppers that reside in the middle to upper middle class status in this country, money issues will always play a major role in concern for survival and preparedness. Today we enjoy one of the lowest unemployment stats in many years, yet some sectors are still struggling. This means that job security remained an issue. It means that hopes of raises and promotions are slow coming. Perhaps the new so-called revised tax law will help put more cash in your pockets.
Meanwhile, it is always a good idea to review your financial situation for the present as well as the future. Try to work out some kind of a long-term savings plan to build a reserve and a future. Ideally six months of savings equivalent to total family income should be socked away in a secure hold. This money is for emergencies, potential discretionary spending and/or even an additional retirement fund.
Fund your kids’ education by scholarships and loans that can be paid back from their employment upon graduation. Don’t spend your money when you can spend somebody else’s. That’s an old Jewish axiom I learned from a college roommate.
Each New Year is a good time to review accomplishments, postponements, and perhaps some outright failures. Maybe you can pick up right where you left off last year, or it may be time to realign goals with some new ones or to dash goals that might have proven themselves unreasonable. For example, that mountain log cabin retreat, may just not be possible right now. If so, consider alternative plans.
Make a full assessment now of goods, supplies, gear, and security issues. If a SHTF hit this week, how long would your current supplies and defensive consumables last? Always keep that question in mind as the future months unfold as one never knows when SHTF might come.
Now is the time to dream, too. What lofty goal would you like to tackle? It never hurts to have some aggressive plans to work on as time goes on. That is what keep prepping interest alive.
