Lizard Farmer talks breaking contact and evading in the case that your home/ retreat/ compound/ bunker is overwhelmed. Lizard Farmer's words do not need to be rehashed but I have a few things to add. First I cannot tell you what would sort of situation would make you need to pull a runner. It is all METTC (mission, enemy, terrain, troops, time, civilians) dependent. Since I do not rely on acronyms I will spell it out in plain English. If you have a stone house that would stop anything short of an anti tank weapon with 600 meters of standoff and 12 shooters all of whom can ring 12" steel all day and night long at 600 meters and are being attacked by 4-5 goblins your situation is very different than a family with 2-3 shooters in a wood framed house that will not stop a .22 with 50 meters standoff being attacked by 8 goblins. I cannot say exactly what your bail out criteria should be but you would be well advised to put some thought into it. Second this is a reminder about the importance of caches. You don't want to die valiantly in place defending the doomstead. That is just really stupid. Either gather your tribe and take it back later or go someplace else, at least you and yours will still be alive.

This brings us back to caches.You are a lot less likely to do something stupid fighting an untenable situation and get your family killed (or worse) if all your food, weapons and equipment are not in the basement. Knowing there is ample food and equipment in caches or alternate locations will make the hard decision to abandon your home easier.

Anyway please do check out the excellent post from Lizard Farmer.

Brigid wrote about home defense and it is solidly worth checking out. Some stuff has been covered here or elsewhere and some is new ground.

In putting together this post I stumbled into an old guest post Dispersing for a Bit that was written by a man who made his living chasing down folks who did just what he writes about for a long time.

Not Good, Just Less Bad

I saw something interesting on the yahoo main page today. It is an article called The Myth of Good Debt. Certainly it is good for a coffee break or a few minutes of internet time wasting.

The whole subject of "good debt" vs bad debt has always kind of bothered me. Plain and simple debt is bad. You are promising future earnings for something now. You are almost surely paying interest for this service.

To be honest I think it is more like kind of bad debt and really bad debt. I would characterize home mortgages and education is kind of bad and consumer debt, credit cards, car loans and the like and really bad debt. The label good implies that it is smart to have this debt and it does great things for you. Sometimes that is right. In particular getting a college degree greatly increases (on average) your earning power. If you could figure a way to get through school with no debt or low debt that is ideal. However since educational costs have increased greatly beyond inflation or typical low level (working your way through school type job) wages that isn't always realistic.

Tangent begins- Also I would submit to some people that working your way through school at a low paying job and taking classes part time isn't the best route anyway. I have known a lot of people who had significant life problems as well as academic difficulties that lead to them not finishing school. They take a class here and another there and periodically have to drop out due to life reasons or even fail classes. Screwing up and not getting to a place where they can earn a comfortably livable wage and then continuing to earn 7-12 bucks an hour is pretty common. These folks then whine about how life is so hard and it isn't fair and generally have a long term pity party. What would often be a better course of action is to decrease their lifestyle if applicable, work less and borrow just enough to make up the difference. The difference between going to school and working 12-20 hours a week or 30-40 is huge. At minimum wage or close the amount of money we are talking about isn't that big. They could focus on school more and get it done at a decent pace. It probably will not be too hard to pay back said money with their increased future earnings. This is basically what I did and while I should have borrowed a bit less lived a bit cheaper it has worked out pretty well for us so far. End tangent.

With educational expenses should come degrees or certifications that significantly boost your earning power. I have got news for everybody. The days when a guy could graduate high school and  fall into a comfortably paying job doing work trained monkeys could do are over. We could talk about why this has happened but it doesn't change that it has. Especially with today's economy and jobs being scare you need to be marketable.

Mortgages are slightly worse than educational expenses IMO. I say this is because they do not have the same kind of exponential payoff as education (if properly targeted and used). Also the returns are generally less of a sure thing. House prices have a great long term track record but the short-mid term can be wild.

It would take a really long time for most people to save the cash to buy a traditional home outright. There are certainly some benefits to alternative housing but if you don't want to go that way the options are saving a lot of money for a very long time or getting a mortgage. Certainly paying the landlords mortgage for decades instead of your own and not getting the tax benefits or the appreciation in value doesn't make any sort of sense.

Getting a decent fixed mortgage you can actually afford on a home makes good sense for somebody in a stable financial place with some savings. As you noticed that sentence was kind of complicated. Maybe adjustable rate type mortgages or other exotic options make sense for some smart people in some situations. However for most people they are a horrible decision. If you can't afford a fixed rate it means you can't afford the home. Stability is very important as even short mortgages last many years and you need to be able to make that payment every month. Personally I have seen a lot of people get into trouble when they happen to get a job that pays somewhat better than they can expect elsewhere, 10 dollar an hour type guy earning 13 or a job that pays 70k instead of 55. The issue comes when they get a loan they can afford at their current higher wages and for whatever reason (laid off, fired, decide to change fields, etc) they end up changing jobs. Think about how much you could make at another job. Also having a safety net in the form of an emergency fund is essential. You've got to be able to deal with that month the car breaks or being out of work for awhile. I think Chief Instructor said once that a month of looking for every ten thousand dollars in salary is a guideline.

Part of my concern is that the concept of "good debt" leads to an attitude that having this debt is normal and even smart. Yeah it smart to increase your earning power with a degree and eventually purchase a home. However it is really smart to pay off that student loan as fast as possible and in time the home too. Having a mortgage (for the right person) beats the heck out of renting but owning a home free and clear beats the heck out of having a mortgage. I think it is also worth noting that if you buy a modest home you can actually afford paying it off at an accelerated rate is probably realistic. If you get absolutely as much home as you can make the payments on of course it isn't realistic to pay 10, 20, 50 or even 100% extra principle payments.

Cars I would classify as the best or most understandable of the "bad debt". Buying cars with cash is ideal. However "clunkers" can have some real problems. Some folks are good at fixing cars or just lucky and others have horrible luck. Often clunkers are unreliable and just $400 the heck out of you until they die. Basically if you aren't able to save a decent bit of cash and need a car for transportation you're pretty much stuck getting a loan. The real problem is how expensive of a car you get. For example awhile back my little sister found herself needing a decent reliable car. She went and got a loan to pay for a few year old basic car. Not a junker but also not new or fancy or anything like that. She paid it off faster than the loans planned life and still drives it. You need reliable transportation, not a new Mercedes. Look at it this way. If you can't afford to pay cash it means you aren't in a great spot for getting this car so be reasonable.

Consumer loans and credit card debt and such are just bad. The best case is that you use these as a sort of emergency fund because you haven't saved a couple months worth of expenses. This is bad because if you can't afford this stuff now why would you think it will be easier to afford later. I am a realist and I know things happen. I can also note that for some strange reason things seem to happen a lot more to folks who do not have emergency funds. Some unforeseen stuff comes up that has to happen right away. Replacing a key household appliance is a good example. Lets say your washer goes out. You get a new one from Sears and finance it then pay it off over a couple paychecks. Not insane. [However what if something bigger happens. Putting a months worth of living expenses from some down time at work on a credit card could take forever to dig out of. ] However using consumer loans to get all new appliances you don't really need for the whole house is insane.

My observation is that people rarely get into consumer or credit card debt trouble because of using them to ride out an emergency. People get into trouble here by using credit to live beyond their means buying this and that and the other thing which they can't afford and almost certainly don't need.

Sometimes debt makes sense. It can be understandable and even a good decision. However do not forget that at the end of the day no matter how "good" debt is it's still a promise of money you haven't even earned yet. Use it responsibly and try to get out of it as quickly as possible.

The American Dream 2: Opting Out

I intended this to be one post but it got pretty long and I realized that to really hit my main points it was going to have to get broken up. Figured this was the best route so I pushed my other plans to the right a day.

I have been accused of being heartless or inexperienced or otherwise somehow not well informed on this topic. I have said more or less that people are where they are because of choices they made. That elicited a series of unhappy comments. Here is my take on the whole thing. First of all I believe in personal responsibility. Aside from truly freak accidents and blind dumb luck pretty much everything that happens in our lives is a result of some choice or another.

However it seems that maybe some folks see this position of mine as an attack against them or a view on them as an individual. That is not the case. I have a solid measure of respect for people who instead of complaining about this or that come right out and say "I made a mistake and am living with the consequences". Good people can and do often make poor choices. Maybe it is just that my mind is compartmentalized but I can really empathize with someones tough situation without trying to shift blame for it away from them. I can feel bad for someone in a rough spot while completely recognizing they put themselves in that spot. 

As I talked about in length yesterday the American Dream is getting harder to achieve. Its price has gone up and the earning power of a lot of folks has gone down. No point in excessively rehashing, read yesterdays post if you need to catch up.


I see two broad reasons people opt out of the American Dream. The first is that they (at least right now) just plain can not afford it. The second is that they want to take another path. We will talk about them in order.

Some folks just plain can't afford the "American Dream". They may have the exact same job their father had (unlikely but lets go with it) however they make less money and stuff costs more. There is a lot of pressure to drive this and live here, etc. It is a hard decision to do something else, like what you can really afford. One of the downsides of the relatively recently passed insane credit bubble was that it was very easy for people to borrow their way into the American Dream. Then their adjustable rate mortgages adjusted or they got cut from 40 hours a week to 35 and their whole house of cards falls down.

Some people do not want the American Dream, at least not all of it or right now. They might just like being foot loose and fancy free preferring to live in a motor home instead of a 3 bedroom ranch. Maybe they realize that to them it is worth downsizing their expenses in order to be able to work less or take a few months every year off. Maybe they are just super cheap and would rather have cash in the bank then wood floors in the dining room.

To a certain degree Wifey and I fall into this category. We like most parts of the American Dream but are going to do it on a time line we are comfortable with. One thing about my rough age group (call it 23-33) we seem to expect to walk into a darn near ready made American Dream like a week after we get even a mediocre job. It is sometimes possible to do it that way these days (more so 3 or so years ago) with the ready available credit to anyone close to worthy.

Personally Wifey and I were not comfortable with that format. The idea of having a solid emergency fund and little or no debt suits us. We are living pretty modestly now in order to be able to do well and still be well within our means later. It might be a pretty solid idea for someone like our friend 5:59 to bite the bullet and live in a cheap little apartment for two years to pay off those student loans and otherwise shore up their financial foundation. Like many things in life the right answer is not the easy one.

 We would love to own a nice home and drive a couple of solidly decent cars. However right now we can not pay for them in a fashion that is comfortable for us. We have very different opinions on how we should spend, save and borrow than most other folks. When we got married we lived in an RV for a few months. Lots of other folks would have gotten a nice apartment or even rented a house. We had some interesting times in the RV and Trailer Park and saved up some money. Folks at work messed with me a bit until I mentioned that our total housing expenses were $300. In hindsight I should have gotten a travel trailer and lived in it through college. In Alabama we chose a fairly modest apartment in order to save money.

I would love to drive a newish Toyota FJ Cruiser and Wifey would enjoy a nice little BMW. To be honest we could have these things this weekend. However we really do not want a car loan (let alone 2!) and thus we have one beat up old car. Instead of having 2 car loans eat up our income we chose to save up for a modest second car. Also by living well below our means we are able to put money towards stuff we think is worthwhile. Two car loans would make it impossible to establish an emergency fund, save for the future or otherwise get ahead.

In a few years we will buy a house. It will likely be a pretty modest fixer upper type place. A wood stove for sure and ideally a basement but nothing too amazing. I would rather fix up a place a bit than pay for a perfect place. We will come at home ownership a bit later than a lot of my peers. After all until you are a home owner you haven't made it. Too many people over the last few years jumped into something they could barely afford if  they got a normal paycheck and nothing bad happened without even enough savings to get some basic repair on their car. Between their ARM mortgages adjusting or a crazy event like having a few slow weeks at work and these folks can have real issues. Personally I would rather have a bit more modest home, slightly later in life but with a solid emergency fund and with a home we can genuinely afford during a bad month when everything goes wrong.

I strongly encourage you to think long and hard. First think about what you can realistically afford and then think about what your priorities are. Remember, no matter how much someone else says you need to drive this or live here unless they are going to pay for it they don't get a vote. It is fine to want this and that and the other thing, most of us do. However you have to look at what you can afford and choose. Also to make things even more complicated you need to balance how much of a lifestyle you want to make yourself be able to afford. A guy who lives a lifestyle, even the American Dream that requires him to work 70 hours a week at a job he hates might just be happier with a smaller house, or even a trailer, and a more normal job that is not so stressful.

We all face a variety of different kinds of pressure. This pressure both real and perceived can couple together with our own  desires and be a recipe for disaster. People back themselves into a circle where they  have to have that house filled with those electronics in that neighborhood with those cars out front. They get all this stuff which they can't afford, seeing it as the only option and then don't understand how things are so bad. I do not have a great answer for this. Just like anything else your choices are your own and others do not pay the price for them. The same way that a friend who encourages you to do shots with them on a work night when they have the next day off is not going to feel your hangover the next day at work. People might cheer you on or encourage you to do something or another but at the end of the day your choices, good or bad are your own.

Multiple Streams Of Income

Yesterday this got stuck into my head. I couldn't get to sleep so I laid in bed thinking about it for awhile. No amazing answers but I do have some thoughts. Maybe together we can come up with some real ideas.

I have read all the same stuff you have. Multiple streams of income from small depression proof home businesses that can be started for little to no money. (Ragnar Benson talked about this in his book on the underground economy.) That is a mouthful to say and has a lot of qualifiers. The various options typically given for these businesses ignores the skills you may already have. Some skills and career fields simply do not translate into a low start up cost small business. The 'depression proof' idea fails to acknowledge that if you can do it for little to no start up cash without specialized skills then somebody who is short on money can and will likely do it for their own self.

Most of us do not have a variety of good practical small business skills. Even highly skilled people may not have skills that translate to the one person or family sized business with little to no setup costs venue. However I don't think this means we would not be wise to pursue multiple streams of income. So lets take a step back from "small depression proof home businesses that can be started for little to no money" and just focus on multiple streams of income.

What does multiple streams of income mean? Simply put it means getting income from more than one place, hence the word multiple. The reason this is desirable is that our income is (or should be) more secure because while one stream of income might slow or run dry you have the others to keep things going. Think of the old "never put all your eggs in one basket" saying.

How can one get multiple streams of income? The first thing that comes into my mind is having a two income household. We have talked about the practicality, desirability and benefits to children of one and two income households at length in the past. While there are certainly benefits to having a spouse at home in the context of multiple streams of income it is desirable to have both partners working. By definition two incomes is 'multiple streams'.

Interesting discussions have been had where people try to say that a dual income (by definition 'multiple streams') households are actually in a worse place than their single income peers. The thinking is that since a dual income household generally relies on making more money they are more vulnerable. With one provision I disagree. That one provision is the assumption that households are living with the same difference between what they bring in and what they need to 'make it' as well as savings, etc. Obviously comparing a two income household with no savings, significant debt and a huge adjustable rate mortgage that is about to adjust with a one income household that has a solid emergency fund, little or no consumer debt and a reasonable fixed rate mortgage is apples and oranges.

The question is fundamentally one of how much money you make compared to what you need.

Lets say that the Smiths take home 85K a year from his job as a Mechanical Engineer. The Smiths live a reasonable lifestyle below their means and need about 50k to just get by at a circle the wagons  (not contributing to retirement or paying extra on the mortgage or prepping or eating out much, etc but bills are still getting paid) sort of financial level. He gets downsized and suddenly makes $400 a week unemployment. The serious drop in income from 85k to 20k is going to become an issue at some point. They have an emergency fund and a stocked pantry and could dip into other savings/ investments so they are OK, for awhile.

Their neighbors the Anderson family take home about the same amount of money as the Smiths. Mr. Anderson is an insurance broker and takes home about 50k a year. Mrs. Anderson works at the county court house and earns 35k a year. Conveniently they also need about 50k a year when in circle the wagons mode.  The company reorganizes and Tom's office gets closed so he is out of a job. He gets unemployment at about $400 a week also. Between his unemployment and Mrs. Smiths paycheck they can get still make ends meet. [Admittedly the math worked out a bit too conveniently, it was not intentional. However even if there was a gap between their new take home and the 'circle the wagons' income needed the Smiths are still in a far better position as they would be using up their emergency fund and savings at a much slower rate.]

If all other factors are equal a family with multiple streams of income will fair job loss or pay cuts better than a family with just one income.

Even for those whose inclinations and skills do not make them well suited for living solely on income from small home businesses I think multiple streams of income are a good thing to pursue. How can you do this?

My first thought is to do more or less what you do for a primary income now part time as a side job. A teacher could do some after school tutoring either for them self or one of the various agencies like Sylvan. A CPA for Johnson and McMillan could do a few tax returns on the side for individuals or small businesses. I know a man who made extra income doing that for a long time. A plumber or dry waller could do a small side job himself now and then. I have even known of some contractors who would pass small jobs not worth their time and energy off to employees to do on the side during off time. One could potentially have part time occasional working relationships with a few different individuals/ companies/ small businesses that are within your field but entirely dependent of your primary income.

One of the things my Grandfather taught me is that it makes economic sense to spend time working in the area that makes the most money. A guy who makes $35 an hour (unless he has a real do it yourself penchant) would be better off spending a few more hours at work and paying the laid off jack of all trades carpenter type from down the block $10 an hour to repaint the spare bedroom or whatever. That same logic extends to side jobs. The CPA I mentioned above should not be pursuing $10 an hour gigs doing farm labor but finding a few more people who need their taxes done.

Being diversified to the point where you have some income from an entirely different area is a nice idea. You might not have skills which lend themselves to this sort of thing but do not give up. Remember we are talking about streams, not rivers. A few hundred bucks here and a grand there start to add up and may be the difference between making it or not if one of the bigger streams (a primary job or business) dies out and isn't quickly replaced.

Could you put in a motor home hookup at your place?  Yeah it could be an imposition and might not work for everyone but getting 2 or 3 people paying you $300 a month adds up fast. If not the same plot as you what about keeping an eye out for  a few acres, maybe where they someone put in a septic before their plans fell apart. Where we lived a fellow had a piece of land out in the country set up for 6 RV's in such a fashion.

Maybe you have a big empty barn and could rent out some covered storage? Chopping one of those side parts of your barn which are a relic of the dairy the place was in the '40's could easily bring in a few hundred bucks a month.

What about selling a bit of your garden/ farm surplus? Up by where my Uncles lives there is a couple who sells corn and green beans during late summer and early fall. He is disabled (at least as far as the state is concerned) and they have a couple acre garden. Selling vegetables at a little stand on the side of the road and leaving a small trailer with a few baskets of vegetables, a board with prices and a jar to drop cash into pulls in a bit less than $2,000 a year for them.

Ideas are endless and only limited by reality, creativity and your economic situation. A modest duplex with fenced yards in a nice neighborhood is a great option if you have the cash. My Grandparents did very well with apartment complexes. Or course real estate is its own beast and not somewhere one should go unless they are sure they can really afford it.

It is also worth noting that maybe the stay at home spouse could pursue various alternate streams of income. Maybe if the Mrs. is already taking care of your one or two kids she could take care of a  3rd and 4th to make extra cash.

Some hobbies such as sewing, weaving, knitting or wood working could make you a few bucks also.

Back to small home businesses real quick. Not everybody is suited in terms of skills or inclination to "small depression proof home businesses that can be started for little to no money."

Working for yourself has a lot of benefits but also some definite drawbacks. It is true that when you are your own boss you will never get downsized or laid off because the boss's cousin needs a job. At the same time small businesses fail at an alarmingly high rate. Also having a 'business' where you don't make any money is really not too different from getting laid off anyway.

Some folks love hustling (not in the 70's pimp sense) up new work and making deals and buying and selling stuff. I have a friend who is like this. He will get someone to pay him well to cut down a problematic tree near their house then make more money selling the wood. He chases down deals and resells tools and equipment at a profit.

While he might be thinking about the next deal or job on the horizon as he waits to fall asleep I would probably be thinking about how to keep the roof over our head if all of them fell through. Personally I like that I know within about 10 bucks (somehow or another they are always a little bit different) what I am going to get paid on the last business day of this month as well as say, in mid June. Don't think either of us are wrong or right, just different.

Both of us work so we have two streams of income and a trickle (the blog brings in a few bucks but not a meaningful factor in our overall financial situation). Got to think about ways we might be able to get a couple more trickles........

Wifey says to "stop writing and go make some money" so I have got to go.

THE END

A Man's Got To Know His Limitations

On a non preparadness orriented note Wifey and I are degenerate movie renters. We habitually return movies several days or even a week and a half late. Or course we pay the fees but still it is pretty lame. At our last place the movie rental store would have been in easy rifle range if the line of sight was clear but we still could not seem to consistently get them back on time. We have decided that renting movies in the conventional way just is not for us. We are probably going to get Netflix in the near future. It is only about $16 a month for 3 movies and since we are rather short on chill evening entertainment here it will be money well spent.

The most common limitations in our area are probably money, space, mobility, health and time in no real order.

Though they aren't really in order money is number one simply because without having some to spend you can't get anything done. I write a bit on this topic and some of my bestie blogger friends Mayberry, Dakin and Creekmore write regularly on this matter. For me currently money is currently not a particular issue. Of course we have a budget and I can't pick up an M1A this month and a couple Krugerrands next month but between what we can put toward this and the adsense revenues it is going fine.

You've got to be realistic here. If you make 20k a year a productive 100 acre farm with a big brick house, several outbuildings, a spring and a nice wood lot just isn't going to happen. However if you are able to move and really search 5 acres with a little fixer upper or a mobile home could be doable. 

Space is a somewhat common issue, especially for those who live in alternate housing like a travel trailer or an RV. Commander Zero wrote recently on this topic; their plan of mans land and no mans land is pretty hilarious and the part about border skirmishes made me laugh my ass off. For awhile I lived in a single 12x10ish bedroom and had enough arms to start a civil war, 3 weeks worth of water for two people and a couple months of food in there. It can be done if you make it a priority.

Mobility is an issue if you are attached economically, socially or culturaly to an area that is not ideal from a preparadness perspective. If your skills allow you to make a good living in a larger area but you would be working minimum wage out in the sticks then you're not going to move to the sticks. On this specific issue I would encourage people to avoid an all or nothing perspective. Just because you aren't going to move to a rural farm in the inland mountain west or a cabin in the woods in Maine doesn't mean you can't improve your situation. Maybe there is a little town 45 minutes away from work where you could move to. Worst case if communing isn't practical getting a little camping site and building a "hunting cabin" on it is an option. If your position isn't to your liking look to better it.


In the area of mobility I find myself traveling all over the place to areas where I would otherwise not choose to live. The military certainly has its challenges in this area. Don't have any amazing answers here and much more would be its own post.

Health is a truly limiting factor. For those with real physical limitations and or specialized medical needs it is going to limit what you are able to do and where you are able to live. Of course if you are just a discusting fat body and or have medical issues stemming from said fat bodyness that can be fixed but otherwise this just has to be accepted.

Time is the limiting factor that I have been having the biggest issue with. My normal work week (no ranges and no field time) seems to be right about 60 hours a week. I haven't been getting the stuff I wanted to get done completed over the past couple weeks. Getting everything done on the weekend isn't a long term plan as I want to relax and stuff plus also sometimes we will travel. Then again I get home from the gym at almost 6 and go to bed around 9 so not a ton of stuff happens then either. I know that I am going to trim back my daily reading some. Going from more like 12 to more like 7 will help. Also I will think about taking some of the stuff which comes into my head and throwing it into posts for other days and taking that time to get stuff done. Still not sure how it will play out and maybe I need to temper my expectations to my schedule a bit better.


Anyway I think it is just unrealistic to ignore your limitations. 

Raiding the Emergency Fund: When and to What End?

First of all don't worry things are fine here at the TOR household. No need to raid the emergency fund, in fact we will add to it this week on pay day. I have just been thinking.....

Under what conditions should you raid the emergency fund?
1. If you are married, domestically partnered, living in sin, coupled up or really in any other situation where you share money with another person only get into that account with both people being involved. This isn't the way to cover up (not that you should be covering up anything but that is not the point) that you spent a bit too much on naked dancing girls, designer shoes, poker night, handbags or whatever. Obviously things are really bad (not borrow a few bucks from a friend bad but ski mask and handgun kind of bad) or you would not be wanting to raid the emergency fund. Do you really want things to be that bad AND have an incredibly pissed off spouse? I certainly wouldn't. Sit down and have a serious conversation about what is going on and what the two of you are going to do to get through it. Make this decision together.

2. What are you going to raid the emergency fund for? First of all if married, etc all read above again. Second this is personal and you might have a different answer than I. To me it is for covering sudden unavoidable expenses (think broke down car or sudden plane ticket home to bury a close relative, not a deal on a .308 or a boat or a diamond ring), job loss or something else completely lame and unexpected like a house fire or needing to flee a natural disaster and spend a month in a motel in Nebraska. I think it is good to keep it open because you don't know what sort of crappy thing is going to happen to you but the odds are over any given decade at least one probably will.

To what end will you use these funds is the more unique thought I have been mulling over.

One of my low probability (lower than being mugged but higher than say a lightning strike) concerns is something getting completely fucked at work. My job is very stable, like prostitution and gambling stable. As long as our Federal Government exists in anything near its current state my industry will be safe. For the foreseeable future given our current world circumstances (two conflicts, various threats on the horizon) we will probably be a growth industry. Given said current circumstances there isn't really much of a worry about job stability because people are leaving left and right, if you stay in you will move up.

However just because things are pretty stable doesn't mean they are 100% guaranteed and reliable for every person. Anything can happen in life (everything is just fine at work don't worry) like sometimes a boss gets a serious case of the ass at someone and crushes them in evals or a subordinate does something stupid and they crucify the first officer and NCO in line so I have thought about it a little bit.

I make pretty good money but it is our only income. [Wifey is looking like crazy and hopefully will find a job that will make her happy soon.] Also there are not a whole lot of places where my current skill set would be valued without a real change in scenery and job conditions. It isn't exactly like I am a plant manager in a town with 8 plants.

Odds are we would get home and spend a couple months with relatives but it could be awhile before we were back to around our current income. Lets say that before we got back to meaningful work things came to a head at the relatives place (doubt it would but lets say it did). Right now we have more than enough to buy a piece of junkish land in the general area we want to settle plus get some sort of a functional shelter (travel trailer, mobile home, etc) to put on it sitting in the bank. We could live all Dakin like on around minimum wage for a long time in this sort of situation. Heck we could do this on what I would get in unemployment.

The reason we (might potentially ) choose to take this extreme course instead of just getting an apartment or whatever then looking for jobs is that we would not know when real jobs could be had and the odds are it would be awhile. In two years time things would be fine but there would probably be a rough 6-9 months before then. There would be a high probability that things would come to head in terms of finances (if we kept more or less our current budget) before jobs could be had so we would need to drastically change expenses to survive.

Some folks say to have a 6 month emergency fund, some say 12 months or maybe even 18. Heck why don't you just have a 96 month security fund as well as 400 ounces of gold, $100,000 face in 90% silver, a dozen M1a's and a 12,000 acre retreat! The simple answer is that we live in a world of unlimited desires and limited resources. Most folks need to scrimp and save and sacrifice just to bank a little bit each month and keep it there till it adds up to much of anything.

Also money that is sitting in an FDIC insured account (or a safe) is money that can not be put towards anything else. To me as a relatively young person the idea of saving up 12-18 months wages before starting to save for a home down payment doesn't make a lot of sense. I would rather have less in the bank (say 4 months) and be paying myself instead of some other guy.

My point is that it might not be bad to have a contingency plan for radical long term or even permenant changes in income. You might (depending on your funding,age, levels of risk, etc) not even need to do anything toward putting this plan in motion unless your personal circumstances really change but it is probably wise to think this one out for awhile and discuss it with the spouse.

Thoughts?

Living in Germany 1: Initial Impressions

This doesn't have a whole lot to do with any of the blogs core topics but since it is also an extension of my life and life experiences it is going to come up here. At the end of the day I write about what I want to. I move a lot for work and this has trickled into the blog starting with the rv living series and then going to my chronicles on living in The South. I will stick with the tried and true good, bad and ugly format TOM suggested so long ago. Well maybe not so long but I have moved 4 times since then so it seems like forever. This post is just going to be initial impressions as I've been here for a few days.

The Good: Lots of trees, very clean, the people are nice, the food is great, the beer is great, the houses and stores are cool looking. It is set up so walking is practical. It is all new but I am really enjoying it a lot so far.

The Bad: We are at least temporarily out of the loop on most everything as we do not speak German. It is a lot better now that we've got an internet connection. On the tv at our hotel there is only one channel in English and it is CNN. Sort of a random international CNN I think. They use the Euro here and at about 1.4 dollars to 1 euro things are more expensive than in the good old USA. I make a good living so it will not be a big issue but we will probably notice it. (much more on this later) The 19% VAT tax is sort of lame also. The time difference will also be a barrier for communicating with folks back home.

The Ugly: Nothing really.

Unconventional Living Situations: Moving For Work

First of all you might want to swing by Hermits place and give him some positive wishes. Tomorrow his wife and 20 something children are headed down to Florida to find work. Kids moving to find work and social stuff isn't anything new but well established and highly qualified adults (still can't consider us 20 somethings 'adults') needing to change states to find jobs is disturbing. It is one thing to need to make a long drive but it is another to move hours away.

I fear that unconventional living situations because of finances and moving to seek employment is a trend that is going to continue in the months and maybe years to come. Remember the roving groups of men who were searching for jobs in the Great Depression? I think this time will be a lot different because most couples are dual income. I don't have stats from that era but I imagine most households were not dependent on both people being able to work to stay above water.

What does this mean? Back then assuming you had a place to live the family could more or less stay intact in their community. Unless a family lost their residence and ended up doubling up with some relatives they could at least stay in the same place while the man went onto the road. For families with young children one parent needing to relocate in search of work could very well upset the somewhat precarious 'Dad takes the kids to school in the morning, mom picks them up from daycare at 5:00 after she gets off work' sort of situations.

Also since both partners need to work that is double the vulnerability to potential job losses. Yes it also means there is double the odds that one job will survive but for most people that is not enough. If a family needs 80% of their total income to survive (I am being generous there for most it is probably more like 90% or more) and all of a sudden they are making 50% while they won't starve to death there will probably be serious issues.

As for answers really wish I had some amazing solutions nobody has thought of. If you've got to go someplace to work you've got to go someplace to work.

It would probably be wise to minimize the expenses of a trip if you don't have a sure thing job there. The only thing worse then not being able to find a job would be not being able to find a job and spending $500 on lodging. If there is someone you may be able to crash with for a couple weeks that would be a good option. If you are asking them in a clear way with a definite ending time the odds that you will get a couch to crash on are higher. Something like 'I am going to look for a job for three weeks. After that time has passed I will either be headed back home, paying you rent or getting my own place.' will probably be better received then ' um I am going to look for a job and stuff when I get there. Can I stay with you?'.

Also don't forget about trying to work through friends in other places. The cliche that who you know is more important then what you know has a lot of truth to it. Obviously you need to be somewhat qualified (excluding engineers, doctors, etc) but a friend putting in a good word is often the difference between getting a job and not. I don't look at this as nepotism (unless taken to extremes) but that the odds someone who a friend vouches for will be a fuck up are lower then the odds that candidate #4 will be. If nothing else lots of places hire through word of mouth instead of big advertisements and such. A friend (especially in a similar job field) hearing stuff will often be at least as useful as the classifieds.

Based on these things if all other factors were close to equal I would choose a place where I knew some people over one where I didn't.

Once you get a job somewhere think outside of the box. Having that second income get going again but with another household full of expenses is not that much of a benefit to the family balance sheet. Maybe the traveling worker can find a few people to rent a little place with. Some jobs include housing and food which would be a big plus. If the goal is to send as much money home as possible having 5 guys in a 3 bedroom place makes sense. Instead of getting an apartment maybe you can rent a room in a house. Living in a little travel trailer makes sense also. Yeah these living situations can be kind of a pain but the goal is to make money. Working more hours or fewer longer days (4x10, 3x12) will let you make money and maybe go home every or every other weekend.

In these trying times I suggest that you lean more on friends and family and be willing to let them lean on you. The more we work together the better off everyone is. Maybe having a friend or two sleep in the living room for a month isn't your idea of fun but in a years time situations may have changed and it could be you calling them needing a favor. Often folks are too proud or whatever to ask for help.

Help friends and family if they need it and don't be afraid to ask them for help if you need it.

Unconventional Housing Question?

That was good advice for a conventional house buy. Could be you are one of those people who need to look outside the box? Like the guy on thesurvivalistblog who lives in a travel trailer on a paid for lot? That is 'out of the box' thinking.

Are you the sort of person who could do it themselves or do you really need to buy a ready to go place?

A lot depends on where you are, who you are, the climate, the laws and culture. Can you afford to buy just the land (a building lot or maybe acreage)? Can you put up a pole barn and park your travel trailer in there while you build a house.

Will a real 'fixer-upper' work for you? Can you live in and fix a place at the same time? Can you do it paycheck to paycheck and with scrounged materials? There is a whole world of shelter ideas and thoughts (and advice type help) out there if you are able to go 'out of the box' in your search for shelter.

We bought out first place on a land contract out of the back of a magazine. After several years we paid the land off and everything we did to the place was ours.

There are risks but it can be done.

TOR here: Interesting question. As for unconventional housing I think generally speaking we (if you don't include your spouse in the decisions your asking to become single, sorry but its true) are pretty open minded. For a time we lived in in RV both on a relatives land and in a trailer park. Glad we did it but also glad it is over. Can't say we would never do it again but it would not be our first choice.

I have gone over most of the outside the box options in the past and there are some possible options.

Could we do it ourselves? The short answer is YES! We do have the rather unique situation that at least for the foreseeable future we will be moving every 3 years or so. This means it is not worthwhile to do the sweat equity thing that will create a cheap long term place to live unless we could get out money back out of it. Factoring in what our time is worth lots of the conventional outside the box housing ideas do not make sense in this context. Mobile homes don't move real well and finding land that you can purchase which is hook up ready is fairly rare, certainly not something you would want to try and find every 3 years.

I could build a pole barn (be on the phone to my Uncle every few days but that is OK) but again putting improvements into land just to sell it and gamble we will get the $$$ back isn't something I'm going to do.

Of all the ideas you have mentioned getting a real fix er upper is very realistic for us. As long as a home is structurally sound I can do just about everything. The idea of living in a home for a few years during which we do a lot of repairs and increase the value is realistic. Since we are going to move anyway it would fit into our plans pretty well. I think depending on the overall situation (how much we pay for the place, what needs to be done, the market, etc) doing repairs/ improvements as cash comes is would be doable. As for scrounged materials they can work but as I have seen at friends places the end result is a scrounged mis matched place which can hurt value on resale.

Buying land, paying it off and then building (and or fixing up) down the road is a real possibility. It will depend a lot on when we finally settle, our financial situation at the time and what is available. Living in a travel trailer while we substantially repair or build is a very valid option. Wifey's folks lived in a travel trailer and had their stuff in the barn while their home was build and we may well emulate that plan.

Did I miss anything?

Good News in the Blogosphere

Mayberry got his RV. The guy has been wanting one for as long as I can remember and he finally got it. Good times.

A New Link

I stumbled into RV Survivalist awhile back and for whatever reason lost contact with his blog. In any case I stumbled back into it today and figured it's time for him to join the prestigious blogs we read section on the right. I don't put everything that initially interests me into there because lots of folks tend to fade quickly and pretty soon the sidebar is full of dead links. In any case give the guy a read.

Can U Haz Full Time In RV?

Creedmore found this awesome article RV Fulltiming- Is It For You?. For anyone considering living in an RV/ Travel trailer this is definitely worth reading. Based upon my experiences (lots of folks talk the talk but I DID IT) this article hit some real good points and is definitely worth your time.

The Plan- Cheap housing

I got a good amount of comments on my previous post on this matter. After a lot of helpful comments and thinking we realized that buying a new mobile with the intent to keep it for the long term and move it from place to place wasn't sound. A couple comments (Pearls and Mayberry) suggested getting a big travel trailer and just moving that from place to place. I've been mulling that idea over for a couple days. Today Wifey and I had a conversation about it. To put it mildly she is not a big fan of that idea. We did it already more or less and she isn't keen on doing it again. After some discussion on the matter we came to an interesting place. She is not down with the travel trailer thing and I don't like the economics of renting an apartment.

The newest (and I think more reasonable and realistic) idea is to just buy a used mobile home wherever we are. There is no intent to move it around for the long term but a move might be in the cards. This plan is pretty darn cheap as used mobiles can be had for a song. Paying a couple- three hundred bucks a month to park it someplace would be just fine with me. Bank the rest of the BAH and save for a house down the road. We do intend to purchase a home and then continue to sell and move (but not upgrade) as needed for my job. This plan seems like a good stop gap measure between the next duty station and being able to really afford to buy a house.

Please by all means point out anything I failed to consider or underestimated. Thoughts?

Building A Home On The Cheap

We have gone over RV and travel trailer living in the past, mobile homes have been discussed also. Let us assume that you want to live in a more permanent but want/ need to do it on the cheap. It is worth noting that cheap for a permanent structure is nowhere near trailer/ RV/ mobile home sort of cheap. The bottom line is that cabins/ houses/ whatever you want to call them just plain cost more.

Please check out some background by reading this post by Steve. All the good advice in it aside it got me to thinking. Three different people and their residences come to mind; I will now talk about them. Hopefully you will get something out of it. Here I go in no particular order.

Uncle B lives in a nice little cabin. It sits in a mid sized town that was small 20 years ago. The origin of the cabin is kind of a funny story. Grandpa was in construction and was building a park which included demolishing the structures that were on the land. He had a lot adjacent to the family home where they had a barn and kept the horses. Grandpa chose the best of the cabins on the land he was working on, sawed it in half with a chainsaw put it on a truck and drove it to the land in the middle of the night. This structure is fairly small but ingeniously designed to have a lot of space.

The cabin is about 20' x 35'. It has two small (queen bed, desk, dresser, small closet and its full) bedrooms on the left side that are about 10 feet wide. The little bit of space on the left side between the wall of the middle bedroom and the north wall was a tiny bathroom. The remaining space was split up with about 25' of living room and the rest was the kitchen. A brick fireplace is in between the two spaces. It looks like at one time the oven might have been attached but it was replaced by a gas oven. Later on a laundry room was added which tacked about 10 feet onto the end of the place. This place has pretty much everything you need and could be built pretty cheaply. My uncle and I were talking (he is a contractor) about homes and I gave this floor plan some serious thought. We agreed that adding a loft (very cheap space) would help out a lot. Admittedly in the cabin storage is somewhat short but between the barn and assorted outbuildings (one of which is basically a small apartment without a bathroom) there is plenty of space to put stuff.

This place has three lessons for me. First sometimes you can get a place just for moving it. This is of course more economic if you have the truck and such to move a place. However if that is your only expense for getting a livable structure it is worth looking into. The big thing in this is that for it to be cost effective the structure probably needs to be pretty close to your home site. Certainly not an answer for every situation but it is worth keeping in mind. The second lesson is that to a certain degree the floor plan and its livability are more important then total square footage. The third lesson is that if you have enough space on your lot additional storage space can always be added later on as funds allow. The cabin started with a tiny porch and no laundry room. After it became Grandmas full time residence I think the laundry room came pretty quickly. A few years later Pa and my uncles all got together and built a car port and a wrap around deck. Build a small place now, a shed in a year or two, a barn a few years later, maybe another room or two down the road, etc.

The second place is probably the smallest and almost definitely the cheapest. It belongs to one of Uncle B's friends who we will refer to as J. He owns ten beautiful acres of woods with an amazing view. He got the land about 20 years ago for a darn good price. He lives in an A frame. No foundation and no septic. He has a grey water system and an outhouse. To be honest I am not sure if there was a single permit involved in the place getting built. In any case the work was done by him, I imagine Uncle B and a friend or two. He has a nice barn also which stores all manner of things. The morale I learned from this place is that if you are willing to adjust your lifestyle (he has an outhouse) then substantial savings can be made.

The third place is the one I know the most about as it was recently built by a friend of mine. His folks have 40 acres they inherited and he was given a couple to build a house on. He of course has access to the rest should he want to have a cow or something. Most likely he would just get more involved in his parents rather substantial efforts (cows, pig, chickens) and have a piece of the rewards.

My friend built what could be best described as a studio house. Pretty simple layout with a bedroom in one corner, the bathroom kitty corner to the bedroom with the kitchen on the same wall to make plumbing easier. A wood stove sits by the doorway and the rest of the place is open. It sits on a slab and there is a small mud room in which the washer and dryer live. If I recall correctly he built the place for $45,000.

It took him about a year to build partially because he built as he could pay for materials. He thus owns the place free and clear. Being a union machine operator and generally a handy guy who knows lots of other handy guys he was able to get everything but the septic system and the plumbing done for trade or greatly discounted cash prices.

The good part of this plan is that he got the place for significantly less then it would have cost to have someone else build it. The bad sides are numerous but it is a question of what is important to you. When you get cabinets and such from leftovers at a great discount some weird combination's come up. When people are doing work for free or lower cash rates they show up when they can and feel like it. This means stuff takes a lot longer then if someone is there all day long. Expect to have lots of pauses while waiting for someone to come and finish their piece of things.

The building process being far lengthier is a big problem if you are paying rent/ mortgage/ whatever somewhere else. Paying for two places to live puts a strain on all but the biggest budgets. Living on site in a travel trailer/ barn (tent if you are a bachelor and the climate is mild enough) would be a good option. A friend of his who I don't know was building a place in the same manner and having serious financial problems because he was paying rent. My friend probably would have done things differently if he didn't have a room in his folks place. The bottom line is that he got far more of a place for his cash then through any other means. He did concede that if his time was factored in the cost would be far higher and really it was a pain in the ass. When he adds on two more bedrooms and a family room in a few years he is going to just have a contractor do the work.

I guess the biggest thing to keep in mind is that you need to think outside of the box to really cut costs. Thinking outside of the box means making sacrifices in some form or another. It is just a question of what you are willing to live without. Doing the average thing and getting a loan which you use to purchase a turn key home or having one built is going to lead to an average sized mortgage and all that comes with it.

Living in the South

This has absolutely nothing to do with preparedness and is just more of a life update. Though for people looking for a retreat east of the Mississippi the South would have some of the better possibilities unless you want to go way north and stuff grows way better here. I have been living in the South for a bit over a month now. I have been in the Carolina's and Louisiana before for reasonable periods of time but spent little time off post so I knew the weather and environment a bit but almost nothing about the culture and people. I will use the format which worked so well in the rv living posts; the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good: Stuff is cheaper, especially gas and tobacco. Rent and the general cost of living is also lower which means our money goes further. The weather is pretty nice at least in the time we have been here. To date even if the morning is cold there are still nice sunny afternoons which reminds me of where I lived for the last three years and the area I will return to someday.

The people here are just plain nicer then anywhere I have ever been. Having strangers sitting at the bar next to us strike up genuine conversations without being sloppy drunk or looking for something is somewhat unusual to me but nice. Once our apartment manager signed for a package of ours. She noticed that it needed to be refrigerated and put it in our fridge and left a typed note on the fridge saying she came in and left it. That was way above and beyond the call of her job. There are other examples but the point has been made.

The Bad: It seems like it takes four times as long as it should to get anything done around here. While people are almost always polite efficiency is often woefully lacking. Getting the gas for our hot water turned on took almost two weeks. That is right a customer called them and wanted to start giving them money for their services and they took half a month to take us up on that offer. Assorted minimum wage employees seem to suck a lot more here then back home and that takes real effort. I once had to almost yell at a girl at Walmart to get her to do her fucking job. She worked at the special counter where you get money orders, and other such stuff. I needed stamps and since the girl at the normal counter directed me to her that is where I went. I said "is this where I can get some stamps" and she said " it is but I don't have any". (Note that she did not say they were out of stamps just that there were not any within her arms reach.) I promptly told her "fricking go get some then". I hate hassling people but should not need to just so they do their jobs.

The Ugly: I am pleased to say that to date there has been no ugliness. That being said there sure has been some weirdness. I get local and regional nuances but some shit is just strange. Every road in the South seems to have three or four names. Instead of GA 12 it is GA 12/ Johnson Drive/ Anderson Lane/4th Ave. A few blocks down the road the same road will be GA 12/ 19th Street/ Anderson Lane/ 4th Ave. This plays hell with finding your way around with written directions as any given road sign will just have one of the names. (Which of the names seems to rotate in an order I haven't figured out.) By the time you read the sign and check with the 4 road names you are looking for the opportunity to turn has often passed. I do not understand this and it sort of pisses me off. In the drive here I noticed this phenomena in a few places so it isn't just this immediate area.

One thing that completely baffled me happened in a BBQ restaurant somewhere between Birmingham and here. We both ordered rib sandwich combos. What arrived was two pork ribs on a hamburger bun. Yes ribs full of bones and cartilage. A sandwich that is impossible to eat in the form it is delivered makes no sense to me. I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting but since I like ribs and I like sandwiches there was an assumption it would be good which was quite wrong. This one is far less troubling then every road having 4 names but it is just about the weirdest thing I have ever seen on a plate.

I guess to compile my thoughts on the matter I like living here. I do not love it but I do like it.

I doubt that there will be another post on this topic but it has been brewing for awhile and there was just no inspiration today.

Quality Junk Land- Sort Of A Rant

This topic comes up from time to time and it annoys the heck out of me. We all want to have our cake and eat it to but that just is not how life works. Maybe it is just the phrase "quality junk land" that irritates me. In any case here it goes.

I guess we should try to narrow down exactly what we are talking about. To me junk land is cheap land that is not particularly desirable. Maybe there is no water, or it is 40 miles from town, or it is a small piece or it is all at a 30 degree angle, etc. What exactly the top $ limit for junk land would have to be figured out individually but for most people it would not be more then a few thousand bucks. I guess quality would mean that the piece of land is desirable for your needs, this is much murkier then junk land.

Broadly speaking the whole junk land thing seems to have a bigger disconnect from reality due to romantic notions then RV living. People seem to think that for a couple grand they can get a nice little piece of land and it will all just be kitties and butterflies. You've got to lower expectations and get closer to reality.

For those trying to do the whole junk land thing here are my suggestions. First figure out what the amount of money you are working with is. Next figure out a pretty general idea of where you want land. Depending on your ability and desire to relocate this area could be limited to a county or two or it could be a larger area. If you need to be within X miles of Y place it is going to be a lot harder then if you are packing up the truck and moving out there to go all Dakin.

Hopefully your dollar amount leaves you with some options in the area you want to purchase land. If this is not the case then you can look in another area or scrap the idea at least for awhile. Looking in another area might or might not be realistic. Commuting 200 miles a day to save a couple grand on a land purchase would not make sense in any way.

The last option would be to readjust your criteria. Maybe instead of two acres you look for one, buy land that was just logged instead of having a nice little forest, a place farther from the paved road, etc. I am a big believer that if you can't afford to buy what you want then either live without or wait till you can afford it. Unless your initial desire was totally unrealistic the odds are lowering your criteria will not lead to long term happiness. If you are going to try this path I suggest using the WALLS acronym (water, access, location, light, security) to figure out what is essential and stick with it.

I guess the big theme of junk land should be lowered expectations.