Strangely enough, people seem to end up at one extreme or another with their investments. The particularly polarized portfolios may contain, on the one hand, all gold, silver and cash investments … or at the other end of the spectrum, all hand-picked, single-company tactical stocks (and maybe a few bonds for balance). The first could be great in an end-of-world situation, and the latter works well when the economy is booming, but both can fail somewhere in between. However, either strategy is better than spending everything and not saving a dime along the way!
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Another one for the history books, and straight from the pages of an old Reader’s Digest volume: the story of a construction worker who slipped while walking on a beam, plunged into a pit below, and impaled himself on three pieces of upward-facing steel rebar.
What do you mean by ‘end of the world’ anyway? It can apply to anything from personal property damage (home destroyed in a fire) to global-scale catastrophes. Whatever the scope, geography can turn upside down during disasters – roads get rerouted for floods, earthquakes and fires, and highway arteries become clogged. Everyone tries to leave by the ‘fastest’ freeways only to find their car slowing to a stop. Suddenly the boldest lines on the map become the least desirable paths of travel.
Cats are said to have nine lives, but studies suggest these might be used up a lot faster if they fall above the 6th floor and below the 10th floor of a building … this holds all the way up to the 20th story or more. A strange survival statistic, to be sure, but science (as always) has a fascinating explanation for this bizarre phenomena.
It started with a storm, and ended up with a hiker intentionally igniting an explosive fire within the grain silo he took shelter in. A true story … truth is, as they say, often stranger than fiction.
Whether in an urban or natural environment, some form of fixed-blade, full-tang, non-folding survival knife is a must – and a knife without a sharpener is almost as silly as one without a sheath, since you might find yourself using for all kinds of rough jobs in an emergency. Here are some of the best and worst options generally, as well as some specific suggestions that span the spectrum from short and sweet to strong and serious.
From 14K and 18K ’junk’ jewelry (vintage bracelets, earrings, rings, etc…) to old numismatic and new bullion coins, gold (and to some extent silver, platinum and palladium) has continued to climb in price at an alarming rate … but beware of jumping on the bandwagon, particularly with prices this high and (at least as of this writing) still rising. First, at least ask yourself: why do I want to buy this? Is it an inflation hedge, part of a larger investment portfolio, something I collect or an item to barter at the end of the world?
The idea of a Get Out of Dodge or Bug Out Bag (or simply GO Bag) is simple in theory, but in practice takes some thought, time and effort: it contains everything you might need to survive, for the short term, during a serious disaster situation. The key element here is time: typically, these are seventy-two-hour solutions and part of a larger plan for longer evacuation or survival scenarios … they are not going to last you forever, but are a good place to start larger-scale emergency planning.Survival Search
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