So let’s share a bit of know how here, if you don’t mind. I am sure we could all benefit from information we can share about the world financial situation. If not too personal, what are your ideas about where to put money to keep it as safe as possible? Considering we may not even be allowed to use cash in the upcoming future, what should we be doing to prepare for that?
Needless to say, this is all casual discussion and no one should feel they are liable for their opinion. No one is giving financial advice nor speculating on investments…
How about these questions:
Considering the rampant closure of dissident’s accounts these days, where is the best place to have traditional bank accounts? Which specific banks seem to be catering to the freedom fighter sensibility and would be the best place to have ordinary checking and savings accounts?
Is anyone investing in Bitcoin these days? Is that a wise or unwise thing to do?
How about gold and other precious metals? Or even cash? Is that a stupid thing to do?
How about big retirement funds invested in stocks and mutual funds. Removing these funds would cost most people a penalty as well as be taxed. Is it wise just to leave them and cross your fingers?
This could be a very interesting discussion…let me know if you are all up for it!!
Okay I'll throw in my two cents. There's is one element I feel that is possibly the most important element to all this that hasn't been addressed and I believe will be critical to help you survive and not have to live as Todd puts it, in a Terminator World. I’m actually referring to exactly that which we've been told all our entire lives that no one get more of and that's “Time”, well that isn’t true anymore. Let me explain in a bit later in my response what I mean when I say that, after addressing some of the comments which I must say are for the most par extremely well done!
Banks suck! They are a vital part of the control mechanism. If you have all your money in the bank than you are opening yourself up to a world of hurt with no re-course. Retail banks are nothing but creations due to the existence of the Rothschild Central Banks found in every nation except those that didn't want one. Well let's just say those countries have all been visited by the US military or special forces.
Secondly, these commercial and retail banks are credit or debt (credit sounds nicer) lenders like mortgages (in Latin meaning “death/dead pledge” also they are the ones responsible for the creation of the M2 money supply in MMT (Modern Money Theory) which isn’t actually money at all as I stated above, they issue debt through a mechanism called fractional reserve lending with lending restrictions based on a certain percentage held in reserve adhering to statues around banking requirements. Money or what they say is money isn’t money at all it’s called “Money of Account”.
I’m going into a bit of detail about this as I would like people to understand the difference and would like to expose the scam, we call banking and money which can be done quite easily but with a bit more foundational knowledge that I hope with garner a different perspective. So, let me explain money, real money is an asset, exactly as mentioned by a lot of the responses to this article. Money can be gold, silver, crypto, vodka, eggs anything that has value, anything that would be considered enriching, holding IOUs to debt is not money. Money as we’ve been indoctrinated into accepting are not the digits on our screens when we login to our bank to check the status of our accounts, that is called “Currency”, under Statue law, Martine Law, Law Merchant, Lex Mercatoria, international, corporate admiralty LAW (Land, Air, Water) refers to a lot of things that are things you would encounter if you were in the Navy. An example would be the US Navy, United States Navy, which is not the United States of America Navy as that doesn’t exist. In 1871 the United States of America was usurped by the international bankers and what incorporated and is now called The United States Inc. Similar to McDonald’s when their hamburgers were made with 100% All Beef, “100% All Beef” was a subsidiary of McDonald’s. We all know there is no way McDonald’s is made of 100% all beef as we understand it, surely, but just like McDonald’s and the United States, it’s a deception program just like money. Money of Account is currency, currency refers to energy which represents the energy given by people or flow of energy (like a current) if you will. However, this currency is brought into existence through the creation of a liability which will require an asset to offset it to even out the books quite literally, to nil. An example might be a ‘cop’ pulls you over and writes you a ticket for not adhering to that stop sign in a rural area where there was no other car or pedestrian in sight. This liability via a ticket issued by the ‘cop’ needs to be nullified or offset through currency, which is your labour. So, you’ll have to work enough to earn enough currency to offset this newly created liability. The liability and offsetting of this liability with what is considered an asset money (currency) is not offset with an asset as it does not meet the requirements of what is deemed to be an asset! Two fundamental requirements for something to be considered an asset are; it needs to intrinsically hold value within itself, silver (energy put in to mine and purify and transform into a coin) or vodka, where the potatoes were picked, fermented, bottled, shipped etc. that is also money as well as coffee. Paper money (currency) and most certainly the digits on a screen (not to be found on the elemental chart) are definitely not assets as they hold no intrinsic value, certainly not digits on a screen as well as the paper as that is but an IOU by the government and there was no energy put into their creation, unless typing let’s say $1,000,000,000 into a computer at a central bank is nowadays considered work or energy spent.
The retail bank typically varies from country to country and requires the bank to hold a reserve anywhere from 6% to typically 10%, however, in recent times they’ve really reduced the reserve requirements which acts as a form of collateral to allow a bank to issue in the case of 10% reserve requirements $1000 or credit/debt where they magically transform $100 which they have in reserve, typically but not always through deposits. The deposits become the property of the bank once you deposit it with them. So, when they ask you why you need “your” money (currency) and what you intend to do with it. They are in fact allowed to do so, as it is not your money (currency) anymore. Here's a Wikipedia article stating just that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit_(finance) under Special Deposits section if you care to check it out. A bank makes its money (currency) from lending, based on their deposits through fractional-reserve banking. Based on the concept by Amschel Rothschild in Frankfurt in the late 1700s. A place I used to live. If all depositors go to the bank and demand their money (currency), the bank will not have enough to cover the demand and may have to go bust. So in true bank fashion they invented the Bail-in link to the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (https://www.cdic.ca/what-happens-in-a-failure/resolution-of-large-banks/resolution-tools-for-d-sibs/bail-in/bail-in-backgrounder/how-bail-in-works/). A scheme (scam) designed to convert your deposits into bank stock if triggered. Of course, if this is triggered, I wouldn’t hold your breath on the value of the bank stock staying strong. This was introduced in 2018, hmm I wonder why. Now you can see why your money (currency) in the bank is as secure as a squirrels life crossing a highway. Everyone that has deposits would have received a letter from their bank outlining this in 2017. CDIC is the insurance company that insures the deposit money (currency) up to $250,000. Payback terms by the CDIC if you investigate further aren’t favourable to say the least.
Another thing you might want to understand that any paper representing stock for instance is not owned by you unless it is issued from the company as a certificate properly signed and notarized. All stocks at least in the United States are owned by a company called Cede & Co. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cede_and_Company). Here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia page “Cede technically owns most of the publicly issued stock in the United States.[3] Thus, most investors do not themselves hold direct property rights in stock, but rather have contractual rights that are part of a chain of contractual rights involving Cede. Securities held at Depository Trust Company are registered in its nominee name, Cede & Co., and recorded on its books in the name of the brokerage firm through which they were purchased; on the brokerage firm's books they are assigned to the accounts of their beneficial owners.” Can anyone say COUNTERPARTY RISK? If you didn’t know this, then you probably don’t understand your rights as it pertains to your stocks either and more importantly under what circumstances these rights can be taken, again Terms & Conditions. You won’t like the names of the people who are on the board of directors either.
Okay so hopefully I’ve shed some light on the BEAUTY of the banking system. When I say BEAUTY, I mean BEAUTY from the perspective of a big-time banker.
Okay so let me touch on diversification. Silver, gold, vodka, vacuum sealed coffee, good hard assets to have. You’ll need to be able to defend your assets as well another critical element. Engaging in counterparty risk meaning; having another party hold it on your behalf is also an option if defending your assets isn’t your thing, but again that is always subject to Statute law and Terms and Conditions you’ll have to agree to which can typically be changed without notice. In a serious crisis, civilization ending stuff, counterparty risk may not be great, especially if the assets are held out of country. It might be an option because if you don’t want to store and/or defending all your assets then this might be another avenue to diversification.
Crypto is also a good option. However, please know that Bitcoin (BTC) is completely tracked, there are numerous companies that track all crypto transactions as the on-ramps through financial institutions carry all your details so matching up the names, addresses probably your face to a crypto address is child’s play at this point. Best options are privacy coins, of course this is assuming we still have power and access to our electronic wallets, not in a total Mad Max scenario. In my humble opinion go with privacy coins, Monero being #1, along with Pirate Chain and some others. There are swap mechanisms completed decentralized that can get you Bitcoin to buy things with if that is what’s required however through a privacy coin you remain anonymous. Decentralization is also key, if it isn’t decentralized then it’s vulnerable to government intervention so I wouldn’t bother. Also, if you can open wallets on a UNIX platform that is the best option in my opinion as keystroke logging in Windows or Apple or basically all the mobile phones is commonplace.
Okay now to the main part of my article or reply. If you live in a first world country where there is an organized government or as I like to say a criminal cartel that runs the country and imposes its rules and regulations on its citizens (citizenship, maybe you can tell me under what jurisdiction of law that may fall.) who have been indoctrinated their citizens to believe they are here to help (Famous words spoken by Ronald Reagan). If you are unaware the government is a criminal cartel, extorting you through taxes that it uses against you. A true drug cartel is interested in running their business and isn’t interested in killing you or making your life difficult. If you get in the crosshairs of a drug cartel, well then that’s a different story. Even the mobs don’t extort you for near 50% of your income for protection money. Anyways, food for thought.
It's been said that no one gets more time than anyone else, this maybe true when it comes to hours in a day, but what I’m speaking about is the fact you can buy yourself time by being somewhere where the government doesn’t have its citizens by the short and curlies. Typically these are countries that are not part of the commonwealth, here’s a list of commonwealth countries (https://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries), secondly it would need to be a country where the people don’t participate nor consent to the rules and regulations put forward by the government and if they don’t like the rules they simple don’t comply. This of course needs to be researched by everyone independently. I personally like Mexico, because I have done business there for years, Mexico City and Guadalajara primarily. This country is a country that I’d say is a country where making bribes here and there are necessary, where police are purposely underpaid so that they are required to take bribes to feed their families. Doesn’t sound too appealing to those living in a first world country currently, but I think it’s vital to understand that the first world countries of the world are no longer where you want to be!
Please also understand that the news has painted a lot of these countries such as Mexico and Columbia as certain death traps, drug cartel infested hell holes that you won’t last a day. Through my own research I would personally not choose Ecuador as a place to go. A good rule of thumb is whatever the media says, think the opposite, and the countries they label as bad bad bad are typically the ones you want to research first. Case and point, Columbia and Mexico are painted as scary places, movies made about them, bad bad bad, killing, death etc. where that couldn’t be furthest from the truth.
Try going to Chicago, San Fransisco or LA., US homeless rate after the GFC of 2008, the housing crisis was at its highest point at 2.7%, today it sits at 11%. How would this impact crime you think? US citizens have crossed over the Trillion-dollar mark for the first time (nominal not inflation adjusted but still not good) and student debt repayment by 43 million students where 5% are still enrolled in college at an average of $400 / month starts September 1st, currently 5 hundred thousand or ~1% are paying of their student debt. How’s that going to help anything? Is this by design? I’d like to hear someone argue it isn’t. Do you see the picture here? It’s over for the first world nations.
So getting back to these US and Canada labelled dangerous countries like Mexico and Columbia as examples their governments would have immense challenges controlling their citizens if they were trying to impose tyranny, I’ve spent a lot of time in Mexico, that wouldn’t fly, that’s not a population of passive babies.
Let’s take Mexico to dive into some of the details, as I’m familiar with this place. The police are underpaid, which means you will probably at some point have to bribe your way out of a situation, but they have no allegiance to their government if they’re underpaid, they have allegiance to their wife and kids so they can eat. Mexico has outlawed Geo-Engineering, they have stopped installing 5G towers, in fact a lot of them are being removed. By the way 5G refers to point source energy not omni, there are no 5G phones to farse, I’d direct you to listen to Mark Steele about this, an expert (true expert) or if you want to see something that amazon sells for between $100 - $300 dollars, it’s a Wi-Fi extender also know as Point-to-Point Wi-Fi extender that has a range of over 5 Miles/8 Kilometers. Please click the link to have a look (https://www.amazon.ca/EnGenius-Plug-n-Go-Long-Range-ENH500v3-KIT/dp/B083JRFQ24?ref_=Oct_d_orecs_d_680472011_9&pd_rd_w=CqdmN&content-id=amzn1.sym.e9443a82-1e85-46ac-a327-f05a3d24bc0e&pf_rd_p=e9443a82-1e85-46ac-a327-f05a3d24bc0e&pf_rd_r=A4VTTHGWY6Z2M62ANAFG&pd_rd_wg=LCdmv&pd_rd_r=3e3a784e-b86d-4c32-8c2c-92a2923d4aed&pd_rd_i=B083JRFQ24&th=1) The only way something like that can function and its stated right in the name of the tech “Point-to-Point”, it’s through point source energy, in other words how a laser beam functions, or a directed energy weapon, whatever you want to call it. Mexico has and continues to ban pesticides that impact human health, fighting with the US with regards to implementing GMOs and the list goes on. Do your own research!! Don’t use Google or what I like to call it Goo-gle for heaven’s sake. That’s the story I’m working on now, big one though.
However, my point, finally and I think I’ll state it in a way that can be easily visualized. If you were part of the international allied forces that stormed Normandy on June 6th, 1944, would you rather be with the 1st wave or with the 15th wave attacking the Nazi forces? I personally would rather be in the 15th wave (for one, I don’t believe that whoever blows up the other guy makes them right, it’s total caveman behaviour, but that’s just my opinion). I would want to be in the 15th wave so I can assess the situation and how it’s unfolding and observe what’s happening to the other waves ahead of me. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, US, these are first wave countries where their respective governments (with their proxy puppets) for the One World Government controls its citizens which means they will certainly find themselves in the first wave. Climate lockdowns, CBDCs, 15-minute cities, unprecedented wildfires that sometimes smell like plastic or cow manure. Kelowna and Kamloops yesterday had such bad air registering values in the 300s even 400s, total death air! If you’re outside all day and don’t catch pneumonia, then you are a phenomenon a wonder of nature.
The depopulation agenda is already well underway with very serious lockdowns to come, bad air, climate change, CO2, lockdowns not a stretch I feel. If you want to buy yourself time, then get to a country that will have the luxury to see the rest of the world go down in flames first, quite literally in a lot of cases. Hawaii for instance, A fire that started on the 8th of August which had a book about the wildfires of 2023 in Maui released on amazon two days later, on August 10th. You figure out how that works.
Implementation of WHO or WEF regulations will be so much harder in countries where governments don’t have control over their people, that are not currently classified as first world countries. Also, as an added bonus because their government currencies seem to depreciate much quicker than in first world nations (maybe not so much of late), they have been much more willing to adopt crypto currencies as everyone in the world wants to hold on to their wealth that they’ve been able to create for themselves and holding severely depreciating government currency ain’t the way to do it. (Be aware that there are two CPIs typically, one that doesn’t include food and energy and one that does).
I think I'll make this into an article as well as I think this is good information to consider.
ya my transitioning over to the local credit union got halted mid-stream when they started emailing me about how great their esg score was. disappointing. it would be great to have a honest Bank of Shrews. i mean if the cops can have a credit union..............
Physical gold and silver bullion are also good hedges (not paper certificates). Store outside of banking system in other vault / safety deposit box rented. Bullionstar is a decent place to buy bullion online then take physical delivery (can pay with bitcoin and sell stored bullion for bitcoin): https://www.bullionstar.com/
I trust bank apps like revolut and wise (debit card provided) more than I do traditional banks these days. Preserve and use cash as often as possible.
Very interesting discussion Todd, and such an important one. I'm not sure I have much to add, except that my plan has been to 'diversify'. Because no one really knows how this is all going to play out, I reckon it's best to try to have a little backup wherever possible - have a little bit of Bitcoin (digital assets), a little cash (mainly because a lot of cash is not an option), and a little bag of silver, (gold not an option either, although it sure would be nice!).
And obviously I still need a bank account, we are pretty much trapped into that now, aren't we? I did leave the TD bank after the Trucker's fiasco, and went to our local Credit Union, which has recently amalgamated into a big bank mentality, so I am not sure if I gained much. I no longer trust any bank and leave as little money as possible in their greedy hands.
I've never trusted retirement fund investments, or stock investments of any kind. Gambling is just not my thing and handing my hard earned cash over to the Big Players, who always win and get rich by stealing money from the Little Players, never did make any sense to me.
So.. that's my 2 cents worth regarding finances :)
I think we are all in for a very rough ride no matter what choices we are making with our money, and in order to ride this out we will need other resources to survive and thrive. This is where we are putting most of our time and energy these days.
Good thoughts, thank you. I am doing very similar...but my bitcoin went down 50% since I bought it, and I am not confident it is going to survive all this...
I'm not either which is why I only have a little, and was lucky enough to buy it when it was relatively cheap. There were such high hopes back then, I should have known better....
Aug 12, 2023·edited Aug 12, 2023Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP
Prepare for what? Maybe we don't know. Maybe we do know.
How much are you willing to fight to survive for? If it's all about survival, get a lot of useful commodities but also weapons to prevent people taking those from you.
It becomes a feedback loop. Sure you can go hide off the grid, but one day people will find you.
As I am not of you that have disposable income, I used to feel panic.
But if it got to that point, is life worth the stress? At that point, I would be expecting the next government to be out of the handmaid's tale.... No fkin thanks.
I rather see a smaller kind of crash. Some things will be hard to come by. We will find other ways to get by.
It takes skills to learn how to fix things, especially when parts are not easily found.
Growing up lower working class taught me how to MacGyver repair many things.
Also, I've learned to not need too many things to be healthy. It makes it easier to deal with bills, for those of us that don't make big bucks or live off the grid, it helps a lot to not be obsessed with getting free range super organic blabla.
Personally I have no desire to try to survive in a Terminator world. I am too old, and have no kids to worry about. For me, the question is how to do ok in a world of CBDCs, Digital IDs, bank freezings, etc. Even that sort of world may be impossible to manage without compliance.
Same here, no kids. I used to worry about the cbdc a lot, but these days, I'm thinking that it's really no different than today, where truckers were shut off.
I think the stock markets are one place to keep money out. I have a 401k that I've changed to stable fund, probably treasury bonds and other basic safe investments.
I also used to think that debt was an advantage, owning a house etc but now I see that debt is how they keep one stuck into the slavery. In my case I reduced my costs of living to pay off debts, and I was lucky to not buy a new car etc...
I've been working on our Plan B strategy for a while now, but any preparation will take you only so far and if the shit really hits the fan it may be all for naught. However, I sleep better at night now.
We were fortunate to have a 60-acre property north of Toronto and we ended up selling our Toronto home in the fall of 2020 because I couldn't imagine ever wanting to live there again. No regrets. I have some relationships with local farmers and bought a Berkey for water purification since we do have some water on the property.
We got permanent residency in Mexico and just bought a home there. It's somewhere different to go and we got a nice chunk of money outside of Canada. It's another hard asset and it's not denominated in Canadian dollars. Next time we go back we'll open a bank account in Mexico. The cash economy there is alive and well. We did look into offshore banking but it's not easy at all and the KYC (know you customer) paperwork has become increasingly onerous. Being a resident of Mexico will make opening a bank account there very easy.
We bought physical gold and silver and it is in a vault in Panama. Not a bank vault -- do not store metals in a bank. We plan to buy some gold and silver to hide on the property in much smaller denominations than what is in the vault. I like to have a decent amount of cash on hand as well. Having donated to the truckers I became justifiably paranoid when our government started freezing bank accounts.
While I'd like to get more money out of the banks I can only push my husband so far and we still need to generate income from our investments.
That's what we've done but it's not a plan for everyone! At a minimum I recommend cash on hand, some gold and silver, and hard assets for trading.
I keep a bit of cash and precious metals on hand but leave my investment/retirement account to those that are paid to take care of it. If SHTF none of the investments will be accessable and have any value anyway. One of the financial guys I used to listen to would suggest that you buy peanut butter vs. precious metals. High calories for your own survival and very good for barter. I have survival supplies for short term but lets face it would you want to live on Earth as portrayed in the movie Elysium? Not me. Other than that keep your powder dry and your head down. In a societal breakdown scenario crime will explode and will come knocking. Best to lock and load and hunker down. That's my .45 of feedback!
I think I am just about exactly where you are Eric...I figure there is only so much you can do to deal with a "partial Armageddon" ...anything much worse there will be no point, at least not for a 68 year old man with no kids.
69 with 3 spawn. An HR exec and identical twin engineers. God said at 42, here you go, deal with it! I am blessed. Oldest is 32, twins are 26. Married 46 yrs. Do the math😁 I've done everything a I can do to behave responsibly and contribute to humanity. I will continue to be a dad and modern Paul Revere until my eyes close the last time. I know my kids are prepared.
I'm with you! I started stockpiling food in a very minor way when the supply chain issues became bad and in case the SHTF, but then I realized that I have no interest living in a Hunger Games world. Being prepared for a few months of upheaval is a good idea, but if society breaks down completely we're all screwed.
No no no. That's not acceptable!, The reality is to accept that we can only accomplish so much. The defeat is in not trying. KEEP TRYING BROTHER! Don't ever, ever give up!
No, I am joking...just saying there are so many comments about not wanting to live in a Mad Max environment...I don't want to either, and I suppose all I am saying is that I will not prepare for that. I will not give up...never...and as Esther said, "If I perish, I perish"...
I transferred 75% of my IRA into a Physical Gold and Silver IRA. There is no penalty with a transfer because you’re not selling. It’s stored in a depository. I also keep cash and smaller denominations of mostly silver coins on hand. I keep the bare minimum in a local bank. Other than that, I don’t really know what more I can do to protect myself.
Well, if he’s against it, I would look for another advisor. 😜
It’s very easy to do. I used Money Metals. Their site is very informative. They include a list of IRA holding companies they recommend for your new account.
Basically…
-Pick a company from the recommended list.
-Go to their website and open an account.
-Fill out a transfer form for each IRA fund you currently hold along with your current statements. The fund will be liquidated to cash. (No tax penalty). They’ll send in all the documents for you. You can transfer all or partial.
Once the cash transfers into your new IRA account you’ll be able to buy metals. You just call Money metals and give them your new IRA account number. They’ll ask you what you want to buy. I usually go 75% silver coins and 25% gold bars in Assay packaging only.
Money Metals will store your stuff in a depository. Your metals will be separate from other customers. That’s important. You have your own vault.
You might research other metal dealers close to where you live. I got stuck. I’m in Los Angeles and there wasn’t any depositors close by. Money metals is in Idaho.
A few years ago, when gold was at $1200, I suggested to an administrator at one of my pensions, that they should add an option of placing a portion of your pension in gold or silver.
If a saver wanted to put for example 50% of their pension in gold, the pension fund should buy actual physical gold (no paper gold!) for that amount, and store it in their vault. The administrator of course brushed it off as nonsense.
Had I been able to do that, my savings would have increased 50% (yes, I would have put it all in gold) since gold is now at $1800, instead of taking a major tumble after the stocks dropped in value during the last few years.
I have been slowly acquiring gold...don't have much...but wonder about its viability in a time of disaster...I have some silver too. But that is too heavy and not worth much per ounce. (All off site, so that would be a problem in a disaster as well) I think if we go CBDC all of these valuables will be confiscated (attempted to at least). There are records of gold and silver sales, so they will come after us.
I mainly see Bitcoin and precious metals as preservers of value, and a hedge against inflation. If the value goes up by a lot that's just a bonus. And yes, in a disaster, probably not so useful.
corbett has addressed this many times over the years. alternative currencies. barter. labour swaps. try to be valuable yourself. i paid for my legal help during divorce and related bullshit by wiring a lawyers rental property. i suggest all and any means of back up. 500 or a grand of bitcoin makes sense to me. (buy it from those ATM style machines and store it in your own wallet. bitcoin is like physical gold in this respect. if you don't have it, you don't own it.) might be good for food in an emergency. i bought a bit of gold and silver when the idiots started the scam. if only for the shiny bits of heavy feeling metal that might get you across a border or some food. i've got likely 6 months (for 2 people) of freeze dried food in the camping zone. which i use for camping when a cooler is impracticable. the shelf life is 30 years. i'm not a prepper. i'm a camper. lol. not money advice, but buy a water filter. even a very basic gravity fed is a good idea.
i can't see them flipping the switch over night. this will be phased in slowly. i think. not very helpful if you're trying to protect a giant nest egg....... family court beat me with a baseball bat long enough to insure that mine was gone forever.
Good points. I am (or was) an avid camper in the day...and I think that is a good way to look at at least as a temporary solution. Again, if I were on my own, I would be buying an RV, equip it well (with guns too) lots of freeze-dried camping food...and hope that I could get by for a while...until it all ran out...then I probably would use my last bullet. If this all needs to be sustainable for decades, then I think the only way to make it work is to be in a community that will address it all as it comes...
These mini-Swiss army knives (about 5 cm length, with little leather-like sleeve), to me seem like nice tradeable items that have some real value, that one day you may successfully buy 1 kg potatoes with.
Good idea!! How about buying them in bulk from Alibaba and having them on hand for trade...this choice is rather expensive, but there are hundreds of choices here...
Todd, I link economic articles daily @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/ in hopes that it gives everyone information on what to do. I'm sure you are aware of this.
To me economic news is all a part of what I call the "Big Picture", if not the most important part.
I myself lean more towards precious metals, particularly physical silver since it is more affordable for what once was the middle class, that is slowly becoming extinct.
Also, not only being more affordable you can actually hold on to physical silver, unlike paper assets. In the event of a serious financial collapse, it also has some bartering capabilities as well. Will be linking your article today as usual.
….Titanic…. Ship 🚢 was going down but music still payed … there was only certain amount of boats & for privileged / top decks class, rest ….drown or few lucky ones survived…. Always privileged first …. Are we chosen ones ? to survive economic crises & changes or other life events… Some will know what will be needed “to trade” rest will stand at the fact and adopt or ….not adopt … Today we have, tomorrow we might lose….
They will probably release a pathogen that only a mask will prevent a person from getting sick and dying...and none of us will wear them...poof...we are all gone!!
An EMP will wipe out everything except gold and silver in hand. Bitcoin would just evaporate as well as everything electronic like Biden's dream all internet banking folly. Look at WHAT they want to outlaw and what they want to force upon us.
Gold and silver had best be in actual coins because there will be no way to make change for large ingots.
This all looks like a plan for total takeover of humanity. Hunger will make people give up everything for food.
All that will be left is barter. I knew of one group that issued barter bucks where you could trade and get things from someone across the group. According to what the doctor told me that started the group. The IRS told them it was cash and should be taxed so the group eventually caved.
Shoes, clothing, fuel and food will become necessary needs.
Electric cars will be worthless as well as electric appliances.
Pretty dim. I envision people walking around with small scales, maybe an iphone app (which may still be working) to measure out small slivers of gold peeled off with a pocket knife...
I don’t think Jay small electric appliances will be worthless lots of homes now have solar power with inverters and won’t need the grid to power there homes
In the “beginning”, cash will be important! ALWAYS have cash on hand (you should be using cash to pay for everything at this point), along with Biblical money.
I have a fair amount of cash on hand, but I have a feeling they are eventually going to outlaw it, so it will be worthless unless you trade it in for digital tokens.
Or tokens like these from subway entry or other transits or casinos …. Or cash wiil be only fir gablers and we will have a bag of potatoes …. Lol or not lol
Moved my accounts from CIBC to DUCA Financial recently and they managed to open my accounts WITHOUT my SIN! Also monthly charge of $35/month on business account at CIBC is “0” at DUCA!
"...what should we be doing to prepare... precious metals..."
I know this is not the context in which you are asking the question, Todd, but because it is true, important, and in danger of being overlooked, I feel compelled to say it anyway:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)
Start storing now; the unappealable proof-of-work test (yes, an analogy to Bitcoin) may come at a moment you do not expect.
The Lord provided all the precious metals from the Egyptians as His people were escaping. He protected them in Goshen. I take heart in that, while my sheep household only hears my suggestions for precious metals as more or less something “cute”. Otherwise, I do what I can, tending the earth as I can until the final Eden returns.
That goes without saying! Thanks for repeating it here.
Still, as long as we are physical beings, it is best to be self reliant and be able to function in the physical world. If (when) all this goes to "you know what," I would like to be able to eat! I had my bank accounts frozen during the Trucker's Convoy in Canada, and I know what that feels like...it is pretty infuriating. I don't want it to happen again...
If it went without saying, Todd, the Lord would not have put so much emphasis on it so early in His earthly ministry, living it out, condescended from unimaginable riches down into hostile darkness (John 1:9-10; 2:24-25; 3:19-21) where he found "nowhere to lay His head," (Matt 8:20; Luke 9:58) on a mission to do more than just to get by in the world.
When confronted about His apparent lack of concern for physical hunger, "“Rabbi, eat!," He answers with a seemingly impractical non-sequitur (John 4:31-38) that flies right over the disciples heads, but which gets to the nature of true food and true riches.
Sure, He knows our frame; He knows we have physical needs; He addresses that anxiety early on too. (See Matt 6:19-34)
But His call (as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said) is to die with Him. It is precisely the opposite of both the left (rely on government) and the right (rely on self). His call is to STOP relying on our natural impulses (Eve reasoned with her eyes) and with the course of this world (pragmatism; trying to serve two masters) and to trust Him. Totally. For everything.
Even as believers ought to be "wise as serpents," taking prudent precautions, we have to wrestle with the inspired writer of Hebrews commending believers for having also acted "innocent as doves," for having "...accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." (Hebrews 10:34)
The big question is whether one truly KNOWS that better and lasting possession, Christ Jesus. (See John 17:3, Romans 12:1-2, Colossians 3:1-3, and Ephesians 2:5-7, e.g.)
I find the whole thing very confusing. I have asked my financial guy a couple of times about it, but he just skates ahead as if all is normal. I have been attending local Mutual support groups, that talk about canning, prepping, food production, water purification and so forth. But they put out mixed messages: you should keep everything you can get your hands on, change everything that's in cash for real items, including some that are good for barter, but also they say you should get rid of everything you don't absolutely need. Also there is a huge emphasis on human labor as the basic unit of exchange, which right off the top rules out older people, disabled people. A real communist approach, though they think of themselves as righteous Christians.
It is definitely confusing. I think any of this sort of prep assumes that the holocaust will not last very long...sort of like a World War, which typically lasts 4 to 6 years. What we are facing could last a hundred years for all we know...and if it turns quickly into "Mad Max" time there really isn't much we can do right now except move into a bomb shelter with 30 years worth of provisions...and lots of guns. Not sure if any of us are prepared for that.
If one is really paranoid about all this (and possibly rightfully so) and are young and have kids to worry about, I would think looking for like minded people and forming a community would be the smartest thing to do. Build a fortress, and armour it up. Do this in a group of 100 or so, and you have the best bet of getting through it.
Okay I'll throw in my two cents. There's is one element I feel that is possibly the most important element to all this that hasn't been addressed and I believe will be critical to help you survive and not have to live as Todd puts it, in a Terminator World. I’m actually referring to exactly that which we've been told all our entire lives that no one get more of and that's “Time”, well that isn’t true anymore. Let me explain in a bit later in my response what I mean when I say that, after addressing some of the comments which I must say are for the most par extremely well done!
Banks suck! They are a vital part of the control mechanism. If you have all your money in the bank than you are opening yourself up to a world of hurt with no re-course. Retail banks are nothing but creations due to the existence of the Rothschild Central Banks found in every nation except those that didn't want one. Well let's just say those countries have all been visited by the US military or special forces.
Secondly, these commercial and retail banks are credit or debt (credit sounds nicer) lenders like mortgages (in Latin meaning “death/dead pledge” also they are the ones responsible for the creation of the M2 money supply in MMT (Modern Money Theory) which isn’t actually money at all as I stated above, they issue debt through a mechanism called fractional reserve lending with lending restrictions based on a certain percentage held in reserve adhering to statues around banking requirements. Money or what they say is money isn’t money at all it’s called “Money of Account”.
I’m going into a bit of detail about this as I would like people to understand the difference and would like to expose the scam, we call banking and money which can be done quite easily but with a bit more foundational knowledge that I hope with garner a different perspective. So, let me explain money, real money is an asset, exactly as mentioned by a lot of the responses to this article. Money can be gold, silver, crypto, vodka, eggs anything that has value, anything that would be considered enriching, holding IOUs to debt is not money. Money as we’ve been indoctrinated into accepting are not the digits on our screens when we login to our bank to check the status of our accounts, that is called “Currency”, under Statue law, Martine Law, Law Merchant, Lex Mercatoria, international, corporate admiralty LAW (Land, Air, Water) refers to a lot of things that are things you would encounter if you were in the Navy. An example would be the US Navy, United States Navy, which is not the United States of America Navy as that doesn’t exist. In 1871 the United States of America was usurped by the international bankers and what incorporated and is now called The United States Inc. Similar to McDonald’s when their hamburgers were made with 100% All Beef, “100% All Beef” was a subsidiary of McDonald’s. We all know there is no way McDonald’s is made of 100% all beef as we understand it, surely, but just like McDonald’s and the United States, it’s a deception program just like money. Money of Account is currency, currency refers to energy which represents the energy given by people or flow of energy (like a current) if you will. However, this currency is brought into existence through the creation of a liability which will require an asset to offset it to even out the books quite literally, to nil. An example might be a ‘cop’ pulls you over and writes you a ticket for not adhering to that stop sign in a rural area where there was no other car or pedestrian in sight. This liability via a ticket issued by the ‘cop’ needs to be nullified or offset through currency, which is your labour. So, you’ll have to work enough to earn enough currency to offset this newly created liability. The liability and offsetting of this liability with what is considered an asset money (currency) is not offset with an asset as it does not meet the requirements of what is deemed to be an asset! Two fundamental requirements for something to be considered an asset are; it needs to intrinsically hold value within itself, silver (energy put in to mine and purify and transform into a coin) or vodka, where the potatoes were picked, fermented, bottled, shipped etc. that is also money as well as coffee. Paper money (currency) and most certainly the digits on a screen (not to be found on the elemental chart) are definitely not assets as they hold no intrinsic value, certainly not digits on a screen as well as the paper as that is but an IOU by the government and there was no energy put into their creation, unless typing let’s say $1,000,000,000 into a computer at a central bank is nowadays considered work or energy spent.
The retail bank typically varies from country to country and requires the bank to hold a reserve anywhere from 6% to typically 10%, however, in recent times they’ve really reduced the reserve requirements which acts as a form of collateral to allow a bank to issue in the case of 10% reserve requirements $1000 or credit/debt where they magically transform $100 which they have in reserve, typically but not always through deposits. The deposits become the property of the bank once you deposit it with them. So, when they ask you why you need “your” money (currency) and what you intend to do with it. They are in fact allowed to do so, as it is not your money (currency) anymore. Here's a Wikipedia article stating just that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit_(finance) under Special Deposits section if you care to check it out. A bank makes its money (currency) from lending, based on their deposits through fractional-reserve banking. Based on the concept by Amschel Rothschild in Frankfurt in the late 1700s. A place I used to live. If all depositors go to the bank and demand their money (currency), the bank will not have enough to cover the demand and may have to go bust. So in true bank fashion they invented the Bail-in link to the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (https://www.cdic.ca/what-happens-in-a-failure/resolution-of-large-banks/resolution-tools-for-d-sibs/bail-in/bail-in-backgrounder/how-bail-in-works/). A scheme (scam) designed to convert your deposits into bank stock if triggered. Of course, if this is triggered, I wouldn’t hold your breath on the value of the bank stock staying strong. This was introduced in 2018, hmm I wonder why. Now you can see why your money (currency) in the bank is as secure as a squirrels life crossing a highway. Everyone that has deposits would have received a letter from their bank outlining this in 2017. CDIC is the insurance company that insures the deposit money (currency) up to $250,000. Payback terms by the CDIC if you investigate further aren’t favourable to say the least.
Another thing you might want to understand that any paper representing stock for instance is not owned by you unless it is issued from the company as a certificate properly signed and notarized. All stocks at least in the United States are owned by a company called Cede & Co. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cede_and_Company). Here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia page “Cede technically owns most of the publicly issued stock in the United States.[3] Thus, most investors do not themselves hold direct property rights in stock, but rather have contractual rights that are part of a chain of contractual rights involving Cede. Securities held at Depository Trust Company are registered in its nominee name, Cede & Co., and recorded on its books in the name of the brokerage firm through which they were purchased; on the brokerage firm's books they are assigned to the accounts of their beneficial owners.” Can anyone say COUNTERPARTY RISK? If you didn’t know this, then you probably don’t understand your rights as it pertains to your stocks either and more importantly under what circumstances these rights can be taken, again Terms & Conditions. You won’t like the names of the people who are on the board of directors either.
Okay so hopefully I’ve shed some light on the BEAUTY of the banking system. When I say BEAUTY, I mean BEAUTY from the perspective of a big-time banker.
Okay so let me touch on diversification. Silver, gold, vodka, vacuum sealed coffee, good hard assets to have. You’ll need to be able to defend your assets as well another critical element. Engaging in counterparty risk meaning; having another party hold it on your behalf is also an option if defending your assets isn’t your thing, but again that is always subject to Statute law and Terms and Conditions you’ll have to agree to which can typically be changed without notice. In a serious crisis, civilization ending stuff, counterparty risk may not be great, especially if the assets are held out of country. It might be an option because if you don’t want to store and/or defending all your assets then this might be another avenue to diversification.
Crypto is also a good option. However, please know that Bitcoin (BTC) is completely tracked, there are numerous companies that track all crypto transactions as the on-ramps through financial institutions carry all your details so matching up the names, addresses probably your face to a crypto address is child’s play at this point. Best options are privacy coins, of course this is assuming we still have power and access to our electronic wallets, not in a total Mad Max scenario. In my humble opinion go with privacy coins, Monero being #1, along with Pirate Chain and some others. There are swap mechanisms completed decentralized that can get you Bitcoin to buy things with if that is what’s required however through a privacy coin you remain anonymous. Decentralization is also key, if it isn’t decentralized then it’s vulnerable to government intervention so I wouldn’t bother. Also, if you can open wallets on a UNIX platform that is the best option in my opinion as keystroke logging in Windows or Apple or basically all the mobile phones is commonplace.
Okay now to the main part of my article or reply. If you live in a first world country where there is an organized government or as I like to say a criminal cartel that runs the country and imposes its rules and regulations on its citizens (citizenship, maybe you can tell me under what jurisdiction of law that may fall.) who have been indoctrinated their citizens to believe they are here to help (Famous words spoken by Ronald Reagan). If you are unaware the government is a criminal cartel, extorting you through taxes that it uses against you. A true drug cartel is interested in running their business and isn’t interested in killing you or making your life difficult. If you get in the crosshairs of a drug cartel, well then that’s a different story. Even the mobs don’t extort you for near 50% of your income for protection money. Anyways, food for thought.
It's been said that no one gets more time than anyone else, this maybe true when it comes to hours in a day, but what I’m speaking about is the fact you can buy yourself time by being somewhere where the government doesn’t have its citizens by the short and curlies. Typically these are countries that are not part of the commonwealth, here’s a list of commonwealth countries (https://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries), secondly it would need to be a country where the people don’t participate nor consent to the rules and regulations put forward by the government and if they don’t like the rules they simple don’t comply. This of course needs to be researched by everyone independently. I personally like Mexico, because I have done business there for years, Mexico City and Guadalajara primarily. This country is a country that I’d say is a country where making bribes here and there are necessary, where police are purposely underpaid so that they are required to take bribes to feed their families. Doesn’t sound too appealing to those living in a first world country currently, but I think it’s vital to understand that the first world countries of the world are no longer where you want to be!
Please also understand that the news has painted a lot of these countries such as Mexico and Columbia as certain death traps, drug cartel infested hell holes that you won’t last a day. Through my own research I would personally not choose Ecuador as a place to go. A good rule of thumb is whatever the media says, think the opposite, and the countries they label as bad bad bad are typically the ones you want to research first. Case and point, Columbia and Mexico are painted as scary places, movies made about them, bad bad bad, killing, death etc. where that couldn’t be furthest from the truth.
Try going to Chicago, San Fransisco or LA., US homeless rate after the GFC of 2008, the housing crisis was at its highest point at 2.7%, today it sits at 11%. How would this impact crime you think? US citizens have crossed over the Trillion-dollar mark for the first time (nominal not inflation adjusted but still not good) and student debt repayment by 43 million students where 5% are still enrolled in college at an average of $400 / month starts September 1st, currently 5 hundred thousand or ~1% are paying of their student debt. How’s that going to help anything? Is this by design? I’d like to hear someone argue it isn’t. Do you see the picture here? It’s over for the first world nations.
So getting back to these US and Canada labelled dangerous countries like Mexico and Columbia as examples their governments would have immense challenges controlling their citizens if they were trying to impose tyranny, I’ve spent a lot of time in Mexico, that wouldn’t fly, that’s not a population of passive babies.
Let’s take Mexico to dive into some of the details, as I’m familiar with this place. The police are underpaid, which means you will probably at some point have to bribe your way out of a situation, but they have no allegiance to their government if they’re underpaid, they have allegiance to their wife and kids so they can eat. Mexico has outlawed Geo-Engineering, they have stopped installing 5G towers, in fact a lot of them are being removed. By the way 5G refers to point source energy not omni, there are no 5G phones to farse, I’d direct you to listen to Mark Steele about this, an expert (true expert) or if you want to see something that amazon sells for between $100 - $300 dollars, it’s a Wi-Fi extender also know as Point-to-Point Wi-Fi extender that has a range of over 5 Miles/8 Kilometers. Please click the link to have a look (https://www.amazon.ca/EnGenius-Plug-n-Go-Long-Range-ENH500v3-KIT/dp/B083JRFQ24?ref_=Oct_d_orecs_d_680472011_9&pd_rd_w=CqdmN&content-id=amzn1.sym.e9443a82-1e85-46ac-a327-f05a3d24bc0e&pf_rd_p=e9443a82-1e85-46ac-a327-f05a3d24bc0e&pf_rd_r=A4VTTHGWY6Z2M62ANAFG&pd_rd_wg=LCdmv&pd_rd_r=3e3a784e-b86d-4c32-8c2c-92a2923d4aed&pd_rd_i=B083JRFQ24&th=1) The only way something like that can function and its stated right in the name of the tech “Point-to-Point”, it’s through point source energy, in other words how a laser beam functions, or a directed energy weapon, whatever you want to call it. Mexico has and continues to ban pesticides that impact human health, fighting with the US with regards to implementing GMOs and the list goes on. Do your own research!! Don’t use Google or what I like to call it Goo-gle for heaven’s sake. That’s the story I’m working on now, big one though.
However, my point, finally and I think I’ll state it in a way that can be easily visualized. If you were part of the international allied forces that stormed Normandy on June 6th, 1944, would you rather be with the 1st wave or with the 15th wave attacking the Nazi forces? I personally would rather be in the 15th wave (for one, I don’t believe that whoever blows up the other guy makes them right, it’s total caveman behaviour, but that’s just my opinion). I would want to be in the 15th wave so I can assess the situation and how it’s unfolding and observe what’s happening to the other waves ahead of me. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, US, these are first wave countries where their respective governments (with their proxy puppets) for the One World Government controls its citizens which means they will certainly find themselves in the first wave. Climate lockdowns, CBDCs, 15-minute cities, unprecedented wildfires that sometimes smell like plastic or cow manure. Kelowna and Kamloops yesterday had such bad air registering values in the 300s even 400s, total death air! If you’re outside all day and don’t catch pneumonia, then you are a phenomenon a wonder of nature.
The depopulation agenda is already well underway with very serious lockdowns to come, bad air, climate change, CO2, lockdowns not a stretch I feel. If you want to buy yourself time, then get to a country that will have the luxury to see the rest of the world go down in flames first, quite literally in a lot of cases. Hawaii for instance, A fire that started on the 8th of August which had a book about the wildfires of 2023 in Maui released on amazon two days later, on August 10th. You figure out how that works.
Implementation of WHO or WEF regulations will be so much harder in countries where governments don’t have control over their people, that are not currently classified as first world countries. Also, as an added bonus because their government currencies seem to depreciate much quicker than in first world nations (maybe not so much of late), they have been much more willing to adopt crypto currencies as everyone in the world wants to hold on to their wealth that they’ve been able to create for themselves and holding severely depreciating government currency ain’t the way to do it. (Be aware that there are two CPIs typically, one that doesn’t include food and energy and one that does).
I think I'll make this into an article as well as I think this is good information to consider.
ya my transitioning over to the local credit union got halted mid-stream when they started emailing me about how great their esg score was. disappointing. it would be great to have a honest Bank of Shrews. i mean if the cops can have a credit union..............
I have a feeling there are enough of us where it would be a viable business move to create a Bank of Shrews.
well someone with a tad more couth and less gratuitous swearing might be in a better position to head up that project.
Yeah, I don't think that would be an easy task...
Here is a piece I wrote on crypto security best practices and guide to all the terminology: https://open.substack.com/pub/nicholascreed/p/crypto-lessons-learned-and-security?r=16xjwn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Physical gold and silver bullion are also good hedges (not paper certificates). Store outside of banking system in other vault / safety deposit box rented. Bullionstar is a decent place to buy bullion online then take physical delivery (can pay with bitcoin and sell stored bullion for bitcoin): https://www.bullionstar.com/
I trust bank apps like revolut and wise (debit card provided) more than I do traditional banks these days. Preserve and use cash as often as possible.
Good advice...I will check out the links.
Very interesting discussion Todd, and such an important one. I'm not sure I have much to add, except that my plan has been to 'diversify'. Because no one really knows how this is all going to play out, I reckon it's best to try to have a little backup wherever possible - have a little bit of Bitcoin (digital assets), a little cash (mainly because a lot of cash is not an option), and a little bag of silver, (gold not an option either, although it sure would be nice!).
And obviously I still need a bank account, we are pretty much trapped into that now, aren't we? I did leave the TD bank after the Trucker's fiasco, and went to our local Credit Union, which has recently amalgamated into a big bank mentality, so I am not sure if I gained much. I no longer trust any bank and leave as little money as possible in their greedy hands.
I've never trusted retirement fund investments, or stock investments of any kind. Gambling is just not my thing and handing my hard earned cash over to the Big Players, who always win and get rich by stealing money from the Little Players, never did make any sense to me.
So.. that's my 2 cents worth regarding finances :)
I think we are all in for a very rough ride no matter what choices we are making with our money, and in order to ride this out we will need other resources to survive and thrive. This is where we are putting most of our time and energy these days.
Good thoughts, thank you. I am doing very similar...but my bitcoin went down 50% since I bought it, and I am not confident it is going to survive all this...
I'm not either which is why I only have a little, and was lucky enough to buy it when it was relatively cheap. There were such high hopes back then, I should have known better....
bitcoin was not intended as an investment. it was meant to get government outta our business and thusly end the god damn endless war machine.
Did it work?
Prepare for what? Maybe we don't know. Maybe we do know.
How much are you willing to fight to survive for? If it's all about survival, get a lot of useful commodities but also weapons to prevent people taking those from you.
It becomes a feedback loop. Sure you can go hide off the grid, but one day people will find you.
As I am not of you that have disposable income, I used to feel panic.
But if it got to that point, is life worth the stress? At that point, I would be expecting the next government to be out of the handmaid's tale.... No fkin thanks.
I rather see a smaller kind of crash. Some things will be hard to come by. We will find other ways to get by.
It takes skills to learn how to fix things, especially when parts are not easily found.
Growing up lower working class taught me how to MacGyver repair many things.
Also, I've learned to not need too many things to be healthy. It makes it easier to deal with bills, for those of us that don't make big bucks or live off the grid, it helps a lot to not be obsessed with getting free range super organic blabla.
Personally I have no desire to try to survive in a Terminator world. I am too old, and have no kids to worry about. For me, the question is how to do ok in a world of CBDCs, Digital IDs, bank freezings, etc. Even that sort of world may be impossible to manage without compliance.
Same here, no kids. I used to worry about the cbdc a lot, but these days, I'm thinking that it's really no different than today, where truckers were shut off.
I think the stock markets are one place to keep money out. I have a 401k that I've changed to stable fund, probably treasury bonds and other basic safe investments.
I also used to think that debt was an advantage, owning a house etc but now I see that debt is how they keep one stuck into the slavery. In my case I reduced my costs of living to pay off debts, and I was lucky to not buy a new car etc...
I am selling the only real estate I have that is under a mortgage...and depending on how bad it is out there, may buy myself an RV with the money...
I've been working on our Plan B strategy for a while now, but any preparation will take you only so far and if the shit really hits the fan it may be all for naught. However, I sleep better at night now.
We were fortunate to have a 60-acre property north of Toronto and we ended up selling our Toronto home in the fall of 2020 because I couldn't imagine ever wanting to live there again. No regrets. I have some relationships with local farmers and bought a Berkey for water purification since we do have some water on the property.
We got permanent residency in Mexico and just bought a home there. It's somewhere different to go and we got a nice chunk of money outside of Canada. It's another hard asset and it's not denominated in Canadian dollars. Next time we go back we'll open a bank account in Mexico. The cash economy there is alive and well. We did look into offshore banking but it's not easy at all and the KYC (know you customer) paperwork has become increasingly onerous. Being a resident of Mexico will make opening a bank account there very easy.
We bought physical gold and silver and it is in a vault in Panama. Not a bank vault -- do not store metals in a bank. We plan to buy some gold and silver to hide on the property in much smaller denominations than what is in the vault. I like to have a decent amount of cash on hand as well. Having donated to the truckers I became justifiably paranoid when our government started freezing bank accounts.
While I'd like to get more money out of the banks I can only push my husband so far and we still need to generate income from our investments.
That's what we've done but it's not a plan for everyone! At a minimum I recommend cash on hand, some gold and silver, and hard assets for trading.
Wow...what a great plan!! I envy you! I would do the Mexico thing but my wife has zero interest in that (she is a sheep after all).
I keep a bit of cash and precious metals on hand but leave my investment/retirement account to those that are paid to take care of it. If SHTF none of the investments will be accessable and have any value anyway. One of the financial guys I used to listen to would suggest that you buy peanut butter vs. precious metals. High calories for your own survival and very good for barter. I have survival supplies for short term but lets face it would you want to live on Earth as portrayed in the movie Elysium? Not me. Other than that keep your powder dry and your head down. In a societal breakdown scenario crime will explode and will come knocking. Best to lock and load and hunker down. That's my .45 of feedback!
I think I am just about exactly where you are Eric...I figure there is only so much you can do to deal with a "partial Armageddon" ...anything much worse there will be no point, at least not for a 68 year old man with no kids.
69 with 3 spawn. An HR exec and identical twin engineers. God said at 42, here you go, deal with it! I am blessed. Oldest is 32, twins are 26. Married 46 yrs. Do the math😁 I've done everything a I can do to behave responsibly and contribute to humanity. I will continue to be a dad and modern Paul Revere until my eyes close the last time. I know my kids are prepared.
Hey brother...good for you...you are a hero!!
I'm with you! I started stockpiling food in a very minor way when the supply chain issues became bad and in case the SHTF, but then I realized that I have no interest living in a Hunger Games world. Being prepared for a few months of upheaval is a good idea, but if society breaks down completely we're all screwed.
Maybe we should all invest in cyanide pills...
No no no. That's not acceptable!, The reality is to accept that we can only accomplish so much. The defeat is in not trying. KEEP TRYING BROTHER! Don't ever, ever give up!
No, I am joking...just saying there are so many comments about not wanting to live in a Mad Max environment...I don't want to either, and I suppose all I am saying is that I will not prepare for that. I will not give up...never...and as Esther said, "If I perish, I perish"...
I transferred 75% of my IRA into a Physical Gold and Silver IRA. There is no penalty with a transfer because you’re not selling. It’s stored in a depository. I also keep cash and smaller denominations of mostly silver coins on hand. I keep the bare minimum in a local bank. Other than that, I don’t really know what more I can do to protect myself.
That's an interesting idea...I wonder if my financial advisor would even do that for me...I know he would have a shit-fit.
Well, if he’s against it, I would look for another advisor. 😜
It’s very easy to do. I used Money Metals. Their site is very informative. They include a list of IRA holding companies they recommend for your new account.
Basically…
-Pick a company from the recommended list.
-Go to their website and open an account.
-Fill out a transfer form for each IRA fund you currently hold along with your current statements. The fund will be liquidated to cash. (No tax penalty). They’ll send in all the documents for you. You can transfer all or partial.
Once the cash transfers into your new IRA account you’ll be able to buy metals. You just call Money metals and give them your new IRA account number. They’ll ask you what you want to buy. I usually go 75% silver coins and 25% gold bars in Assay packaging only.
Money Metals will store your stuff in a depository. Your metals will be separate from other customers. That’s important. You have your own vault.
You might research other metal dealers close to where you live. I got stuck. I’m in Los Angeles and there wasn’t any depositors close by. Money metals is in Idaho.
A few years ago, when gold was at $1200, I suggested to an administrator at one of my pensions, that they should add an option of placing a portion of your pension in gold or silver.
If a saver wanted to put for example 50% of their pension in gold, the pension fund should buy actual physical gold (no paper gold!) for that amount, and store it in their vault. The administrator of course brushed it off as nonsense.
Had I been able to do that, my savings would have increased 50% (yes, I would have put it all in gold) since gold is now at $1800, instead of taking a major tumble after the stocks dropped in value during the last few years.
I have been slowly acquiring gold...don't have much...but wonder about its viability in a time of disaster...I have some silver too. But that is too heavy and not worth much per ounce. (All off site, so that would be a problem in a disaster as well) I think if we go CBDC all of these valuables will be confiscated (attempted to at least). There are records of gold and silver sales, so they will come after us.
I mainly see Bitcoin and precious metals as preservers of value, and a hedge against inflation. If the value goes up by a lot that's just a bonus. And yes, in a disaster, probably not so useful.
corbett has addressed this many times over the years. alternative currencies. barter. labour swaps. try to be valuable yourself. i paid for my legal help during divorce and related bullshit by wiring a lawyers rental property. i suggest all and any means of back up. 500 or a grand of bitcoin makes sense to me. (buy it from those ATM style machines and store it in your own wallet. bitcoin is like physical gold in this respect. if you don't have it, you don't own it.) might be good for food in an emergency. i bought a bit of gold and silver when the idiots started the scam. if only for the shiny bits of heavy feeling metal that might get you across a border or some food. i've got likely 6 months (for 2 people) of freeze dried food in the camping zone. which i use for camping when a cooler is impracticable. the shelf life is 30 years. i'm not a prepper. i'm a camper. lol. not money advice, but buy a water filter. even a very basic gravity fed is a good idea.
i can't see them flipping the switch over night. this will be phased in slowly. i think. not very helpful if you're trying to protect a giant nest egg....... family court beat me with a baseball bat long enough to insure that mine was gone forever.
Good points. I am (or was) an avid camper in the day...and I think that is a good way to look at at least as a temporary solution. Again, if I were on my own, I would be buying an RV, equip it well (with guns too) lots of freeze-dried camping food...and hope that I could get by for a while...until it all ran out...then I probably would use my last bullet. If this all needs to be sustainable for decades, then I think the only way to make it work is to be in a community that will address it all as it comes...
https://www.youtube.com/live/LovK0pdTeeM?feature=share
These mini-Swiss army knives (about 5 cm length, with little leather-like sleeve), to me seem like nice tradeable items that have some real value, that one day you may successfully buy 1 kg potatoes with.
Shake flashlights, too!
Good idea!! How about buying them in bulk from Alibaba and having them on hand for trade...this choice is rather expensive, but there are hundreds of choices here...
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2023-New-AWK-Exclusive-Design-Civivi_1600640630922.html?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.p_offer.d_title.48f73e7fR8Uiy1&s=p
Here's a cheaper one...hey, I may order a couple of hundred of these to barter for potatoes...
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-quality-stainless-steel-pocket-hunting_1600407141505.html?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.normal_offer.d_title.48f73e7fR8Uiy1
get enough spuds you can make moonshine. no judgie judgers. booze will be extremely valuable in a crunch.
Good point.
Todd, I link economic articles daily @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/ in hopes that it gives everyone information on what to do. I'm sure you are aware of this.
To me economic news is all a part of what I call the "Big Picture", if not the most important part.
I myself lean more towards precious metals, particularly physical silver since it is more affordable for what once was the middle class, that is slowly becoming extinct.
Also, not only being more affordable you can actually hold on to physical silver, unlike paper assets. In the event of a serious financial collapse, it also has some bartering capabilities as well. Will be linking your article today as usual.
….Titanic…. Ship 🚢 was going down but music still payed … there was only certain amount of boats & for privileged / top decks class, rest ….drown or few lucky ones survived…. Always privileged first …. Are we chosen ones ? to survive economic crises & changes or other life events… Some will know what will be needed “to trade” rest will stand at the fact and adopt or ….not adopt … Today we have, tomorrow we might lose….
They will probably release a pathogen that only a mask will prevent a person from getting sick and dying...and none of us will wear them...poof...we are all gone!!
Good questions
An EMP will wipe out everything except gold and silver in hand. Bitcoin would just evaporate as well as everything electronic like Biden's dream all internet banking folly. Look at WHAT they want to outlaw and what they want to force upon us.
Gold and silver had best be in actual coins because there will be no way to make change for large ingots.
This all looks like a plan for total takeover of humanity. Hunger will make people give up everything for food.
All that will be left is barter. I knew of one group that issued barter bucks where you could trade and get things from someone across the group. According to what the doctor told me that started the group. The IRS told them it was cash and should be taxed so the group eventually caved.
Shoes, clothing, fuel and food will become necessary needs.
Electric cars will be worthless as well as electric appliances.
Pretty dim. I envision people walking around with small scales, maybe an iphone app (which may still be working) to measure out small slivers of gold peeled off with a pocket knife...
I don’t think Jay small electric appliances will be worthless lots of homes now have solar power with inverters and won’t need the grid to power there homes
In the “beginning”, cash will be important! ALWAYS have cash on hand (you should be using cash to pay for everything at this point), along with Biblical money.
I have a fair amount of cash on hand, but I have a feeling they are eventually going to outlaw it, so it will be worthless unless you trade it in for digital tokens.
Or tokens like these from subway entry or other transits or casinos …. Or cash wiil be only fir gablers and we will have a bag of potatoes …. Lol or not lol
Moved my accounts from CIBC to DUCA Financial recently and they managed to open my accounts WITHOUT my SIN! Also monthly charge of $35/month on business account at CIBC is “0” at DUCA!
Cool! Do they have brick and mortar branches or is it all online?
"...what should we be doing to prepare... precious metals..."
I know this is not the context in which you are asking the question, Todd, but because it is true, important, and in danger of being overlooked, I feel compelled to say it anyway:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)
Start storing now; the unappealable proof-of-work test (yes, an analogy to Bitcoin) may come at a moment you do not expect.
The Lord provided all the precious metals from the Egyptians as His people were escaping. He protected them in Goshen. I take heart in that, while my sheep household only hears my suggestions for precious metals as more or less something “cute”. Otherwise, I do what I can, tending the earth as I can until the final Eden returns.
That goes without saying! Thanks for repeating it here.
Still, as long as we are physical beings, it is best to be self reliant and be able to function in the physical world. If (when) all this goes to "you know what," I would like to be able to eat! I had my bank accounts frozen during the Trucker's Convoy in Canada, and I know what that feels like...it is pretty infuriating. I don't want it to happen again...
If it went without saying, Todd, the Lord would not have put so much emphasis on it so early in His earthly ministry, living it out, condescended from unimaginable riches down into hostile darkness (John 1:9-10; 2:24-25; 3:19-21) where he found "nowhere to lay His head," (Matt 8:20; Luke 9:58) on a mission to do more than just to get by in the world.
When confronted about His apparent lack of concern for physical hunger, "“Rabbi, eat!," He answers with a seemingly impractical non-sequitur (John 4:31-38) that flies right over the disciples heads, but which gets to the nature of true food and true riches.
Sure, He knows our frame; He knows we have physical needs; He addresses that anxiety early on too. (See Matt 6:19-34)
But His call (as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said) is to die with Him. It is precisely the opposite of both the left (rely on government) and the right (rely on self). His call is to STOP relying on our natural impulses (Eve reasoned with her eyes) and with the course of this world (pragmatism; trying to serve two masters) and to trust Him. Totally. For everything.
Even as believers ought to be "wise as serpents," taking prudent precautions, we have to wrestle with the inspired writer of Hebrews commending believers for having also acted "innocent as doves," for having "...accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." (Hebrews 10:34)
The big question is whether one truly KNOWS that better and lasting possession, Christ Jesus. (See John 17:3, Romans 12:1-2, Colossians 3:1-3, and Ephesians 2:5-7, e.g.)
Thanks...Interesting information!
I find the whole thing very confusing. I have asked my financial guy a couple of times about it, but he just skates ahead as if all is normal. I have been attending local Mutual support groups, that talk about canning, prepping, food production, water purification and so forth. But they put out mixed messages: you should keep everything you can get your hands on, change everything that's in cash for real items, including some that are good for barter, but also they say you should get rid of everything you don't absolutely need. Also there is a huge emphasis on human labor as the basic unit of exchange, which right off the top rules out older people, disabled people. A real communist approach, though they think of themselves as righteous Christians.
It is definitely confusing. I think any of this sort of prep assumes that the holocaust will not last very long...sort of like a World War, which typically lasts 4 to 6 years. What we are facing could last a hundred years for all we know...and if it turns quickly into "Mad Max" time there really isn't much we can do right now except move into a bomb shelter with 30 years worth of provisions...and lots of guns. Not sure if any of us are prepared for that.
If one is really paranoid about all this (and possibly rightfully so) and are young and have kids to worry about, I would think looking for like minded people and forming a community would be the smartest thing to do. Build a fortress, and armour it up. Do this in a group of 100 or so, and you have the best bet of getting through it.