I do not want this to be a political debate nor an opportunity to post recent headlines. However, in my opinion, this administration seems to be taking actions which history suggests may lead towards a near or total economic collapse. Whether you agree with this or not is irrelevant.
This post’s question is: If one were to have a concern that they’d no longer be able to afford common household goods or that mainstream (S&P, Nasdaq) financial investments were no longer sound, what can one do to prepare for “the worst”? What actions could someone take today to minimize economic hardship in the future?
I would also like thoughtful insight from older adults to offer younger adults about how they should be better preparing themselves for an uncertain future, outside of current events or place of residence.
I’m old enough to have lived through several recessions, though I was poor for the first couple of them. I think a recession more likely than a collapse. If it’s a recession:
-
If you can keep your job you will be ok, really. Try to keep your job if you can. Yes even if they do temporary pay cuts.
-
If you’ve been unable to buy a house, a recession may make it possible. That is how we got our first house - prices tanked, we got a run down house, couldn’t improve it really but it was a place to live for a long time, and when you buy in a crash, taxes stay low here.
-
Remember there have been worse times and you are descended mostly from people who survived them.
-
Be nice to people. Always be nice on your way up, because what comes up must come down. We used to have to dumpster dive, and I have lived on the streets and in a car, don’t want to again, at all, but there are plenty of less extreme tactics - live with more people in one house, we used to have one family in each bedroom, not one person, and that makes housing cost so much easier.
#1 is really the most important though - if you can keep a job you will be ok. If that falls through, do not think you are on your own, reach out to others and work together.
I don’t think housing is going to come down in any meaningful way. They’ll just be bought up by corporations automatically now when the price dips low enough
It’s also not going to be easier to buy.
Banks are much more reluctant to loan, jobs are harder to keep.
Remember there have been worse times and you are descended mostly from people who survived them.
I love this
-
Quit being poor, works 100% of the time.
Friend, you need to be a pepper!! I feel so good having extra of everything I need!
Too bad you didn’t stockpile your r’s
hahahahahaha. Fixed. But hey, nothing wrong with being a pepper too.
At first I thought you were advocating for stocking up on Dr Pepper - ,wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too’
Spend some time learning to fix everything. EVERYTHING. Knowing a little bit of plumbing, electronic repair, woodwork, carpentry, and cad can save you tremendous amounts of money. Contractors cost crazy amounts of Money, even for simple fixes.
Yoy dont even need to practice, just read up on it. Recently my sink started leaking, so I though I’d just mess with it. Fixed it with 30$ worth of parts. Dishwasher broke and I fixed it with a 70$ PSU.
Dont learn how to do oil changes though, most of the time it won’t save you any money. Autoshops save a lot of money with volume oil changes.
Woodworking is a hobby that can pay for itself, and yoy dont even have to sell anything. Wood is everywhere, and free. You have to wait months for it to dry but afterwards you can make anything.
Ive made spatulas, spoons, snack clips, furniture, tools, storage, cabinets, bookmarks, bowls, cutting boards, knife covers, drying racks, shelves, etc. It gives you a level of self sufficiency that can never be taken from you. It shouldn’t even be called woodworking, it should just be called “making shit”. It’s an extremely useful and valuable skill. Ive even used it to fix computers by making custom brackets and stuff, and a special heatsink mount for an old heatsink.
What kind of tools do you use to woodwork? And where did you learn? I’ve done some light building but never figured how to do the small detailed stuff you mention.
most notably also everyone who wants to get into “total martial law” territory where people are locked in their houses, I heavily recommend looking at Zims and Kiwix. I have a separate operating system just for it called (Endless OS) that comes pre-loaded with encyclopedia stuff and it’s pretty great.
Find books written about farming/saving during ww2. Get a freezer and a canner. Stock up on beans/rice/etc (long shelf life foods). Save bones from meat, boil them for 6 hours, then let fool and strain them. Can/freeze the broth (I put mine in quart freezer bags flattened out in the freezer). One quart added to 1qt water is filled with nutes for soups and such. If you have a fireplace, keep a bag of dryer lint for kindling. Buy heirloom seeds, learn how to save seeds (Whenever I grow green beans I always have 100+ dried pods in autumn as I usually only have enough to harvest 2x with any real quantity. Each dried pod has at least 4 beans). Buy things you need now that tariffs will affect the most (electronics, coffee, etc.) Start learning how to fix things yourself, get basic tools (drill, hammers, driver sets, wrenches, etc). Fix car problems now, before parts go up. If you know ANYONE still alive now from the 30s to 40s, pick their brains on what they did. Also, get books on identifying plants. Sorrel is awesome to add to food for flavor, dandelions are a good source of Vit C… my knowledge is limited, but so far that’s what I’ve tried (do NOT eat roots of dandelion).
Build a garden if you can, join community efforts like mutual aid, and form or join a union. We are strongest together.
Do any vehicle maintenance you can now. Look up common issues for your vehicle and maybe buy those parts as they might be extra expensive due to tarrifs. If you need to you can sell them later.
Secondary used markets are going to be huge, so set aside anything you think people will want in the future. Buy an ebike just in case driving becomes too expensive. Download as much media as you think youll want because theyre trying to ban piracy sites and free options may dissapear.
The free options will still be there. Banning a few pirate sites will make it less convenient for streamers, but bittorrent isn’t dependent on those sites and tools like Tribler can find them straight off the DHT.
We’ll see hopefully they have to play whackamole and keep having to go to court and waste their time.
Learn about gardening and join a shooting range I guess.
Save money and get to know your neighbors.
Trump probably won’t cause total collapse, so a basement full of beans is unlikely to be useful, but anyone relying on welfare or part of a minority group will need support. Savings will help with that, and could come in handy if you yourself get fired, either because of discrimination or economic recession.
I honestly don’t really know, but i can guess.
Stock on basic food items, maybe enough for a year or more (including noodles, rice).
Maybe, if you can afford the space/time for it, learn how to grow some basic vegetables on your balcony/garden, to go along with the calories.
That is all i can do. Maybe, also look into viable long-term accomodations in case you lose your house/apartment. Could be homeless shelters, could be sanctuaries, idk.
Local libraries are a great way to substitute your entertainment budget for something more affordable. What’s more, if you volunteer and help out you’ll make a whole lot of connections who can help you back.
libraries need human rights supporters to just show up and normalize the room as often as possible so badly right now.
Just being there and looking proPOC and proTrans makes the space more accessible to everyone, except the people who are frustrated by inclusive community practice flouting their desire to hunt and torture for sport.
Get to know your neighbors.
The network is one of the most important parts of a survival scenario.
Personally, I have met people through food not bombs that I found interesting and dedicated to a better future.
Dried beans and rice go a long way towards feeding yourself and family if food becomes a scarcity. Store in airtight containers, with an inert gas, so that what you do have does not become rancid.
A human can survive for weeks without food but only days without water. If you’re stockpiling.
Become proficient with firearms. This involves practice, and ownership.
It is almost always better to hunker down than to bug out.
Every time I get to know my neighbors, things are going well and then they suddenly drop something wildly transphobic, homophobic, or ableist. The last one was especially horrifying back when people were still talking about COVID— “but it only affects old/disabled people!”— pretty much saying to your face that they’re cool if you die.
Relying on other people in a survival scenario seems incredibly irresponsible. It’s America. Your neighbors want you dead.
It’s America. Your neighbors want you dead.
Not all parts of America, my area is at least +50 Harris, someone being an open nazi walking around waving swasticas or doing the salute here will get their ass beaten.
It’s not even universally true in red states, unless you want to believe I’m the Super Special Exception. I was thinking of my own failed attempts to reach out recently and got bitter and started saying shit.
Easiest access to the “inert gas” piece is dry ice from your local grocery store. CO2 is heavier than air. Wrap some in a tea towel and put it in the bottom of the bucket before adding the food. Then place the lid on but do not close. Keep in a place without significant air movement while the dry ice sublimates, pushing out the lighter gasses, before sealing the lid. This takes a few hours.
Times and amounts are purposely vague, as I don’t remember them, but it should be easy to look up. If not, err on the side of too much and too long - the extra gas will just seep out the top.
Another way to remove oxygen from stored food to prevent rancidity is to make your own oxygen absorbers (rancidity is caused by oxygen oxidizing fats and other flavor compounds)
Which are literally just iron filings mixed with table salt in a gas permeable packet (coffee filter paper works great)
The salt is hygroscopic (absorbs water) and water + oxygen + iron turns into rust, which sequesters the oxygen
I make my own and put them in opened packages of nuts and seeds :]
My neighbors are all fascists, judging by the flags they have flappin’ in their front yards
Damn, I guess I’m lucky. Here is at least +50 Harris, someone wearing a nazi armband and doing a salute will get their ass beaten, and nobody would report it.
3%ers? Proud Boys? AfD? National Front?
Buy gold, keep cash on a safe at home, make sure all documents are current and aren’t about to expire (in case you need to quickly leave the country). Prioritize essential purchases over luxury ones and if short on cash pay those over debt payments
What do you want to do with gold or USD if the us economy collapses? This isn’t the middle Ages where you can pay the peasants with gold or silver coins. In an economic collapse canned food, fuel, etc. will be useful. Something people need every day and can be swapped in small quantities.
Gold because regardless of the US economy, gold will still be something worth trading, it is also easier to carry than necessities and can be used as improvised currency with a more stable value over basic necessities. For basic goods, you have to always watch out sine you A. Use them yourself, and B. Everyone needs them but may not give them the same value necessarily.
or that mainstream (S&P, Nasdaq) financial investments were no longer sound, what can one do to prepare for “the worst”?
Investors that factor in world markets would probably do okay as long as you’re talking just U.S. economic troubles. e.g. right now VT (total world stock ETF) is weighted 64.70% U.S. market due to market strength. So in theory if the U.S. tanked and other countries have better markets for investing then the weights would shift to the other side and maybe being closer to 30% U.S. vs rest of the world’s markets weighted towards 70%.
A lot of good advice on this thread, particularly the emphasis on social connections and food. Given OP asked to assume near or total economic collapse though:
-
Some people advocated building up money savings. If you are convinced there will be runaway inflation (part of what I assume is meant by collapse) then this is exactly wrong. The thing to do would be to convert as much money as possible into durable goods while the money still has any value. Look into the history of prior examples like the collapse of the deutsche mark in 1922, and the rush on payday to buy necessities immediately.
-
Gold is also being suggested. If your threat model includes social collapse gold won’t do you much good. Gold has financial value but no use value for individuals (it is useful industrially, but not in a way you can take advantage of). Unless you’re planning to run, bulkier but more immediately useful goods like food and tools are likely to hold more value. When everyone’s starving, a baseball bat to guard it with is worth more than a lump of shiny but useless metal.
-
If you aren’t assuming social collapse, foreign currency is another option. Be careful, because you want to pick one that is not likely to track your local currency and fall together. The advantage here is that when your local currency stabilizes, the value of gold will drop quickly and it will be very hard to guess exactly the right time to cash out. Foreign currencies won’t have that same crash effect.
All that said, don’t jump into action out if panic. Take time to think it through calmly - collapse is probably not coming in the next week or two. The actions that will save you financially in a collapse can destroy you if that collapse doesn’t come. Make a plan for what to do if you’re wrong to avoid shooting yourself in the foot (or, as many people do after that kind of mistake, the head).
-
