Preparing yourself into Bankruptcy

Preparedness has become main stream these last few years.
The Y2K fiasco placed a weirdo label on everyone that predicted the end of the world back then, but then the 9/11 attacks changed things. Reality had surpassed fiction and all of a sudden the person that prepared his family and himself for trouble was no longer a lunatic.
Preparedness went through a revival and became a common talked about topic on TV shows, internet and written press.

Along with that came another aspect or preparedness, one we should be wise to recognize and keep in mind: Marketing.
It would be hypocrite of me not to admit it. I sell a survival book, I’ve got Amazon affiliate and Adsense ads on the sidebars. When reviewing items I don’t hesitate to include an affiliate link if I can.
I created Grab The Apple, a website that sells products and services as well. All this generates money for me an allows me to do what I like the most.
Now, the question you have to ask yourself before you buy anything at all is “ what’s the benefit/cost rate? do I really need this? How likely am I to actually need it?”

Since preparedness became main stream there’s been and increasing survival and prep market. Even before, there was apparently always a reason to run and buy this or that, because it was absolutely needed to survive the latest scare.
Again, I’m not kidding myself. I review and recommend stuff all the time. But we have to be honest with ourselves. Mostly I stick to stuff you actually need and use, but its easy to fall into the shopping spree cart.
If you already have a dozen guns, your next gun will likely not fall into basic, must have category. Its mostly a matter of pleasure, enjoying collecting a particular item.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

If for preparing you absolutely need to buy a retreat, stock it with cattle, heavy machinery, a tractor, various, cars, underground gasoline tanks and build a power generating turbine in the nearest stream, my friend you sure have deep pockets and I can think of many ways in which you can put most of that money to better use!
When I hear about some of the expenses some people consider mandatory, the crocodile in my wallet yelps in pain.
When it gets to having your own gas station installed, hundreds of acres and supplies for a dozen “able bodied” adults my head just explodes like a watermelon hit by a 308W hollow point.
Its important to learn what’s really needed and likely to get used, and what’s simply shoved into your head as a must have for survival, while in reality its just making that person very rich.

Buying an extra pack of 10 keycain leds for a total of less than 4 bucks is something I do without much meditation, but when it comes to hundreds… I’m much more conservative.
I wont even get into what I think regarding spending hundreds of thousands as a plan for the end of the world.
What you actually use, and what’s likely to get used. Spending thousands, let alone hundreds of thousands in something you’ll supposedly appreciate only when the world ends makes no sense at all.
A lot of people have gone bankrupt that way, many others lost their marriage or family. Keep things real folks.


FerFAL