Teaching your kids about the value of money and earning a living

Replying to: Teaching your kids to not only to Survive but to do well in Life

All wise words, mate. Sounds like your kids are well on the way to being the kind of people we all want to be around.
I am also trying to encourage my daughters to learn about the expectations of doing work, both paid and unpaid. Giving youngsters some kind of chores to carry out ( laying and clearing the table around meals, caring for and feeding the dog, keeping their room tidy etc) encourages them to see that looking after themselves, their environment and community is normal and rewarding. They also have the opportunity of volunteering for extra task ( chores are expected and unpaid ) to earn a bit of pocket money. I encourage them to save some of it and budget to some extent, as learning to delay immediate gratification in exchange for a longer-term goal is a very valuable skill which few adults have mastered.
-Orsotoro

Great topic, thanks for bringing it up.

In our home we have it written down in a chart kept on the fridge, who’s in charge of cooking and cleaning up each day. It does help a lot and it gives kids and teens a sense of order and reasonability. It also teaches them to value what parents do for them every day and not take it for granted so much.
As you said, its chores, it’s their obligation. They do a little bit to help around the house, it both helps parents and it helps them so as to know how to do things when they end up living by themselves.
Money from Christmas or birthdays, it all get put away and saved. The money stash soon reaches interesting figures when its not thrown away on silly junk.

For our oldest son, he’s been doing a bit of freelance programing. My wife and I told him several times how great it is to have this experience at his age (16) to actually earn your own money, to be able to do it online and while doing something you like.  Not only that but having the work experience, talking and communicating with a client, learning how much he should charge per hour and how long it takes him to get the job done.  All invaluable.

Some may not realize this, but these skills, knowing how to budget, how to save money, how to make it, these are all very important survival skills.

FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Clipper Lighters: 7 reasons why they are one of the Best Survival Lighters

“FerFAL, what are good barter items to stock up on?”


That’s a question I get asked a lot. Barter became very popular in Argentina when the economy crashed. Still, for a number of reasons, I don’t believe that in general it’s much of a good idea to stock up items and supplies specifically for barter after SHTF. Most people that ended up bartering to make it through did it because they had no other choice.

But while I don’t believe much in stocking up barter items, I do believe in stocking up items that are:
1) Consumables that are going to be used eventually, SHTF or not
2)  Affordable
3) Compact and light weight
4) Have proven to be in high demand during past SHTF events
5) And yes, could potentially be used as valuable barter items, if such a scenario ever plays out.
Lighters and matches definitely score high on all of the above so I keep plenty of those. As for matches, hands down my favourite ones are strike-anywhere Swan Vesta matches. Keep them nice and dry in a match box or small Ziploc bag and you're good to go.

When it comes to lighters, I favor Clipper lighters. Now, you can just stock up on some generic brand (not a good idea, quality is mostly poor) or a trusted brand  (usually Bic) But Clippers have a few advantages.

1) They are made in Spain under rather strict safety and quality control standards. Unlike Bics, Clippers are made of Nylon which is much harder to break on impact and more fire resistant.

2)The pentagon shaped wheel is easier to strike, especially when compared to the silly child proof wheel in current Bics.

3)They are affordable, just a few cents more than disposable Bic lighters.

4)They are refillable lighters. Yes, you can refill disposable ones as well but they aren’t intended for that and the Clipper has a proper valve at the bottom for refiling.

5)The flint striker can be removed and the flint replaced.

6)The flame adjusts automatically, increasing in size when turned sideways for pipes.

7)They come in a variety of designs, colors and materials. From utilitarian see-through plastic to know how much fuel you have left, to bright colored ones for easy location when dropped, ideal for survival kits, or classy metal version both in chrome and gun metal, suited for EDC carry.

FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Teaching your kids to not only to Survive but to do well in Life

I took my 10 year old to the movies this past weekend. We saw “Alita: Battle Angel” (liked it, good action movie and true enough to the comic).

So we’re sitting there, waiting for the movie to start, when I see this kid walk into the theatre.  He must have been about ten years old too, same as my boy. But this kid was easily twice his size, maybe more. The boy had no neck, just a giant roll of fat and a belly like a 9 month pregnant woman. Boobs like one too, printing through the loose basketball tank top he was wearing. He really did NOT need the large soda he had in his hand and whatever junk food he had in the other. The kid climbed the steps towards the row of seats in the back. Half way there he was already short of breath and you could hear him gasping for air. This ten your old literally struggled to walk across a room and climb a few steps.

The movie started and it was quite good. No, thankfully it wasn’t a liberal girl power mess but rather similar to the original Gunnm: Battle Angel Alita of 1993.

Driving back home I found myself again thinking about that kid, how bad his parents had clearly screwed up and how, while not perfect, I do pat myself in the back about how mine are turning out. My wife had asked our paediatrician about our ten year old being too thin. He emphatically told her not to change a thing in the boy’s diet, that he’s perfectly healthy and that she has no idea how many children are overweight and the many problems they have because of it.

Being a good parent isn’t always easy but it’s not rocket science either. It’s not that most parents out there didn’t read the right parenting book. It’s simply that they don’t care and that they’d rather be doing something else than spending time with their own children.

It’s easier to stuff a kid full of junk food than to teach him to eat fruits instead and explain why those are better for him. Or why even in Halloween he can only have so much candy because large amounts of processed sugar are terrible for him. If you let them eat an entire bag of candy they’ll let you watch TV or check out your Instagram in peace which is what most people want these days.
I’m no Dad of the Year but these are a few things I do with my kids, so that they are healthy, strong of mind and body.

• Be there. Be a damn Dad. Do as much of the stuff you’re supposed to do. For some people its hiking, for others its camping, fishing, hunting, shooting but have some bonding activity and try to teach them valuable skills while at it. Above all, make those quality time moments happen. If you can’t be bothered to actually make them happen, then maybe you’re not Dad material and are better off not having kids at all.

• Teach your kids to eat. The morbidly obese kid in the theatre is not something you see very often around here in Spain. Come to think of it, the movie was in its original language (English) and people going to these are mostly English speaking foreigners so there’s a good chance that’s exactly what he was. But its all about the food. Moving, walking, running, that’s all great for a child but a child is fat not because he’s not hitting the gym enough but because he’s eating garbage instead of real food. The same goes for adults. If you teach your kids well from an early age, they wont even be inclined to eat much processed food and downright find it unpalatable compared to real homemade food.

• Teach your kids to fight. Knowing how to stand up for themselves is vital. At a certain point a kid has to understand that “tell the teacher” isn’t how the real world works, that they have to face their problems themselves. Standing up for yourself against your peers is a rite of passage for every boy. Most people fail at it, others succeed, and at the end of the day there’s a lesson there as well. My teenage son had to face his bully when little and successfully dealing with that hurdle noticeably changed him for the better. Recently my ten year old had to experience that as well, how sometimes violence is the only solution. It’s an important step and your child will remember it forever, for better or worse. Feeling scared, too afraid to fight back, its soul crushing for a 10 year old (bet it is for and adult as well). At the same time if they do find the courage to put a beating on them, the results are just as drastic. There’s an euphoria in fighting back, in beating your adversary, in winning. Nothing compares to it. You know you did well when the former bully now chases your kid wanting to be his friend instead.

• Read with them. Every night, a few pages just before going to sleep. It’s sad how many kids have never read a single book other than the few short ones required for school. Once a kid starts appreciating reading, they will keep doing it on their own.

• Teach them to think for themselves. Explain to them that what their teacher says, what they see on TV, its will most likely be agenda driven depending on who’s saying it and what interests it represents. You want your kid to be a free thinker, not another marketing target zombie that thinks and talks like everyone else in their social circle.

• Support and incentive that which they are passionate about. For my oldest son, that’s computers and programing, so gifts are usually PC related, programing books and that sort of thing. For my ten year old its survival stuff, fire starting and fantasy books (he’s read all of the Harry Potter books and is now starting with The Hobbit, all of them in English)

Once your kids know what they are passionate about, then encourage them to be good at it. There’s a chance that either directly or indirectly, it may become a way or earning a living for them. If that’s the case, when you do that which you are passionate about, then they wont work a day in their lives and that goes a long way not only towards professional success but also happiness.

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

What’s the current situation in Argentina like?

Just got back from BA, Bariloche, and Villa Carlos Paz near Cordoba (visited for the holidays; my wife grew up in Barrio Norte, across the street from the Israeli Embassy the Iranians leveled. She lived there in the 70's and 80's). However, we were last there back in December, 2001. Yep - fleeing tear gas and rioters pushing a pram not from the Obelisk.

But, Retiro is now....horrible. And, never in my life did I think I'd be stepping over homeless people in BA in the better areas. Many of the people we spoke too said things feel much like 2000, but with differences, because nobody really is all that eager to jump back in bed with the leftists.

What's your latest read on Argentina...or would you mind directing me to further reading or reports on the situation?
Interesting though, because this time as with the last in the outer areas such as Bariloche it was as happy as could be, though everybody was certainly watching the value of the peso quite intently.

-Greg

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Hi Greg, thanks for your message.

Unfortunately you don’t fix 60 years of Peronism with four years of President Mauricio Macri.
The poverty, the corruption, the disastrous economy and weak industry, the collapsed infrastructure and education, its endemic and wont change overnight. Peronist populism also survives in the Argentinean political field like an infection, a spreading rot that never quite goes away.
My read on Argentina is still very much the same, unfortunately. You see, although 2001 was the time in which the country collapsed, socially, economically and politically, what came after that was far worse. The leftists Kirchner scum that took over was a complete nightmare straight out of the 70’s.

They reinvented themselves as romantic revolutionary socialists. The truth though is quite different.
Nestor and Cristina Kirchner, they started with a law firm. They worked for banks and financial groups which filed foreclosures, since the Central Bank's 1050 ruling had raised mortgage loan interest rates. Through political contacts and bribes, they also acquired 21 real-estate lots for a low price when they were about to be auctioned. Their law firm defended military personnel accused of committing human right crimes during the “Dirty War”.
But being the clever criminals they were, they understood the power of the left, the socialist and social justice speech they saw in their youth.

All of a sudden they reinvented themselves not as a greedy, shady law firm turned politician, kicking poor people out of their homes and defending military personnel accused of torturing civilians. Now, according to them, they were practically Che Guevara with a rifle in their hands fighting the imperialist Americans.

As laughable as that sounds for the people that knew them for what they were back in the day, it sounded good and people ate that up. You had the real commies from back in the day, beaten like street dogs all of a sudden being vindicated. Support from “Madres de Plaza de Mayo” gave them international legitimacy, siding with the mothers of those killed during the Junta. Of course we wont talk about those that faked their deaths only to later be found alive in Spain, or those that had been killed in gunfights with the police, or the ones that died while planting bombs to kill innocent civilians. They were all freedom fighting heroes now, all of them. And all the police, the armed forces, they were all nazi pig dictators.

That’s what an entire generation was brought up to believe. The mugger, the criminal robbing at gunpoint, he’s a poor victim of the evil American capitalist system. The politician that steals millions? He’s stealing for the crown, for comrade Cristina and comrade Nestor, and they need money to fight the evil capitalists.

This madness, I kid you not, is very real. And it only got worse year after year with increasing indoctrination in schools, TV and other media, even cartoons for kids had this message.
The damage was very real and it doesn’t just go away because the dictators finally leave.
Kid, children, education, schools and the agenda in Universities. That’s where it’s at, and these scumbags knew that. After 12 years of constant indoctrination the damage is generational. You have an entire generation of young adults that today believe Cristina Kirchner is a saviour. There’s some older fools that believe Peron was their saviour too.

Of course, you also have hundreds of thousands that got used to stealing through the government. Getting paid for doing nothing. You have generations of poor welfare soldiers that make a living out of going to protest and marches and shouting “Cristina! Cristina!” or insulting the current President, Mauricio Macri. And of course there are thousands of millionaire politicians. Drugs, bribes, police corruption, anything goes. Even a lousy local small time politician can make a fortune.
As things stand today, nearly half the country would STILL vote for Cristina Kirchner. There’s no hope for people that are either that corrupt or that stupid.

Finally voting for President Mauricio Macri, that was a big first step. But now he needs to be re-elected. After him, another honest politician needs to become president. Maybe Maria Eugenia Vidal. If that happens and that woman gets re-elected, then maybe Argentina can actually become a 1^st world country like its supposed to be.

But as things stand today, Cristina Kirchner could be president again this year. If that happens, Argentina will be taking giant leaps backwards. Back to the old ways, closer to becoming another Venezuela.
FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

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Felons painting real guns to look like toys

Seems the practice has been going on for a while.

 

Police raid felon’s hotel room, catch him painting shotgun to look like a toy

This last time it happened in Spokane.  A felon was caught painting a real sawed-off shotgun with bright yellow and green to look like a nerf gun. He also painted the end of the barrel with  bright orange, typical of toys.

Very dangerous. This would no doubt stop a police officer from shooting and give a criminal all the time he needs to land his own fatal shot.

Its important to know about these tricks used by criminals so as to not immediately ignore the threat just because of how the gun looks.

Rather than being distracted by colours, ask yourself why this shady looking guy is prowling with a “toy” gun that should be in the hands of an actual child. It may not be a “toy” gun at all.

FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

The great Bug Out Rifle…( you probably never heard of)