Survival Planning - Advice from Sovereignman - Simon Black

At UrbanSurvivalSkills.com we have written many times about having multiple sources of financial and economic information in order to assess the timeline of the coming collapse and not let it hit you by surprise. One more source of information is Simon Black's Sovereignman.com


Simon's motto immediately intrigued me,....."There are two ways to sleep well at night,....be ignorant or be prepared." I think I'll choose the be prepared method.

And while Sovereignman's primary advice is unrealistic for most Americans (including me) which is to send money overseas to protected bank accounts and either re-locate now to different countries or to be prepared to on short notice, I do think Simon has other good advice and forecasts which should be considered.

One of Simon's latest posts, on February 17, 2011:

Recent headlines,......

“World Bank: Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels”

“Sysco declares force majeure, raises grocery prices”

“The J. M. Smucker Company Announces Coffee Price Increases”

“Kraft warns on price increases”

“Kellogg says it will raise prices”

“Sara Lee to raise prices again on higher commodity costs”

“Bridgestone To Raise Prices”

“Goodyear will raise tire prices up to 6%”

“Allstate rates rise; patience with execs runs thin”

“State Farm wants 28 percent rate increase in Fla.”

“Blue Shield to delay Calif. health rate hikes [for only 60 days]”

“Wellmark [Midwest division of Blue Cross] Rate Hike Approved”

“Abercrombie & Fitch CEO says retailer will have to raise prices”

“Sprint bumps up its smart-phone data plans $10 a month”

“Xcel Energy customers to see rate hikes”

And then there’s this quote to tie it all together:

“Overall inflation is still quite low and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.” — Ben Bernanke, February 9, 2011

If it wasn’t perfectly clear before, it should be now. This man (Bernanke) is either completely out of touch, or he’s a conniving liar. In either case, you should not allow him to be responsible for your well being.

Don’t let the rising stock market fool you into thinking that everything is back on track. It’s impossible to read these headlines and not see at least half of the things that you use frequently– food, coffee, electricity, mobile phone, insurance…

Here’s the bottom line– failing to properly protect your savings, seek alternate sources of income, and diversify your sovereign risk gets you a free one-way ticket on the economic Hindenburg.

Inflation begets economic trouble. Economic trouble begets social unrest. Social unrest begets political instability… and as we saw in Egypt, political instability (and social unrest) begets a police state.

If you don’t want to be around for it, I’d suggest taking action immediately. The quick start guide is this:

1) Open a foreign bank account. Even if you don’t fund it yet, at least have the means to shovel your money overseas in a hurry. UrbanMan's comment: Good idea but unrealistic for most American's living pay check to paycheck.

2) Park at least a portion of your savings in stable, inflation-proof assets, preferably overseas. UrbanMan's comment: Again a good idea but unrealistic for most American's living pay check to paycheck. Better to get what you can in Gold and Silver.

3) Look for alternate sources of income– don’t rely on the traditional job market or wait for the government and central bank to create jobs… everyone is good at something, most likely a lot of things. Think about how you can add value, how you can solve problems. UrbanMan's comment: This is called the multiple streams of income strategy. I use it and have solid contingency plans if I lose my job as losing one stream of income won't put me on my back.

4) Look at your own personal vulnerabilities. What would happen if you lost your job? If food became extremely expensive? If gas prices made normal commuting and errands cost prohibitive? If your healthcare became unaffordable? Consider lifestyle changes to reduce these vulnerabilities. UrbanMan's comment: I have a list of savings measures to be implemented upon various layers of inflation, such as cutting my landline telephone and cutting satellite television, reducing gasoline use, etc. I am already growing my own food, not in a quantity to completely feed myself by any means, but a fairly significant amount and plan to trade or barter vegetables for material and services when the collapse is significant enough.

5) Begin researching, in earnest, places overseas where you can go and can live comfortably with the right opportunities you’re looking for. Frequently, the lifestyle changes you need to make can be easily found overseas. UrbanMan's comment: Again a good idea but unrealistic for most American's, but what is realistic is a Bug Out Plan to a Safe location. A must have is a safe place where you have a year round water sources and ability to grow your own food.

Look, if the skies open and some white knight comes riding in to save the day and stave off any major crisis, you won’t be any worse off for increasing your self-reliance and making preparations. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by being cautious.

More than likely, though, the miraculous white knight will never come, and just a few years from now, people will be wondering, ‘how the hell did we ever reach this point?’

I think at that point, a few years from now, people will look back today and wonder why they didn’t see the warning signs… in the future, when hindsight is 20/20, it will seem to have been so obvious today.

Stop listening to national leadership and start listening to your instincts. They’re telling you that something’s wrong, and the clear, obvious facts confirm those suspicions. The only people who don’t get it are the ones pulling the strings.