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.

Reader Question on Water Purification

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received the following email from Norman,..I scored some points with my wife during that recent big storm as a public notice went out in our city telling people to boil their water before drinking as there was damage to the city water company's back flow preventers due to several broken water mains. And we had several power outages so we couldn't boil water consistently if we wanted to. Didn't need to anyway, as I had four cases of bottled water in the garage and some water purification tablets. I think now my wife is more inclined to listen to me about Survival readiness since she has now seen the value in being ready. Now I need to buy some more water purification products just in case I don't have enough bottled water next time. What do you suggest? Should I rely on the pills?

UrbanMan replies: I have water purification means in depth. Meaning I am not relying just on one technology or one means. I have individual and group water filters, as well as water purification tablets (which I think you are calling "pills"), and can build field expedient water filtration methods when necessary.

I have several Aquamira Water Bottle and Filter units which is like a sports drink bottle with a filter,..just fill up with questionable water then drink. Best to run dirty water through cloth before hand to help prolong the filter. The filter removes 99.9% of Giardia, Cryptospordium and other contaminants as well as removing the chlorine taste. Each bottle filters up to 50 gallons.

I have several larger, group sized units, one a Katadyn hand pump unit and another a Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter System which uses a gravity feed water filter system, which I really like. It can filter 200 gallons or more.









For my Bug Out Bags, I have added the Frontier Pro Ultralight Water Filter, which is approx 6 inches long and one inch in diameter.  This uses a straw not shown in the picture (right) so you can directly drink water from a bad source.  You can also remove the bite valve and gravity filter water from common bottle.  It comes with 4 replacement pre-filters that will extend the internal filter life. This will filters up to 50 gallons.





Click here for prices and more information

Urban Financial Survival Planning - Gold Confiscation Start

Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, makes the following report on new beginnings of the Government, in this case the State of Washington, to set in place a type of registration which would be necessary to make Gold confiscation by the government even half effective. 1933 all over again.

As Mike Dillard of the Elevation Group writes: "The US Government is broke. They need your money, and whether it's through taxes, inflation, the seizure of your precious metals, or the nationalization of your retirement accounts, they are going to take it from you. And when governments get desperate for money, they turn to the one thing they're best at... They start writing new laws."

The Zero Hedge article:

Prepare To Give Up All Private Data For Any Gold Purchase Over $100

A week ago, when we reported on a move by the Dutch central bank that ordered a pension fund to forcibly reduce its gold holdings, we speculated that "this latest gold confiscation equivalent event is most certainly coming to a banana republic near you." And while we got the Banana republic right, the event that we are about to describe is not necessarily identical. It is much worse. A bill proposed in the State of Washington (House Bill 1716), by State Representatives Asay, Hurst, Klippert, Pearson, and Miloscia, whose alleged purpose is to regulate secondhand gold dealers, seeks to capture "the name, date of birth, sex, height, weight, race, and address and telephone number of the person with whom the transaction is made" or said otherwise, of every purchaser of gold in the state of Washington.

Furthermore, if passed, Bill 1716 will record "a complete description of the property pledged, bought, or consigned, including the brand name, serial number, model number or name, any initials or engraving, size, pattern, and color or stone or stones" and of course price. But the kicker: if a transaction is mode for an amount over $100, which means one tenth of an ounce of golds, also required will be a "signature, photo, and fingerprint of the person with whom the transaction is made." In other words, very soon Washington state will know more about you than you know about yourself, if you dare to buy any gold object worth more than a C-note.

How this proposal is supposed to protect consumers against vulture gold dealers we don't quite get. Hopefully someone will explain it to us. We do, however, get how Americans will part with any and all privacy if they were to exchange fiat for physical. And in a police state like America, this will likely not be taken lightly, thereby killing the gold trade should the proposed Bill pass, and be adopted elsewhere.

While we are confident that representatives Asay, Hurst, Klippert, Pearson, and Miloscia have no clue why they are even proposing this bill, we would also be delighted to find out which moneyed interests they represent, and what happens to precious metal trading in America should Bill 1716 become a legal precedent which is effectively the first step before the final implementation of Executive Order 6102 version 2.

Reader Question - What We are Planning For?

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received an Anonymous comment in reference to a recent post entitled: Survival Preparation - Getting Others to Prepare..........."Okay, this blog warns us about what exactly? What the he** am I supposed to do now? I am not afraid, so I will not go out and buy a gun. I already have "food" stored. It's called a pantry. Can you please be more explicit about the so-called threat that you are warning against?" Thanks.

UrbanMan replies: Fair enough question. Maybe one that those of us who have been preparing for years ought to revisit from time to time. The short answer is that bad times are coming and the most likely catalysts, not in the order of likelihood, are:

* Economic collapse
* Infectious Disease Pandemic
* Terrrorist attack with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) such as nuclear or biological weapons
* Terrorist Cyber or Electro Magentic Pulse attack
* Nuclear attack by a Nation-State.
* Natural Disaster on a National scale

Think of families who live in Hurricane country. They have bottled water, food, plywood cut for windows, tarps, rain gear and a plan to pack up and go somewhere safe. Planning for the possible/probably threats I mentioned in the above paragraph just require Hurricane planning x ten.

There are near 300 posts on this site. I would think at least 30 of them articulate a particular threat,.....giant recession into hyper inflation then into a greater depression; terrorist attacks with nuclear or biological weapons; conventional nuclear attack; etc.

By most accounts the economic collaspe model is most probable, given our current state. Look at various financial analysis sites and what their advisors are saying,....Sandy Leeds, Gonzalo Lira, Chris Martenson, Peter Stansberry, Robert Kiyosaki, Simon Black and many, many others. These are mainstream advisors not some nameless blooger (like me). All are predicting a super collapse of the economy. I have even seen predictions for a collapse beginning the end of this month. However it may not be a day (time period) or recognized event that marks the beginning,...it may just be a gradual collapse and if so, then we are in it now. Look at the the giant price increase in consumer goods. Look at the strength of the dollar against foreign currencies. Look at the never before reached levels of people in poverty. The world is looking to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency,........

Many states (California, Wisconsin, Illinois and others can't pay their state workers, can't pay their creditors nor even balance the budget when their survival is on the line. The Middle East and North Africa is in turmoil, placing our oil supplies in jepordy. Fuel at $5 even $7 a gallon will destroy this economy.

Our financial infrastructure is electronic in nature. A significant cyber attack or an attack on our power and utilities infrastructure could devastate our economy. However it may be unnecessary as we are doing to ourselves,.....massive federal borrowing; deficit spending;....

So we are preparing for a time when food is not as available as it is now,...we are preparing for a time when our security will be our responsibility to a much larger extent than it is now.

We are preparing because it is an individual responsibility, and we are preparing by planning to cover the four basic areas of food, water, shelter and security.

To be certain there are people out there that equate survival planning with guns, more guns and camouflage fatigues. To be more certain, a portion of security, therefore guns, is the mean to protect yourself and your family. The reader's comment: "I am not afraid, so I will not go out and buy a gun. I already have "food" stored. It's called a pantry," begs the question, how long will your pantry food last? and are you neighbors going to protect you?