Financial Stability & Money

Honestly, I don't believe a lot of people will read this post. So, yes that is sort of a challenge. No pictures, just me talking to you about money & prepping. This is a topic that I don't usually go into a lot of detail about. I tend to be very straight forward and matter of fact. But, what is really interesting I have had 5 conversations with various people this week about developing financial stability.

Early this week I posted about “coming out” of the closet with my mom about our being prepared for various emergencies. She asked my about the bills, like electricity and the mortgage. I told her we have a plan. A couple people asked what my answer to the question really was...

Our primary reason to start preparing for emergencies was, we don't have a lot of faith in the current stability of the economy. Personally, I don't believe that social security will even be available to me (possibly my DH, he is about 10 years older). We have held this belief for several years. In the beginning, we just had a simple plan.
Initially we got out of a rather huge amount of debt. Personally, being in debt had bothered me for a very long time. I really believe that we should “owe no man anything”. This took some strict tightening of our belts and lifestyle changes, but we managed to eliminate our debt, except for the mortgage.

As we began to understand “prepping”, we started creating our “store” of foods.

Almost from the beginning we planned what I call “depth” (sustainability) into our process.

A simple example:

We have water stored.

We have rain barrels to replenish our water supply.

We have high rated water filtration systems to filter water, if we need to transport it from a local creek. We also have our bug out location that has a spring fed water system and more...

Applying that process to the things that would be “bills” and cost money.

With our preparations, we have thought most everything out to include the possibility of not having electricity.

The cars are paid off and my husband is equipped to handle any necessary maintenance & repairs.

The only things that are not completely accounted for would be taxes, etc. and the mortgage.

What I want you to understand, we don't have high paying jobs. We are simple people. We are thankful that we have jobs. We have multiply ways of earning income and everything is handled with a loose budget.

We firmly dedicate a portion of our income for large purchases & “emergencies”. It isn't in savings.

We keep about 2 months worth of cash on hand. When I say dedicated, I mean dedicated. One of my husbands jobs goes to that “fund” & 10% of my money goes to the “fund”.

If the monetary system crashes; we have items, what I call “hard commodities”, that we would be able to barter with... We also have skills to barter with and work on increasing our skills.

We hope to sell our home in three years (retirement LOL), and purchase another home with only the equity. Completely debt free. This will be more of a self sustainable homestead, which will still be close to our bug out location.

This isn't perfect. But, it is what has worked for us. It took a lot of hard work.

I have shared before, on payday (for me): I set aside 10% cash for my tithe, 10% for the “fund”. I recently went through a “Twisted $250 Challenge” where I could only spend $250 for one month. It really was a tough challenge & I learned a lot about my spending habits, which honestly were pretty good. After the challenge I was able to increase my “prepping money fund” from 10% to over 20%. When you think about it, this is what my great-grandparents did. They didn't have credit cards, they paid cash, when they ran out of money, they stopped spending.

If I could give people any advise is don't go into to debt, live within your means & start budgeting from the beginning.

If you are in debt. Get rid of credit cards immediately. Budget & get out of debt. I know it may seem insurmountable, but you CAN do it. It is simply one of those things you decide to do or not. I know some are without jobs, some are getting assistance, some are on social security here. Don't tell me what you can't do, tell me what you CAN do!

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.” (attributed to Henry Ford)

There you have it. Have you made it to the end? If so, go back to Facebook and respond with a $ sign. Tell me what you you think you CAN do. Hee, hee..

Financial Stability & Money (part 2)