Mac and I have been through periods of significant inflation before. If things go the way they have before we will start to come out of it in 4 or 5 years. But, what can you do in the meantime?

If you have storage space buy in bulk. Whatever you buy today will certainly cost more in the future. Mac suggests buying some of those long-term storage meals or MREs. (Meals Ready to Eat). That might help in a serious supply and demand shortage situation.

Learn to fix things. We are a throw-away society. Many things are created today with built-in obsolescence. For those things that are not there are lots of YouTube videos on how to repair things. Sometimes it is simply replacing a shorted out or disconnected wire in a toaster. If you are going to throw it out anyway why not see if you can fix it first? What do you have to lose?

What about long-term survival if everything goes to hell?

Mac is a fan of having some precious metals available. Mike is not a fan of that. As a former Air Force Special Ops member who taught combat survival, it isn’t worth it. The things that are valuable, in his opinion, are food, shelter, and the things to make or assist in procuring those items. In addition, your skills can be traded as well as the things you can make. You can’t eat or get heat from gold or silver. It is the old “give a man a fish versus teach a man to fish” idea.

In the end, you will have to do what is best for your situation. City dwellers are in a different situation versus those of us in the country. In the more populated areas, there is a lot of competition for resources. In the country, you can live off the land to some degree with basic skills.

I have a friend that lives in Michigan that thinks the world will come crashing down. Maybe via nuclear war or EMP. One day he was picking my brain about how to survive in a long-term situation. I told him he would likely be dead in less than a year. It all depends on your age, health, and skills. Few would survive an entire year if everything went to shit and you lost power.

I told him if he was serious about learning to survive to test himself. Go out into the woods and take only two days of food and water. Now build a shelter, learn to keep a fire going, and stay out there a week. That is only 5 days beyond your provisions. Do you think you could do that? Go ahead and try it yourself, I dare you. 🙂