Prepping for "regular" life

[DIRTMAN556]

I'm curious as to how many of us prepare for regular life not for that possible but real threat of flood, disaster, SHTF, etc. What I mean by "regular life" is not the threat of nuclear disaster, but preparing for retirement, death, financials and so on. I understand that these things can be done side-by-side. I don't know everyone's situations or ideologies which is why I'm asking this question in the first place.

I wonder if some people shell out serious cash prepping for the what if, when funds could be used for more realistic things. Or is prepping all jumbled together? You prep for that possible new set of tires you might need. Prepping for losing your job. Prepping for your kids' college fund. Or any other variables life might throw at you.

Your thoughts?

[SteveS]

In the old days it was called common sense. These days common sense is lacking.

[Leaveammoforme]

I'm sure most people wouldn't put off buying tires to add another ton of rice to their preps.

Real life first, "what if's" second.

[cougar_guy04]

I think that's on the right track. It's one thing to have 100,000 rounds of 5.56 and 300 cases of MREs, but if you don't have the "preps" to handle a temporary loss of employment or a death in the family . . . well, you're doing wrong.

I listen to "The Survival Podcast" and that's one item that he hits on pretty often. That part of prepping is having your house in order, having your debt paid off, having your insurance paid up, having systems in place to be able to get through tough times (job loss, death in the family, injury/incident that keeps your business running), etc. It's not as sexy as a set of NODs or a Barrett .50 cal, but one would be more likely to make use of those "preps"

Hell, having an extra box or two of "feminine products" in the house wouldn't be considered "preps" by a lot of people . . . but I bet the poor guy who has to go to the local CVS at 0-godforesaken-30 probably wishes he had some of them in the bathroom cabinet.

[yellowfin]

Definitely been working on this myself. A lot of it is basic business accounting applied to personal assets and everyday living: what to budget to replace in 3 months, 6 months, a year, 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years, then dividing that up by month then applying amounts of each paycheck to the 3 month pile, the 6 month pile, year pile, etc. The wife and I have been working on separate bank accounts for each expense category and having direct deposit allocated to them.

Only after you fully prepare for the normal can you really begin to address the unexpected. Too many people don't even have the expected stuff covered in a methodical, complete way. Put another way, Dave Ramsey pointed out some years ago the all important question: "If you employed someone to handle your business's money and they handled it exactly the way you handle your own money , would you fire them?"

[DIRTMAN556]

Put another way, Dave Ramsey pointed out some years ago the all important question: "If you employed someone to handle your business's money and they handled it exactly the way you handle your own money , would you fire them?"

This is an awesome quote! Yes, this is pretty much what I was getting at. Common sense is the least common thing in the world.

[Hmac]

Death, retirement, old age are all certainties. SHTF, EOTWAKI, famine, flood, pestilence, collapse of society...they're only possibilities, the likelihood of which depends on one's level of paranoia. Far more people are doing financial planning than are buying cases of MRE's, which is certainly appropriate considering the odds.

[PA PATRIOT]

As others have stated "Common Sense" should rule most aspects of are lives and prepping relies heavily upon this. My approach runs along what social, natural or man made threats I perceive could possibly affect my family and then I plan accordingly. I have always only dedicated 1/5th of my disposable income (Which is what's left after all living/saving/retirement commitments are met) to purchasing items I feel will support my families needs should a sudden major event occur. Prepping is not a speed race but a long term plan that must have a steady even finical commitment to be funded properly.

Have a plan, a few dollars now invested in prep's now could make the difference of the survival of your family later. Many over analyze such a simple task, Sure and Steady with a little common sense goes a long way.

[MurtaughF3]

Definitely been working on this myself. A lot of it is basic business accounting applied to personal assets and everyday living: what to budget to replace in 3 months, 6 months, a year, 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years, then dividing that up by month then applying amounts of each paycheck to the 3 month pile, the 6 month pile, year pile, etc. The wife and I have been working on separate bank accounts for each expense category and having direct deposit allocated to them.

Only after you fully prepare for the normal can you really begin to address the unexpected. Too many people don't even have the expected stuff covered in a methodical, complete way. Put another way, Dave Ramsey pointed out some years ago the all important question: "If you employed someone to handle your business's money and they handled it exactly the way you handle your own money , would you fire them?"

Thanks for the post, referring to the 3 months 6 months etc comment. While common sense, one of those things you think about but don't think about if that makes sense. I have always tried to save a little for future expenses like tires or a new washer/dryer. But I'll be honest, I didn't think about doing the breakdown like you listed, I just stashed it away, and I'm liking your breakdown a lot more, might make things a little easier, providing one can be disciplined enough to keep the pots of money separate.

[yellowfin]

To keep them separate we have checkbooks and debit cards for each account and only use those to pay those specific expenses listed with them. For example, our garbage bill and our water bill are each quarterly, and we both wear contacts that we buy quarterly, so I only pay those with a check or debit card from the quarterly account, and nothing else gets taken out of that account. Just like you'd never use a Phillips head screwdriver on allen screws and vice versa. So when reviewing our expenses we take a look at what our quarterly expenses are, name them and the amounts, and then total it up, divide that by 6 (3 months in a quarter with two paychecks a month) and that's the amount that needs to be deposited into that account from paychecks. Same thing with yearly, add up all that stuff like car tags, homeowners insurance, hunting/fishing licenses, NRA membership, then divide that total by 24 and see to it that the correct amount is in the yearly account. What isn't quarterly, semiannual, or annual is what's left to go into the monthly-or-less miscellaneous. These are all in separate banks entirely so I know the green debit card from the red one from the orange one and you sure as heck don't write a check by mistake with big bold letterhead and different background images on them. NO CASH EVER FOR ANYTHING: everything is documented.

So my paycheck allocation is something like 35-30-15-20 across 4 bank accounts. Employer's payroll service does that no sweat, I just check online every payday to make sure it's close to the same as last time or if it's short it's all uniformly short because maybe I worked 28-30 hours one week b/c I was sick or took a day off. If I need the allocation changed, I just change the amount, and that's only maybe twice a year when and if I need to. For spot adjustments maybe once in a while, say 6 month car maintenance was high, I'll write a check from one account and deposit it into another and let that settle out for two weeks or so to make sure it's good--no way will I need every dime of the money in the account all at once at any point in the quarter or year.

Here's a little bit more detail on that, for those wondering what that might look like. Life may not be predictable in its entirety but a whole lot of it is when you think about it:

A. Weekly/biweekly
1. gas
2. groceries


B. Monthly -- auto draft most bills so that's taken care of
1. mortgage
2. cable
3. electric
4. phone
5. haircut
6. life insurance
7. disability insurance

C. Quarterly
1. garbage
2. water
3. contact lenses
4. ammo/reloading + match fees
5. large/bulk grocery items: paper towels, toilet paper, laundry detergent, trash bags
6. prescriptions (3 month supply is easier to budget)
7. birthday gifts for family members

D. Semi annual
1. dentist
2. XM radio
3. oil changes for cars
4. car insurance
5. plane tickets to see family

E. Annual
1. doctor appointments for annual physical
2. hunting and fishing licenses
3. NRA and gun club dues
4. AAA
5. homeowners insurance
6. car inspection and tag fees
7. professional license fees / CE courses

F. Long term -- divide by years of expected life of appliances and/or estimated years until event then divide by 24 as mentioned above
1. car repair and replacement
2. retirement savings
3. appliances
4. bed replacement
5. roof replacement
6. daughter's wedding if applicable
7. kids' college

....get that covered and then AFTER THAT is what money you really have. Again, quarterly, semi annual, annual, and long term each get auto deposited into those accounts so they're out of sight until that payment comes due. Move as much OUT of the daily/weekly/biweekly category and account as you can and you'll find it all gets a LOT more stable. No more "Whoops, I need to pay for that, oh crap I spent it on dinner last night!"


Treat money as a tool and it won't treat you like one. As Chris Costa might say, be its master not its bitch.