Best Advice for the Coming Hard Times

My last two columns have been about how we can protect ourselves from some of the terrible economic consequences that are beginning to fall on this nation because of the foolishness and corruption of our ruling class- from both parties. The technical name for what’s coming is stagflation. Prices will rise, but incomes will not keep pace. While a few well-connected looters at the top will become obscenely rich, the middle and working classes will be all but destroyed. I don’t need a time machine to know this, just a history book. This is what has happened to every nation which conducted its financial affairs the way ours are being conducted. In fact, these things have already begun to happen.

I am saving the best advice for last, but first a re-cap of the last two columns: I talked about the need to have a small cash cushion for emergencies, and then savings that are not in dollars. Every modest home should have fifty ounces of silver as savings (that you can hold two years or more) that won’t lose its value like the dollar does. Pay off all credit cards that don’t have a fixed and low rate of interest. Home owners, if you have a fixed rate mortgage, try to keep your home even if it appears now like you owe more on it than it is worth. That will change when inflation hits. Homeowners with a variable rate home loan should refinance to a fixed rate, even if it does not lower your monthly payment. If your bank says you don’t have the equity for it, there are local places that specialize in mortgages which may still be able to help you.

It has been said that when people lose everything, they “lose it.” I expect to see more crime and social unrest. Every household should possess a firearm, including a rifle or shot gun. And without ammo, a rifle is just a club. Have at least 100 rounds on hand. If you are a person who has lots of guns and little ammo, sell a gun and get ammo for the ones you keep. Ammo keeps well, and like silver and food, its price will go up as the dollar sinks.

I have saved the best advice for last. The most important asset we have is not gold, silver, or ammunition. It’s each other. We are going to need community we can trust. If you don’t know your neighbors, get to know them. If you are at odds with any of them, so far as it depends on you, make peace with them. Perhaps you each have tools and resources which can help the other. You are soon going to need each other’s good will a lot more than you do now.

That goes double for family. Right now, one spouse may be down and the other up. The temptation may be to dump a spouse that has been down for a while, regardless of the vows of your youth. Two years from now though, the situation may be reversed. We are in times where even people of good character are down through no real fault of their own. Next it may be your turn. If you were there for your spouse when they were down, you have earned a mate who will do the same for you.

We have to decide if we are going to let the stress of these hard times make us lash out at everyone around us, or use it to build up non-tangible assets like family and community good will.