12 Ways To Prepare For The Next Great Depression

13 Apr 2008

Written by Charlie Jane Anders This article is from io9

Our economic future could be even bleaker than you expect — and last year was the moment to unleash your inner survivalist. If the financial system suffers any more crises of confidence, credit gets even tighter, and the fed falls into a liquidity trap, we could be in for several hardscrabbling dystopian years. Forget maintaining your current shiny standard of living — how will you feed and clothe yourself, in the worst case scenario? We’ve compiled a few suggestions for things you can do now to brace yourself.

Avoid debt at all costs. If anything, you’ll want to save up as much money as you can, in case you have to live off your savings. Thanks to recent changes in bankruptcy law, it’s much harder than before for an individual to declare bankruptcy. So if you’re stuck in debt with little or no income, you’ll still be working for the banks. And as this guy points out, the banks will be hurting, so the moment you miss a payment, they’ll be quick to try and liquidate your collateral for whatever they can get.

Get out of your mortgage before the housing market collapses any further. As this site says, if you paid $300,000 for your house and it sells for $200,000, you could end up not owning your house and owing the bank $100,000.

Buy some cheap land in a rural area. Build a house, or just get a used RV. Either way, make sure you own your home free and clear, so you can live rent-free and mortgage-free for as long as you need to.

Go off the grid. Get your own power generator — or, better yet, some of those solar helium balloons. Or some wind turbines. Don’t be dependent on the power company to keep all your necessities running.

Cultivate some skills that will always be in demand. Become a decent electrician, handy-person, carpenter or cook. There may not be much need for someone who understands content management systems during a total economic shutdown, but someone who can build a house will always have a place to crash.

Offshore yourself. As the dollar gets weaker and weaker, U.S. white-collar service workers will be the cheap overseas employees for Europeans and Asians, predicts Robert Scoble in his roundup of how to recession-proof yourself. So as long as someone, somewhere, is still making use of those white-collar service skills (like programming, or customer support) you may be able to offer yourself to overseas companies as a cheaper alternative.

Invest in the ultimate counter-cyclicals. Some industries will always be in growth mode — like any business that caters to the rapidly growing senior population. Also, “sin and comfort” industries, like cigarettes, gambling and booze, do well during downturns and will probably make bank this time around as well. (Too bad booze and cigs are generally part of huge diversified conglomerates these days.) Also, movie companies are quietly bragging that the movie industry had one of its biggest growth spurts ever in the 1930s, as people craved escapism.

Invest in some Euros, or some other currency that’s not the dollar. Chances are the U.S. dollar will keep getting weaker, so you’ll be better off holding a more stable currency. You could also try investing in gold or silver, but those commodities are already skyrocketing in value.

Have some liquid funds on hand. MSN Money suggests reducing your contributions to your retirement plan or 401(k) (if you have one) so you can put more money into your savings instead. And remember, the banks are still FDIC insured, so your savings are probably safe — but other investments have no such guarantee.

or take part in a community garden in your neighborhood. Try to position yourself so you can get as much of your diet as possible from food you’ve grown yourself, instead of being hooked on sushi.

Learn to hunt. These fine people claim that hungry people are already hunting small animals in the parks of San Francisco, and during the 1930s deer and squirrels were hunted almost to extinction. Learn how to trap, kill, prepare and eat a squirrel now, so you’ll be ahead of the curve.

Stockpile medications. Your biggest problem, in an economic meltdown, could be getting health care. If you’re dependent on prescription meds, try to get some extra pills now so you’ll have some on hand later. Just make sure you’re always taking the oldest meds you have, to minimize the risk of taking expired pills, these folks advise.

And hey, here’s a meeting coming up in New York on how to “prepare and profit” from the next Depression. If any of our readers are in NYC, please please go to the meeting and tell us what they said, so we can learn how to turn abject economic misery into pure lovely gravy.

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20 Responses to 12 Ways To Prepare For The Next Great Depression

Desmond

April 14th, 2008 at 05:11

You forget one thing about surviving depression: accumulate gold! The coming depression will probably not be the deflationary type of depression: rather it will be a stagflationary (or even hyperinflationary) type of depression. Even gold is recommended in times of deflation.

If you don’t own gold in such a time, you’re in trouble.

I recommend this article: “Why should you invest in gold?” http://cij.inspiriting.com/?page_id=296

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April 14th, 2008 at 06:29

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Wal

April 14th, 2008 at 07:38

Dont have any collateral for the banks to take and borrow up to the hilt. What? it only works for the banks – not if youre clever enough…

Wal

April 14th, 2008 at 07:53

BTW io9, cool list, but nobody takes this seriously, even you. Helium balloons? Offshoring yourself? How about pulling yourself?

The Sirens Chronicles » Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up

April 15th, 2008 at 00:30

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June 2nd, 2008 at 06:38

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fucku

September 17th, 2008 at 20:19

wow… what a fucking waste of time
this piece of shit article

fucku was funny

September 20th, 2008 at 11:23

what a great way to end the conversation. I pissed myself laughing. thanks fucku…

Jeff

September 27th, 2008 at 18:04

Don’t laugh too hard. If it happened once (and it did), it can happen again. Planning for a worse-case scenario makes sense.

Lonnie

September 28th, 2008 at 10:15

I’m surprised that a gun wasn’t listed on the ways to prepare.
When everyone is out of money and food, you may need a gun to protect yourself. Or, you may need it to take someone elses food and stuff if you run out.
Better get a good firearm.

bob bobberson

September 30th, 2008 at 15:21

Some of this article is somewhat juvenile, and some of it is insightful. Sure, I’ve thought about outsourcing myself to Europe. I’m more likely to do that than sell my house for a loss and buy a good used RV…

If the banks go under, they go under. Collecting my home, or anything else for that matter, won’t help them beans if they cannot sell it to anyone. Get it? They aren’t comin a knockin so you need to ditch that mentality.

Puppy Pabulum

October 22nd, 2008 at 08:37

Learn to eat rats, bugs, and worms. Also a lot of dogs and cats will be abandoned and run wild. They’re edible.

Think like a raven. You can also start buying bright objects which are bound to go up in price along with everything else. They could just about be used as currency.

Steve

November 29th, 2008 at 09:49

In the first Great Depression, alot of people were prepared because they knew how to put food back. Most importantly they were mentally stable, unlike most people today. As you can see by some of the postings here.
Good luck to the like minded people as myself. Good-bye to the rest.

December 5th, 2008 at 01:45

I suspect in todays modern global economy, outsourcing yourself will NOT work. The last great depression devastated the world economy. Imagine in todays global economy.

Obb Zervant

December 9th, 2008 at 00:23

Hasn’t anyone observed that economic times have been crappy during lame duck season? To me, these bad economic times are PLANNED! These have been planned years in advance in order to stage more thievery by those that hold all the beans. Like rich corporations and their paid labor in congress. The goal is to make you worry and suffer needless cost and loss while your will bends to their ‘good ideas’ to which they gain. Then magically the economy ‘returns to normal’. I mean, who makes money while people lose money? Where does the money go when the DJIA drops? Does it go poof; it’s evaporated? Or into someone’s pocket? Seriously folks, we’ve been had over and over again, and what’s missing on this list is a serious effort to begin to change our government from the ground, up. Otherwise…I feel that they want us all numbered and registered at a local bank and we all work for a global corporate entity and our existence is just to be their tools for their gain with the compensation being continued existence without ever getting anything more out of life other than today’s bread. The luxury of our so called freedom today is something that will be obsolete in that next step of our world where those luxuries are for the ULTRA RICH and then the rest of us are just numbers stamped on our heads. We get to have nothing but polluted air to breathe and processed food to eat living in a cubical that’s just big enough for a bed. We the sheeple. There will be those that can escape and live like nomads, but they will stay away from civilization. Nothing normal for them, and no money either, just trade. Maybe something decent.
This sounds bleak and dystopian, but really, that is the plans of our leaders. They want nothing more than total conformity. Their ultimate plan is to ruin what is left of America, and equalize the world economy into a third world nation. Make money obsolete so that no one person has enough to be “well off”, except those who are in the 120 most wealthy bloodlines (if not less), and keep people sick in such a way that free thinking is impossible, because they are too sick to think about other things other than their horrible health. Keep the sheep occupied in mind, body, and spirit. How do you do that? Break the spirit with constant torture. Do that with poor diet, environment, and illness. Does anyone get it yet!? The crazy events that happen around us is just preparation for the insanity to come. TV and video games are all training videos for that. The designers of those shows don’t even realize it practically. They just think, oh here’s a great idea for a game, or a tv series. Let’s make it. Then it comes out, and it becomes something for the masses to get into. It’s new, it’s cool…..oh, it’s really happening now, how weird is that? Why so many remakes with movies? Out of ideas already? Creativity all stagnant? Has anyone seen a great painting lately? Our culture is nearly totally STAGNANT! This economy is in denial! What’s next people? That’s right….War. everywhere! all set up and ready to go. The draft has been repealed, they just need an excuse. Is everyone dressed up and ready to move out? This time, it’s all ages war! everyone is invited to participate. see ya at the front!
However, the best case scenario is that everyone wakes the hell up, gets their shit in order, and really turn things around. Businesses decide to get their acts in gear, move toward helping the economy by doing the best job they can, and employ people, pay them well, and do their thing as best and safe and as clean as possible. Make the wheel of progress go around. Imagine a well ran economy? All businesses working together. 100 percent employment. people able to live again and support themselves, children, and local economy, wherever they go. Schools, actually getting the kids prepared to use their brains and get ready for a world of wonder, creativity and invention. Trade schools ready to teach the trades they offer. Colleges that aren’t fishbowls of beer, but of possibilities for multiple choices for futures to be realized.
I want that nice ideal world to be here, not the one that the bilderbergers have planned for us. or whatever nwo one world gov’t people have planned. Really, those richer than rich people hate us, and would want nothing more than utter misery for the world. That’s the conspiracy.

Surviving A Recession

January 6th, 2009 at 05:44

I am definitely in agreement that people should prepare themselves for surviving a recession. The problem is that most people wait until it is too late. Even when signs of a recession are there they wait until the very last minute to prepare themselves. It can be financially painful to prepare for a recession. Some of the measures you outline here are a bit extreme. For instance, most people will never be able to go “off grid.” And keeping your money off shore will do very little to protect you from the affects of a recession. But you do make some good points about getting out of debt. If most people did not carry the debt load they have recessions would not affect them as badly.

TheBlade

February 21st, 2009 at 21:44

During the Great Depression society in the US had a strong moral fiber which we don’t have now. Corruption and crime will rampant and very organized, so security and defense of what you own will be important.

becki

February 25th, 2009 at 16:01

at last an article that makes absolute sense! we have been doing some of these things for years ( used trailer, garden, useful hobbies, solar panels on the trailer roof) somethings i didn’t see in the article are also very important during these bad times; learning to sew, quilt, knit and crochet. the reason these are important is not only to keep your clothing in good repair so you don’t have to go out and buy new. but you can also make a respectable income from these. people will always need warm covers, hats and the like to stay warm.
i’ve been trying to tell a couple of my younger siblings this for years before any of this cracked off, maybe now they will listen!

12 Ways To Prepare For The Next Great Depression

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