quote of the day

"Gold/Silver is the power to control your destiny in crises"

-John Browne

Stocks are Down

I want to restate that the best defense is to relocate out of the cities by cashing in your IRAs Keoughs & 401ks before they are worthless or rolled over into the social security system or some other ponzi plan by the government. The end of the train tracks are near and this summer will probably be your last chance if not before-so get it done. Good Luck Steve

TOR says: Steve sent this to me a few days ago so if the market rallies a little he was factually correct at the time of the writing.

Here We Go Again- The Argentinean Retirement Plan

Folks Representative Gary Ackerman NY wants to use the people pension funds to shore up the banks. Well I guess the several trillions so far were not enough. Wake up and get your money out of your 401ks IRAs Keoughs and buy your retreat and stock it up away from the cities! Steve

Gun Law List by Steve

http://www.gunlaws.com/gloa.htm

TOR says: This looks like a great foundation for understanding federal gun laws. If something isn't completely clear cut it is probably worth contacting the ATF (gasp, did that just come out of my mouth?) to be sure. I know things can get awful confusing; especially when it comes to imported weapons and required amounts of US made parts.

As always YMMV when it comes to the accuracy of this book. The author of the book will not go to federal (pound you in the ass) prison if he is mistaken, you will. Two points to whoever gets the movie reference.

Weekend In Review

We didn't do a whole lot yesterday. Wifey and I ran some errands. She got beautification stuff and I got 2 more Glock 19 mags and 15 rounds of #4 Buck. Including the 3 that will come with the gun that will give me 10 mags. How many mags to get is an intensely personal question without a really clear cut answer. I know a guy who swears there is no reason to own more then 3 mags for a handgun. Commander Zero likes to have around 20 mags for a pistol. Personally 10 mags is my magic number for pistols. I figure that is enough to keep a couple loaded, rotate them with some others and still have a few left over to loose/ break/ trade/ give away. As a closing though I don't think you can have too many but I do think you can spend a dispurportionate amount of your finite resources on mags.

The rest of the day was spent watching Mama Mia and the Sopranos. I had a couple beers and some desert then went to bed.

Today I woke up kind of tired and feeling a bit blah. Not a whole bunch has happened today which is OK because not a whole lot needed to happen. I packed up my stuff for next week this afternoon. Still got to shave but other then that it is just going to sleep then waking up real early and heading to work.

I have been plodding through Power, Faith and Fantasy. I am a bit more then 1/3rd of the way into it and am officially giving up. The book is just too long and too dry for me to continue at this point in time. A copy of the book may accompany me on a deployment some time. I learned some good stuff but the ratio of good stuff to pages is not great. I tend to read to kill down time at work. I have found myself choosing to stare at the wall/ sky/ whatever instead of opening this book. I am going to start another book a friend sent me this week. Since I am going to be at ranges a lot in the near future I should go through the book rapidly.

How do you keep track of amounts of ammo (or I suppose anything else)? I like doing it so lists only need to be updated periodically. I have the stash of ammo placed as desired and then the pile for recent purchases. The stashed ammo has already been inventoried. The recent purchases pile has not been inventoried. The purpose of this is to avoid needing to update the list every time I pick up a box of ammo. Wait till the recent purchases pile gets somewhat substantial it gets inventoried and placed into the stash.

Next weeks schedule is up in the air but is supposed to be busy. On the bright side I had a bunch of guest post stuff in my email. So even if I can't get to the computer all week long (very unlikely) there will be something new up here every day. Thanks a ton to Steve and Steven. On a side note I heard from Jim recently and he is alive and kicking. Got an email from him with a funny pic but it didn't play well with blogger.

The subject of nationalization of banks is poping up again. It is pretty bad when even republicans (Lindsay Graham) are mentioning nationalization as an almost foregone conclusion. To put it nicely that is an idea which I think is bad and really scares me a lot. That got me to thinking about how I would react to such a thing.

In short I think I would greatly limit the amount of my money that was in banks. The checking account might still be used to conduct normal business but would not put money into savings. In fact we would probably not have a savings account. I imagine we would keep some more cash on hand. Probably instead of saving in cash in the bank we would purchase a lot more precious metals. We might start to look at purchasing a little piece of land. We talked about this a little bit and I am not sure what exactly we would do. Thoughts?

Apparantly Venezuela got rid of term limits for their socialist leader (think the title is still president) Hugo Chavez. That probably spells a lot of trouble. Think Robert Mugabe sort of trouble. There is a reason that lots of functional countries have term limits.

With the rest of my weekend (I work in 11.5 hours) not much is going to happen. I will watch a bit more tv, probably have some kind of dinner and maybe dessert. After that it will be time for bed.

Here We Go Again- Social Security Reform?

President Obama in two weeks will appoint a task force which will be charged with reforming social security. These will be the same economists who missed the housing bubble. They will be coming after your social security. Good Luck Baby Boomers! Steve

TOR here: I am interested in seeing some info on this. In any case this is what Steve sees happening.

A possible survival (retreat) plan for people still in metropolitan areas

TOR is out in the woods doing G.I. Joe stuff today and Steve was awesome enough to ensure something got posted for you all.

This is just one idea on a plan for survival.This plan will take cash especially in these uncertain times but will only work if you are a( true believer and have tunnel vision) to the new realities at present. Remember the present DC legislators have already had several meetings on possibly rolling IRAs, Keogh's,and 401ks into the present social security system which means you won't have access to your money anyway(It will be part of the ponzi mess). Also remember most of the present 401ks , IRAs and Keogh's invested in stocks bonds etc have lost a lot of funds already and will loose more in the coming months so what have you got to loose by getting your hands on whats left and thinking of yourself and family first! Sell all unnecessary toys: boats, ATVs, motorcycles, and other excess stuff while there are still people able to buy(again tunnel vision cash is king for right now)!

To really be free of the system and to give your self options while your still employed before you become a statistic is to find a piece of land away from the major cities. You want to be at least 2 hours away to give yourself some distance from the unhappy hordes and be close enough to get there if you have to! Buy a Atlas Gazetteer topo map8002271656 very detailed of the state you want to bug out to and make a circle 2 hours from your present location. Look for areas with little or no population bases if possible. Drive to the area and check out for signs on property,Realtors adds in papers etc. Paying cash is the best way but if you have limited funds you can do a down payment with small monthly payments remember again that (eventually when shtf )the last thing you will have to worry about anybody being left around to foreclose on any property. Second a shelter- a fast easy way is a used travel trailer or motor home check Craig's list and your local nickel papers etc. and place in the middle of the property out of view of the major road if possible. Start caching your items you will need for survival -one way is with a lockable steel container. Another way is to direct burial. The main idea is to secure most of your items prior to bugging out.Remember time is limited now that we are in a depression and Obama wants to increase bailout funds so we are on a big snowball heading downhill fast now! Good Luck Steve

Some Interesting Numbers by Steve

The United States Population is 305 million-In 2007 there were 37 million plus living in poverty-79% live in the cities and suburbs-Government activity accounts for about 12% of GDP-service sector accounts for 65% of GDP-Agriculture accounts for less than 1% of GDP-80% are full time jobs-79% employed in the service sector-Over 250 cities have populations over 100,000 people-richest 10% posses 70% of the wealth-small businesses are about 50% of the workforce-unemployment is 15%(shadow stats figures 18%) and growing by 500,000 per month-top 1% richest posses 33.4% of net wealth-there are 25 million businesses in US-70 million public school students 95,000 public schools in US-6.8 million teachers-26,300 food pantries-150 million people are employed with earnings-Steve

Repeal NAFTA, A Little Too Late

I remember when Ross Perot with his charts warned the American people and politicians that if NAFTA passed it would kill high paying american jobs and ship them overseas. Good ole President Clinton signed NAFTA into law and millions and millions of good paying jobs left the country and are still dying on the vine. I guess the politicians don't understand that without a tax base there are no options. Train Wreck Coming! Get out of the cities. Steve

The Alpha Strategy by John A. Pugsley

This is a fairly dated book but apply s more today than when written and is a free read. If more people had taken this seriously there would be a lot more people in better shape today. Good Luck Steve

Clueless Sheeple By Steve

This is an alarming article but really illustrates why the bulk of the population of the US are clue less as to what's happening with our governmental&financial policies and what is coming in the form of social breakdown. Here is a little snippet of Chris Hedges article "there are over 42 million American Adults,20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas,who cannot read,as well as the 50 million who read at a 4th or 5th grade level. Nearly a third of the nations population is illiterate or barely literate. Their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year. A third of high school graduates, along with 42 percent of college graduates,never read a book after they finish school. Eighty percent of the families in the United States last year did not by a book! Full article @ www.truthdig.com. This is why there is no full blown outcry as to what our government is doing to our country and why the big train wreck is coming. Get out of the major population centers ASAP! Steve

Steve Sees 30% Unemployment Coming

The latest pew poll indicates over 50% of the people like living in the cities. When things get dicey Spain, Iceland,Greece, France are not the only places that are going to be rioting. The last place you want to be is in the cities. There are hundreds of armed and dangerous gangs nationwide,there are 7 million pisoners througout the US that will be armed and dangerous. You don,t think the prison guards are going to be looking after the prisoners when things get dicey no they will be home looking after their families. Then you have all the 17 to 29 year old junkies, and druggies armed and dangerous to contend with also. No the cities are not the place you want to be when the balloon goes up. Find a place you can go to away from the metropolitan areas and stock it up and be ready at a moments notice. There are good used travel trailers out there for sale under 2500 which would make a good immediate shelter on a piece of land someplace. Its not if but when things are going to be dicey! So get ready if you can. Good Luck Steve

HR 45 Bill

It is critical to obtain all your guns ammo and spare magazines now! There is presently a Bill before the 1st session of the 111th Congress which if passed will ban all semi auto handguns and rifles with detachable magazines. This is not going to go away because Obama's choice in his attorney general(confirmed) is against we the people to owning any guns. The new Attorney general (ERIC HOLDER)Quote"we have no right to have a working firearm in our own home". Also there is presently in 18 states legislation being attempted right now to confiscate our ammunition. So folks get your guns and ammo right away!!! GUNS AND AMMO RIGHT AWAY!!!! This will not go away until we have our freedom taken away as the folks in England and Australia have already experienced!!!! Good Luck! Steve

Untarnished Truth as Steve sees it.

During the Great Depression of 30's most people did not own homes,there were no home equity loans,no credit cards,no 14 trillion in debt, we had a trade surplus not $700 billion trade deficit, we were not fighting two losing wars which are now at 2 trillion cost, we weren't running 1 trillion budget deficits per year, back then we had a manufacturing base along with a gold standard(not able to print dollars with abandon). Today we have a trade deficit of 700 Billion, a national Debt of 14 trillion, a banking system that will need an additional 2 trillion bailout money, foriegners owning 3 trillion of our debt, zero percent interest and a currency headed to the toilet! This is why you need to have a long term food storage plan, shelter and water along with GOLD and SILVER for future bartering needs!! Good Luck! Steve

Thermold Mini 14/30 Mags- Thanks Steve

Thermold mags New Production for mini 30 and mini 14 mags. Limited supply www.omegamanenterprises.com-

steve

Gold and Silver- By Steve

Gold and Silver is real money and I have been a Gold & Silver fan since 1975 and believe everyone should have some for the hard times coming. Over the last several months I have ran across several hard money economists,investors and money mavens. Here is a summary of their predictions on the coming hyper inflation and what it will do to metal prices-George Blake 2009-2010 $1200 oz.Gold Mike Maloney-2010-2012 $600 oz. silver $6000 oz. Gold Dr. Petrov 2012-2015 $10,000 oz. Gold Jim Sinclair 2011 $1650 oz Gold Art Field 2009-2010 $3500 oz. Gold. The US dollar has lost 95% of its value since 1919 and in reality is only paper and not backed by anything. The last time you could go into a bank with a silver certificate and exchange for a silver dollar was 1971. So bottom line is protect some of your net worth with GOLD and SILVER PLEASE!!! Good Luck Steve

A Little Steve For You

Another round of layoffs-GM 2000-ING 7000-Sprint 8000-Home Depot 7000-Caterpillar. I wonder if the gov't geniuses will ever wake up? Steve

Building A Home On The Cheap

We have gone over RV and travel trailer living in the past, mobile homes have been discussed also. Let us assume that you want to live in a more permanent but want/ need to do it on the cheap. It is worth noting that cheap for a permanent structure is nowhere near trailer/ RV/ mobile home sort of cheap. The bottom line is that cabins/ houses/ whatever you want to call them just plain cost more.

Please check out some background by reading this post by Steve. All the good advice in it aside it got me to thinking. Three different people and their residences come to mind; I will now talk about them. Hopefully you will get something out of it. Here I go in no particular order.

Uncle B lives in a nice little cabin. It sits in a mid sized town that was small 20 years ago. The origin of the cabin is kind of a funny story. Grandpa was in construction and was building a park which included demolishing the structures that were on the land. He had a lot adjacent to the family home where they had a barn and kept the horses. Grandpa chose the best of the cabins on the land he was working on, sawed it in half with a chainsaw put it on a truck and drove it to the land in the middle of the night. This structure is fairly small but ingeniously designed to have a lot of space.

The cabin is about 20' x 35'. It has two small (queen bed, desk, dresser, small closet and its full) bedrooms on the left side that are about 10 feet wide. The little bit of space on the left side between the wall of the middle bedroom and the north wall was a tiny bathroom. The remaining space was split up with about 25' of living room and the rest was the kitchen. A brick fireplace is in between the two spaces. It looks like at one time the oven might have been attached but it was replaced by a gas oven. Later on a laundry room was added which tacked about 10 feet onto the end of the place. This place has pretty much everything you need and could be built pretty cheaply. My uncle and I were talking (he is a contractor) about homes and I gave this floor plan some serious thought. We agreed that adding a loft (very cheap space) would help out a lot. Admittedly in the cabin storage is somewhat short but between the barn and assorted outbuildings (one of which is basically a small apartment without a bathroom) there is plenty of space to put stuff.

This place has three lessons for me. First sometimes you can get a place just for moving it. This is of course more economic if you have the truck and such to move a place. However if that is your only expense for getting a livable structure it is worth looking into. The big thing in this is that for it to be cost effective the structure probably needs to be pretty close to your home site. Certainly not an answer for every situation but it is worth keeping in mind. The second lesson is that to a certain degree the floor plan and its livability are more important then total square footage. The third lesson is that if you have enough space on your lot additional storage space can always be added later on as funds allow. The cabin started with a tiny porch and no laundry room. After it became Grandmas full time residence I think the laundry room came pretty quickly. A few years later Pa and my uncles all got together and built a car port and a wrap around deck. Build a small place now, a shed in a year or two, a barn a few years later, maybe another room or two down the road, etc.

The second place is probably the smallest and almost definitely the cheapest. It belongs to one of Uncle B's friends who we will refer to as J. He owns ten beautiful acres of woods with an amazing view. He got the land about 20 years ago for a darn good price. He lives in an A frame. No foundation and no septic. He has a grey water system and an outhouse. To be honest I am not sure if there was a single permit involved in the place getting built. In any case the work was done by him, I imagine Uncle B and a friend or two. He has a nice barn also which stores all manner of things. The morale I learned from this place is that if you are willing to adjust your lifestyle (he has an outhouse) then substantial savings can be made.

The third place is the one I know the most about as it was recently built by a friend of mine. His folks have 40 acres they inherited and he was given a couple to build a house on. He of course has access to the rest should he want to have a cow or something. Most likely he would just get more involved in his parents rather substantial efforts (cows, pig, chickens) and have a piece of the rewards.

My friend built what could be best described as a studio house. Pretty simple layout with a bedroom in one corner, the bathroom kitty corner to the bedroom with the kitchen on the same wall to make plumbing easier. A wood stove sits by the doorway and the rest of the place is open. It sits on a slab and there is a small mud room in which the washer and dryer live. If I recall correctly he built the place for $45,000.

It took him about a year to build partially because he built as he could pay for materials. He thus owns the place free and clear. Being a union machine operator and generally a handy guy who knows lots of other handy guys he was able to get everything but the septic system and the plumbing done for trade or greatly discounted cash prices.

The good part of this plan is that he got the place for significantly less then it would have cost to have someone else build it. The bad sides are numerous but it is a question of what is important to you. When you get cabinets and such from leftovers at a great discount some weird combination's come up. When people are doing work for free or lower cash rates they show up when they can and feel like it. This means stuff takes a lot longer then if someone is there all day long. Expect to have lots of pauses while waiting for someone to come and finish their piece of things.

The building process being far lengthier is a big problem if you are paying rent/ mortgage/ whatever somewhere else. Paying for two places to live puts a strain on all but the biggest budgets. Living on site in a travel trailer/ barn (tent if you are a bachelor and the climate is mild enough) would be a good option. A friend of his who I don't know was building a place in the same manner and having serious financial problems because he was paying rent. My friend probably would have done things differently if he didn't have a room in his folks place. The bottom line is that he got far more of a place for his cash then through any other means. He did concede that if his time was factored in the cost would be far higher and really it was a pain in the ass. When he adds on two more bedrooms and a family room in a few years he is going to just have a contractor do the work.

I guess the biggest thing to keep in mind is that you need to think outside of the box to really cut costs. Thinking outside of the box means making sacrifices in some form or another. It is just a question of what you are willing to live without. Doing the average thing and getting a loan which you use to purchase a turn key home or having one built is going to lead to an average sized mortgage and all that comes with it.

Building A Cabin Affordably By Steve

By acquiring building materials from a materials list prior to starting construction you can save 60%. By utilizing garage sales,bankruptcy sales,old inventory turns at building suppliers,salvage yards,used lumber from tear downs(free) HABITAT FOR HUMANITY SALES,RETIREMENT MOBILE HOME COMMUNITIES(cabinets and appliances). With accumulated materials on site prior to start eliminates a lot of trips for missing materials especially if your building far from any towns. We bought a used steel container for use as secure storage of the materials to keep intact prior to construction. I modified heavily a set of old modified A frame plans to make a 36'x20' 2 bed ,one bath cabin. Instead of a regular foundation we put ours up off ground with 16" diameter concrete pillars because the area is a wetlands and sloping ground uneven,also keeps out any critters from moving in! I have plans and plenty of pictures; if anyone is interested contact me (pipeguy@earthlink.net). Good Luck Steve

Snippet of Obama's 850 Billion stimulus package

This is just more printing of money we don't have! 1(Science & Tech 17billion 2)Infrastructure 92Billion 3)Aid to poor & Unemployed 97 Billion 4)Education 159 Billion5)Health Care 155 Billion6)Housing 13 Billion 7)Law Enforcement $ Billion8) Taxes 500 per worker, 1000 per couple for 2 yrs, 1000 per child tax credit, 2500 college tuition tax credit cost 140 Billion and this is for starters.( THIS INFO CAME FROM TY ANDROS TEDBITS@TRADERVIEW.COM)----THE TRAIN WRECK IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER -GET READY!!!!Steve