In an economic collapse, the national economy collapses. Economic activity falls in the long term, poverty grows and the social order is falling apart. There are protests, riots and maybe even acts of violence. Sometimes the cause is a deep recession where society still functions almost normally (only is poorer). But it can also be a lot worse. Prepare for the worst, but adapt your actions to the current magnitude of the collapse. You can prepare for an economic meltdown by securing yourself financially, storing essentials, and tracking economic indicators.
Table of Contents
Financial preparation
Invest emergency capital.
If you live month-to-month and lose your job during an economic downturn, you could find yourself unable to pay your house payments and living in poverty. Finding a new job to continue earning income becomes difficult. Save enough to last six months.
- If you want to pay off your debt, save up about $900 and use all your remaining income to pay off your debt. When the debt is gone, you can save more money for your emergency capital.
- Don’t save your emergency capital in your checking account lest you be tempted to squander it. Look for a form of investment that involves little risk but earns interest. Put the money in a savings account, for example.
- In a full economic meltdown, you won’t have access to your checking account because the financial system collapses. Your money may also be useless or worth nothing. Therefore, also bet on other goods that you can trade during an economic collapse, such as alcohol, precious metals (gold and silver) and petrol.
Always have cash in the house.
Find another source of income.
Work from home as a second mainstay. If you lose your job because of the economic collapse, it becomes difficult or even impossible to find a new job. If you have an alternative source of income, you can keep your house and not become poor. Base your home business idea on your skills. Do something you love to do. Consider how likely it is that people will use your service during an economic downturn. People need necessities like clean water and food more than an interior decorator.
- Offer people something for their home, like cleaning, tidying up, cooking, or decorating the house.
- Sell goods that you make yourself, such as a baked item, customized clothing, or jewelry.
Pay off your debt.
During a financial collapse, many people will lose their jobs and homes. To be prepared for this, you should pay off your debt as soon as possible. Then if you lose your job, you don’t have to worry about how to pay your bills. The worst debt is credit card debt. With high interest rates, credit card debt can cost you dearly.
- Create a budget to track your income and expenses. Plan so that at the end of the month you have money left over to pay off your debt. Lower your expenses and find an additional job to generate more income.
- Create an amortization schedule. There are different methods. Be consistent with whatever method you choose.
- You can rank your debts from smallest to largest, regardless of interest, and pay off the smallest first. That creates a certain momentum.
- You can also use the “laddering” method. You pay off the debts with the highest interest rates first. This makes the most mathematical sense because you pay less interest in the long run.
- During an economic meltdown, your creditors probably have better things to do than take care of your debt. Currencies may be badly depreciated or completely useless. Maybe debt isn’t worth anything anymore.
Store the essentials
Store water for emergencies.
- Store at least 3.8 liters of water per day per person for at least three days to two weeks. Include pets as well.
- If you store water in your own containers, you should first wash them with dish soap and water and disinfect them with a solution of 1 teaspoon of chlorine bleach to 1 liter of water.
- To make water safe, you can boil it and run it through a clean piece of cloth, a kitchen towel, or a coffee filter.
Store groceries.
Your typical weekly shop will dictate what you should stock. You need durable foods that don’t need to be refrigerated and provide you with the nutrients you need to survive. If the worst comes to the worst, your diet will be very unfamiliar, but you’ll be glad when the time comes.
- Buy groceries that don’t need to be refrigerated or frozen so you don’t have to worry about power outages. These include canned foods, peanut butter, and beef jerky.
- Buy foods that are high in nutrients and easy to store, such as dried fruit, nuts, beans, canned meat and vegetables, and powdered milk.
- Don’t buy snacks that expire quickly. Prefer to buy pasta and pasta sauce, soups, sugar and honey for storage and baking, dried fruit, coffee, tea and hard candies.
- Store infant formula as needed.
- Also buy food for your pets if you have any.
- Place a can opener in your storage.
Plant yourself a garden.
So you always have fresh, nutritious food to supplement your emergency stock. In an economic crisis, the cost of living may rise sharply. Having a garden can save you money on groceries. You can also live as self-sufficient when there are food shortages due to the financial collapse.
- If you’re short on space, you can create a raised bed.
- If the soil in your garden is poor, you can purchase topsoil or topsoil. Add peat moss, composted manure, and plant fertilizer.
- Choose vegetables and herbs that are easy to grow, such as beans and peas, carrots, greens like lettuce, collards, spinach, and cabbage, potatoes and sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes, broccoli, berries, and melons.
Create an emergency kit.
This is a compilation of household supplies you will need in an emergency. You won’t be able to buy these items during an economic downturn, so it’s important to have them on hand. Store them in a container that is easy to carry in case of evacuation.
- Place car keys, blankets, matches, a multi-tool, maps, a flashlight, a battery or crank-operated radio, spare batteries, more matches, and a cell phone and charger in this box.
- Have disinfectant-ready.
- Photocopy important documents, such as a certificate of occupancy, the deed of ownership of your home, passports, birth certificates, and insurance papers.
- Make a list of emergency numbers and numbers for your relatives.
- Place baby items in the box, such as baby food, diapers, and bottles.
- Also think about things for your pet like food, collars, leashes and food bowls.
Think of a first aid kit and medication.
You can buy a set or put it together yourself. Make sure that all necessary utensils are available. Put personal items inside, like medicines for you and your relatives. Check the set regularly so that nothing is used up. Also check expiration dates and replace expired medication.
- Place a first aid guide in the first aid kit.
- Place dressings and bandages inside, such as band-aids of various sizes, sterile pads and gauze, adhesive plasters, elastic bandages, and sterile cotton balls.
- Also include accessories such as latex and non-latex gloves, ice packs, a thermometer, clips for splints and bandages, tweezers, scissors, and hand sanitizer.
- Medication for cuts and injuries, such as an antiseptic solution such as hydroperoxide, an antibiotic ointment, calamine solution for stings or poison ivy, hydrocortisone cream for itching, and an eyewash solution are also a good idea.
- Put contact lens solution in as needed.
- Also consider medications such as pain relievers and fever relievers such as aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen, antihistamines for allergy sufferers, decongestants for colds, anti-nausea medications, anti-diarrheal medications, antacids and laxatives.
Preserve food
Preserve meat and fish.
Pickle meat.
You use salt to kill microbes that are causing the meat to go bad. For every 45 kilograms of meat, you need 3.6 kilograms of salt, 60 ml of nitric acid, and 1.4 kilograms of sugar. Apply the mixture directly to the meat. For bacon, leave it on for seven days for every inch of thickness. For ham, leave the mixture on for a day and a half per pound. After curing, you can rinse off the salt under running water and let the meat dry.
- If the outside temperature rises above 4.5°C, you need to let the meat sit in the fridge or cold room.
- If it freezes outside, you can let the meat sit for another day.
Smoke meat.
When you smoke with wood, not only does the meat taste better, it also protects it from pests and spoilage. When you smoke with cold smoke, you smoke the meat without cooking it. Place the meat in the smoker, turn it on, and let it smoke for 10-20 hours. You can buy a smoker or build your own.
- Use aromatic wood to make your meat taste better, like hickory, mesquite, apple, cherry, pear, or cranberry-apple.
- Do not use wood from conifers, royals, nettles, maples, and holly.
Dehydrate meat.
You need a dehydrator for that. If you don’t have one, you can also use the oven and dehydrate the meat on a low heat for a few hours. Use an inexpensive cut of meat, like the brisket. Remove greasy parts. Cut small strips against the grain. Season the meat with salt and pepper and marinate in diluted barbecue sauce overnight, if desired. Place the pieces on a wire rack and place in the oven at 75°C for 2-6 hours.
- Line the oven with foil to make it easier to clean.
- Hold the oven door open with a wooden spoon to allow air to circulate.
- Freeze the meat before you cut it to make it easier to cut.
Preserve fruits and vegetables.
Preserve with the help of a water bath.
Find a deep pot with a lid, support that fits inside the pot, jars, lids, ties, and a jar server. Make sure that the jars and lids do not have any dents or cracks, because then the preservation will not work and the preserves will spoil. Heat the glasses in a water bath or in the dishwasher. Prepare your recipe and fill the hot glasses with food. Place the lids on the jars and submerge them in the boiling water. Make sure there is 1.5 to 3 centimeters of water above the glass. Leave the jars in the water bath for the length of time your recipe calls for. Take them out with a glass lifter and let them cool for 12 to 24 hours.
- The lids should neither curve up nor down when you press them down. If they bend or come off easily, then the jar wasn’t sealed properly.
Preserve with pressure.
Secure your home
Decide on a shelter.
Create two power sources.
How big should your shelter be?
Keep your shelter location secret.
Buy self-defense tools.
Such tools are not usually deadly. You can use it to repel an attack by eliminating the attacker. You can use everyday objects, like a baseball bat or keys. However, they are not as effective as items made for self-defense.
- You can spray pepper spray in the attacker’s face and have time to run away.
- Stun Guns electrocute your attacker.
- Tasers® deliver two small bursts of electricity at a distance of 4.5 meters.
- Sonic alarms are small objects that emit a high-pitched sound to let others know you’re in trouble.
Set up an alarm system.
Get a gun license and buy guns.
With weapons, you can defend yourself or hunt. With a crossbow, you can easily aim and shoot. She’s also quiet and doesn’t startle people or animals around you. A ranged rifle allows you to hunt from a distance. A machete will help you kill and fend off a dangerous animal. A slingshot is good for chasing small animals. Get a gun license. Buy yourself a gun. Also show others how to shoot, reload, covert fire, and cover fire in case of emergencies. Be sure to get your gun license if you need it for the gun you want.
- Store the right ammo and arrows for your weapons.
Get necessary tools.
The right tool decides whether you survive whatever disaster or not. Not only do you want to protect your home, you also want to be able to build anything you need.
- Buy bolt cutters so you can cut fences and wire.
- Picks, shovels, axes, chainsaws, and hacksaws allow you to dig, gather wood, and cut.
- Ropes and cords are important to build simple but also complex survival systems.
- Tarpaulins are important for ground cover and weather protection.
- You need nails and plywood to build and repair.
- Large garbage bags are suitable for collecting garbage.
- Gasoline is used as fuel or as an ignition aid.
- You can cook with a gas stove.
- You can catch fish with a fishing rod.