patrick.net

Have no debt, but that is a bit overstated as you have some time. If worse comes to worse we can bunk with the Wogster.

EastCoastBubbleBoy says

But (mostly as an academic exercise) if things do start to really go downhill quickly. What steps should one be making now? Gold? Food? Beer? A cabin in the woods? Would it even matter at that point?

Economic disasters are fairly frequent, so you can learn from watching what people actually do in them.

I was just in Argentina, where pretty much everyone with dollars in the bank had them confiscated by the government after their economic collapse, and the previous promise that the Argentine peso would be held at 1:1 with the US dollar was also broken. Laughably so, now that there are 14 pesos to the dollar.

So what did people in Argentina do? Those are the kind of things you could do.

They put dollars in banks in Uruguay, just over the border. Perhaps illegally, but out of reach of their own thuggish government.
They owned rental property, and used AirBnB to make income from foreigners.
They moved to Spain or other places where the economy was more stable.

Food was not actually a problem there, as far as I could tell.

EastCoastBubbleBoy says

Man I've got to stop reading all this bearish news... it's coloring my outlook

Agree. It caused me to miss the bottom such that I am now doubly fucked. Sad thing is, there will be more downturns, but how do you know if the people you listen to actually know what they are talking about, and how do you know they just arent a bunch of clueless dipshits like they are on zerohedge?

JasonM says: "clueless dipshits"

Damn! You've discovered the identify of everyone on Patnet.

Ironman says

It's only money.... You can't take it with you...

Keep that in mind and don't look inside my casket.

Ironman says

Just saw this poll over on Yahoo... Are they bearish?

No, the folks who hover on Yahoo are idiots, often confused with Bearish people.

Economic disasters are fairly frequent, so you can learn from watching what people actually do in them.

Good point.History often repeats itself.

They put dollars in banks in Uruguay, just over the border. Perhaps illegally, but out of reach of their own thuggish government.

They owned rental property, and used AirBnB to make income from foreigners.

They moved to Spain or other places where the economy was more stable.

I'd love to own rental property... but I missed the boat on that for now (at least in my general area). Parking some money overseas might not hurt (although it's not like I'm swimming in cash). Moving out of country would be the nuclear option. Not exactly on my radar screen. If it ever gets that bad, I suppose people will get creative and do what they need to do to carry on.

if you really believe the collapse stuff, i'm talking about the kind where you need to burn wood to keep warm.. you have to ask yourself: do you really want to survive in that world?