cash for crashes

CASH FOR CRASHES
In honor of the hastily extended ( after all, it was only another three billion, not even worthy of most of the Congressmen to wake up from their naps ) Cash For Clunkers program, today’s article is titled Cash For Crashes. Of course, it has nothing to do with auto collisions, it was just a witty title that I pulled out of my butt with even less thought than aforementioned politicians. As part of my More For Less program to my loyal minions ( come on, guys-two friggin subscribers to the Pay-Pal monthly dollar donation notification mailing list? E-mail me your address pronto so I can budget my new jobless income- I only need every single reader to apply! ) I figure I’ll include more witty titles at no extra charge. And since income is dropping slightly even as subscribers increase, this is quite a bargain. It does go without saying that those who already generously donated are instructed to NOT send more.
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You need cash for the crash. You know, the one we are in the middle of. I hate to shatter your illusions, but a slow down in the rate of collapse does not constitute a recovery. As far as the market numbers, as far as I’m concerned they are all Plunge Protection Team manipulated. Our economy is driven by growth, which is driven by surplus credit which is possible only through surplus energy. Debt growth requires interest payments which is a growing cost that needs extra economic growth which is impossible in a resource depletion environment. Energy inputs have been slowing eight percent a year for the last two and a half years. A recovery is pure myth, right alongside Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. I’m glad we got that out of the way. As with global warming scientists, if enough people claim we are in a Depression, than it must be true, right? And while I can’t say a hyper-inflation future is absolutely guaranteed, I would say with a high degree of certainty that the probability is damn high. So, while you need cash ahead, you don’t want to see it become worthless overnight as the bankers devalue it 40% during a bank holiday ( as your favorite Communist FDR did with gold 75 years ago ).
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I can also almost guarantee that your job will be one of the crashes casualties. You might never lose it, but eventually it will stop paying its current level of wages. Inflation will rage ahead of cost of living adjustments. Your hours will be cut ( impossible? Look at Social security for the ill adjusted COLA, and California with its 15% pay cuts through forced days off, and that is during the mild start of this crash ). At the ass end of it, pay ceases altogether and you are lucky to get three hots and a cot ( for instance, as cops or soldiers are absorbed into local warlords armies ). You will need cash on hand for that period of time when civilization is still limping along but your standard of living is in free fall. Cash to keep food on the table and gas in the car to keep going to work. As in the Soviet collapse, your pay might be in arrears six months, but you keep going to work in the vain hope at least partial pay will be forthcoming. Cash for last minute desperate moves such as finally buying junk land or a trailer or taking the trip to live with Aunt Gertrude three states away. Cash for last minute trips to the grain store, as wheat rust hits the US and you try to act before rationing and shortages start. Cash for when your kids move back home and your grocery bills double. Cash for when the only way to buy anything you need is on the black market ( such as meat or cooking oil after Obammies Health Care Bubble regulates what you can eat, an early form of rationing ). Cash to pay the bills one more month so you don’t have to sell your crap for pennies on the dollar ( remember, sell now to beat the rush ).
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Money in the bank is a target for closures, holidays, and inflation. Money at home can be burned or stolen ( if you ain’t living in a junk trailer, you are screaming an invitation to crack heads to jack your stuff- not that a lack of conspicuous wealth will stop them, it is just a bit of extra insurance ). Money under the mattress is also subject to inflation. Gold is the money under the mattress that will never lose its buying power. It is not an investment in anything other than peace of mind. Short term, gold never makes you money. Long term, paper never retains any of its value. You need just enough cash to scrape by on in emergencies, but never enough to acutely hurt you when the economy collapses. How much is enough is something only you can answer. If you have apartment rent or mortgage payments and a car payment ( cash for clunkers was a wonderful way to get a lot of suckers to get back into debt to get five more miles to the gallon-give me my four miles to the gallon paid for truck any day, because I can drive less but they can’t stop making payments and keep the car ) you need a lot of emergency cash. If you have no bills, you just need food money. I have my land payment, but can move fifteen miles down the road ( the truck gas tank is topped off every trip ) to the paid for lot if I need to. The lot now is just so I can live a lot closer to work. But in a dire emergency I can drop my bills to just food money, and in the winter $50 a month propane. This assumes no eating out of food storage, no touching the stored propane.
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Which is basically my point today. The less obligations you have, the less cash you need to have saved. I panic if my saving fall under $1200. But I also find a way to spend anything over that. I have twelve months of living expenses, and feel comfortable with that. Granted, it would be a lean and uncomfortable year. But it would do. And then I would have my silver. After that I would have my storage items. I would have to dodge Johnny Law if the Evil One Who Sits At Lucifer’s Throne raised a stink about child support not being paid ( my God, you would have thought my being late with $300-the first non payment in fifteen years-last summer when I moved was the end of the world to her ). My cash does not cover that bill. If I wanted to save up all that I would just pay the damn obligation off ahead of time. It isn’t the ideal situation, but one I can live with. I just don’t feel comfortable holding more, because I fear about the potential loss if I hoard more. If I was living in town in a trailer park, the cheapest way to live in most cases on grid, I would be lucky to have a bare bones three month cash reserve. Living like a bum means you need a lot less cash to survive a lot longer. Remember, it is surviving a collapse. Not surviving any dip in your middle class lifestyle.
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