Super nerd confession – I'm a little bit of a prepper.
I love post-apocalyptic movies where our heroine breaks out of a dystopian society to do her own thing (she never loads the dishwasher or does laundry in these movies. Never. Discuss.)
I used to spend a lot of time thinking about what would happen if there were some major disaster and planning accordingly.
And I think some of that is AWESOME. After all, being in favor of being unprepared is a hard case to make, especially now that we live in coastal Florida right where hurricanes are a real possibility.
But I think a disaster is not the only thing a true prepper should prepare for.
What if society doesn't collapse? Or what if it sort of half collapses, but you still have to pay taxes and your mortgage and stuff?
So I would argue in addition for preparing for the end of the world as we know it, we have a responsibility to also prepare for the continuation of the world basically as we know it now. It's less exciting, and there's less of an excuse to buy cool Zombie Apocalypse gear, but let's face it, most of the powers that be are going to use their considerable pull to keep things ticking along.
Which brings us to the topic of debt.
I have a feeling there are a lot of preppers out there who have bought their freeze-dried food, first aid supplies, and giant guns on credit with the assumption being that society will collapse and they won't ever have to pay for those toys.
Good luck with that.
It's a lot more likely that those supplies will expire unused and the debt will stick around. So I suggest, pay off the debt.
I would further suggest that financial preparedness is one of the highest forms of disaster preparedness.
Paying off your debt means in the event of a disaster you are more resilient. You can get by on a smaller salary. You can last longer if you lose your job.
So yeah, sure, absolutely, learn skills, stash supplies, and plan out your bug out route.
But also stash cash, pay off debt, and plan your “something crappy happened and I still have to pay bills” scenario as well.
Prepare for the end, but prepare for the continuation as well, as that's honestly the more likely outcome.
And may the odds be ever in your favor. 🙂
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