Tag Archives: lifestyle planning

Episode-809- Passion, Persistence and Planning Always Beat Paranoia

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Modern Survival| 21 Comments
Episode-809- Passion, Persistence and Planning Always Beat Paranoia [ 49:37 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you asked me to sum up my view of prepping in some plucky marketing way, I would say it comes down to Three P’s

  • Passion
  • Persistence
  • Planning

Unfortunately many people in the prepper world have a fourth P that over rides their entire life, paranoia. I have been told that you are not paranoid if the thing you fear is a legitimate threat. I don’t fully agree, I mean being hit by a car is a legitimate threat but living in fear of roads or seeing every car as “trying to run you over” is indeed living in a paranoid state. Sure the danger exists but the disconnect is between the danger’s true reality and the perceived danger in the individuals mind.

Join Me Today As I Discuss…

  • What exactly is a healthy fear vs. a paranoid state
  • A perfect example of paranoia the NDAA as reported vs. as written
  • My solutions to Paranoia
    • Planning
      • Your lifestyle
      • Your future
      • Your property
      • Your redundancy
    • Passion
      • For Life
      • For Liberty
      • For Your Family
      • For Your “Work”
      • For The Future
    • Persistence
      • Failure is only a lesson
      • Nothing worth much is easy
      • Preparedness is a lifestyle not something you “do”
      • How you think is more important than what you know
      • What you know is more important than what you have
      • What you have is more important than what you don’t have
      • Everything is interconnected

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

 

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Episode-807- What We Can Expect in 2012

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Modern Survival| 28 Comments
Episode-807- What We Can Expect in 2012 [ 1:09:59 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
I Don't Have a Crystal Ball, But Let's Look at the Future Anyway

I Don't Have a Crystal Ball, But Let's Look at the Future Anyway

I will be the first to tell you my “predictions” if you wish to call them such are far more long term then a year in most instances.  I do figure though that now is a good time to talk about the coming year of 2012 and what we can and should expect to see happening over the next year.

My hope today is not really to do a modern Nostradamus impersonation, it is more to help you look into the coming year with both caution and optimism.

2012 has a lot of nonsense attached to it as “the end of the world” and while most people don’t believe that, it has had an effect.  Many people have been open to their vulnerabilities by the hype around 2012 for the last few years.  Many in the preparedness space are poised to capitalize on this manufactured paranoia.

My hope is today’s show will put some perspective into this nonsense and lead you to the logical conclusion, no one really knows what is going to happen but working for a better future is the best course of action.

Join Me Today as we Discuss…

  • “The most important election in history” – meh not really
  • Another almost government shut down a month before the election
  • Gingrich looses in Iowa and begins a terminal spiral
  • Iran becomes the “most dangerous threat” on the news and in debates
  • More US Cities and Municipalities go into receivership (bankruptcy)
  • Downward class migration continues but the message is “the economy is improving”
  • Unemployment will drop, people will still have less money
  • Urban farming will continue to grow
  • More big money pours into agricultural and timber land
  • Big Ag companies will change their marketing (environmentally friendly)
  • The world will not end – I promise!

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

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Episode-797- Avoiding Prepper Burn Out

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Modern Survival| 40 Comments
Episode-797- Avoiding Prepper Burn Out [ 1:03:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have received a ton of comments and emails lately with the term “prepper burn out”, used in them.   The reality is much of this is seasonal, I am now going into my fourth Christmas season producing this show and I can tell you, “burn out” for many is part of the good old fashioned “winter blues”.  Hell the shorter days, cold nights and dampness make you down enough, thinking about the threats out there sure as hell doesn’t make things any brighter.

Yet the issue is real, it is also why I spend a ton of time on subjects such as gardening, permaculture, health, cooking, etc.  Some criticize me for this, stating stupid nonsense such as “today I REALLY prepared unlike yourself”.  Such fools probably think listening to some shock jock ramble on about the new world order while cleaning a gun they never fired is “really prepping”.

So today I am going to go over some of my favorite positive aspects of prepping and how they can be done for little to no money.  Because I believe this is another cause of “burn out”, a person preps to a level they financially can, they know what else they should do but can’t do it now due to fiscal reasons.  Being reminded about the hole in their energy redundancy doesn’t really help them on a daily basis.

Join me today to discuss…

  • Why people burn out
    • Expense
    • Seasonal issues
    • Lack of focus on the positive
    • Fear (the awakened know where they are weakest)
    • Lack of community
    • Making stupid and expensive decisions early on
  • Fast cheap crisis prepping to avoid fear
    • Beans, rice, flour, wheat and some hand warmers on clearance
    • Black out kit
    • Bug out kit and documentation package
    • Copy canning (especially for meat early on)
    • One small generator, two batteries and an inverter
    • 25 gallons of stabilized gasoline
    • One small window unit AC
    • One or two portable indoor safe heaters
    • Cache some of your extra “junk”
  • The aspects I prefer to focus on daily
    • Permaculture and gardening
    • Skill set improvement
    • Cooking (yes it is a survival skill)
    • Herbology
    • Foraging
    • Scrounging
    • Community building
    • Air gun and soft air shooting (cheap/free)
    • Functional fitness (take a walk)
    • Building a business
    • Increasing knowledge
    • Finding joy in your life

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

Free eBooks I mentioned today from the National Academies Press (sign up to get the free PDFs)

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

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Episode-770- Modern Financial Survival

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Modern Survival| 43 Comments
Episode-770- Modern Financial Survival [ 1:15:12 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Yesterday I stated that we are about to in effect go into the middle of a financial war.  I am not sure the analogy was fully understood it wasn’t so much about fighting the battle but more about the way that even if good is the end result how many can be harmed in the process.

This resulted in a litany of people trying to nit pick about the justification for WWII, why the US prospered after the war, etc.   Such people are literalists that don’t comprehend analogies and tell “ants are socialists”, when you tell them the ant and grasshopper story.

Today I will revisit a few things people took exception to (very briefly) and will spend most of the show outlining my “modern financial survival guide” for the coming future.

Join Me Today as We Discuss…

  • Is the Catholic Church calling for a “World Bank” and global tax or not
  • What exactly do I mean by a financial war
  • Why do I believe so emphatically that I am right about the coming collapse
  • What I think you need to do to be financially prepared for the future
    • Get rid of debt (especially floating rate debt)
    • Try to save at least 20% of your income (6 months security)
    • Know your exit points for every investment
    • If you are in stocks by only the best companies
    • Do not hold any and I mean any long term bonds
    • Keep an eye on TIPS Bond Yields
    • Remember most “experts” on TV are actually idiots
    • Develop your local community
    • Don’t bet on any government money (specifically @ 100%)
    • Consider land as the best investment (not houses)
    • Increase your financial IQ daily – start with vocabulary
    • Focus on gaining some % of self sufficiency with the 5 needs
    • Try to be as “cash rich” as possible
    • Don’t act in fear, think before you do anything
    • Do not listen to conventional wisdom during unconventional times
    • Remember the prepared can always profit and prosper

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air

 

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Episode-766- Jacob Lund Fisker from Early Retirement Extreme

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Modern Survival| 28 Comments
Episode-766- Jacob Lund Fisker from Early Retirement Extreme [ 1:10:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jacob Lund Fisker is the author of Early Retirement Extreme, he retired at 33 with enough investments to never need to work again.  He is from Denmark but has lived in the US since 2004

In his prior life he was a theoretical astrophysicist, but got tired of the careerism and wasn’t inspired by the prospects of doing the same thing day after day for the rest of his life.

He now self-identifies himself as “a writer”.  When he was in grad school, he discovered peak oil (in 2001, before it was cool) together with anticonsumerism and finance. So he started saving as much as he could to avoid “getting mortgaged” while at the same time prepping for TEOTAWKI.

Later it just became a lifestyle (he considers himself a “recovering doomer”) and somewhere along the way he discovered that he could use the money he had saved to buy his first house in cash to supply himself with a living income for the next, oh say, 300 years. The rest, as they say, is history.

Join us Today as we Discuss…

  • How different generations define “retirement”
    • The GI Generation
    • The Boomers
    • Gen X
  • What is a climax state in nature and how it applies to the modern economy
  • How complex systems break down and need to be rebuilt
  • Why most people should focus more on savings than increasing income
  • How 3% ROI can yield a full retirement with only 5 years of savings
  • Getting out of consumer mentality (problems equal products)
  • Why modern specialists are more replaceable than an “uneducated” farm hand
  • The value of leaning to cook
  • Turning your oven into a grill – you will probably go “DUH!” when you hear this
  • Living a great life below the “poverty level”

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

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Episode-752- Courtney Clay on Unschooling

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Modern Survival| 45 Comments
Episode-752- Courtney Clay on Unschooling [ 1:01:50 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Courtney and Her Son Cedar

Courtney Clay was “unschooled” for her entire childhood, and received great benefit from this method of self-directed learning.  Now 29 years old she is raising a  2-year-old son of her own.

She is also enthusiastic about sustainability, nature-based community, self-sufficiency, enjoying wild food and all of nature’s healthy, free gifts, and growing and preparing my own nourishing food.

When asked about herself Courtney puts it this way,

“I am a mother, adventurer, and lover of life. I am passionate about my family, community, infinite sustainability, optimal nourishment, and finding truth, empowerment and joy in all my life experiences”.

She also runs an awesome blog called Ecstatic Mothering that can be found at http://chocotrixie.blogspot.com where she discusses alternatives for bring u children in a cookie cutter world where despite what we are told, one size certainly does not fit all.

Join Us Today As We Discuss…

  • Do we need to force children to learn or will they just do it if we let them?
  • How do unschoolers learn fundamentals with out traditional structure?
  • Do unschoolers ever go to college?
  • How do unschoolers/homeschoolers develop a social life?
  • Is school really a way to learn about socializing in the “real world”?
  • Do children institutionalize parents in old age because that is what they were taught?
  • What is the difference in an education and graduation?
  • Are we kidding ourselves with the “everyone needs college” mantra?
  • Have we lost the “community teaching” of our ancestors?
  • What can we learn about learning from “primitive” peoples?

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

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Episode-751- Common Sense vs. Consumerism

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Modern Survival| 23 Comments
Episode-751- Common Sense vs. Consumerism [ 58:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today I wanted to take a moment to take a look at the concept of consumerism and how it directly conflicts with the preparedness lifestyle.  Now don’t get me wrong I am a capitalist libertarian, I believe in the free market but I also believe in making informed consumer decisions.

Consumerism is the opposite of that, consumerism is a heard mentality where providers and producers spend time competing for existing market share and replacing products that are still functional.  An informed consumer market requires producers and providers to innovate and create better longer lasting products and services.

Join me today as I discuss…

  • Early Retirement Extreme – a book that got me thinking this way
    • Are we in a “climax stage” as in Permaculture
    • Are companies innovating or competing in existing markets
    • Working Man v. Salary Man v. Business Man v. Renaissance Man
  • How our grandparents evaluated a purchase of a product
    • Do I need it
    • Does anything I have fill the role now
    • How long will it last
    • What will it do for me and my family
    • How long must I work to pay for it
    • If I don’t buy it what difference will it really make
  • How companies market products today
    • Can we create a fad/cult following around it
    • What existing market share can we capture with it
    • Can we build a market to sell subsequent products to
    • Is it a consumable or designed to fail
    • How cheaply can we manufacture it
    • Can we outsource most of the work
    • Will it last long enough to avoid returns
    • Can we sell it for less than the competition
    • Or can we justify a premium at little to no internal cost
  • How do we avoid the consumerist trap and still have fun and cool stuff
    • Avoiding debt solves most of the problems
    • Have a 48 hour waiting period on major purchases
    • Ask the questions our grandparents did

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

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Episode-747- One Nation Filled With Ants

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Modern Survival| 44 Comments
Episode-747- One Nation Filled With Ants [ 1:05:16 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Can America Become One Full of Ants Once Again?

Can America Become One Full of Ants Once Again?

We had a blast at the Denver Self Reliance Expo and can’t wait to meet more of you guys at the Salt Lake City Expo coming up on the 7th and 8th of October.   During the show we released our new T-Shirts, the back of which have a flag where all the stars are replaced with ants, under the flag is the slogan, “One Nation Filled with Ants”.  You can see an example of this here.

We also had this message on our banner at the booth.  I would say the reactions people had to it could be broken down into three groups.

  1. About 50% of the people got it, instantly.
  2. About 25% got it when asked, “Remember the story of “The Grasshopper and the Ant”.
  3. About 25% had never even heard of the Grasshopper and the Ant”

The last group really shocked me, I simply could not imagine that 25% of people in general let alone 25% at a prepper expo would not be familiar with the old fable.  Overall this is what inspired today’s show.

Join me Today as we Discuss…

  • A reminder of the old fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper
  • How we became one nation full of grasshoppers
  • Are we turning a corner if so in which direction
  • Can a divided nation be full of ants
  • Is belief in America belief in government or the fed
  • If we come out better than we are now, is it worth the pain
  • What is “winter in July” and how long can it last
  • What can we personally due to be prepared to rebuild
  • Opting out vs. opting out of the expectation of others
  • How we really can become “One Nation, Filled With Ants”, yet again

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

 

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Episode-744- Building a Business to Create Economic Freedom

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Modern Survival| 37 Comments
Episode-744- Building a Business to Create Economic Freedom [ 1:17:51 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For the last three years all talk in regard to employment and business has been pretty bad.  Yet in the depths of this recession many businesses are thriving.  These include mega corps, small businesses and what I consider “micro businesses”.

To me a “micro business” is a one or two man show.  Such businesses can often end up being nothing more than a hobby unless they are built by the owner with the same passion Henry Ford put into the Model T.  Yet for those who really commit, those who really build with unyielding passion there has never been a time better than now to create economic freedom.

In our community many people want more freedom, perhaps a little homestead and most of all the ability to focus on what really matters, their families and communities.  This is also the real world though and we have to “keep a roof over head and food on the table”.  Join me today as I discuss how building a business can create the freedom to really live the way you choose and above all grant you geographic freedom.

Join Me Today As I Discuss…

  • Why the time is now better than any other
  • Why no matter your business the web is key
  • Social media is simply becoming communications
  • The death of the “gate keepers”
  • The commitment required
  • Why “doing what you love” works
  • Why “doing what you know” also works
  • Why the system is more important than the subject
  • Why poverty is NOT a virtue
  • Three things you need to know about your audience
    • Who are they
    • What do they want
    • How do they want it
  • What your audience most wants today
    • Affinity
    • Authenticity
    • Action Items
  • All products can be classified as one of two types
    • Needed
    • Wanted (focus on these)
  • The golden trifecta of product marketing
    • Entertaining
    • Life Changing
    • Profit Yielding

Additional Resources for Today’s Show

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

 

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Episode-739- Changing The Way We Help Children Learn

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Modern Survival| 78 Comments
Episode-739- Changing The Way We Help Children Learn [ 1:16:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I was originally going to call this “changing the way we teach our children”, but when I went to type that, I realized it missed the entire point.   To me this is one of the biggest problems of the modern education system we teach instead of encouraging learning.

When you teach you “push” information when you encourage a person to learn you are “pulled” by them to learn more.  Have you ever wondered about this fact…

No person asks questions that start with why, what and how more than a child.

Now given that is the case why do kids always end up bored in school, how do they get from wanting to know the why of everything to bored apathetic teens in just a few years of school?  Can we really blame them when the results of our system are so uniform?

Today’s episode was inspired by a comment in response to the segment I did yesterday on “unschooling”.  Unschooling is where children are largely self directed in their learning and study what they are most interested in.  Most of the feedback was great but one commenter left the following comment…

“Dear Jack,

Your remarks on ”One step beyond homeschooling – unschooling” are completely wrong and disturbing, not that expected you to be perfect.

Let the ”children discover what they like” is nothing more than parents skipping their parenting responsibility to educate their children and a petty excuse.

Parents have the responsibility to orientate their children because they do have life experience, in contrast the Children have almost no experience and lots of romanticism … how does the child discover what he wants? By analyzing his own ignorance ?

Another problem is that it opens the door for children to escape reality by studying ”cool”, but ultimately irrelevant subjects, in order to escape their petty lives. This going to create a lot of little Nicolo Machiavelli, who become philosophers because their lives sucked.

In short : Unschooling is a petty excuse for parents to escape their responsibility, children do not have not enough life experience or stability to make important life decisions and this will certainly result in children escaping reality in BS studies, just like the example of your article studying ”exo-geology”.”

I find this view very myopic and very limiting, today’s show explains why and expands on the concept of putting people (kids are PEOPLE) in charge of their own learning.

Resources for Today’s Show

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

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