I guess I was insulated from a lot of that coming from a family that didn’t believe in paying anyone for something you could build/fix yourself, or couldn’t find someone to show you how it was done. Personally I’d be terrified not being “Handy” in the coming age ;~) Here’s some links to get anybody who’s interested started:
Here’s one for solar water heating
Here’s some for Solar thermal
Here’s some video of solar thermal in action
Thanks Diogenknees! I think many on this site will be interested in building one, including myself, and this makes it a lot easier.
Dean
You are very welcome, Knowledge is power, the Power of Knowledge is freedom.
Diogenknees
I’d like to take crack at your question. I do see your point about trying to be self sufficient and do things yourself (and in reality that’s what Im trying to do, at least for a lot of projects). But here’s my situation. I am a surgeon and have been in practice for several years. I am not a wealthy person (just finished paying off my school loans), but I do have some spare cash in the bank. That cash may lose its value in the near future. Why not deploy some of that cash into something usefull.
I work about 12 hours a day and much of the rest of my free time is spent with my wife and young children. I have devoted much of my spare time to learning how to garden over the past two years. My wife is only pseudo sold on the concepts of debt crisis and peak oil. The last thing Im going to do is start ripping holes in the side of our house to install a “solar heater”, especially since I really don’t know what Im doing. Im already the village crackpot as it is with my rants about peak oil.
i do envy your capabilities, but at the same time I have to pick my battles and my free time is very limited.
By the way, have you installed a solar air heater in your home or do you have experience with them? Do you feel that they make a significant contribution to heating a home or a building?
thanks for your input
Brian
[quote=kennyq]
Rector,
Thank you for the links. Great articles.[/quote]
+1 I agree! Thanks for sharing, Rector. The articles and some of the associated comments, was an interesting read!
Hello Rector, but some one posted this, that made me swing back to deflationist again. Please don’t laugh. What do you think?
The problem, . . ., that NO INFLATIONIST EVER ANSWERS when I put it out there is this - hyperinflation will destroy the Fed AND the special powers of the US dollar to impose a $1.2-$1.8 TRILLION hidden tax on the entire world each year. Further, the Fed is independent of the government and does not act as the government wishes. So tell me again exactly why the Fed would take a path that will result in its own destruction?
If you point to Argentina or Weimar Germany or Zimbabwe, I will point back and note that those central banks were controlled by the politicians directly. Here, the politicians are owned and controlled by the banks.
Hyperinflation destroys the lender so why would the Fed and its member banks choose to hyperinflate?
No one ever answers this question. No one ever explains why the Fed would commit suicide and destroy its most valuable tool, the dollar, when the Fed IS the most powerful financial entity on the planet. Everyone just says “Oh they’ll print” and never examines the unique position of the US Fed. Well if they were going to print, why haven’t they done it already? And don’t point at money numbers because almost all money indexes like M1 and M2 fail to account for credit. Mish has covered this endlessly, credit IS money and therefore has to be counted as such and we’ve seen the Fed print maybe $3 trillion while the global economy has imploded by nearly $60 trillion from what I can count (and I haven’t bothered to count in months).
In other words, the Fed is not trying to inflate at all. And people who point at the money the Fed prints and gives to the big banks are missing the picture. The Fed is not trying to reflate the economy despite public noise to that same idea. What the Fed is really doing is printing just enough to ensure that its member banks, particularly the NY banks, have enough cash on hand to squelch any run on their banks.
I’ve watched them playing this pattern for a while now. And why would they allow a deflationary collapse instead of a hyperinflationary collapse? Because the Fed believes that the politicians will take most of the blame for that AND that the Fed’s member banks, again particularly the NY banks, will ultimately end up holding all the real assets via defaults.
Normally if an asset defaults, the bank has lost that money and now is in the hole in terms of paying back depositors. But with the Fed printing just enough to ensure none of the banks can be destroyed by a run, that problem is eliminated, and the banks can foreclose on assets over time.
Ben’s not going to hyperinflate, ever. It ain’t happenin’, sir. He’s going to try to tread water as he is now to ensure maximum value returned to the banks. I believe he will fail but nonetheless we are three years into an endless deflationary spiral and he hasn’t printed yet. But the deflationists have been correct for 3 years now.
Tell me again when the hyperinflationists are going to be correct? I’ll tell you when - when the politicians take the Fed back into the government and out of the hands of the NY banks, and not one minute before.
I believe you have a great point Kenny. A very thoughtful one at that. Bravo!
Hi Kenny,
The short answer is that you are right - no central bank would choose to hyperinflate. But that’s not how hyperinflation occurs.
There’s a difference between hyperinflation and regular inflation occuring at a high rate. The latter is generally controlled by the central bank, while the former is caused by the people of the country. Specifically, a tipping-point percentage of the population starts to believe that the paper money has no value. They see paper FRNs as monopoly money. So the problem is not that THINGS get really expensive in terms of FRNs - it’s that the money is viewed as nearly worthless in relation to those real things. The THINGS still have their own, intrinsic value, and are perceived as more or less ‘valuable’ in terms of their scarcity and usefullness, just like now. But the people who want to sell those things are less and less interested in accepting FRNs for their goods and services.
The process will usually be quick, but not instantaneous. Since we have used paper FRNs for so long, it will create too much cognitive dissonance in our own minds for FRNs to go from having ‘some’ value to ‘no’ value in the blink of an eye. Seeing $100,000.00 of supposedly worthless FRNs will be a very difficult thing to process. For a while it seems like those FRNs should really be worth at least SOMETHING, right? Until it sinks in for everyone that they are really nothing more than worthless paper, there will be some some people that will still sell you their last loaf of bread, but only for a million bucks, just because they can’t quite let go of the dream that FRNs used to be worth something.
Hope this helps.
-Jerimiah
Gold is not increasing in value, US Dollars are decreasing in value. Gold holds a constant. value, fiat currencys are rising and falling around gold. The Fed Reserve has every intention of devaluing dollars. AS the dollar devalues, it will take more and more dollars to trade for an oz of gold OR it will take less gold to trade for a certain amount of dollars. We are seeing both defaltion and infaltion at the current time. Inflation of food raw materials and energy, but a deflation of housing, labor, electronics and STUFF. If you want to hold Gold or silver, hold the metal, not GLD ETF’s
Thank you for providing these stimulating and thought-provoking articles. I’m the executor for my late father’s small estate, the beneficiary being my mother. I shall be seeing him sooner than he thinks…!
Bets wishes
Dr Andrew Felthouse
My wife and I are ready to act and pull out of the banks when the time comes - except for our IRA’s. We are looking for a way to avoid the huge penalty. One option might be to set up a self-directed IRA and purchase raw land. The recent post suggesting a woodlot seems like a good idea. Does anyone have experience setting up a self-directed IRA or have comments on this idea?
Has anyone visited BullionVault and actually seen the gold in their vaults? I’ve visited their website and like the concept, but I’m a little nervous. Please share your experience. Thanks. CS
Dear Sir, Greetings to you. I am Chief Bala Banda, contacting you on behalf of my community (Takwadum community of Accra - Ghana , West African Region). The Takwadum community is a mining community, that are entitled to mining locally, the mineral resources in our land as permitted by law. In doing so, our community had some quantity of 22 karat GOLD DUST/ALLUVIAL, (AU METAL)for sale. Being the CHIEF OF-STAFF of the Palace, and the SECRETARY to the King, empowered me to carry out this function in view to seek your interest as our CUSTOMER / BUYER of our commodity (Gold Dust). Our prices are good and negotiable based on the quantity purchased. You are free to come to Ghana , West Africa and visit the mining sites before buying. Kindly get back me for FCO via email/telephone number below if you are interested to buy. Chief. Bala Banda Consultant For the; Takwadum community Accra Ghana. Tel;00233-278292833 Email: balabanda@gmail.com
Regarding debt. If you borrow a million dollars to buy ten million in assets, good move. If you borrow ten thousand dollars to buy a boat that is going to be worth $5,000 or a car, or a toy, bad move. Even houses are of questionable value. I own three. They have dropped in value a lot but I bought long ago. Borrowing money to buy things that have monthly fees (property insurance, gasoline, car insurance, property taxes) is all questionable. Debt drives prices up. Holding debt back drives prices down.
I have an off the grid cabin with 60watt solar panel. Costco sells this system for $300. What a deal. What a difference. No need for solar hot water if you can make a fire. Clothes can be washed in a bucket if you have soap and hot water, then line dry. Also, who needs clean clothes in a crisis, just wear them more and wash less. We are so used to being spoiled with all the debt to buy luxury items. Our real human needs are so simple.
My original wilderness off the grid cabin was only a 10’x10’ cabin with a loft. It worked fine and was easy to heat. I heated it with a 7,000 btu Coleman propane RV heater I got for free. Conservation is the key. Propane for cooking is a huge big deal. Wood for heating water is best. Don’t waste propane for heating large amounts of water. Wood is hot. For small heat like cooking, use propane. Big heat, use wood. An outside wood stove is cheap and easy for heating water or even cooking in a pinch.
Chris’ advice is right on. I have a Big Berkey water filter. It works great. I store my grains and have fun experimenting with food. Salsa can do a lot for bland recipes. The Mormon Latter Day Saints have some excellent long lasting foods and a cannery near me in Apple Valley MN. The public can use this facility and buy their grains and things that keep for 30 years like beans, wheat, powdered milk. They have it all figured out, stored in one gallon cans. The prices are very fair. Keep it simple. Living off the grid is a fascinating fun subject. Yuppie college specialized bank financed lifestyles are expensive. Our daughter just graduated from college. I don’t think it was worth the $160,000. It was probably a waste but the yuppies and elites require this for entry into their private club. A life of basics is a better deal.
Gold doubled four times in the 1970’s. I am expecting it to double four times again. It’s over half way there going from $250 to $1,400 already. It’s a 20 year cycle. Read Adam Hamilton, The Century of the Dow. It’s on line. Watch the Dow Gold ratio. One ounce of gold bought the Dow in 1980. It was 44 ounces of gold to buy the Dow in 1999. Now it is ten to one on the way to one to one. I expect gold to peak around $4,000 to $5,000 and ounce meeting the Dow at that price. I could be wrong. Do your own homework. What a great time to be alive. I can’t believe all the excellent off the grid products, including off the grid phones. We can live like Kings off the grid. Wow. These are the good old days. Protect yourself. Also, have a lot of fun.
I am so happy i found this site. Also, a little sad to think there are a lot of people that are thinking along similar lines as me. I am glad that many are more advanced in their thinking than i as it makes the task of preparing easier.
I have collected silver coins for many years. I like the way the look and feel.I have gold coins as well. Currently i live out of the country and only keep several oz of gold with me, but my parents and my stash are in the U.S.A. They are getting old and i worry about them.
I worry that their nest egg will be wiped out when they need it most, so i keep a lot of Silver with them. They have camping equipment and generators, but that is only good for 3 weeks. So i guess i need to make sure they have some more basics. Solar panels and water purification as well as a shallow well. Good news is their community is very tight with a lot of land and big gardens. For years i have refused to give financial advise to my parents, because i would feel terrible if it went the wrong way. Now i am worried if they do not move some of their assets into metals it would be bad for them.
So the problem is, which is better for them to start purchasing, Gold or silver. Silver is historically cheap compared to gold, but it has run up faster this year than gold. Also, I have been wondering about the value of silver, and where it might go. I understand gold, but silver is a little different animal. Because it is a heavily used material in electronics and industry, what will happen to the price when the industrial demand drops, because no one buys the products. Will there be sufficient demand for it to be used as currency to maintain is store of value?
Any input is appreciated. I will make sure my parents watch the crash course and give it to their friends and neighbors.
Has anyone used GoldCore.com? They look toi have a good solution but being at a distance from the physical asset is the only concern. Any thoughts?
I read a lot of doom and gloom threads. I subscribe to several investment letters. Every one, without exception, believes we are unable to pay our debt as a nation. Only Obama has a budget that projects a non default outcome but that requires a good deal of remarkable good fortune for the economy (as in never before seen growth) and almost a belief in unicorns. I wonder if we should not consider what everyone of my sources (without exception) says will not be done: namely default, declare to dollar to be worth less. This has been done by smaller countries but never to my knowledge by the reserve currency.
I realize this would be huge but since no one has been able to produce a real plan to pull us out of our debt spiral why not explore the options. Would a controlled default not be superior in outcome for most Americans than the deflationary/hyperinflationary scenario we now face? I am just asking.
Well, is the point to have cash out of the house? You’d end up having to pay all this interest on the money you took, plus closing costs. I don’t see the benefit unless you’ve got some investment in mind that will beat your mortgage interest and the closing costs. If that’s your residence, that’s really betting the farm on something so you better be sure.
It would make sense if you were going to use the money to pay off credit cards. Just rip them up after and don’t use them again.
If the point is to make it so the house is less of an apparent target with respect to avoiding lawsuit-happy people who comb public records for people with equity to target, you could form an anonymous LLC in New Mexico and mortgage your own house to your own LLC. But only bother with that if your house is worth a lot. Probably the paperwork and taxes you will have to file will make it a headache, maybe more headache than it’s worth.
If your profession makes you likely to incur lawsuits (construction contractor, doctor, etc.) then deed the house to your spouse, or into an LLC or land trust. Just get it out of your name but still control it.
I believe that the role of insurance in financial planning is primarily to protect wealth while that of mutual funds is to create wealth. The basic principles of financial planning also say that the need for protection decreases as wealth increases and that is why it may not be a cost effective idea for investors to opt for products that combine protection with long term wealth creation. In addition, investing in mutual funds as a medium of wealth creation offer investors benefits of lower cost, transparency and flexibility as compared to investment linked insurance plans. Rent A Car Bacau