[survive]

I have friends of mine that have used up their entire retirement saving plans - Canadian term (Not sure what you call them in the US)

Anyway, they believe that when everything collapses, there WON'T be an investment structure left, so for this reason, they cleaned out their pension/ retirement accounts and have revamped their homestead to be a self sufficient as possible.

They have solar to run the well pump. Put in a solar water heater. They've got wood stoves to heat the place. Added a greenhouse to the side of the house: growing food in spring and fro heating the house in winter.

There are plans to build some special wall, leaving a small cavity between it and the out side bricks, this creates a bit of a solar warmed air pocket to minimize the heat loss through the walls in the winter.

They've stored enough food to feed an army.

There are still plans for a small pond. etc etc

Does anyone else think that there will be pensions or retirement funds left?
Or are you using them to prepare too?

 

[outfield]

How old are your friends?

 

[Hick Industries]

Right out of college, I set a personal goal to save enough money to buy a small farm and grow all of my own food. It's not that my employer did not offer me a generous retirement plan, he did and I have made the most of it. But deep down I did not trust what I was offered to come true.

25 years later I had saved enough by investing heavily in growth mutual funds and bonds. I sold them, all of them, 4 years ago at bought a small ranch in the Ozarks. I am still working and still saving. But as soon as I can I plan to act just like your friend.

Perhaps the promises and a comfortable retirement will still happen. Great, more fishing for me. But perhaps not. Mean time I will continue my efforts to build my own future.

 

[survive]

How old are your friends?

Around 50 years old

 

[dothedew]

I think that your friends might be right. After I retire, 5 years to go, I will be doing the same thing. I feel that when I retire and be self supporting, I won't have a need for an extra income, or some part time job to make ends meet. Considering that my income will be split in half, I should be able to take care of my basic needs without having to work, the purpose of retirement. The biggest expense that we all have is the payments on a home or land, so the key to retirement is to have you place paid for.

 

[Moccasin]

People have been insisting everything will collapse, and there's no point in saving for old age / building up a retirement fund, for years. Those who took that position 40-50 years ago are now eking by on Social Security or unable to retire at all, they have to keep working. I worry your friends, if they can't pay property or other taxes in their old age, may wind up losing the homestead they've invested everything in.

Survivalism is trying to be prepared for EVERYthing. Including that the world DOESN'T fall apart and life continues as it has been.

 

[MikeK]

For those who spent their retirement on their homestead, I strongly suggest developing some sort of cottage industry that they can run from home. The SHTF can come in many forms. There are a lot of situations where they're still going to need some form of income. Especially as they get too old to work their land.

 

[Bullets~n~Beans]

I have three retirement plans in place. Plan one is for the lifetime steady income. Plan two is to pay for the land with cabin. Both together are considerable. Plan three is the preps if I don't have to use them before I retire in which case plan one and two are probably worthless.

 

[Ramona M. Faunce]

My husband and I have spent most of our $ on our homestead. We have 20 acres, two wells, two ponds and one year round creek.

My husband had 3 heart attacks by the time he was 45 and had to go out on dissability. So the majority of our income is from my grocery store job.

With that income we have paid off two personal cars and all the credit cards and homestead. We saved $ and bought a new 4 X 4 to haul stuff around the property. We will have that paid off in 3 years.

But we are set up with gardens and will be putting up 2 bee hives this year. Lost my hive last winter. So, next year I am going to 2 hives.

I will be quiting work when the truck is paid off and start raising rabbits and chickens for meat. Hubby can't care for animals anymore.

We are going more permaculture this year and hopefully expand on it every year. I am the one that does the garden work so I have to be careful on how big I get.

We do have a wood stove. But we don't use it because hubby cann't carry wood into the house and I am busy with the outside chores. But when I retire I will be burning all the wood I have been collecting for this purpose.

I feel better knowing that I can feed, shelter and heat my home/family then have $ to blow in the future. I would love to get a way from money all together and take the power away form the elite.

 

[eqgirl]

My husband has severe heart disease but is currently still able to work 1 heart attack and a triple bypass before he was 50. My youngest son 21 is severely autistic. Our children and grandchildren currently live with us. We are trying to budget to various things to become more self sufficent. Things like raised beds, fruit trees, raspberry, grapes are in my planning. Adding on to the house is also going to have to happen most likely. Mothers health is fairly good dad passed this April. DH parents are both gone.

With dh health most of the thing that need to be done are going to have to be acomplished by me and our adult children with the dh to supply the knowledge as needed. So yes our shtf planning defiently includes retirement and looking at making things as workable as possible as our age and health allows. Atm we still are putting funds into a retirement plan the company dh works for matches those funds so we hope for the best.

Really with everyone here and the dh health and childrens jobloss we are in a shtf of very own. Thing are looking up starting Monday we'll have 3 adults in the house employed full time! This hopefully will help out quite a bit leaving 2 able adults home to take care of the gkids and my mother who was recently injured so now I'm divided between her house and ours.

 

[Ramona M. Faunce]

eggirl: Sure looks like the shtf at your home. But it also looks like you are very lucky to have as much family around you as you do.

Now you guys will develope a closer relationship or blow eachother away. This is a good trial time for the future that may be comming our way.

Good luck.

 

[Michigan_RN]

I put a huge amount into my retirement prepping. First I max out my 403b to the IRS allotment and gain the matching contribution. I drop cash in the Roth. I then slip 15% off the top on a few Vanguards and a Fidelity along with other assorted investments (gold is not an investment, it is an offset against inflation only. It has never gone up in value.) I then put in another 10% into semi-liquid fungible accounts.

With whatever is left over I pay bills, buy toys, girls, and travel. I expect to be able to enjoy the finer luxuries that life has to offer including well tailored clothing, extensive cultural travel, fine wines and cuisine for my entire retired life, 30-years from now.

So, do I prep? Certainly. I have a BOL on Portage Lake in Onekama, enough food for over eight months, enough water for about six months, enough filtration/treatment odds and ends to last indefinitely, a few means of protection, and an extensive classic book collection. :thumb:

Don’t kid yourself, you are far more likely to die in an assisted living community with a stool softener up your butt than in a bad B-rated TEOTWAWKI movie script.

But just like I rarely run with scissors, I also follow the Boy Scout code of being prepared... even if I doubt it will ever be used.
:thumb:

 

[IceFire]

Since I've seen our 401K's "tanking", I know what I wanted to do. I watched, and waited until the investments hit a "high" (Did you miss it? it was only 1 day), then took out the max amount I could as a "loan". That gave me "liquid assets" which I am using on preps for the house (including energy-efficient upgrades to windows, electric, etc), paying off debt, and paying down some other so that I have fewer liabilities. I also set some aside as savings (that I control and have access to) for "just in case".

Since I did that, the 401k dropped even more--to the tune of several thousand dollars. Had I NOT removed the amount I did, I would have lost twice as much.