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By Kellene Bishop, The Preparedness Pro
Short and simple, the term “prepper” is a common name which refers to a person who believes in being prepared. Prepared? Prepared for what? Well, that all depends on your personal values and beliefs. The fact is, we’re all preppers to some extent. We all begin at some level wanting to assure some semblance of certainty in our future regardless of what the future might bring.
Warren Buffet and Donald Trump are both preppers. They have both worked diligently to amass large fortunes in a very diversified manner. Surely they both hold massive amounts of varying currencies, interests in a variety of businesses, and have spread their assets throughout a plethora of industries and nations. With his own brand of steaks, apparel, and hospitality properties to promote, Donald Trump obviously pays attention to the happenings which take place in the beef, cotton, silk, and travel industries. As a primary shareholder of Benjamin Moore Co., The Pampered Chef, and Dairy Queen, Warren Buffet has a couple billion reasons to pay attention to the dairy market, and the consumer spending habits in the industries of home remodeling and renovation as well as meeting the expectations for the next great gadget for the passionate home cook extraordinaire. No doubt you and I would look at either of their personal balance sheets and wonder why they bothered to push past their first $100 million dollars in wealth. But their motivation for such an accumulation is no doubt colored by a motivation that most other people can relate to—to provide for the safety and comfort of ourselves and our loved ones regardless of what storms come their way. No doubt the life lessons of The Donald and the King of Penny Stocks have taught them at some point that in their world, $100 million is easily lost; the best protection against such a loss is another $100 million and then another, and another—you know, just in case.
Today’s more traditional preppers are motivated by the same thoughts of tomorrow, though their perspective causes them to focus on providing for their most basic of needs such as food, clothing, shelter, water, heat, etc.; they ask themselves how will they be able to provide such needs in the face of events which they deem to be very likely?
A prepper is open to the possibility that life won’t remain at the status quo. In light of today’s economic stress, one could easily argue that it’s perfectly rational for every single working American to consider the possibility of a sudden job loss. The types of preppers featured on Doomsday Preppers though take such considerations a few steps further as they consider the likelihood of even more serious scenarios such as an 8.0 earthquake in the heartland of America (New Madrid fault), an epic hail storm, hurricanes that destroy our fuel supply, an economic collapse caused by Japan and China dumping their U.S. holdings into the world market, a flu pandemic, massive solar flares debilitating our electrical grid, the massive crumbling of poorly maintained dams and levees, a freak agricultural famine, or an act of war. After considering such possibilities the dedicated Doomsday Prepper determines what they are able to do now to mitigate the impact that such scenarios would have on their comfort and well-being in the future. You see, preppers aren’t so different from the wealthy investor who diversifies his investments in order to financial protect himself from a litany of possibilities.
While the suffering of Americans during the Great Depression is a distant memory to the elderly generation of our day, the impact of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the collapse of 2008 can still serve as sobering wake-up calls to all of us that life only holds one guarantee—to throw us unthinkable curveballs. There’s nothing better to overcome the massive list of “in case of” scenarios than preparing proactively to thrive in spite of them. Preppers do what they do because they are hooked on the feeling of peace and confidence that accompanies them today by planning and preparing their countermoves against tomorrow’s possibilities. We can all benefit by asking the question, “What if that were to happen to me?” and then take advantage of the time and resources we have today to assure our safety and well being even in light of a repeat of such circumstances. Like the big investors in the world we can decide to invest deliberately in our own futures in the form of a currency that we believe will have value tomorrow. We can replace the portfolio stuffed with contracts and bank account balances with a closet stuffed with canned goods and batteries.
Though no prepper ever really runs out of possible scenarios for which they’d like to be prepared; they naturally understand that they can’t possibly prepare for every possibility—but that sure doesn’t stop anyone from trying. Just as the wise investor understands the importance of accumulating more wealth beyond that first $100 million, preppers understand the accumulation of more essentials beyond that first 50 pounds of extra wheat, that box of flashlights and D batteries, that 250 gallon tank of water, and so on… and so on… It’s all about the “just in case. “
What are YOUR just in case scenarios and are you prepared for them?
Tune in to Doomsday Preppers: Into the Spider Hole tonight at 9P et/pt.
Kellene Bishop, The Preparedness Pro, has been educating on “panic-free, practical preparedness information for over 12 years and can be found at www.preparednesspro.com
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