How To Prepare For Everything

[00:00:05] Intro

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Alright welcome back to the Survival and Basic Badass Podcast, Kevin and Chuck.

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Today, well we're talking about how to be prepared for everything.

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Cause you know that sounds doable right?

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously that sounds like a bit of an overwhelming task.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_01]: But there is basic principles that I think need to be applied in everybody's life if you're going to kind of be the person who's successful.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever noticed that some people crisis happens to them all the time?

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Like it's just they, somehow they're a victim of the world.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Like everything that could go wrong seems to go wrong for certain people.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_01]: It just happens that way. I don't know how that is but it does.

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_01]: And it is possible that this could be the choices that you make each day.

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Like the choices that, how you plan out your life.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes when bad things happen to you, people don't realize but there are signs that build up to that moment.

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not as blind, you know I kind of always thought like the fortune tellers.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_01]: You know you can kind of just talk to people and know where their life is going.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you're a little intuitive, you know they talk about we all enjoy shows like Monk or you know Psych or different things like that.

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Where you know maybe you haven't seen these shows. I don't know. Maybe you don't enjoy them.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_01]: But I know at my house people watch these shows and you know it's just kind of you see people and you're like oh I know where this is going.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_01]: You know and it's just obvious that bad things kind of happen.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to kind of dig into it before we get too into it.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Make sure you guys like and subscribe. It really helps out the channel, helps everything grow.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_01]: We really appreciate it so that would be great.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_01]: But alright the bottom line is as a prepper it's almost impossible to take on everything and be like oh God I have to prepare for the economy collapsing.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I have to prepare for an EMP happening. I have to prepare for a hurricane.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_01]: I have to prepare for my kids school dance. I have to prepare for you know it's just everything going on in your life.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: It can be very overwhelming and if you approach it like that I think it would be very overwhelming.

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_01]: But I don't think it has to be that way and that's kind of the beauty of it.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what I wanted to get into in this episode is it doesn't have to be that way for your life.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Basically I best we're going to apply it to principles.

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to apply it to different situations in your life and you'll start to understand what I'm talking about.

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_01]: But as life goes on you need to kind of assess what's going on.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's start like with the economy and your job and everything like that.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Just what's going on in the world.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_01]: So you get a newspaper every day or I know nobody does really anymore but you get your feed in Facebook or wherever it is that you get your news and information from.

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And to be honest we get our information from people at work right.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_01]: You always hear people talking and what's going on.

[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And you get a gist of you know hey the stock market's doing really well.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey the stock market is doing pretty bad.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a little scared about it you know and you kind of have an idea of things coming just by paying attention a little bit.

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you have to look up from your phone for a minute like if you're just watching the cat cats jumping on counter feed you might be missing some things.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_02]: That is my favorite cat videos on YouTube.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_02]: That's it like three or four hours of my day every day.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Right I have one of the one of the kids is watching like chicken videos all chicken videos all about like chickens following people in the yard and you know whatever.

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like hey you know whatever you do you right.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_01]: But sometimes you have to pay attention to a little bit.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So if we know now how do we so how would we prepare to be like financially secure.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Well first of all we need to have kind of a little cushion.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_01]: We need to make choices in our life that hey I make we'll say fifty thousand dollars a year or my household income is fifty thousand dollars a year.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I need to come up with a budget that everything works for about forty thousand a year.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: So I have a little extra to you know set aside.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_01]: We could even say forty five thousand a year and I know that gets tougher and tougher as the economy changes and you know things go on in the world obviously.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_01]: But that's why you prepare that way.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_01]: That's why you plan for that because it is unexpected that grocery prices have gone up as much as they have in the last five years.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Now I would argue we could have seen that in the way our politicians were making decisions that hey they're spending out of control.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_01]: They're printing money and I got to say I feel like we had a long lead time.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Which almost it lulled people into a false comfort where you're like oh they're printing money every day but it hasn't killed me yet.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_01]: You know it's one of the things you know it hasn't gotten that bad and but you know history kept telling us well if you keep printing money we're going to have inflation.

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And I know there were a bunch of news stories and they were like well you know that printing money you can print as much as you want and that doesn't cause inflation.

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_01]: They had guys from Harvard.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I saw guys from MIT that came out and were like no don't worry that has nothing to do with anything.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And you can print as much money as you want as long as things keep growing we'll be OK.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_01]: And that ended up not being the case right.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_01]: It turns out there is a little inflation now somehow but anybody who'd read books about history would be like no any time an empire has done this that would be Rome that would be Russia you just print more.

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's you know that's how it goes and it gets away from you and it can be a little concerning.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_01]: So what I'm saying is you shouldn't have been blindsided by that.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_01]: You can also choose to follow you know news people that you like or a podcast you like right.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I'm always talking about different things going on in the future AI and different things try and keep people abreast of stuff.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Now obviously I don't know everything you shouldn't be getting all your information for me and Kevin.

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_01]: That would be a scary life if you just listen to me and Kevin.

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_01]: But if you listen to me and Kevin and three or four other trusted sources plus take input from what you see and what's going on in your life then I think you could really have a clear picture and be able to prepare.

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Now so one you should have some foresight of what's going on in the world.

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Think about your employer think about where you work right and that may be maybe you own your own business maybe you have a construction company.

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you have you know what you're a plumber now certain things like plumbing.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_01]: If I had a plumbing business and I was really focused and all my money came from new construction.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I might be worried like hey you know I don't know if people are going to be building more and more new buildings.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Now there are some areas of the country where that's still going on but a lot of it it's really slowing down.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_01]: But I would also say hey but you know people still need to get their you know pipe snaked and faucets changed out and I would look at shifting my business model into focusing on things where the economy is going.

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm not necessarily blindsided by it.

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I would maybe look at downsizing you know and even if that was early on I would look at hey this guy quit maybe I don't replace him.

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_01]: You know and because if you can do it kind of planned out from the future now some employees your great employer maybe they never change over.

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And so you have to you know make choices at some point people also tend to let life happen to them where they carry people longer than they should.

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Or they put up with a bad job longer than they should or you know they accept the predicament.

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_02]: You know I used to work with a guy that I swear he had five flat tires over the course of three weeks and you know we're not talking about real flat tires.

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_02]: We're talking about somebody that was just late for work all the time and needed an excuse.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_02]: But you know it's one of those things you know if you're that person that stays up playing video games till three in the morning and then have a hard time getting up for work maybe you need to reassess your you know the way you're running your life.

[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's the thing a lot of people become victims of circumstance and that's you know something that you need to kind of prevent.

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_01]: So anyway so some core prepper principles that you might look at like what one of the first things me and Kevin always talk about when you start prepping is hey you should really have a two week supply of food in your house as the minimum right.

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And you should have a little cushion nest egg I know I've thrown out the amount like $1,000 set aside in cash that you built up over time set aside.

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Well that's really going to help you if you lose your job or maybe your friend loses their job and you can help out his family and bless them with a little bit of yourself you know whatever.

[00:10:57] [SPEAKER_01]: But being having that cushion makes everything a whole lot less urgent, where you don't have to be in a full on panic. I think we all know those people in our lives who everything is a freaking crisis.

[00:11:12] [SPEAKER_01]: And it you know right over the edge all the time. You know it's like oh my god I got a flat tire and I can't afford it, and now I can't or the battery went bad in my car, and there's no way, but this same person who are riding around on ball tires, or you know the car battery, it happens right car batteries die, I don't always know that you can predict that or whatever sometimes

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_01]: there is signs I feel like I notice things and I'm like you know what that's going to go any day I can hear the way that car starts and whatever. But just the same, even if we're not in a position where we're aware of that kind of thing.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_01]: It shouldn't throw you that hard and a lot of the people who I see with these issues have a way nicer newer car than I do.

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like well you picked the wrong car, you should have spent less and or they live in a fancy apartment where they take care of everything for you. Well yeah that's nice you know to have an apartment building where I just you know, but throw the bag in the trash dumpster right on the way out, and you know things are easy and right.

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_01]: When I call them when that when something doesn't work right I mean that's awesome. But if that wipes out your budget completely, maybe that was not the right life choice for you.

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_02]: So that that's something to consider. Yeah, now, I mean, to further that point though you, I see that a lot with.

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_02]: I've got a trailer park down the street.

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Do you live in the trailer park Kevin, I don't live in the trailer, but it's not that far from my house. It's where all your best friends live. Man, they have, they have the nicest cars in that trailer park.

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, probably, it probably leaks when it rains inside. But, man they got a they got a nice looking late model car. And, you know, I don't know, I mean I guess you choose what you spend your money on but I mean there's a lot of.

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_02]: I see a lot of people spending money on flashy things that they don't need at all, and then shorting themselves in other areas. You know.

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no exactly. Um, no, it's crazy.

[00:13:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah. So, so let's talk about some basics of, you know, things, things that you could do to streamline your life make things a little bit easier and have less unexpected events popping up and getting it.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Because, you know, everybody everybody I think everybody agrees that, um, you know, a car breaking down can be catastrophic. You know what I mean if you need to just go out and buy a new car your car is so so messed up transmission just went 18 whatever $8,000 you got to shell out now.

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_02]: That can be catastrophic. You know, yeah.

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_02]: All the um, you know, there's, there's a.

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_02]: I would say that, you know your vehicle in your house, whether you rent lease, whatever it is. Those are the two primary things that you need to need to maintain to make sure that you're, you're going to be in an alright situation if things go sideways.

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_02]: You know and basic car maintenance I don't have to tell you about basic car maintenance get your oil change and get your fluids checked and and like you said changing out your tires when they're bald.

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_02]: But we can go through a couple of steps and one of the things I would say is, is you don't have to spend a lot of money on on a lot of stuff there's a lot of stuff that we overspend on if there's three things that you're going to spend money on.

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_02]: I would say it's a decent mattress, a good pair of shoes and good tires. You know things that separate you from the ground.

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, maybe it is worthwhile for you to get snow tires during the winter, if you live in an area where you get, you know decent amount of snow in the winter.

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Get some, you know, get some snow tires, switch them out every year. It's not that expensive. You get this set and if you don't run those snow tires all damn summer, they're going to last you a few winters.

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_02]: A lot of people don't change them out, you know when summer comes with hot asphalt will just tear those tires up.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_01]: It does. And that's, that's one of those things. So it definitely can get away from you. But there are basic preps for your car.

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And I like to be helpful as well as take care of my own stuff. But, like with my vehicles, I have a can of fix-a-flat in all my vehicles right so if I see somebody now I know that stuff kind of sucks.

[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody wants to fill your tire with you know with crap but it also sucks being on the side of a busy you know superhighway that you know and you have to change your tire and you might die.

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_01]: You know it's probably better to not. And the thing is I can also stop and help somebody who doesn't have a spare tire, who doesn't have whatever and you know whatever they need to change their tire.

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_01]: And if I don't have you know a matching tire I'm sure I'm probably not going to give my spare tire away but I'm totally cool giving away a can of fix-a-flat you know and I can help you out.

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Now obviously fix-a-flat doesn't work in every instance right. If they rode their tire down to bare nothing and it just disintegrates as they're going and then they get the flat tire and are like I need to get out of here so they stay driving for five miles on the highway and somehow don't take the first exit.

[00:17:09] [SPEAKER_01]: They just keep going, then yeah you might just have shreds that fix-a-flat isn't going to do anything.

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_02]: Have you ever had to plug a tire after somebody put fix-a-flat in it?

[00:17:19] [SPEAKER_02]: It's not a fun treat.

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_02]: That's a nightmare. You get that sticky shit all over your hands.

[00:17:26] [SPEAKER_01]: But that's you know I don't know, you could get a plug kit and a compressor. Now I have a truck that has like little bit bigger tires you know because I'm a redneck and you know how it is right.

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_01]: You know you got a beard and you have to have a big tires and trucks and whatever.

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_01]: So I actually don't plan on changing a tire if I get a flat in that. One I have big knobby tires that probably aren't going to go flat too easily but obviously anything's possible you know I might get a big nail whatever.

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_01]: So what I do is I have a plug kit to fix it. I have an air compressor to fill it back up. I do have a spare tire and I have a can of fix-a-flat.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Now I almost guarantee I'm not going to put that fix-a-flat in there but if I'm stuck you know I do have that option right.

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_01]: If some urgent I need to go this second and the world's gonna end if I don't well then I have an option.

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_01]: But it's not just car maintenance. I also have all my cars have jumper cables.

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not super rich so I haven't been able to swing it yet but I've been easing into it. I have one of those battery booster packs.

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I have that not in my truck but I have it in the wife's car and so she can carry that with her and if she needs to you know start it she's good to go.

[00:18:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Now I'd like that in all my vehicles but I haven't gotten there yet so you know whatever we still make choices right on what probability and all that.

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like whatever if I get stuck I get stuck. A small tool kit.

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_01]: You know mine in that vein I have actually in my truck I have a socket set but in all the other cars I have a crescent wrench and I have a flat and now fill up you know cross-tip screwdriver.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And I just keep those in there. All my cars I have a bug out bag actually we have one that the wife just uses very local.

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_01]: That one doesn't have a bug out bag but the rest the other two do and I have a first aid kit in all of them.

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_01]: And I have in addition to a first aid kit and that's like band aids and Neosporin and nonsense like that.

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_01]: The other bag I have a trauma bag which has tourniquets and things like that.

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Now I set all that up now obviously day one I get a car. I'm probably not spending that big budget you're talking about probably 200 bucks worth of stuff right there.

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_01]: But over time I get that stuff in there but once it's set up I mean now I'm at the point in life where I buy a new car if I wanted I could put that stuff in there right.

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_01]: That'd be okay. But um but starting out I understand that's maybe not feasible to just throw money at every problem and there's easier ways to do it.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_01]: You know a 13 eight dollar first aid kit and a 20 dollar jumper cables takes you a long way and a 10 dollar can of fix a flat.

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Now you're in it for like 40 bucks and you got a lot you know.

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_02]: But you got to make a long trip for an emergency.

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I want I want that bug out bag if I'm going to be more than an hour away from my house or not I say bug out bag.

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I have a get home bag like a 72 hour bag.

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_01]: But also if I was on a really tight budget maybe I would throw a case of water in the car before my trip and I would a couple other things that I know would be essential.

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. And you know if I didn't already have a prepared bag that was going to get me what I need.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway once I have all this set up there are two things I need to do one about once a year.

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to go check those things.

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to go spend 10 minutes and go through the car.

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey everything's here. I open up the bag.

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_01]: The water didn't make freeze and explode in everything or the band aids didn't get all stuck together where they're completely useless.

[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how that happens but somehow it does.

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And all that stuff I'm going to go through for 10 minutes once a year and I'm going to check it.

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Now the key to that you would have to check it more often unless you remember one key rule of when you use stuff you replace stuff right.

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_01]: When I oh I you know what I use that battery booster to help somebody and I didn't plug it back in and charge it back up.

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Well but you need to remember that. That's part of the rule.

[00:21:52] [SPEAKER_01]: But once a year that 10 minutes you're going to check hey is that charged up is that holding the charge everything good.

[00:21:59] [SPEAKER_01]: All right cool. Hey the fixed flat still there nobody touched it.

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_01]: We're good. All right. And then you move on and that's it.

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_01]: And then it's low maintenance and low budget.

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not costing me one hundred fifty dollars a year to maintain this.

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just a one time thing and then I'm good for 20 years of life.

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Now obviously that first aid kit might not last 20 years but after five years I buy another 13 dollar first aid kit or maybe even better.

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I need to buy three dollars worth of stuff to just replace those couple of items that got damaged.

[00:22:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. So that's how you approach things. Same thing with my house.

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. So people always you know oh a tree fell on my house and took out my car and I'm the victim and whatever.

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Now obviously we just had some hurricanes here and there's another one coming and a lot of things going on like that.

[00:22:53] [SPEAKER_01]: But you need to walk around your property and say hey do I have dead trees.

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Do I have dead limbs that are just hanging right over my house and look really bad.

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully you're the kind of guy that can handle it yourself.

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Now I even cool guy like me.

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I have some trees in my yard that if they were dead and crappy I wouldn't even touch them.

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I'd be like you know what I got to call somebody and as things start to go south I would start to prepare my budget to deal with that.

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_01]: You know and see if I could find somebody now how hard I'm going to shop around to get somebody.

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_01]: It depends on my budget. Right. What's your time worth.

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_01]: If I'm on a really tight budget I'm going to talk to a lot of people and I'm going to see where I can squeeze every penny and get the best deal.

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Now we are supposed to be good stewards of what we have right.

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean that that's kind of a good motto to live your life is to not be wasteful but just the same.

[00:23:56] [SPEAKER_01]: You know if you get a fair price you go with it.

[00:23:59] [SPEAKER_01]: You know and you accept it assuming it fits your budget.

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_01]: You know maybe you have to call a buddy and whatever maybe I don't know I have buddies who have like a boom truck like I mean there's always something you know you could do.

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it should be nicer to people and you'd have better buddies.

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that's the.

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Kevin.

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_01]: That's not a trade off.

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to go down. No but I mean there comes to it to there comes a point where and everybody knows these people you know that have a bucket underneath their their sink because it leaks every time they run it.

[00:24:40] [SPEAKER_02]: You know you know they have a leak and a wet spot on their ceiling but only when it really rain so you know it's just a little discoloration it'll be fine.

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_02]: You know that sort of stuff is like you really like walk in a fine line there of catastrophic failure in your life if that's the type of shit you're ignoring.

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Well you guys you guys know me I'm kind of a do it yourself kind of guy and even in New York I had a reasonably flat roof and I'd be up there replacing shangles and that roof was pushed in the 30 year mark.

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And every time we'd have a storm I'd lose like three or four shangles off the top and I might do I had you know a package of shangles that I kept around and I'd climb up there and I'd bang them in and do it.

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And so the house I'm in now once again somehow I managed to buy another house with a questionable roof and again both both houses built 92 and both houses rocking the 92 roof.

[00:25:45] [SPEAKER_01]: The same roof huh?

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_01]: That sounds like more than 30 years but we won't talk about how math works.

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_01]: But um so I would let that go and this one and the same thing if like we get like full on like hurricane rain it would drip a little bit you know and I'd be like yes I'm gonna have to do something.

[00:26:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And so this last like I think it was even right before Debbie here we had a couple of storms and it would drip and I'd be like yeah.

[00:26:16] [SPEAKER_01]: So I climbed up there and that's the thing though so the house I had before had a reasonable pitch roof now it's like freaking you know 45 degree angle or something and I'm like yeah I don't really want to walk on that.

[00:26:30] [SPEAKER_01]: You know like actually if it was a true 45 you can just kind of lean the ladder and go all the way right to the top.

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_01]: But no mine's like one of those stupid like Dutch barn like roofs where you have a steep angle and then it angles and the top angle is also very steep that I don't want to be walking on.

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I go up there there's a bunch of shingles that are like just ripped up and crappy and I'm like I need to do it.

[00:26:55] [SPEAKER_01]: And I go out I climb on there and of course when they're old and sunbaked and whatever you know how they get like really gravely and you're like they want to just roll under your feet.

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I'm like you know what I don't think I need to die for this I'm probably at the point where I'm ready to commit.

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_01]: And I called around and it ended up in my mind not that bad right relative to the price of the house replacing the roof is not that big of a deal.

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_01]: And actually I found out a way it was cool because I don't have any credit cards and I've you know made choices in my life over and over to get away from all that.

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_01]: But I also pay my mortgage hard.

[00:27:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I hate giving them extra interest money and whatever and so I have very little cash on hand.

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_01]: It's funny because I pretty close where I probably could have covered the roof budget out of the cash on hand but if I give that out then I don't have any cash on hand and the next emergency it just it worries me I get a little piece of mind from having a little money in the bank right.

[00:28:05] [SPEAKER_01]: So with that what I did is I was talking to people at work and they were like oh you know you can borrow money out of your 401k and I'm like what tell me more now mind you this could just be my employer right like I don't know employees you can do this okay.

[00:28:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So I look at it so it's a hundred dollar fee and they charge nine and a half percent interest and you're like oh my god Chuck that's that's pretty crappy but wait work with me nine and a half percent interest that you pay back to yourself.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Right so it's like getting nine and a half percent right you can set the term and whatever so I get paid every other week and I set it up that it would be like a hundred and seventy bucks every paycheck for thirty weeks.

[00:28:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And ends up costing me like I don't know like twelve grand or something and I get my roof and in thirty sorry not thirty weeks it's thirty months it'll be all paid off and whatever and I feel like that isn't going to cripple my budget and whatever.

[00:29:13] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm paying interest to myself and I'm like oh with the market going crappy that kind of works out but I don't know it's a crazy world.

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_01]: But bottom line is I'm gonna get a new roof right I called the guy I said you know what let's do it let's get it done I was actually surprised the price was better than I thought it would be because it's you know it's a big roof it's a steep angle and whatever.

[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And he's like yeah I'll put a fancy metal roof on you'll be cool like you know the cool kids that is fancy yeah like rich people and you know he's like but know that if you get the metal roof you're not really climbing up there because you'll then it and it'll look like crap.

[00:29:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah I was doing actually doing some pricing for some roofs for a friend not me doing the job I mean getting prices from contractors and I talked to this one guy he said call this person he's great because he'll just show up with like thirty Guatemalans and they'll just strip that house and have it re-shingled in a day.

[00:30:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Yep and I was like yeah most places it's a day or two.

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah but um alright yeah so we're talking about house maintenance.

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Let's talk about a couple of basics to of things you need to keep up with the side of your roof you know we talked about plumbing let's get those leaks fixed pretty you know pretty quick.

[00:30:44] [SPEAKER_02]: The worst thing you can do to your house is have water damage you know whether it's leaking from a sink or it's leaking from your roof it ain't no good long term that will destroy everything in your house.

[00:30:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's the thing ignoring any water damage like you said it really destroys it and makes your house worthless.

[00:31:03] [SPEAKER_01]: You know you run the risk inside of mold and that kind of thing now I'm not saying every mold is the end of the world like they react on these shows but it also really can start to spread and do horrible damage you know.

[00:31:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Right so you get a little bit of dry rot and a little bit of wood inside your house and man give that a year or two and yeah you're gonna be replacing entire walls.

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_02]: But you know one of the other bigger big dangers in your house is uh is is fires electrical fires grease fires you know that the stuff that can get out of control real fast you know things that start out as a small issue can become real dangerous real fast and you know just.

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's it's not crazy to just buy a fall small fire extinguisher for your kitchen you know for grease fires that's maybe you're not an idiot maybe you don't ever get into a situation where you're going to have a grease fire but do you have kids kids are fucking stupid.

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if you guys know this but if you have kids you probably know they're stupid and they do stupid shit all the time and they see a fire and they want to go splash water on it and now you got a serious problem you know.

[00:32:24] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm having a small fire extinguisher you know near your stove under your sink wherever it is easily accessible is a smart investment it doesn't cost that much to get a small fire extinguisher you're looking at 30 40 50 bucks you know.

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's it it's you know smoke detectors fire extinguisher stuff you buy one time and then you check it every year 10 minutes go through hey you know I should check all my smoke detector batteries make sure you know most of them are hardwired anyway anymore.

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_02]: New warehouses but you go through and you check the charge on your fire extinguisher right not just that it's there but that it's actually got you know most businesses stuff they have it inspected once a year and you should be checking it once a month blah blah blah if it's in your house just take a look at it when you're walking past it have it.

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_02]: You know there's a there's a gauge where it should be between and most fire stations will charge that up for you you know it's just compressed air that the stuff that's in there that puts the fire out is not going anywhere you know it just needs to be pressurized.

[00:33:32] [SPEAKER_02]: Where how do you put out a fire with a fire extinguisher spray at the base of the fire don't just try and spray the whole fire down spray where the fire is coming from that's that's you know fire extinguisher 101.

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's one of the other things is training right how many you know as we grow and mature into adults and and functional members of society you should be stepping up your game right hey you know I haven't done any good training this year let me go do a first aid class and learn something.

[00:34:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Let me do some kind of home maintenance class I mean I know I've been to a few classes where they've taught me how to use a fire extinguisher right throughout life I don't know Boy Scouts or you know at work we actually did one where we you know used a fire extinguisher different things you know that goes on.

[00:34:29] [SPEAKER_01]: But using a firearm right hey take a class you know step up your game a little bit get out of your comfort zone.

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Then step up into some kind of you know preparedness class some kind of shooting class some kind of tactical awareness class you know all these different things a car maintenance class right how much would that help you some kind of basic you know learn to fix your house kind of class

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_01]: now obviously I'm not saying you know a lot of people you know you grow up in a world where you're doing you know maintenance with your parents or whatever that's cool but some of us don't have that training.

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I learned all kinds of carpentry and plumbing growing up but I didn't learn anything about firearms or car maintenance you know and then it was funny I ended up having friends whose dads were all into car maintenance and I got into that and you know started to figure that stuff out.

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_01]: But take a class just keep growing and maybe it doesn't have to be a class I know you guys are saying hey I don't I don't like people but I'm with you right I get that so maybe you start paying attention on YouTube hey let me dig into how this works.

[00:35:43] [SPEAKER_01]: You know I have some friends I used to give them grief because they researched the hell out of everything but they really dig down into understanding and my friends who are like that are some of the most knowledgeable guys out there.

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_01]: And they just hey I don't really know how that works and instead of just accepting oh this is how a cylinder works and you know things go back and forth and whatever they oh I researched that and I know how that works.

[00:36:13] [SPEAKER_01]: You know one people don't take advantage when you understand how things work and to start to recognize problems one before they happen because you see bad designs a bad setup but you also learn how to deal with it and how to correct problems.

[00:36:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's really the gist of you know what I wanted to talk about is you know just how do you prepare for the unexpected everything because you can't just be a victim and let life happen to you.

[00:36:44] [SPEAKER_01]: You need to learn to look and recognize what's going on now there are certain cores certain principles that I think apply to everything and one of them is right we need to have some kind of security.

[00:36:58] [SPEAKER_01]: You need and security could be you know learning how to use a firearm to protect your family from physical threats. Another one would be like how do I keep my house from dead trees falling on it right both are in a way security right because you're paying attention on how to protect your stuff or you or your family.

[00:37:21] [SPEAKER_01]: These principles apply in everything security to your budget right how do I keep from getting scammed what kind of research do I do that somebody is not going to rip me off and my paying attention to you know hey what's happened before do I fall for every ad that I see in Facebook and like oh well that's a good idea.

[00:37:42] [SPEAKER_01]: She can teach me how to you know get pretty girls or you know whatever what that's fine like they do the research and if like you know hey five of my buddies have done that and they all have pretty girlfriends then maybe that's worth your fifty bucks right.

[00:38:01] [SPEAKER_01]: But if it's just another thing or the next pill to lose weight or the next thing you know let this let the other people do it first and then jump on board that's all I'm saying.

[00:38:13] [SPEAKER_01]: You know do a little homework and if you feel that you keep getting duped over and over again then maybe start to slow down and step up your radar and even if that means you know what maybe I should go get counsel from my buddy before I spend my money on this.

[00:38:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Course a lot of the things are always the big embarrassing thing like how to grow two inches or whatever and you're like well I don't want to go to my buddy about that you know whatever but.

[00:38:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I've never heard that as you said I can't help you out with that one.

[00:38:48] [SPEAKER_01]: You know but but the bottom line is what I'm saying is pay attention and try not to fall for the same stuff.

[00:38:56] [SPEAKER_01]: But that security is all around right do I have dead limbs and leaves and filled with snakes and fire hazards and everything all around my house or do I rake it up and you know look out for things right take care now some of it is more effort than we want to put out and I get that.

[00:39:15] [SPEAKER_01]: And maybe that means you shouldn't buy the hundred acre property maybe that means you buy the condo in town where somebody cuts your grass that's okay right but you got to find what you're willing to give because everybody is like oh well this is so hard for me.

[00:39:33] [SPEAKER_01]: What you kind of have to make the choices in the beginning to get there and I understand we don't all have a lot of choices in the beginning.

[00:39:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah but you should start to build your life to where you're in control and that's and I'm getting that yeah and doing the hard the hard thing is is nine nine tenths of the problem I don't feel like doing that today I'm tired.

[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_02]: We're all tired we're all tired all the time you're a grown man living in America taking care of a family yeah that's how it is that's you're always tired.

[00:40:05] [SPEAKER_02]: You know sleep faster I don't know what to tell you you know what I mean nobody likes to you know come home every day after work and go through all the fucking bills and and you know look at the bank account and pull your hair out.

[00:40:19] [SPEAKER_02]: But that's helpful that's that's good for your that's good for your your bottom line you know be stressed out about money a little bit spend some time being stressed out don't just ignore it you know a lot of those issues where it's like not today.

[00:40:34] [SPEAKER_02]: You know I'm tired I don't feel like this I can't deal with this right now yeah yeah well you're not gonna want to deal with it next week either you know what I mean.

[00:40:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So many people that sort of stuff gets out of hand real fast if you ignore it.

[00:40:50] [SPEAKER_01]: So many people let things get out of hand because they don't want to confront it and it's oh I don't want to hurt somebody's feelings or I don't want to you know that that's going to be an uncomfortable conversation for me and them how do I avoid that and they just put it off and procrastinate or even like you said I just don't want to go rake the yard because it's hot out and it's what it is.

[00:41:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever I don't want to cut the grass because it's still a little wet and I'd rather not do it that way and the rain that I've had for the last like month.

[00:41:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like oh it's not raining right now I'm going to go cut grass because that was the only way it was going to happen right I mean and that's just what it is and I'm out there and I can hear three of my neighbors out cutting the grass and the grass was way too wet and it's going to look a little crappy and it's going to suck.

[00:41:42] [SPEAKER_01]: But it's going to be way better than when it's a foot and a half high and the wife's like kicking through the snakes to get out of the yard you know and that's what you need to do.

[00:41:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So sometimes make the hard choices but I got to say if you're a little preemptive it will actually end up paying off and being better at the end right like your life will be easier in general because instead of high stress and emergency

[00:42:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and band aids you'll end up fixing things more properly and I understand budget doesn't always allow but we're just trying to make choices to get there and get closer each day you know move in the right direction.

[00:42:27] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't expect any we need to be perfect but I expect that if you keep making better choices you will get there where your life starts to go smoother and smoother and you'll have less stress in your life and that's what I'm going for.

[00:42:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you found it helpful and you made it all the way to the end I appreciate it and we'd love if you'd like and subscribe make you know leave reviews on iTunes YouTube Spotify wherever you are.

[00:42:55] [SPEAKER_01]: We love it we appreciate the feedback questions concerns emails at preppingbadass at gmail.com otherwise I would say we really appreciate you and don't forget Prepper Camp end of September.

[00:43:12] [SPEAKER_01]: You guys could meet the badass could be great and with that stay safe and we'll talk to you guys next week.

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