The Ultimate Guide to Surviving the Coming Chaos

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[00:00:57] Fun and Shop 24-7 with super fast shipping. MidwayUSA.com. All right. Welcome back to the Survival and Basic Badass Podcast, Kevin and Chuck.

[00:01:20] Today, well, we're going to talk about chaos. And I would even say the coming chaos. There's a lot of uncertainty. And it's funny because I feel like people don't even know how to run their business or do anything because you don't know what the future holds. Everything is so uncertain these days. And I don't think it always felt that way.

[00:01:47] I mean, I know we always like panic before a political election or that kind of thing. And, you know, you're like, oh, if the Democrat wins, you know, taxes might go up and more restrictions on the environment or things like that. And if a Republican wins, it's like, oh, they might change things and do crazy things like tariffs. You know, who knows? Right. Right. But it's always uncertainty.

[00:02:13] I mean, no, I know typically we wouldn't think of Republicans and tariffs, but that's what we think of today. So there's a lot going on out there and it's hard to take it all in. But how do you prepare for uncertainty? I guess is the biggest step that we have to worry about. So I think the first thing is market volatility.

[00:02:40] There is a lot to worry about with market volatility where, you know, when you see the market crash and drop, you know, a thousand points or something or whatever. Or do you just say, oh, no, and pull it all out? You know, that that's the thing. Do you just pull your whole investment out? And then, of course, you know, the next day it might go back up.

[00:03:04] I think if you're in when it drops, your best bet seems to be righted out. But obviously, I'm not a financial planner. I don't know. I don't call the market perfectly. You know, who knows what's going on out there? Or the but there's a lot of uncertainty with things like that.

[00:03:26] And you need to find a way to plan or, you know, have a way to do it, to deal with it. And I think, you know, paying attention to what's going on in politics is definitely a way to do it.

[00:03:43] But there's also like there's also where you could maybe just like take some cautions where you put some of it in a, you know, a safer, a safer, you know, bonds or something like that. Now, obviously, China is dumping their bonds and stuff like that.

[00:04:11] But really, unless the U.S. dollar goes away, you know, it's not like your money is going to really disappear on you. So that is, you know, one option. But it's not just about financial stuff. There is a lot more going on. Well, you have policy shifts, right? Right. You know, we have uncertainty with China. That's definitely like one of the scariest ones that I have is we're definitely putting China into a corner.

[00:04:39] And so you have that geopolitical instability, right? Unpredictability with, you know, agreements like the Paris Accord, things like that changing things like, you know. So how do you prepare for all these things? That's really what it comes down to is is what can you do?

[00:05:01] And I think it comes down to the basics of prepping where you want to be able to control your supply chain, you know, where things come from, how you have control over things. And that's a big part of it. You know, decide, hey, where am I going to get my food? If the grocery stores aren't getting, you know, things from China, right?

[00:05:25] We run out of whatever it is that China gives us and Walmart doesn't have anything on the shelves, that kind of stuff. That's a big deal. So we need to be able to plan and prepare. So that's why as a prepper, we've always all along pushed to kind of stockpile things, kind of see if we, you know, have stuff that we're going to need.

[00:05:48] And like, I even, I know when I knew the tariffs were kind of coming and, you know, Trump had campaigned on that. We kind of saw that that was going to be a thing. When we saw that was coming, like I buy things like, oh, I was going to buy a battery grinder, you know, that was made in China, you know, whatever, that I could kind of get in cheap and still have something that I can go out and use. Those kind of things you order and you plan ahead, right?

[00:06:18] Now, obviously it's a little late for, you know, that, but that's how you plan for instability. And that's something to think about. But even now, right? Things are really uneasy with China right now. They're dumping bonds. China's economy is kind of getting crushed. At least that's what we're seeing in a lot of the news feeds and things like that. They're dumping their bonds and they don't know what to do.

[00:06:43] Now, dumping their bonds is in a way a retaliatory strike against what Trump's doing. And I understand that. But because of that, it has effects. But one of the big reasons that China doesn't mess with us is because they love having us as a big consumer. And when we cut that out by putting insane tariffs on them, what is to stop China from messing with us?

[00:07:11] And that's kind of a scary thought. I know I made sure that all my like gas and diesel and stuff that I keep on hand was all like topped off. You know, that, that my reserves were a little bit, you know, ready for things. I, I've been dealing with some well issues and I went and made sure that all that was squared away and, and things are right. I try and, you know, make sure my vehicles are, are handled.

[00:07:40] And I did what I need, I need to do to keep things working properly. Anything I'm planning on buying in the next month or so, as long as the prices are still reasonable and worth doing, if I can get any kind of deal or do anything reasonable, I'm buying those in advance. Um, I'm just trying to have a level of preparedness and be ready for whatever comes and whatever shows up on my door.

[00:08:09] Now there's another aspect of kind of personal safety. Uh, there's a lot of chaos out there, uh, riots and protests. You know, we don't really have those now, or maybe a terror attack that's in the city or, or something like that. Those things come up, maybe make sure you're carrying your concealed carry all the time. You know, maybe you're keeping your, your get home bag in your car, make sure that's squared away and up to date.

[00:08:36] You know, it's a good time to check on things and make sure your supplies are ready to go. You know, check your inventory. Um, now there's also some uncertainty with interest rates in the federal reserve. You know, who knows where that's going to go. So do you have your finances in order? And by that, I mean, you know, credit cards and things like that, that you can't control.

[00:09:00] Is there any way that you could get them like into a loan or something like that? You know, get things squared away before things get out of hand. Um, I feel like there's a lot of uncertainty in the state market right now. And you just don't know what could happen with real estate. Do you hold, do you sell, do you look for an opportunity to buy?

[00:09:26] Now, I know one of the big things is to have money set aside and, you know, planned, prepared, where if the opportunity arises, you're able to pounce. And what I mean by that is if the stock market goes down, if the, you know, maybe it's a time to jump in and buy some, you know, catch it on the way back up.

[00:09:49] Uh, if the, the, uh, real estate market goes down, you know, they always say that's when the millionaires are made is when the markets kind of crash when things go down. Um, and that's like with, with real estate, you know, that's the time to buy when everything collapses, you know, but you buy when it's cheap, you sell when it's high.

[00:10:09] And that's the thing. Everybody always seems to panic with the markets. Things drop way down. And then everybody's like, Oh, the market's crashing. I should sell it all. Well, yeah, you already missed it. Like it kind of happened. You know, it already dumped down. Now, does that mean that it's not possible that it's going to keep going a lot further?

[00:10:29] Of course it could, but you know, will it, I don't know. You know, that's the thing we can't predict what's happening and what the future holds, but we can kind of make an educated guess based on history. Right. And I mean, tariffs, you know, kind of knew that that was going to hurt the stock market. You know, even if you had asked like chat GPT in the beginning, what will happen with the markets?

[00:10:56] I mean, if you really said to anybody, would you expect instability, you know, instability in the market? If people don't know what's going on, then, you know, who knows if there's instability in the market or sorry, instability in our trade, then you're going to have instability in the market. And that's the kind of thing that, you know, you plan for interest rates, the federal reserve thoughts, Kevin.

[00:11:23] Yeah, I know. Jerome Powell's the head of the federal reserve. He's the chairman and Trump's been talking about firing him, which technically he can't do. Okay. But I, you know. But it's Trump. It's Trump. Who knows?

[00:11:40] He does whatever the fuck he wants. So I think the big issue there would be, it wouldn't affect us immediately in the United States, but what it would do is cause instability internationally and cause people to try and, you know, different countries to start selling off the dollar, which would cause, you know, massive inflation again.

[00:12:30] Right. So the more people are uncertain and don't know what's going to happen, the more the world is unpredictable. People start to panic. And when they panic, they do kind of crazy things.

[00:12:45] And the more there's that uncertainty out there, the more the panic and the fear arises, the more you can expect fluctuations, you know, both allowing for opportunities for you to pounce and jump on a good deal. And also more opportunity for disruptions and chaos. I know a lot of companies are like starting to lay people off with uncertainty in their markets.

[00:13:13] You know, I was just talking to some people at work and they were like, oh, why would a business stop buying, you know, engines or whatever or whatever? Well, if I make cars and I don't know if I'm going to be able to sell my cars to people in China, then I don't know if I need to buy a bunch of new engines to put in those cars. Right. That's the kind of thing.

[00:13:40] That's where that uncertainty comes from. And people don't know, you know, where to go with that. So. With the reelection of or sorry, with the. Renomination of the Federal Reserve, where where, Kevin, what do you expect to happen? What do you how do you see that playing out? Yeah, well, I think I think he's going to he's going to obviously pick somebody else.

[00:14:09] He's going to pick somebody that's going to, you know, lower interest rates and they're you know, they're lowering interest rates in different countries. But they the reason the Federal Reserve is keeping the interest rates where they are is because the instability in the market because of the tariffs. So he thinks the tariffs aren't a big deal and he thinks that increased interest rates should go down, which I don't know.

[00:14:34] I mean, I'm not an economist, but it seems like the economists kind of agree with the Federal Reserve right now. And Trump just says, no, I that's not what I think. So I'm going to do what I want. Right. Well, I heard a guy explain how interest rates work as far as the bond market and and like that. And it kind of I didn't know. I mean, it kind of was new information to me.

[00:14:59] And the way it played out was basically if you have like a seven year bond. Right. So whatever thing that, you know, you buy it and say you buy a $50 savings bond and in seven years, it's going to be $50. Well, the problem is the Federal Reserve in order to keep money coming in to pay our bills and pay the interest in the debt that we have.

[00:15:26] They have to sell those bonds. And if nobody's buying them, it turns out the price has to go down. Well, the way that ends up affecting an interest rate is if we lower the price on a bond in order to get people to buy it because they're not buying it. Then I still have to go from before. Maybe I was able to sell them for $20 a piece. And now I have to sell them for $10 a piece.

[00:15:55] Well, it turns out the interest rate is going to go up in order for in seven years, $10 to become $50. So that's how that works. You know, you have to accommodate the interest rate is going to be reflected because that time is fixed. And we have to sell bonds to get money coming in. And that's where, but we obviously set the interest rate like with real estate and, you know, the prime rate and things like that. And that does matter.

[00:16:24] And we do have control over that. But when we have control over that, you know, there are certain things that are out of our control. And that's where you get into danger and chaos. And again, it's that uncertainty where people get scared. People panic about, you know, whatever, you know, the future holds and whatever they can do.

[00:16:51] They don't know, you know, what's going on and you get scared. Uh, and the federal reserve, they take the blame for it, but it is a hard act to balance. I think one of the things Trump is pushing for though, is he's like, you don't know what I'm going to do next. So just wait and trust me, but you can't be like, yeah, don't worry.

[00:17:16] I'm going to break in and not have those tariffs anymore because then, you know, or he thinks I'm going to break China. You know, I, I know they're inside communication and that they're like, we, we, we're going to break any day or, you know, whatever. I don't know. I don't know. But when I was in the military and I always be like, well, they know more than I do. I should just trust them. But however, the more I learn in life and get experience, I kind of feel like I don't know.

[00:17:45] They don't know either. We're all kind of just guessing. I get that. I get that impression. I keep hearing that shit a lot. Like trust, you just got to have to trust Trump. And I just don't, don't, that's fair. You know, that's the thing. You don't know what he's going to do. And, you know, he's kind of crazy and, and, you know, does some erratic things. And honestly, somebody gets to that age.

[00:18:11] And, you know, we definitely had that with Biden where somebody gets to an age where you're like, are they really in control? You know, what are they doing? Um, Trump's always kind of been erratic and, and done some impulsive things. And, you know, that makes people nervous. You know, they, they like predictability. People like predictability and knowing that they can count on, you know, somebody and, and know what to expect.

[00:18:40] And the more that you're uncertain or unsure, it makes it tough. Yeah. I think, uh, I think that's going to be a big thing, you know, it's, as far as chaos goes, I think that's going to be a big thing in the, the, not just the markets, but the supermarkets, you know, the grocery store, the electric bill, you know, everything. Yeah. So we're going to, you know, I know that Canada is threatening to, uh, increase my, my electric bill by putting a tax on it. We'll see what happens.

[00:19:10] Um, I mean, my electric bill is through the roof already, which is crazy. $800 last month, one month. Wow. Dude, that's crazy. I thought, I thought that if we put in all those led light bulbs, everything would be good. That isn't exactly what happened. $800 a month. That's pretty crazy. Um, I think right now I'm like somewhere around $300 a month.

[00:19:35] I think in the summer we might go to like three 50, we do some extra coolers and things in the, you know, as summer comes. So I'm prepared for that a little bit, but 800 a month is definitely something to be a little bit scared of $800. I don't know that that hurts. Yeah. It definitely hits the bottom line. Yeah.

[00:20:00] Um, now as far as preparing for chaos, you know, a lot of the stuff that we talk about is, is, um, you know, first off get your basic preps together, you know, your food stuffs, make sure you've got your, you know, your, your stockpile there. Um, I'm stocking up on coffee right now because that's going to go, that's going to go up and it's important. So you need a new cell phone. Now's the time to buy it or plan on just riding it out for the next three years with

[00:20:30] what you got. Um, I would also say, uh, you know, you have to anticipate your needs, you know, anticipate what you're going to need over the next couple of years and think about what you want to have now. Um, you know, everybody's got TVs, good TVs because they're so cheap for, for, you know, 300, 400 bucks for a big screen TV. Um, you know, I hope you're all set with that.

[00:20:57] Cause if your TV goes out and you're fucked now that windows closed and huh? Yeah. Um, I would, I would say, uh, gear up emotionally too. Oh, I like that. You know, emotionally there's so much that, you know, like I said, it's that uncertainty and fear that makes people panic and react. You know, that's when they're so quick to, you know, sell everything, sell it. It's going down.

[00:21:27] The ship is sinking and I don't know what to do. Or, you know, we got to get out of our house and we got to do this and we all panic and overreact to things. And that's not that cool. You know, that can really hurt you and backfire. So, I mean, I think as preppers, the big thing is, is to kind of plan these things out before, but the more you can make yourself, you know, I just can't go back to that enough.

[00:21:55] The more you can make yourself self-sustaining, the more you don't need somebody on the outside. And especially, you know, when is that driven home better than with all these tariffs, with all that uncertainty, you know, Trump only bought us 90 days where he said, you know, he's going to renegotiate with everybody and whatever. And, you know, I'm sure hopefully most of those work out, you know, and honestly,

[00:22:21] a lot of the benefits and the better negotiations that we get back to, I think will actually pay off in the long run. You know, as much as people want to be mad and blame Trump for this and, oh, it's so horrible. I think a big part of it is that we've let it go so long. We've let things get out of control. We've let all these countries take advantage of us without any kind of retaliation.

[00:22:49] And we've just had that approach where it's like, you know what? But they need our help. And if they get extra tax and it goes on the American people, we're okay with it. And they just, and I mean, I know it doesn't directly go on to the American people, but when other countries put tariffs on things, when we sell goods, obviously that government,

[00:23:14] when we sell a good, basically our profit gets cut out by money that is just going to other governments. And America has gone a long time with just charity of, hey, you guys can, you know, go ahead and, you know, make money off our backs. And it's been tough.

[00:23:35] And I think some of this correction that has happened, you know, with Trump saying 130 or 135 countries are negotiating with us. Bringing that back is a good thing. There's definitely pain with it. And I think, you know, the uncertainty with China, that's a whole big mess.

[00:23:58] Um, also I imagine Russia's a little bit unhappy with how far oil prices are coming down and how that's changing and coming up. What else could you do to prepare Kevin? Like, you know, what other things should we be thinking about? Yeah. I know you said mental is a big thing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I would say, I would say, you know, keep calm, you know, that's, that's a big deal. Um, and, uh, get ready for, uh, get ready for people around you losing their. Right.

[00:24:27] The people around us being crazy. And that's the thing. I mean, that, that's where it comes, you know, it's so important to protect yourself, to, you know, make sure that you're prepared, you know, that your wife goes out with the pepper spray. Maybe you start making the trips with the wife to the grocery store. Maybe you don't send your kids off, you know, to, to play unattended in the park. You know, you don't know.

[00:24:52] So it's, it's time to, you know, kind of keep an eye on things because there is a lot of crazy out there. And when people get panicked, you know, things, things tend to unfold. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Um, you know, personally, I don't, I don't really send my wife out to do anything, you know? Yeah. Honestly, honestly, I keep her at the house. I do, I do all the stuff that needs to be done when it comes to that sort of thing. And, and it's not that I don't trust her.

[00:25:21] It's not that I don't think that, um, she can handle her own business, which she can, you know? She's a little feisty. Yeah, she is. She is a little rowdy, man, but it's, uh, it's more of the, the thing that, you know, I'd rather be responsible for, for any craziness that goes on. You know, I mean, it's, it's your job is, as the head of the household. Is that trouble? Am I at court danger? Yeah. That's, I mean, it's sexist, but I mean, that's what we do here. That's what we do. All right.

[00:25:51] So that's it. I mean, Hey, I, I would like somebody to take all the responsibility and I don't have to worry about things, you know, that isn't such a bad way to be. But the more and more you need to prepare, you know, you need to have things in order. Cause the more you have things squared away beforehand, the less you're going to be caught by surprise and put yourself in a desperate spot.

[00:26:17] You know, if I don't have to run out to the grocery store today, when things are, you know, when the, the protesters are hanging out over there. Cause they don't like prices and tariffs or whatever, you know, not that we're really seeing that yet. I just, these are the things I think could be coming and that we need to keep an eye out for. Um, also like Kevin said, you know, shortages like coffee or things like that. If they get expensive or they don't even get imported, you know, that's the thing.

[00:26:47] One of the things people don't realize is all these factories are shutting down in China because they're not getting the sales. And there's a lot of little manufacturers that are closing their doors. And with the different manufacturers closing their doors, that means things aren't being made. And when things aren't being made, all of a sudden you don't have access to it.

[00:27:15] And, you know, maybe there's only one guy out there who makes sporks or, you know, any of these other things, you know, I don't really know what it is that, you know, each thing that's going to impact you directly. But also what I find is it's the global economy is so much bigger than we imagine it. So think of it like this. If you make, right. Say, you know, I work for a company that makes engines.

[00:27:43] If we make engines and the one company that makes spark plugs goes out of business and there's no spark plugs for anybody, that's a problem. And a lot of little things in China are shutting down because of this. I mean, they're just collapsing. There's no money. You can't keep the doors open if you can't pay the electric bill. If those factories shut down, then you're just stuck. You know, the spark plugs go away.

[00:28:12] Then that means the engines go away and the engines are in America, you know, being made. But if I don't have those spark plugs, I mean, that's just an example. I don't know. Anyway, where I work, they don't make engines with spark plugs, so it's not really a thing. But you get the idea. You know, it's just one thing that that could go away and disappear on us. And you have to plan for that because that whole supply chain we saw with COVID.

[00:28:40] You know, my truck, I had to get a new engine in my truck and there were no new engines to be found because of the chip shortage and all that. Any little piece in that supply chain can break down. And that's one of the big things where I think you could kind of find fault with Trump with the tariffs is. That. It needs to come in a slow time. And that's the problem with our four year election cycle.

[00:29:10] They don't have a slow time to do it. You know, you have to get it done right now because the next guy is going to overturn it if I don't win. And because of that, you know, you don't know. So he's got to race this through. And if you race this through, we don't have time to adjust. The market and the economy doesn't have time to adjust. Right. Right. I think that that's a that's one of the big things that a slow rollout of these tariffs would be very beneficial.

[00:29:40] But when you have to hammer it in all at once and everybody's just got to deal with it, then that kind of sucks. You know, it's just stressful for everybody. And that's not good for anything. It's definitely not good for stark stock markets. It's not good for your retirement plan. It's not good for your 401k. And that's, you know, that's terrifying. The trade war is just kind of crazy.

[00:30:10] And, you know, that's it. These countries are kind of returning the favor and doing the same. We can't sell things. But I would say you need to kind of get things in order. And the more things are still available and still easy, I would try and, you know, work things out. I mean, I mentioned, you know, yeah, it'd be cool if the president had a longer term. Right. That would be awesome.

[00:30:39] But I mean, you know, who knows if because if you get the wrong guy, it could be really bad. And the country could really turn if you have the wrong guy in the office for way too long. You would think that with the mix, you know, because we have the Congress, the House, like we do elections every other year. Like I think the House is four year terms, but they're alternated, like half of them do in one cycle.

[00:31:07] So like every two years you're electing the other half. And I think senators, are they two year terms? I'm not even. Six years for senators. Two years for congressmen. Okay. Yeah. See, I'm way off. I'm completely backwards on that. But that's supposed to give you the stability. But we don't have it. And we're so, I think that's one of the big problems is we're so like lockstep with the president. Like the party votes is a giant block.

[00:31:35] Whoever has the majority in the presidency or whatever is just going to, that's what's going to happen. And so you don't get that transition that I think that the constitution planned out for. Right, right. Well, I think the two party polarization that we've had lately is definitely like a detriment to the country.

[00:31:54] It really, you know, you can vote for somebody that, you know, promises one thing, but then the party goes a different way and they're not representing you anymore. Or they're representing the party. Yeah. No, exactly. And that's it. Nobody, nobody stands their ground. I don't know anybody who, it's something like 90% vote lockstep with the party line. It's insane. You know, there is no thought.

[00:32:24] There is no culmination of ideas and different things. You know, whoever the main planners are that decide what the party's going to do, just railroad everybody. And I think that's kind of where, you know, the democratic party got into trouble. They just, they started railroading, you know, everybody into one thing or another.

[00:32:47] And I think if you surround yourself with people who tell you what you want to hear, which Trump and his staff could have been accused of doing possibly the same thing. But they, if you surround yourself with people that tell you what you want to hear, you end up kind of spiraling in one direction. And you don't open up to new ideas and new possibilities. And I think you get into trouble with that.

[00:33:17] And it, you know, I mean, that's great, I guess, if you're the right guy, right? If you're George Washington. But I think that's why people are great leaders is because they know that they should be open to other things and different stuff there. So I don't know. That's what I got. But I just say, you know, be a prepper, man. You got to make sure that you keep things going in the right direction. Plan ahead.

[00:33:43] I would say this is the perfect time where you want to be sure that you have your needs met for the immediate future. You know, being six months prepared. And, you know, I know people can say, oh, well, you know, it's easy to say that now as things are crashing around us. But we kind of been saying it. I don't know if you guys realize. We've been saying it for a long time. There is like a recurring theme of have your stuff squared away. And that's the thing.

[00:34:11] You know, next year it'll be a whole new crisis. And you know what? The theme is going to be the same. Of have your stuff squared away. Be able to sustain and get your resources. The closer to local and the most local is on your property, right? Right. And then next is, you know, in your community, from your friends. You know, the more things are centralized to where you are, the better you can take care of things. And you know what?

[00:34:41] Take care of your stuff. Take care of your people. Right. In the words of Mayhem Country Live in there. Right. Take care of your people. That's what that's our job here. So with that, I would say stay safe. And we will talk to you guys next week.

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