What I Am Really Prepping For

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[00:02:19] All right, welcome back to the Survival and Basic Badass Podcast, Kevin and Chuck.

[00:02:30] Today we're going to talk about what I'm prepping for, right?

[00:02:36] Me and Kevin, we've been in the business for a while.

[00:02:39] We're kind of go-to preppers kind of thing, and there's a lot of guys out there and a

[00:02:44] lot of people with a lot more crazy stuff than we do.

[00:02:48] I thought people might like some insight of where we're at and what we're actually putting

[00:02:54] most of our energy into, and what we're focused on.

[00:02:59] First, I guess a little housekeeping.

[00:03:02] I want to say that if you guys want to enjoy the show live when we do our thing, you can

[00:03:07] be in the comments and the chat, and we keep everything going.

[00:03:11] You may want to subscribe to the Prepping Badass YouTube channel, and you won't miss

[00:03:16] a trick.

[00:03:17] Also, anywhere you do it, we appreciate likes, subscribe, comment.

[00:03:23] Spotify, we'd love your reviews, Apple, all of it.

[00:03:27] Anyway, I just wanted to get that out there, but let's kind of jump into it.

[00:03:34] One of the things, I mean, obviously I prepare for a lot of things.

[00:03:39] You guys know I kind of worry about EMPs, and a lot of things have redundant preps where

[00:03:46] we store food, we buy guns and ammo.

[00:03:52] We do different things like that, right?

[00:03:55] There's a lot of things going on, and that's going to make me better prepared having food

[00:04:01] and water storage.

[00:04:03] I'm better prepared for a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake, civil unrest, inflation.

[00:04:09] All these things get covered.

[00:04:12] The steps that we take have redundancy.

[00:04:15] Am I worried about an EMP?

[00:04:17] Yeah, I kind of am.

[00:04:19] There's one thing that kind of looms over me, and I feel like impending and kind of inevitable

[00:04:28] is basically inflation.

[00:04:34] I kind of feel like the gap between the haves and the have-nots is getting further and further

[00:04:43] apart.

[00:04:45] I feel like if you don't kind of get into the station where you should be, you might

[00:04:51] miss it.

[00:04:53] That time may go away.

[00:04:59] You know how people think of, there's that movie A Knight's Tale, that kind of medieval

[00:05:05] time kind of thing back in the day?

[00:05:08] There are the serfs, and there are the kings and the royalty.

[00:05:13] It's almost impossible for a serf to change their status, to go from one to the other.

[00:05:23] I'm worried more and more that if you don't end up on the right side of this, now obviously

[00:05:30] none of us are, well, maybe you guys, not me.

[00:05:34] None of us, me and Kevin, aren't in that whole Bill Gates kind of league of good or even

[00:05:43] that far ahead of anybody else.

[00:05:45] The big thing is having your stuff squared away so you're not desperate.

[00:05:49] I think that is my goal, to put yourself in a position where you're not desperate to need

[00:05:58] stuff.

[00:05:59] Now, one of the things that really has me focused on this, we talk about a lot of, they

[00:06:09] talk about the great reset.

[00:06:11] People say, oh, you'll own nothing and you'll be happy.

[00:06:17] That's the whole thing.

[00:06:21] I ended up, I was doing some research for the show and Hillsdale, I think, put something

[00:06:27] in an article about the great reset.

[00:06:29] And it was funny because I got so distracted by the fact check on the bottom that I didn't

[00:06:35] even read the Hillsdale article.

[00:06:37] It didn't even get there.

[00:06:38] It was something about, they were like, this is fake news.

[00:06:41] This is false.

[00:06:43] It was the funniest thing and I actually put it in the link.

[00:06:46] But the headline was, fact check, the great reset is not a secret plan or a secret plan

[00:06:55] mastermind by global elites to limit freedom and push radical policy.

[00:07:01] It's funny because if you actually read through it, they're like, it's not secret.

[00:07:06] They have a website.

[00:07:08] That's why it's false.

[00:07:10] It's not a secret plan, bro.

[00:07:13] There's a little bit more to it.

[00:07:15] They explain it away, but that's pretty much their anchor to their whole argument.

[00:07:20] They're like, no, it's about how we're going to come together and be a global community

[00:07:25] and steering markets towards fair outcomes.

[00:07:30] Well, that's the problem.

[00:07:31] I think it's all relative, like fairer for who?

[00:07:36] Right.

[00:07:37] Right.

[00:07:38] Well, I mean, it's no secret right now with the amount of inflation that's been going

[00:07:43] on, grocery prices are going way up.

[00:07:45] Energy costs are going way up.

[00:07:47] Gas is going up.

[00:07:48] Everything's going up right now, except for paychecks.

[00:07:51] So, I mean, how do people survive?

[00:07:53] Well, they're doing it on debt.

[00:07:55] People are getting deeper and deeper in debt.

[00:07:57] Credit cards or credit card balances are going through the roof all across the country.

[00:08:01] Not just for you and your neighbor.

[00:08:04] Everybody's getting in debt, you know, and it's really dangerous.

[00:08:10] You know what I mean?

[00:08:10] It's, you know, if you're making, you know, $40,000 a year and you have $40,000 in your

[00:08:20] debt, good luck, bro.

[00:08:21] Yeah.

[00:08:22] You know?

[00:08:22] And it's, you know, we're not trying to make you feel bad.

[00:08:25] That's not the thing.

[00:08:26] I mean, honestly, there's ways out of it.

[00:08:30] And by that, I mean like bankruptcy and things.

[00:08:33] But, you know, they don't put you in debtor's prison or something, you know?

[00:08:39] Yeah, but you might not be living in that $400,000 house that you bought and you could

[00:08:43] afford then, you know, you could afford when you bought it.

[00:08:48] Yeah, that's the thing.

[00:08:50] And I think our government is doing a great job of masking how bad things are getting

[00:08:59] and how bad things are for people.

[00:09:02] And I actually have some evidence and some proof that I'm going to lay out for you guys

[00:09:07] that, you know, kind of help this make sense.

[00:09:10] The big thing is, right, we all know that inflation is going up.

[00:09:14] Things are costing more at the grocery store, right?

[00:09:17] When you go get gas, it's more expensive.

[00:09:20] It's not brutal.

[00:09:20] You know, it hasn't, I mean, obviously, you know, people show, you know, $1.90 when Trump

[00:09:25] was in office and $3.50 now.

[00:09:28] That's a lot more significant, but that's like the least of your problems when you're

[00:09:34] paying your bills.

[00:09:36] Like right now, your electric bill is probably double since, you know, four years ago.

[00:09:41] And I'm not trying to make a comparison of Trump and whatever.

[00:09:46] Bottom line, if Trump gets elected, it's still going to be crappy, right?

[00:09:49] Yeah.

[00:09:50] Things are going down a bad road.

[00:09:52] I'm not-

[00:09:52] If there was a simple solution for the problems that we're having, somebody would have already

[00:09:58] done it.

[00:09:58] There is no simple solution.

[00:10:00] It's, as far as the economy, it's a sinking ship.

[00:10:05] And I know nobody wants to hear that, but that's how I see it.

[00:10:09] And now work with me.

[00:10:11] So basically, you know, everything's more expensive.

[00:10:15] Your electric bill, sure as heck if you buy a house and have interest rates right now,

[00:10:21] you know, high sevens is where people are coming in on a regular first mortgage.

[00:10:26] And that's with good credit.

[00:10:28] Yeah.

[00:10:28] That's when you're ready to go.

[00:10:30] Everyone thinks how crazy over 30 years.

[00:10:33] And, you know, and those fees, it gets you.

[00:10:36] All right.

[00:10:37] So you're buying a house.

[00:10:38] And the thing is, house prices are up.

[00:10:41] They're not down.

[00:10:42] It's not like, you know, they're relative.

[00:10:45] Now sales are a little slower, but that's something.

[00:10:50] So here's the next thing that should concern you.

[00:10:52] You're like, well, I already got my house and I got it situated or, you know, I inherited

[00:10:57] grandma's house and I'm good.

[00:10:59] All right.

[00:10:59] That's cool.

[00:11:00] Now we're going to talk about second mortgages and refinance and all that.

[00:11:04] It's going to get a little scary for you.

[00:11:06] So 80% of mortgages are backed by the government, meaning their FHA, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae,

[00:11:15] that kind of thing.

[00:11:17] 85% of delinquent mortgages are backed by the federal government.

[00:11:24] That means we're all on the hook for that.

[00:11:27] That's not cool.

[00:11:28] That means the bank gets paid, but it doesn't mean that you could get to keep your house.

[00:11:33] 11% of government mortgages are currently delinquent.

[00:11:40] Okay.

[00:11:40] 11%.

[00:11:41] That's pretty high.

[00:11:44] But the problem is those numbers only reflect like government backed mortgages.

[00:11:51] All right.

[00:11:52] Because that's all they're really checking.

[00:11:54] Those are the only people that have to really report.

[00:11:56] And you're saying, well, the percentage should be the same, but I'm going to tell you something.

[00:12:01] There's private mortgages.

[00:12:02] And what happens is, and you're thinking, well, that's got to be few and far between,

[00:12:07] but it's not really that few and not that far in between.

[00:12:12] And nobody really has solid stats on that.

[00:12:14] So that's where it gets a little hanky.

[00:12:17] What's happening is when people start to get behind on their payments,

[00:12:22] they get a phone call from somebody who wants to invest in real estate.

[00:12:27] All those courses you keep seeing advertised on your Facebook feed and that kind of thing.

[00:12:32] Somebody is calling them up and saying, hey, I see you're having trouble with your mortgage.

[00:12:38] How about I guarantee that nobody will foreclose on you in the next five years if you pay

[00:12:45] your minimums or whatever, and I'll bring your loan current and whatever.

[00:12:49] And they write in deals and they say, let me assume your mortgage, which is not really,

[00:12:55] most mortgages aren't assumable.

[00:12:57] But what they do is they write up a contract that basically they still are paying the mortgage.

[00:13:02] The letter is still first, but you're paying, it's a big, it's a smoke show.

[00:13:10] And so what's happening is these people are holding the mortgages and the people are getting

[00:13:16] further in debt because they obviously are coming at a higher interest rate or something like that.

[00:13:23] Now, here's where it gets even scarier.

[00:13:26] The federal government is starting to see things going off the rails.

[00:13:30] And so they're like, hey, how can we, I want to say stop it, but it's not, it's how can we delay

[00:13:37] this a little bit longer is really the way I read it. But believe it or not, the federal government

[00:13:45] is now backing and this just got approved. I actually, if you're watching us on YouTube,

[00:13:53] I have a little proposal here on the screen, but basically Freddie Mac is purchasing

[00:14:03] single family second mortgages. Now these are your home equity loan, Helix and the line of credit,

[00:14:17] all this nonsense. And it's all good stuff and it has a purpose if you're using it wisely.

[00:14:25] If you're buying more properties and able to leverage things, taking equity out of your house

[00:14:31] is not a bad play. It's what you do with money that you borrow. It's what you do.

[00:14:37] And you want to make sure that the world isn't going to drop out from under you.

[00:14:41] In 2009, everything went way up the real estate market. It got really high and everybody was like,

[00:14:49] cool if I just buy a million properties and I leverage, and then the market kind of crashed

[00:14:55] and people weren't getting the rents. And then it was like, oh crap, now I'm leveraged all over the

[00:15:01] place. And a lot of people even lost their primary residence because they pulled all the equity out

[00:15:07] of it. So what I'm getting at is, so the federal government is saying to lenders, hey, if you do an

[00:15:15] equity loan, then don't worry about it. You should give it to people who don't even really qualify.

[00:15:24] So say my mortgage is $2,000 a month, right? Because I have a crappy interest rate and whatever.

[00:15:30] But I also, because all of a sudden the real estate market has doubled in the last three or

[00:15:36] four years. I have a hundred thousand dollars in equity in my house. They're like, hey, look,

[00:15:42] you're two months behind in your mortgage. But if we give you an equity line, I can give you 80

[00:15:50] grand, bring you to call it up and you'll have all this money. Well, people are like, great.

[00:15:56] Everything's easier and things go on and they don't mind lending it even though you couldn't afford

[00:16:02] your mortgage before. Now you can't afford your mortgage and a half. The thing is, you'll be able

[00:16:10] to afford it for maybe two years because you got this big lump sum of cash. But yeah, people that

[00:16:17] get that, a lot of them aren't using it to save in the bank to make those payments.

[00:16:21] Your truck with the $700 cover payment. I got to have a new truck. Can't have something breaking

[00:16:27] down. Yeah. You got to get to work, Kevin. You need something reliable.

[00:16:30] I know somebody that did that specifically. They took out a home equity loan.

[00:16:38] Amongst some of the things they bought was a $700 cuckoo clock because they felt like they

[00:16:46] needed it. That $12,000 they got was gone immediately.

[00:16:54] Yeah. No, that's it. People are just pulling this money out. And the thing is though,

[00:16:58] it's going to buy the economy time. And that's why I believe, they may make some other argument,

[00:17:06] but this is why I believe the federal government is pushing it. But the problem is one,

[00:17:11] they're putting you and me on the hook for it because the taxpayers are the ones who back these

[00:17:16] loans. Two, you're feeding into all the conspiracy theories of BlackRock and all these companies are

[00:17:24] buying all the real estate. And it really seems to fit that you will own nothing.

[00:17:32] But you're happy. You're dumb and happy right now because you got a little money,

[00:17:36] a little cash in your pocket for right now. I guess my big warning with this is

[00:17:44] don't give up the equity in your house. Because the problem is a lot of these, believe it or not,

[00:17:50] actually FHA and Freddie Mac have said 9.5% is the example of where they're suggesting these

[00:18:00] loans might be at. 9.5% is crap. That's crazy. Yeah. You're getting towards credit card numbers

[00:18:08] there. They're extending who qualifies for this stuff. And now your house is leveraged at 100%

[00:18:17] of its equity. I mean, I know they'll tell you, oh, it's 80% is all we'll loan out. Okay. Whatever.

[00:18:22] But you're right at the max. And I believe that these houses aren't really worth exactly what

[00:18:31] your thing on Zillow says. When you look on Zillow and you're like, oh, 460,000. And the thing is a

[00:18:38] few people might get out early and be able to be like, hey, I'll sell it. Yeah. Be able to make it.

[00:18:43] 460 or whatever the heck it says it's worth. But I think once people are stuck and start trying to

[00:18:51] sell their houses, it's going to be a no-go. Yeah. And that's the problem. I have a significant

[00:18:58] amount of equity in my house. Right. But if I sold my house, I just have to buy another expensive

[00:19:04] house. You know what I mean? Just because I'm making more from the sale doesn't mean I'm going

[00:19:09] to get a good deal on the next place. I still have to keep all my stuff somewhere. And the thing

[00:19:15] is your mortgage payment might be based on two, three, 4% interest rate. All of a sudden you're

[00:19:22] going to a 7% interest rate or 8% interest rate. Now you're not looking so cool with that payment

[00:19:29] each month. It makes a big difference. So I guess the big thing and where I'm going with this

[00:19:38] is it's all about how much value you have that are real assets. Because that's the thing,

[00:19:49] rich people don't hurt with inflation. Because guess what? If I own everything,

[00:19:55] all my stuff just went up in value. Right. If I have cool cars and I have cool houses. Now,

[00:20:02] we'll say that on paper, it goes up. Your house goes from 100,000 to 400,000 over the last seven

[00:20:09] years. It's going up in value. Now it might only be worth 300,000. But you still, I have value.

[00:20:21] I have real equity. Well, I see a lot of people that don't have a firm understanding of how that

[00:20:29] stuff works. They complain, they'd be like, well, Jeff Bezos, if he gave all his money away,

[00:20:36] it would be all this. It's a pie and everybody has a certain amount of slices that... He's got

[00:20:43] the bigger slice, but he doesn't have a billion dollars sitting in a bank account. He has assets.

[00:20:51] Right. That money is making him money. The whole world is a goddamn kitchen,

[00:20:59] make your own fucking pie. That's the way to look at it. You can't say, oh, he's got half the pie and

[00:21:06] everybody else has to split the rest of it. That's not really how it works.

[00:21:10] Right. We got to keep making the pies. And that's one of the things, right? So people

[00:21:16] look at it like that. So imagine there's a finite amount of resources. Kevin, there's only

[00:21:21] a hundred pieces of gold in the world. Okay. But now we're printing money, right? And we print

[00:21:28] billions and billions. Well, if we all want gold and gold is the goal, then all of a sudden it takes

[00:21:36] a lot more of those dollars to buy one of those pieces of gold because we have a lot of dollars

[00:21:41] going around. But here's the cool thing. If you have some rich, evil, miser guy like Scrooge

[00:21:48] McDuck, right? And he's got the big vault. But I actually saw an episode where he talked about

[00:21:54] that big vault and he said that was just his day-to-day operating money, that he's not actually

[00:22:00] hoarding it. So don't think that that's what he's doing. It's out there working for him.

[00:22:05] I'm just saying, people think, oh, I need the big gold stash. You need that money working for you.

[00:22:11] But anyway- I saw something recently there talking about the richest people in comic book land.

[00:22:16] Yeah. Richie Rich?

[00:22:20] Richie Rich is one of them. Batman. Bruce Wayne. But the richest person in all of comic book land

[00:22:29] is actually Scrooge McDuck. Yes. That guy's a rock star. He doesn't mess around. And he's just

[00:22:36] constantly dropping that financial advice. I mean, you can't lose with that, right?

[00:22:41] Yep. So anyway, so you have to set them out. But the thing is when somebody is a billionaire,

[00:22:47] right? And I'll use a dramatic example, right? So say that there's only $3 billion of all the

[00:22:54] dollar bills in the whole world. And a billionaire has 1 billion. He has a third of all the money.

[00:23:01] Well, guess what? If he takes that money and hides it under his mattress,

[00:23:06] that just makes less in the general supply out there trying to buy gold.

[00:23:10] That's actually going to bring up the value of gold by him not spending it.

[00:23:16] Right. Now, if he goes the other way and he spends the money by going in and buying,

[00:23:22] hey, I'm going to have a fancy yacht built. Well, guess what? A lot of people are getting

[00:23:27] paid to make that yacht. Right.

[00:23:29] And hey, I'm going to get a new condo on the beach. Somebody is getting paid for that. The money,

[00:23:36] it's not finite, like Kevin said. It goes around. So I'm just saying there is a lot going on. And

[00:23:45] I'm not saying run out and buy assets because I think my goal, like I said, the episode is what

[00:23:53] I'm doing is to be out of debt and to pay things off and not be in a desperate spot.

[00:24:01] But I also have been slowly building up to where I'm not going to be in a desperate situation,

[00:24:08] even if my job goes away, even if money goes away. And I'm not talking about by having 30

[00:24:14] grand in the bank or a hundred grand in the bank. That's not what I mean because honestly,

[00:24:20] I feel like that could disappear. I feel like that's going to be robbed through inflation.

[00:24:25] I feel like the government might just say, you know what? Anybody who has more than five grand

[00:24:30] in the bank, they're just greedy and I'm going to take it. That wouldn't surprise me.

[00:24:35] Right.

[00:24:35] To me, that's not really an acceptable outcome.

[00:24:43] Unless you're a billionaire because those people are using that money to create jobs,

[00:24:46] not like you just hoarding it.

[00:24:49] You guys are all hoarding money, right?

[00:24:51] But there is, like you said, there is a bigger and bigger gulf between the richest of the rich

[00:24:57] and the poorest of the poor in the United States. And if you make $30,000 a year,

[00:25:03] you're in the top 2%. You know what I mean? There's people all over the world that are

[00:25:07] starving to death.

[00:25:08] Right, of the world, not of the US.

[00:25:09] Of the world. If you're making $30,000 in the United States, that's welfare. That's like

[00:25:17] you need to get some food stamps and get your shit together.

[00:25:20] Right. No, exactly. So that's the thing. So what preps am I actually doing? So, all right,

[00:25:28] that's why I have the rabbits. That's why I have the chickens. Now, mind you, I'm paying

[00:25:33] a fair amount in feed because feed is freaking expensive. I talked about there was a video I put

[00:25:39] out earlier in the week that I have turkeys and only a couple of them. But man, I think by the

[00:25:46] time they're grown, they're going to have cost me about $50 a piece worth of feed. And that's kind

[00:25:53] of ridiculous.

[00:25:54] Yeah. And I mean, it's hard when you're raising animals like that because you can let them out and

[00:25:59] they can free range and they can do a lot for themselves. But also, the foxes and the coyotes

[00:26:05] and the hawks also are free range.

[00:26:07] My chickens free range and they offset a lot of the bills there. I guess my wife read some kind

[00:26:14] of rules about turkeys and chickens aren't supposed to be eating each other's poop or whatever.

[00:26:19] I don't know. And I'm like, lots of people have turkeys and chickens together, but she's worried

[00:26:24] about it. So we have them kind of in a finite cage. And now, mind you, I say a cage, not like

[00:26:33] government approved size living space. I mean, like 20 foot by 10 foot for four chickens.

[00:26:40] Right.

[00:26:40] Gets moved every day or whatever, a chicken tractor kind of thing and whatever. But all right.

[00:26:49] So I'm growing my own food. Right. I'm out there planting, stocking up on some food storage.

[00:26:57] Right. I'm making sure that I have a full pantry kind of thing. And this is not something that

[00:27:04] I went out and did over the last week or the last month. This is something that I've been

[00:27:09] building up over time. And that's what people don't get. A lot of people get overwhelmed with

[00:27:14] prepping because they're like, oh, you know, it's so daunting. It's so much. Do I buy?

[00:27:21] Do I buy guns and ammo? Do I buy, you know, food? Do I buy, you know, clothes? Do I pay off my debt?

[00:27:29] It's overwhelming. And the idea is to slowly take more steps as they become available.

[00:27:35] And I think your first priority should really be to, you know, once you have a little cushion,

[00:27:41] you know, what is it? Dave Ramsey is talking about, you know, you set aside maybe a thousand

[00:27:51] dollars and then, you know, the emergency fund. Well, you should set aside some money for the

[00:27:57] emergency fund and you should set aside some food for the emergency preps. You should set aside,

[00:28:04] you know, and maybe that's two weeks worth of food, right? For the old get start, you know,

[00:28:10] extra. All right. And you set aside, you know, some extra, maybe an extra five gallon gas can

[00:28:17] in the yard to kind of keep things going just in case they get a little hairy. But once you

[00:28:21] things set your priority should probably be paying off debt. That's always been my approach,

[00:28:29] right? And I've done a lot to structure my life to be that way. And now I'm doing, you know,

[00:28:35] reasonably well in the world that we live in. You know, I'm still not going out to eat much.

[00:28:41] I still drive by McDonald's and I'm like, Ooh, I can't afford that. Right.

[00:28:47] It says 70, 70% of the 70% of people in the United States now consider fast food a luxury.

[00:28:56] Right. Isn't that crazy? And well, I mean, it used to be the fast food, you know,

[00:29:00] it used to be fast food was, was cheap, fast, you know, it tasted like shit, but it was cheap.

[00:29:05] Now it's expensive. It's slow and it still tastes like shit. So, I mean,

[00:29:09] you know, yeah, it's funny because I've spent a long time getting here and it's funny because now

[00:29:18] when I go do something or I want something, I don't have to use a credit card. I'm like,

[00:29:22] Ooh, I'm rich. I didn't have to use a credit card for that. Do you see that?

[00:29:27] I just went in there with money and I'm like, and that's my standard of rich. Right.

[00:29:33] Yeah. You know, when you don't have to think about the money, that's a whole other level.

[00:29:38] That's a different level. Yeah.

[00:29:39] Mega rich. Right. Yeah. Me it's, I can go to McDonald's and I'm not putting it out

[00:29:46] so I'm one of the bougie class. Yeah. Yeah. I paid $50 in cash.

[00:29:52] Right. Yeah. That $8 hamburger now McDonald's is selling a big Mac is $8 now, $5 for a large fry.

[00:30:01] It's getting rough out there, man. It's rough for everybody. I can't tell you the last time

[00:30:06] I could can't tell you the last time I ate McDonald's or any fast food, honestly, just

[00:30:11] not because I'm healthy. It's just because I can't afford it.

[00:30:14] Can't afford it. It's going to make us all skinny, right? We're going to get skinny cause

[00:30:19] we have to drive by McDonald's too often. Nah, it's a crazy world out there. And that's the thing.

[00:30:26] Like I haven't, I don't really go to fast food places like that, but you know, you get my point

[00:30:30] and it's well, no, I go to bougie fast food, like something better, like cookout or, you know,

[00:30:36] we don't know where people go, but you get the point. Another thing I wanted to talk about,

[00:30:43] and this is even crazier. People say, Oh, they're the government. They're not trying

[00:30:47] to control us. Well, they kind of are. So Europe now again, you're like, well, Europe,

[00:30:52] I don't live in Europe and maybe some of you do, right? But Europe has the whole ESG score thing.

[00:30:59] And they have, they just, it was up for debate and I believe it just passed. I've seen some

[00:31:07] news reports that say that it just passed again, all this stuff I'm talking about, about the

[00:31:12] mortgages, about the news stories, about the fake news with the great reset. I put it all in the

[00:31:18] comments so you can go and check my sources and see what I'm talking about. Or maybe you're just

[00:31:24] interested and want to learn more about it. But another thing with the ESG stuff in Europe,

[00:31:33] so they basically had proposed a law that anybody who does business in Europe is going to have to

[00:31:40] meet these standards. Now, ESG basically, it encompasses a lot of stuff and this is actually

[00:31:48] off the ESG website and the proposed laws. They want to address climate change.

[00:31:56] They say mitigation, climate change adaptation, sustainable use and protection of water and marine

[00:32:03] resources, transition to a circular economy. I don't even know what that means. Pollution,

[00:32:10] prevention and control. And then here's the last one, protection and restoration of biodiversity

[00:32:18] and ecosystems. So it includes wokeness. It includes taking care of the planet.

[00:32:24] It includes global warming. If that's outside taking care of the planet, I don't really know.

[00:32:30] But the thing is with this, so what they proposed is that every company who does business with

[00:32:40] Europe is going to have to fall in line with these guidelines. So even though your laws

[00:32:46] in your country, your state don't apply, if you sell to any company that does business in Europe,

[00:32:56] or if you sell your stuff to Europe, you have to comply with all these standards that they

[00:33:03] approve of. And that's wokeness, that's all kinds of craziness. And I don't know,

[00:33:10] that gets a little scary because think about Amazon, they sell in Europe. So if I sell my

[00:33:18] products on Amazon, does that mean I have to comply? It kind of does. Now, I heard news stories

[00:33:25] about this and they were a lot of scare tactics and, oh, whatever. But basically it's a staggered

[00:33:33] timeline of when these things kind of happened. So like the beginning of this year, if you had

[00:33:39] 500 employees or more, you would have to start collecting data and track it, right? And reporting

[00:33:46] in 25. After 25, you had certain criteria you had to meet and basically things keep escalating

[00:33:55] until 28 where it's kind of a full on compliance to all this stuff. But now China, China's not

[00:34:03] going to comply with this. So does that mean that Europe is going to stop buying from China? I find

[00:34:13] that hard to believe. I imagine it all kind of falls apart with that and that's how it works in

[00:34:19] my fantasy mind. But it also, this stuff, it's about hiring diversity and diversity has a whole

[00:34:29] new meaning. It just doesn't mean, oh, I have people who are Irish and, oh, people who came

[00:34:38] from Africa or people who came from Italy and look at my diverse. No, it's all kinds of things.

[00:34:45] I have handicapped people. And I'm not saying any of these things are bad, but you can only

[00:34:51] comply with so much without- Without diluting, yeah, damaging your-

[00:34:58] Specific criteria, right? You've kind of hurt your brand. So that's what you think about.

[00:35:07] And I'm not saying that by being inclusive, you hurt your brand. I'm saying that you have to be

[00:35:14] very limited on the pool you can draw from and that's going to hurt things. But I don't know.

[00:35:21] Kevin, thoughts? Yeah. I mean, my thoughts are right now,

[00:35:27] get your credit cards paid off. Get your debt paid off. That interest is killing you. And people

[00:35:35] are getting deeper and deeper in debt everywhere. Don't be one of those people. Right now, it's real

[00:35:40] easy to buy all the things you're used to having on credit with great interest rates that you're

[00:35:48] going to be paying off for the next 70 years. I remember I'd gotten a credit card bill, this is a

[00:35:53] few years now, I'd gotten a credit card bill where the estimated time for payoff, I'd have been 71

[00:36:01] years old if I paid just like the payments. Now, I had to get out. That scared the shit out of me.

[00:36:07] You know what I mean? That's the sort of stuff you got to get out from under. You don't want to

[00:36:11] be paying that McDonald's meal. You don't want to be paying that off for the next four years.

[00:36:16] For years, right? And that's one of the things, right? So people don't seem to comprehend,

[00:36:22] if I have a credit card bill of $3,000 and... Because again, to some people, $3,000 is

[00:36:32] insurmountable. To other people, that number is 20 grand. Other people have 60 grand in credit

[00:36:38] card debt. It's all relative to your income. And that level of insurmountable is different.

[00:36:48] But the cost of products that you're buying is going to keep going up and your income isn't

[00:36:54] going to go up as fast. So when you're getting in debt now, it's only going to get worse going forward.

[00:37:03] I see with teenagers and young people, maybe it's not teenagers, young people in their 20s

[00:37:09] and stuff where it's like, oh, I have $3,000 in credit card debt, but they don't bat an eye

[00:37:15] at going to McDonald's and spending 20 bucks or going and getting a $7 coffee drink on the way

[00:37:23] to work or whatever. But I'm like, do you realize if you didn't get that $7 coffee drink every day

[00:37:30] for the month and you put that money on the credit card, because that $7 coffee drink,

[00:37:36] because you... And even if you're paying cash for it, because you have the debt on the credit card,

[00:37:42] that $7 coffee drink is going to cost you probably $20, $30 over time.

[00:37:49] It's funny, I was just watching this girl talking about her student loans and I actually didn't

[00:37:54] really realize it was this bad, but she was like, oh, I have $80,000 in student loans.

[00:38:01] And she's like, I've been paying on it for six years. And she goes, and last year,

[00:38:06] I knew if I wanted to get ahead, I had to do a bulk payment to start to get on top of it.

[00:38:14] And so she started with 80,000, last year she did a bulk payment of 6,000

[00:38:21] on top of her minimum required. And she's like, and I just looked at where I'm at

[00:38:27] and she started with 80, she paid a bulk payment of 6,000 and she still owes $76,000.

[00:38:35] And she's like, she just started crying. She's like, I don't understand. And then she goes and

[00:38:41] does the math and paying the minimum payments, she had already paid 120,000 towards her student

[00:38:49] loans. And she's only gotten $4,000 ahead. That's insane.

[00:38:55] I think it's crazy. And I hear these stories all the time, people saying that they started

[00:39:00] out with $60,000. They paid $500 a month on these loans and now they have $80,000 because they've

[00:39:08] been paying less than the interest. And that, I mean, when they talk about Biden talks about the

[00:39:15] student loan forgiveness and shit like that, and we can all talk shit about it and stuff like that.

[00:39:21] But the fact of the matter is we're giving 18 year olds hundreds of thousands of dollars

[00:39:28] and we're like, they're smart enough to make wise decisions when it comes to this.

[00:39:33] And they get a degree in art history and then they're fucked. The rest of their life is just

[00:39:39] fucked. Because the decision you made when you're 18 and you don't know a goddamn thing when you're

[00:39:45] 18. Right. And that's what enrages me. So my wife keeps getting on me on this because she's like,

[00:39:55] well, it is kind of unrealistic what we do to these kids and whatever. Now, again,

[00:40:01] we're totally screwing the kid who said, you know what? I can see this picture and I see that's a

[00:40:07] horrible decision. So the few kids who do make good decisions, they get screwed when the rest

[00:40:13] of us pay it off. Right. Because they're going to be the ones who are paying it off in addition

[00:40:18] to everybody else. Right. But on the flip side, these other kids are totally getting the shaft.

[00:40:26] And so it's one of those, you don't know what to do, because you're like, oh yeah, that just

[00:40:31] doesn't work. So if you're 18 and you're in the show and you're thinking about taking $150,000

[00:40:37] out for college, let me tell you this, get a job as a plumber because you can get that.

[00:40:42] You can get that electrician certificate in about six months. And there's nothing wrong

[00:40:47] with making the money and then going to school if that's what you want. And it turns out you can

[00:40:52] do it. You can actually make enough money to pay for school without loans, especially with all these

[00:40:57] tax credits and shenanigans the government gives you. And actually, if you put effort into applying

[00:41:03] for scholarships, there are some out there. There's not a lot out there, but there's some

[00:41:09] out there available to people. It's degree dependent too. I mean, you're a lot more

[00:41:14] likely to get grants for engineering or something like that than-

[00:41:18] A girl that is doing math and engineering, that's a big thing. And Kevin, maybe you just

[00:41:25] need to identify. I was thinking about getting the implants. I'm not sure.

[00:41:29] Maybe you could maybe get the degree. I'm not sure how that works.

[00:41:33] Yeah. I mean, I don't know what the rules are. Do I have to have the implants to identify,

[00:41:37] or can I just get a bra and stuff it with tissue paper?

[00:41:41] I think you just wake up that day and- Just say-

[00:41:44] Yeah. Okay. I identify as having double Ds.

[00:41:49] Do you? No, but I mean, that's the thing. I mean, there's options available to you is all I'm

[00:41:54] saying. Hey, you do you, right? All right. So here's the thing though. So these kids,

[00:42:02] all through high school, all the teachers are saying, at least with my kids, was you need to

[00:42:08] go to college. You're going to be nothing without college. You need to study. You need to go to

[00:42:14] college and pay for that no matter what it takes. That's what you need to do. And I don't see any

[00:42:20] teachers, and I don't think my kids have had any teachers that are like, hey, community college is

[00:42:26] doable for two years, and at least you can offset a lot of that income. Nobody's putting it out like

[00:42:31] that. A lot of kids are coming out with the mindset that community college is less than,

[00:42:37] and they're going to be not as cool if they do that. And it doesn't, it's the same degree,

[00:42:47] especially when you go on to do a four-year degree, that four-year degree doesn't say,

[00:42:52] oh, but I have to point out- Yeah, two years.

[00:42:55] Two years at community college. That's not how it works. Turns out you just made good choices

[00:43:01] by going to community college. Now I understand there is a different level typically in the

[00:43:06] education you get from a four-year school and from a two-year, but money's money. And it turns

[00:43:14] out you can go to the library. You can study harder on your own if you want to. That's okay.

[00:43:20] And you can get a degree that backs it up. So I'm just saying, that's what I got.

[00:43:26] Now, that's what I'm preparing for, right? Is things to get out of control. I'm preparing to

[00:43:31] get out of debt. I'm preparing to be able to feed my family. I'm preparing to take care of

[00:43:38] things on my own. I'm making sure my vehicles are in working order. I'm making sure that

[00:43:44] I have a vehicle that, you know what? It's got 250,000 miles, but it's well-maintained versus

[00:43:52] something that's new and has 10,000 miles on it, but I can't afford to do the maintenance

[00:43:58] because I used all my money on the car payment. That's where you make the decisions.

[00:44:01] Yeah, I see that a lot with people that have like a Mercedes or BMWs, those are great vehicles,

[00:44:09] you know? Those are great vehicles, but go get the alternator changed in an old Ford pickup truck and

[00:44:16] then in a Mercedes and see the difference. Right. Exactly. I was talking to one of the

[00:44:20] guys, we were talking about Harleys versus Hondas. They're like, oh, I go get an oil change

[00:44:28] and a tune up on my Honda and it's 150 and I go get the same thing on a Harley and it's 1500.

[00:44:36] Yeah. A lot of these things, especially right now, a lot of people are getting deeper and deeper into

[00:44:42] debt. They're really getting in trouble. It's not just you. It's not just your

[00:44:50] neighborhood. It's all across the country. People are making less and less money compared to what

[00:44:57] their living expenses are. And it's crazy if you look to see the amount of debt that people are in

[00:45:03] just over the past five years, insane. Insane. People are living off of credit cards right now

[00:45:10] just to keep the same standard of living that they've become accustomed to.

[00:45:16] And it's easy to do. It's easy to get in debt. It's easy to get credit cards. It's easy to

[00:45:23] get a loan. These things are easy. People are willing to give you as much money as you want,

[00:45:30] and they're going to get way more than what they let you back. And it's about keeping your head

[00:45:37] when things get difficult really is what it comes down to. Yeah. No, that's right. So I think

[00:45:44] takeaway is we should be the bank and not the borrower. All right. So anyway, I really appreciate

[00:45:52] you guys being here and checking us out. I need you to appreciate you checking us out.

[00:46:00] Like and subscribe wherever you are. Leave comments, reviews. You have questions, concerns,

[00:46:05] show ideas. Email us at preppingbadass at gmail.com. With that, stay safe and I will talk

[00:46:13] to you guys next week.