I’m curious, roughly what percentage of your income do you invest in preps?
Also, what do you think is reasonable? If 50% of your income was disposable would you spend it all on preps? Or use some to invest in a retirement plan, leisure, etc.
Posted Feb 13, 2022, 1:44 AM UTC
One of my preps was refinancing to a 15 year mortgage... Cutting 10 years from my payoff plan. My mortgage is a little less due to the equity I've built. I will have no home payment by the time I'm 50.
Nice. I paid off my starter home with 84 acres in 5 years. I bought it after the last crash but hey its my ultimate backup prep. Now I rent it and put that money towards my new mortgage. With stuff going the way it is Its been my best investment.
That's amazing!
I look at retirement plans as prepping for the best outcome, and leisure is prepping my mental health for today... All in the perspective I suppose 🤷🏻♂️
If you can save 50% of your income , that’s great. Check out FIRE financial planning. Please don’t waste 50% of your income on guns and freeze dried food. I’m as much a prepper as anyone but use discretionary money.
Im a millennial, my retirement plan is to die in the climate wars.
In order to max out my employer's contribution I put around 10% of my gross pay into savings. That's the biggest prep, a cushion of cash.
After that it's not much. I maybe spent $200 on some first aid supplies, blankets for the car and another car bag last year.
Lol. It varies.
I was in heavy at one time. Sittin ok now, could always be better. Now, im mostly prepping in other ways, paying off debts, building companies, etc.
But yes, at one time most of my budget was prepping(very broad) in the ways one would typically assume. Ive lived paycheck to paycheck(prep>save)most of my life, and my preps were my life savings(sort of a pun there)
I took it all very seriously the direction things are going, and invested everything i could to better my odds through hard times. Its been about a decade. Worlds still spinning, im reasonably comfy, annnd im gonna enjoy the good times while they last!
The way i see my way is, everything i buy is part of my prep. It is a way of life.
It depends.
I consider my property to be one of my preps, so some part of my mortgage is a prep expense.
Same for my truck and pickup expenses. Then there are the tools and other accoutrements - like axes, chainsaws, fuel and tanks/cans, etc.
Then there are the clothes and other odds and ends.
Then there was savings.
Before I retired, I would say 25% at least?
Now, much less - or I am trying to make it much less - as my income has been cut back to just enough to pay my living expenses (mortgage, food, etc.).
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I try to get one thing a paycheck. Sometimes it’s a small $25 thing other times it’s up on $150. It depends on the item and how much I feel comfortable spending.
Most of my preps serve dual purpose as I like to camp. Stoves, sleeping bags, and tools like axes and knives are all useful depending on the emergency. I took up gardening because of prepping, but it became a hobby I enjoy in its own right as well something I do for food security. So I accumulate things as I need them and use them. I don't have a defined number because there's so much overlap with general lifestyle, but maybe 5%/month if that.
If you count retirement, a lot. If you count prepping, it depends. Now that most of my larger preps are done, I don't spend much specifically on equipment or supplies. I did spent $30 on heirloom seeds yesterday for the garden this spring, and I need to buy some T poles and twine or netting in order to build a trellis for this year's bean crop.
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Right now every single cent is going towards food.
Hell, of 50% of my income was disposable I'd be investing in making passive income with it so I could have more disposable income so I could invest in being self sustainable. Then I'd work on making my community more sustainable.
No idea. But basically whatever I can sneak in and not go bankrupt
I would say 10-30% of our disposable income is intentionally used for prep specific items (i.e. bullets, tools, off grid items, and books etc.) We buy a couple non-perishable items (only if on sale) every grocery trip which adds more. Also, we have chickens & meat rabbits so allot of our money goes into sustaining that aspect of our lives. Honestly I would say 95% is spent on some aspect of sustaining our future. No children and two full-time working stiffs and it still feels like we are scraping by.
Raising chicken and rabbits should lower your yearly food.costs.though. They should breeding and eating the extra or freezing some. It isn't like if shtf 10 years from now you will have many 10 year old rabbits or the room for all the offspring unless acres and setup.
Me and my wife have about 45 percent disposable income. Around 30 percent of it goes into savings/ investments. The other 15 percent goes into random crap we feel like having that month.
Most.food.we buy what we eat and use it and rotate it. The bugout gear is our camping gear. We have a house so tools are.used anyways. Except for some longer lasting food items very little is really extra. We camp and vacation so we even have maps of surrounding states. It did take.awhike.to grow the camping gear and still slowing adding when upgrade or wears out. But since used it is to us not a waste just sitting there.
I'd suggest that retirement plan is part of your preps. So many forget financial preps.
That said, excluding things like retirement planning, no more than 3 to 5%.
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