We are in our early 40's and have over 200 acres in the country about 60 miles south(ish) of Louisville. We "plan" / prep as 1 of 50 hobbies. Of course this hobby has a huge payoff should the day ever come we need a safe place to live during an economic collapse or any “accidental” nuclear explostions. The printing of money and giving it to people who don't work has to stop. Sooner or later the middle class is going to wake up and realize what is happenings and demand we balance the books. Of course the “very wealthy” (20+ mil) people are the ones that have the most to lose in the stock market, but "they" count on the middle class just to keep "blindly" putting in 401k monies thinking it will be there in 25 years. The rich use fancy programs to skim from these pensions through the up and down times in the market. Anyway, it's all coming to an end soon. After I put in a hard days work only to come home in hopes to watch a little tv, get on the internet for a few, catch up on household chores, I realize... The welfare people who "get checks" for whatever their reason is, they sit home all day long doing what I want to do after working! They sit in homes with floors (just like mine), drive cars, have electricity, eat way better than us working class people do, they have time to go to the doctor and get prescription pills to resell, all these things I don't do and don't have time to do. It's all coming to an end. Don't get me started on criminals who have better home healthcare than our older parents that can't afford similar retirement homes. People might suggest folks over 75 who worked their entire lives to all agree to rob a bank. Let these people get 3 square meals a day in "prison", play cards, do hobbies, sit around and socialize all day long free of charge! Sounds like the way college was to me!!! Except, we could have prisons made for non-violent offenders. I'm just frustrated and see a time where my fellow middle class citizens are going to wake up. It's all coming to an end soon. So what will happen in Kentucky when things start shutting down and things get defunded is that food will get too expensive. Of course our government will begin to stop funding welfare and food stamps. Basically if you got 2 legs that work and 2 arms, you can work! When it's realized that we've printed too much money, when China does a margin call for their debt, when the rich realizes the middle class is going to stop putting money in the stock market for them to skim, when we the middle class all start "prepping", look out lazy people! The cities will start the looting process. The middle class with just a little means will buy enough to survive for a few months and defend themselves. Some middle class people will have made arrangements with country folks. The National Guard will be brought in, who are good people being taken from their families to again protect the people who don't work! The last act of socialism we will learn from. Anyway, people will start fleeing the city realizing nobody is giving them food any more. Food has became so expensive because all these people w/ no skills have demanded to make $20 per hour (about as much as a school teacher with $50,000 in college debt and a Masters degree). Society will have figured out you need to be at a place that grows your own food and is self-sufficient. There isn't a country home that won't be prepared for the flood of these people (zombies as we call them) come out of their homes looking for food. The "fair" payoff for people who will most likely live a great life of making lots of money, eating in great restaurants, playing golf, driving fancy vehicles, living 10 minutes from work (I commute 2 hours a day), etc. is that they hopefully tuck away gold and silver to bring with them to bug-out, getaway, retreat, safe-haven, if/when this does happen, will be a welcomed gesture to "us" people who have chosen to have hobby farms in the country. I hope you folks realize our country has to see a depression like in 1929 since they've printed so much money and are giving away so much stuff for free. The stock market is an optical allusion. My NON QUALIFIED advice would be to take out a reasonable amount of money and put it into hands-on gold and silver. It’s not like you’re “losing” this money if nothing happens at all. Instead of a 8% average annual return, you may only get 2%. It’s just a mini safety net. Of course I’d have you take out $20,000 from your Roth or IRA and create a partnership with a simple school teacher like myself who has a place in the country. Everyone knows the collapse is going to happen, they just don't know when. WHEN PEOPLE LEAVE THE CITY - At first it will be relatively friendly, but panic will set in after a few weeks when it’s realized the government can’t force the middle class to work and continue to feed the welfare/entitlement people who refuse to work at all. You will have time to see the signs, but looting will take a little time to be rampant. Police will try, but they will slowly be shot at and many of them will quit to protect their own families. The first "victims" will be the entitlement people since they've been so used to be handed stuff their entire life. They will slowly go out and try to gain access and beg the wrong middle class people with guns. Gangs will stay in the cities looting and stealing to survive. They will be the last in the cities to stay and they will be fine. Too many city folks don't keep enough weaponry to fend off a small gang. Of course if these types dare to come out to the country, it won't go so well for them. I don't have a deer rifle, I don't have a handgun, I don't have a shot gun, I don't have an AR-15...I have lots of them. I don't have 1,000's of rounds of ammo, I have tens-of-thousands of rounds. From 100 round magazines to night vision scopes, these "gangs" won't make it 10 miles into the country. Those are the areas country folks will have a harder time controlling, but any hunter-type w/ friends can hold off 100's of people with ease. In the end, it will be about working with your neighbors and local community. All my neighbors have a minimum of 20 acres. It will be a big "base". Roads coming in and out will be shut down and we'll move forward until the civil unrest subsides. My guess is it will take a year or so. Of course our place will be prepared to survive an accidental nuclear war or intentional dirty nuclear explosions, maybe even an air-borne virus / plague that annihilates a large part of our cities populations. All and all, I'll continue to do my hobby farming, kneeboard and wakeboarding, scuba, travel overseas, ride ORV's, manage my food plots for deer, play tennis, and coach sports for kids. But if/when the time comes, we'll be ready. OUR CURRENT PREPS AND PLANS - Weaponry doesn't mean much to me. They are tools I enjoy, but less than 1% of the plans. Anybody can buy a gun and lots of ammo. 90% of the land is wooded, heating with wood is a huge perk, free flowing deep water well, about a 3/4 mile of a flowing creek w/ only 2 bridge crossings to access the property, cows, bulldozer, bobcat, tractor, all the implements, barns, log cabin - and all the toys and tools needed to anything. 3+ generators, fuel storage, mass water storage, 30+ fruit trees, etc, etc. IN PROGRESS - Underground concrete shelter. We need/want a nuclear fallout safe place just in case. It's a good piece of mind. It will be done in about a month. Just some basics like air filtration, a small battery bank, a little solar power, sewage / water drain, water storage...the basics. 12 inch concrete roof w/ 3+ feet of dirt on top. It's really easy to do this type of stuff w/ a bulldozer. MY HOPES AND PROPOSAL - As I said before, we are school teachers. This stuff costs money. Ideally I'd like to find someone with a lake cabin we could use a handful of times throughout the summer and or someone to help contribute with some of the concrete costs of the underground addition. Something like a $15,000 contribution seems fair to buy-in to help pay for the above and to be a part of our community should any civil unrest or martial law be enacted. I really mean no offense to the folks that say how they have guns, ammo, and skills. We really have everything, but lack just a little bit of money. I don't live there full-time, but the payment alone is over $2,000 per month. The gesture of the above amount for a few people, maybe a little more if you needed space for 4+ people. Now if you'd like to have extra space underground for near 10 people, I'd have to draw the line on the concrete shelter and we'd (you) spend $5,000 and put in an additional storage container underground as well. This amount of money is large, but also VERY small in the big picture of retirement plans. I'd also strenuously suggest to have 5%+ of your retirement savings in silver coins. If anything happens, grab your family, gold/silver coins, and get to us ASAP. This property is a "deer ranch" for me, but you'd be welcome to come out and help "play" and make the shelter a better place to survive. Again, this is treated like a “deer ranch, so if you have a few people you’d like to introduce to hunting, I’d probably help you out with that. FOR SALE: I do have 2 acres 1 mile down our road I'd sell for $10,000 on payments ONLY to a like-minded prepper. It's flat tillable land. It's not for sale to any other type of person. I also have a 2 story old farmhouse on 6 acres overlooking the entrance to the road that comes to my place. It's a rough house that needs lots of work. $50,000 but it's not really for sale. Only to like-minded people. People have always lived in it, but it just needs a lot of work. Plumbing works, has a septic, hooked to city water. Has breakers, but needs an outdoor wood heater (since the insulation has to be awful) or propane free-standing heater. I might do $5,000 down. You make the offer on monthly payments. It would make for a great bartering post / place to sell wood or food should that time ever come. It has road frontage on the road between Campbellsville and Elizabethtown. IN SUMMARY - It would be nice to meet a couple / family where we could compliment each other...just in case. teacherhappenings @ hotmail .com