It’s a truism in the personal finance world that every household should have an emergency fund covering 3-6 months of expenses, at a minimum. It’s a good rule, and I follow it. (Something tells me that when the economy rebounds and people start making money again, many MORE people are going to follow this rule, as well. Feeling like you have no cash, but being surrounded by many many dollars worth of STUFF is a poopy feeling that I think many millions are presently experiencing.)
The present Coronavirus pandemic, however, has forced our collective hand in other ways. We now see that not just CASH is needed at a moment’s notice. So I want to expand the rule to three months of emergency coverage all the way around.
For a hot minute there, it looked like COVID-19 was going to threaten our collective access to lots of essentials. And as we’ve all seen, once scarcity looms, panic buying ensues. (Because God forbid you don’t have a year’s supply of toilet paper on hand… what is that about!?)
Let’s say an even deadlier, more rapidly-spreading coronavirus appears in a few years, which is a complete possibility (I’m told there are thousands already out there plotting their takeover of the pandemic spotlight). Or what if a solar flare cuts all communication lines as it did in 1859. Or some other black swan event disrupts our lives once again which no one predicts (except Bill Gates, it seems). Are these likely to happen? On any given day, no. But are these likely to happen ever in the future? You betcha. Chances be real high.
So maybe… let’s be ready for calamity? I heard somewhere that’s a good step to take…?
Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy [bum!] Learn from their ways and be wise! For though they have no king to make them work [they don’t even have FEMA telling them this is what you should be doing!], yet they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
Proverbs 6:6-8
Take reasonable steps to prepare… without freaking out. You know, you CAN do one without the other. Really! Here are a few ideas:
Get a chest freezer and fill it
You know, one of these bad boys. Order an entire cow from the butcher and store it in one of these almost indefinitely. Pound-for-pound, you’re saving mucho dinero on good meat. You have high-quality steaks at hand. So when your kid graduates high school (or you’re just throwing a next-level 4th of July party) you have the household infrastructure to throw a real celebration. And when *it*, the OTHER cow product, hits the fan, you won’t have to just eat rice and beans.
Learn to garden
This is an incredibly cheap hobby… and with so many benefits!
- It gets you outside soaking up Vitamin D.
- If you eat your own grub, you know exactly what you’re putting in your body. The vegetables you grow are going to be more nutrient-dense than the weak, artificially-ripened tomatoes at the grocery store.
Starting a garden now (dig up part of your back yard= instant plot!) means you have fresh food on hand in general, as well as stock to plant from in the event of grocery supply chain disruption.
Store dry essentials
I love Huel. It’s a powder that you mix with water (or whatever else you want) and acts as a complete meal replacement. It’s not just a protein powder, but includes fats, carbs, and tons of vitamins. I’m not being paid to plug them (though I’m very open to that. I accept Venmo), I just like it and have used it for years. It’s incredibly convenient for travel, hiking, or the occasional meal replacement on the go. It’s far better than, say, crushing a bag of Doritos, my strongest food temptation. [Curse you, Doritos.]
However, if you’re a normal human, and powered food kind of gives you the heebie jeebies, just stock up on canned veggies and whatever else you’d want to eat in an emergency. Remember, it doesn’t need to be fancy, or even taste good. It just needs to be nutrient-dense and keep long enough so you don’t have to replace your stock every 6 months. (Or heck, go ahead and DO replace your stock every 6 months and move everything up from the basement or wherever you’ll keep your stash into the pantry and eat it. I’ve done this with Clif bars for a while now.)
BTW, don’t forget medicines. You probably can’t pre-order three months of prescription drugs for obvious reasons, but having a stash of pharmacy staples reduces your overall exposure to risk.
DO get paper goods into your stash. (But, uh, get your toilet paper after everyone is done panicking.) It keeps forever, so there’s not much risk in holding onto a good supply.
The above covers the three months of essentials I want you to have. But I’m going to add one more point just because I like it. Not charging extra for it, either, so.
Get land
This has been written about before around Abraham’s Wallet, but I just gotta throw this in. For me, this one is more fun than anything else. I want land because something primal ignites in me when I think about staking out territory and calling it my own.
I don’t own any land yet (I’m a young single dude), but I plan on acquiring some when I’m a financial position to do so. Land is an asset, a hedge, and a luxury:
- It serves as a permanent retreat center.
- It could be where that gardening hobby goes pro!
- Back in medieval times, when plague hit the city, the rich nobility would retreat to the countryside to wait out the infection. When plague struck Scotland in 1645, Scottish parliament temporarily moved from Edinburgh to St. Andrews, which was remote enough from major city centers but accessible enough to access (it’s a coastal town). Similarly, your land could be a place of refuge for you in the case of any kind of warfare or disease or God-knows-what.
- It could generate income: AirBnB if it has lodging on it, or lease it out for farming if it doesn’t.
- Of course, it can appreciate in value all on its own by doing nothing more than sitting there. So nice!
So…
Most of these ideas (freezer, garden, essentials, land) are things that won’t take away from your normal day-to-day life, and can actually add value in the short term, whether things go sideways or not. I mean,
- A garden gives you fresh vegetables way better than you’ll find in a store.
- You can use a chest freezer to store way more food than you’d normally eat, so you could buy in bulk and save some dough. Or maybe you could just have tons of food for, like, throwing a massive party once a year.
- Land, as I said, can be a family vacation spot, or a passive income generator.
The emergency stash is your friend in a short-term crisis; it isn’t a lifetime salvation guarantee. You can’t prepare for absolutely everything… but you can take some reasonable non-crazy steps to protect yourself and your family for the kind of “improbable in the short term but nearly inevitable in the long term” events we’re living through with COVID-19. Of course, faith is the greatest hedge you’ll ever have against disease, market downturns, or physical threats. Put oil in that spiritual lamp first. Be wise and prepare, but you are not ultimately in charge of the outcome. And you don’t have to be. You are the leader of your house; God is the leader of the entire Family of Faith.
Just be like our buddy the ant up there. He doesn’t freak out; he just prepares for winter. Don’t be a panic buyer like all those nuts grabbing TP off the delivery trucks; be someone who intelligently plans, prepares, and sets aside an Emergency Stash.
