Urban Survival Tips From The Homeless for the New Year

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

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ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 

A Cloudy New Year Greeting

 

As we head into 2019, we’re expecting to see a lot more volatility and even more losses as reality once again steps back into vogue…

 

I wish the Federal Reserve, the ECB and the rest of the world's major central banks had not printed up $16 trillion of thin-air money and caused the greatest collection of asset price bubbles in all of history. I wish that the US had heeded Jimmy Carter back in the 1970s and developed a workable long-term energy strategy that made sense…In the US, after spending $trillions on unnecessary wars and neglecting to invest for the future (adequately funding pensions, maintaining vital infrastructure, etc), the establishment decided 2018 would be a good year to pass more freedom restrictive laws, spend even more cash on screwy socialist programs thought up by left-wing loons…

 

Any recovery built on a foundation of cheap credit will not only end, but end badly.

 

Ironically, many of our younger generation became uber-consumers of high-end goods as a result of the generation of ‘yuppie’ parents who spoiled kids rotten with expensive toys and alternative [and expensive daycare].  I admit, my boys attended a private school with tuition which cost more than my out-of-state tuition at Arizona State University and ultimately, it was a complete waste of money.

 

It’s important to note that the mainstream press has a couple of important jobs: keeping everyone firmly seated in the consumer mind-rut, and deflecting any criticism away from the wealthy and their corporate masters (should any distinction between those groups exist).

If I sound harsh on the mainstream press, that’s because far too many in that profession have settled into being little more than scribes for the powerful; doing little more than repeating scripted talking points, inaccurate “facts,” and overt corporate and political propaganda.

2018 has been the year that things began to unravel, as the accumulated mistakes of the prior decades finally settled in.

2019 will see the repercussions of that unraveling. It's going to be a very hard year as reality starts to settle in.

As far as the financial markets go, which are the preferred self-enrichment and public signaling devices of the powers that be, our operating model is contained in the phrase: Until and unless.

It is still Very Important that we stick together and offer each other support and encouragement as we navigate increasingly difficult waters over the coming months and years.

For those who'd benefit from specific guidance and support in developing a personal preparation plan or those whose public pension plan might go south…the following urban survival tips from the homeless might prove inspiring.

Most importantly, what happens when ~40 years of excessive debt accumulation comes to an end?  Do financial systems and institutions even function anymore?

Nobody has a good answer to these questions, which is why the Federal Reserve, et al., are terrified to find out what happens when their grand debt bubble experiment comes to an end.  Mad max is not out of the question folks.  A lot of things very suddenly no longer work when the credit not only dries up, but goes in reverse.  Very basic things like food and gasoline distribution networks and public safety payrolls become difficult to maintain.  Just ask Venezuela. 

Of course, our newly minted batch of social-democrats seem ignorant of world events taking place in South America where citizens are losing weight because they cannot get enough to eat thanks to its socialist policies…

 

 

13 Urban Survival Tips From The Homeless

It’s hard not to look down on homeless people. Even if you’re a compassionate person who gives to charity, you probably feel uncomfortable when a homeless person approaches you and asks for change. In the back of your mind, you can’t help but wonder, what is wrong with this person that made him or her end up without a place to live?

Of course, that’s very unfair. Yes, some homeless people are just plain lazy, but there are many who simply had a long string of bad luck and no one to help them out. And ironically, in a major disaster such as an economic collapse, they would actually fare better than the average person.

If you find yourself in an urban survival scenario that forces you onto the streets, you might find yourself turning to other homeless people for advice. After all, they’ve been doing it for years. They must have learned a thing or two about how to survive.

 

Dress In Layers

Homeless people know a thing or two about staying warm, as many of them have to sleep outside when it’s incredibly cold and snowing outside. A common strategy they use, which is very applicable to survival situations, is to dress in layers.

The first layer is the layer in direct contact with your skin, the second layer is the insulation layer (or the layer designed to keep you warm), and the third layer is the shell layer, or the layer designed to protect you from the wind and the rain and snow.

If you don’t have enough clothes for three layers, use plastic, cardboard, and especially newspapers, which brings me to the next tip…

Use Newspapers

In addition to insulation, newspapers have a wide variety of important survival uses. For example, you can use newspapers as shelter, as a sheet, as a pillow, as toilet paper, and most importantly, as fuel for a fire.

Unfortunately, there aren’t as many newspapers out there as there used to be, but you could also use junk mail, circulars, and old phone books for these purposes.

3. Use Water Bottles

Another tactic that the homeless may use to stay warm is to place hot water bottles into their clothes as they walk, or to surround themselves with hot water before they go to sleep.

Now obviously, as a homeless person, you won’t have access to tap water and a water heater. However, you could still heat water in a tin pot over a small fire or trash can fire, then pour that water into your bottles. As a last resort, you could urinate in a bottle and keep it in your pocket until it’s not warm anymore.

4. Sleep Near Other Homeless People

It might seem dangerous to encroach on the territory of other homeless people, and there is some risk involved, but it could be even more dangerous to sleep completely alone. Bad guys are less likely to rob or attack you when there are witnesses around. But if you’re by yourself, who knows what might happen?

That’s why you’re better off sleeping in an area where other homeless people sleep. If a lot of them sleep in a particular park, alley, or abandoned lot or building, it’s probably because it’s a fairly safe area that the police ignore.

But don’t wait until the last minute to go to this area and sleep. Instead, go there during the daytime and chat up a few homeless people. Share your story, and listen to theirs. If you can make a friend or two, you’re more likely to be left alone.

5. Be Ready To Leave

Homeless people are also constantly on the go and rarely stay in one place for long. They may be forced to leave if a homeless group or law enforcement kicks them out of the area where they are staying.

In an urban survival situation, chances are very good that you’ll be constantly on the move as well, and you may not get to stay in one location for more than a few days. Besides being forced to leave by the cops, you may also be forced to leave by an angry mob if a major crisis is unfolding.

So don’t leave your things all spread out. Unless you’re using something, it should be in your bag, and your bag should always be on your back, even when you’re sleeping. This will ensure that you can stand up and leave right away. That’s why you also need to…

Pack Wisely

In order to keep everything you have in your pockets and your bag, you’ll have to pack light. Don’t carry anything you don’t actually use on a regular basis. That’s why I recommend carrying multipurpose items such as bandanas, plastic bags, paperclips, and so forth. All of these can be used for many different things, which means you won’t have to carry as many items.

Don’t Fight Anyone

Are self-defense skills something that you should be learning? Absolutely. But the most valuable self-defense tip is really to learn how to avoid a conflict to begin with.

Take note that even the smallest of injuries will need to be treated with the strictest of attention in a survival situation. A simple cut or scrape may seem like something minor, but if an infectionsets in, it could result in serious complications.

Another problem with getting in a fight in a densely urbanized area is it’s almost certain to attract unwanted attention. Specifically, you could attract attention that is not on your side, in which case you are likely to end up with more than just a few cuts and bruises.

Consider A Dog

It’s not an uncommon sight to see homeless people with canine friends. But the truth is that dogs have many legitimate uses not only for homeless people but also in an urban survival disaster.

Besides offering you badly needed companionship, dogs are also good for protecting you against those who would seek to harm you. Also, they can help keep you warm when you’re sleeping.

Carry First Aid Supplies

As I said, a cut or scrape could lead to an infection. So in case you do get hurt, carry some Bandaids antibiotic ointment with you. It doesn’t cost much, and it could literally save your life.

Another tip is to wear sunscreen if you know you’re going to be in the sun all day. A sunburn could also lead to open wounds that get infected. Make sure that doesn’t happen.

Blend In With The Crowd

It’s not exactly a well-known fact, but homeless people tend to be very skilled at blending in with their surroundings. There’s a reason why they are often referred to as the Invisible Population here in the United States.

In the survival world, this is what is referred to as being gray man (or woman). A gray man is someone who can blend into a crowd or the surrounding area and not be noticed.

They dress just like most people in the crowd, they move in the direction of the crowd and never against it, and they avoid making eye contact with people. Being a gray man is not exactly easy, but it can go a long way to help you avoid detection by criminals and law enforcement.

One of the best ways to blend in is to keep a clean look. Use public bathrooms to shave and clean yourself up as much as possible. People are also likely to treat you better if you look more presentable. One way to keep clean is to…

Use Baking Soda

Personal hygiene and sanitation is perhaps one of the most overlooked subjects when it comes to survival.  Sanitation standards are not going to be good out on the streets, to say the least, and you’re going to need to take action to keep yourself clean so you don’t get sick.

One of the most important personal hygiene items of all time is baking soda. When mixed with water, it can be used for anything from soap to deodorant to shampoo to toothpaste and so on. What’s more, it’s incredibly cheap, and can be bought for less than one dollar at most stores.

12. Don’t Eat Just Anything

If you’re hungry enough, it might be tempting to eat food out of the trash, but you risk getting food poisoning if you do that. If you’re forced to either eat discarded food or starve, choose things that don’t go bad as easily. That means foods that don’t have meat or dairy in them and are mostly made up of sugar and carbs. For example, leftover candy or chips will probably safe to eat.

But on that note, you don’t want to just live on candy and chips. They are empty calories that will leave you feeling hungry, and they don’t have the nutrients your body needs to function properly. Living on junk food like that will cause your health to decline rapidly, making it even harder to survive.

If you can gather some change, buy foods like beef jerky, trail mix, granola bars, and other foods that have plenty of fat and protein in addition to carbohydrates.

Control Your Emotions

Last but not least, another hugely overlooked aspect of survival is controlling your emotions. You’re going to be desperate, and hope is going to be in short supply.

Homeless people are confronted with the exact same thing every day. They don’t know where they’re going to eat, where they are going to sleep, or even where they’re going to go the very next day. And yet they don’t let their emotions get the better of them. If they did, they wouldn’t stay alive for as long as they have.

Instead, what you need to do is to control your emotions and use your head. Replace anger, depression, hopelessness, and desperation with logic, reasoning, and hope. Positive thinking never hurts either, no matter how bad the situation may seem to you.

Every time a negative thought enters your mind, stop it in its tracks and replace it with an optimistic thought or focus on the task at hand. As the author of the blog, Guide2Homelessness wrote, “There is nothing so bad that it will not pass.”

Preppers How Much Food is Enough? (Estimates Based on Historical Events) (thc0655)

A question that is commonly asked among preppers is “How much food should I store?” There is no single answer which can fit the needs of all, for each prepper has different income levels and storage space. Some may be responsible for feeding more than one person while others live in the midst of an abundant natural food supply. How well one intends to eat during a crisis is another indiscernible factor which will vary from person to person.

 

Military and Veterans Tax Refunds Guide: Deductions, Deadlines and Benefits

Being a military member comes with all sorts of financial complications and benefits. Military members can take advantage of a separate retirement system. And they get a variety of tax breaks and benefits. But all of those tax breaks can also be confusing when it comes to filing your taxes

Over $1 trillion The US pension system has gotten so bad, Congress is actually planning for its failure. As the government was working on the recent, new budget deal and subsequent boost in government spending, Congress quietly snuck in a provision that forms a committee which would use federal funds to bail out as many as 200 “multiemployer” pension plans – where employers and labor unions jointly provide retirement benefits to employees. As is often the case, this rescue “plan” is too little too late. The US pension system is beyond repair. And if you’re depending on pension income to carry you through retirement, it’s time to consider a Plan B. Before explaining how dire the situation actually is, let’s take a step back… Pensions are simply giant pools of capital used to pay out retirement benefits to workers. Typically, employers and employees contribute a percentage of the employees’ salary to a pension throughout his or her career. Then, upon retirement, the pension is supposed to pay a fixed, monthly amount to the retiree. There are both government and corporate pension plans. Boston College estimates the nation’s 1,400 multiemployer plans (corporate) are facing a $553 billion shortfall. And around one-quarter of those are in the “red zone,” meaning they’ll likely go broke in the next decade or so. But Congress’ committee, assuming it works, wouldn’t even rescue the red zone plans, much less the remaining 1,200. And it doesn’t even begin to address the real problem – the $7 trillion funding gap faced by the government’s own pensions. Congress is stepping in because the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) – the pension equivalent to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) – is completely insolvent. Amount that U.S. states face in unfunded pension liabilities for workers and retirees

See what's being done in your state

I think the worst is yet to come next year, we’re still in the first half of a global equity bear market with more to come next year,” Mark Jolley, global strategist at CCB International Securities, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

At this point last year, nobody on Wall Street was talking like this.

In fact, nobody was talking like this even four or five months ago.

But after three extremely painful months the outlook has completely changed, and a lot of market participants are really starting to freak out.

And this is not just happening in the United States.  The truth is that most most markets around the world started to fall well before U.S. markets did, and at this point almost all of the big global indexes are in a bear market…

Bear markets — typically defined as 20 percent or more off a recent peak — are threatening investors worldwide. In the U.S., the Nasdaq Composite closed in a bear market on Friday and the S&P 500 entered one on Monday. Globally, Germany’s DAX, China’s Shanghai Composite and Japan’s Nikkei have also entered bear market levels.

 

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Yours for smarter living,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

 

 

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Other notes of interest…

 

Living Frugally In Suburbia
You live differently than your neighbors.

 

 

14 Frugal Food-Rescuing Tips from Grandma
These depression-era frugal tips still work today!

 

8 Simple Ways to Put More Money in Your Pocket
Have more money without working harder!

 

Knowing When and How to Stockpile Groceries
Stocking up could save your grocery budget!

 

Emergency Preparedness on a Budget 
Affordable ways to prepare for an emergency.

 

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A Smoking Frog Feature, Shallow Planet Production