For first-time homebuyers, or those who have not owned in the last three years, can receive up to an $8,000 tax credit.

The federal income tax credit for homebuyers has been extended and expanded to now include homeowners who wish to “move on” after 5 years of living in their current property, as well as first-time homebuyers.

According to The National Association of Realtors News Release, dated 11/5/09, an estimated $22 billion has already been added to the general economy resulting from the bill and approximately 2 million people will utilize the tax credit in 2009.

• First-time homebuyers, or those who have not owned in the last three years, can receive up to an $8,000 tax credit
• Homeowners who have lived in a current home consecutively for 5 of the past 8 years can receive up to a $6,500 tax credit
• There may be no future extensions, so all qualified homebuyers are urged to act and have a written, binding contract by April 30, 2010
• Income limits are now $125,000 for singles, $225,000 for married couples with a $20,000 phase-out of the credit for both.

Visit Coldwell Banker to find out more about your First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.

The books on this list take you down the darkest paths in uncivilized worlds, from cannibalistic gangs to vampire infected corpses. If this list doesn’t get you thinking on the quickest way stock your basement full
of water, canned goods and rifles. I don’t know what will.

World War Z

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a post-apocalyptic horror novel by Max Brooks. WWZ is a collection of individual accounts in the form of interviews with characters conducted by the author. Brooks plays the role of an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission who published the novel a decade after the Zombie War.

The United Nations left out much of his work from the official report, choosing to focus on facts and figures from the war rather than individual stories; these form the bulk of the novel. The interviews chart a decade-long war against zombies from the view point of many different people of various nationalities. The personal accounts also describe the changing religious, geo-political, and environmental aftermath of the Zombie War.

The outbreak, which started somewhere in China, spread throught the world, causing distruction and chaos. While the zombies are never completely irradicated, some symblance of life does appear to go on, after an eventual move of the US Capital and millions of lives lost.

Brooks used World War Z to comment on social issues like government ineptitude and American isolationism, while also examining themes of survivalism and uncertainty.

Blindness

Forget world wide pandemics of flesh eating bacteria or a zombie illness! Portugese author Jose Saramago took one of the most common afflictions, loss of sight, and turned it into my worst nightmare! in “Blindness”, a mass epidemic of sight-loss sweeps an unidentified city, causing a break down in society, civilization, and everyday function. The books main characters band together, forming a family unit, comprised of a doctor and his wife and his patients. The wife has somehow been spared from the epidemic and helps the unit function. They are placed in an asylum where the infected are being contained, which eventually detiriorates to filth, due to everyone’s lack of sight.

The family unit escapes and attempts to build a new life in the outside world, just as sight is returned, just as quickly as it was taken away.

I don’t know who I felt worse for reading this book. The people who lost their sight, who began living in their own filth and scrounging for food, or the doctor’s wife who had to take care of them all and see everything that was happening around her.

The Road

If you are a parent, or a person who doesn’t wish harm upon children, you might find this book slightly disturbing. ‘The Road’ focuses on the journey of a father and son, after an unnamed apocalyptic event wipes out a majority of the earth’s population, as well as the ability to grow plants. The father and son, only identified as the “Man” and the “Boy”, are attempting to make it to the coast, to an undetermined hope. The pair encounter several disturbing sights along the way, including a cannibalistic “army”, a baby roasting on a split, and humans who are being kept locked away and used for limb-harvesting (for food obviously).

There are some high points in the book, but overall, it paints a pretty grim picture. Towards the end of the novel, the father gets ill and dies, leaving the boy to be taken in by a couple who has been observing the pair for some time. It isn’t a happy ending, but it does keep you from wanting to kill yourself!

The Postman

This post-apocalyptic novel is about a drifter who finds himself taking shelter in an abandoned postal van. Gordan Krantz, the protagonist, takes the uniform of a postman only to keep him warm, but when he begins carrying mail on his journey, he begins to restore hope to survivors. Eventually, Krantz encounters a small community led by Cyclops, an artificial intelligence created at Oregon State University that managed to survive. Krantz learns however that the machine was destroyed and that it’s appearance is being maintained by a group of scientists who are trying to “keep hope, order, and knowledge alive”. Krantz eventually pairs up with the Cyclops scientists in their war against the hyper-survivalists, who have begun and extreme version of life.

By the end of the novel, the impression is given that the three groups rally together to help revive civilization.

This novel begins after yet another collapse of civilization, with the protagonist, Snowman, living as a hermit. He lives near by a community of what he calls “Crakers”, which appear to be strange human like creatures. It is revealed in the story that the crakers, as well as beasts like wolvogs, piggons, and rakunks, are the products of genetic engineering.

Through flashbacks, the reader learns that Snowman grew up as Jimmy in the mid-21st century. His parents were both scientists who lived in privileged compounds that separated them from commoners, or pleeblands. When Jimmy’s family moves to a compound, he meets Glenn, or Crake as he is referred to through out the story. The boys play games, smoke weed, as well as other slightly disturbing activities such as watching live executions and child pornography.

Jimmy and Crake eventually become obsessed with a young asian girl they see in a child porn video. Jimmy seeks the girl out and eventually meets Oryx, who could be the same girl, but it is never clarified. Orxy becomes highly involved in the lives of both young men. As time goes on, Crake becomes a bio engineer while Jimmy focuses on the arts and literature.

Crake soon embarks on an endeavor to create peaceful human-like creatures which he calls Crakers. Crakers are leaf-eating herbivores who only have sex during a mating period, therefore eliminating several “human” disputes. Eventually, Crake releases a world wide virus, which wipes out a huge percentage of the population, except Jimmy, who was unknowingly vaccinated. Crake is soon painted as a “Mad Scientist”, and eventually kills Oryx.

The reader is transported through out an incredible series of events and begins to feel sympathy towards all characters, including the “villain”, Crake. The book ends leaving the reader wondering whether Snowman will return to life with humans, or continue to look after the Crakers, as he promised Oryx before she died.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

“A Canticle for Leibowitz” spans thousands of years set in a Roman Catholic monastery. After a devastating nuclear war, the novel follows along while civilization makes attempts at rebuilding itself. The monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz take on the mission of preserving and protecting the pieces of human’s scientific knowledge until the world is ready for that kind of information again.

The apocalyptic event in this story is a backlash against advanced technology and knowledge. During a time that is referred to in the book as “simplification”, any one who had any learning, and eventually anyone who could even read, was killed by angry mobs, with books being destroyed and illiteracy taking over the world.

Isaac Leibowitz had been a Jewish engineer working for the US Military, but converts to Catholicism and begins the Albertian Order. Their mission becomes to protect,memorize, and preserve any books, from before the Simplification. The novel is separated into three different parts, “Fiat Homo (Let There Be Man)”, “Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light)”, and “Fiat Voluntas Tua (Let Thy Will Be Done)”.

The novel is an interesting look into what our world would become if communication, science, technological advances, and knowledge were suddenly cut off from every day people.

Alas, Babylon

Published in 1959, “Alas, Babylon” was one of the first post-apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age. The story focuses on the small town of Fort Repose, Florida and the effects that a nuclear war had on it. The protagonist, Randy Bragg, is a former Korean War vet who becomes a hero after the Soviet Union starts a nuclear war with the US. Several towns in Florida, including Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami are reported as being destroyed, leaving the citizens of Fort Repose to their own measures. Communication is limited, and the city is quickly emptied of money and supplies. People in the town quickly learn how to survive, with Bragg leading the way. In the end, the Air Force offers to move the remaining families of Fort Repose out of their survivalist world, however, non accept.

Alas, Babylon shows how quickly the world could deteriorate if a Nuclear war started. Don’t be alarmed if after you read it, you feel the need to go to Costco for bottled water and dry goods!

Lucifer’s Hammer

If you’re one to quickly oppose scientists, then Lucifer’s Hammer might be just the post-apocalyptic book for you! Even after several reassurances by astronomer Tim Hamner that a new comet won’t be crashing into the earth, people still begin hoarding and collecting food. Scientists realize that they have mis-tracked the trajectory of the comet, which eventually breaks into several smaller pieces and devastates the earth with its collision. The strike causes volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and endless weeks of rain, which cause food and other survival necessities to be lost.

After the “Hammerfall”, Hamner steps up from a quiet astronomer to a “determined survivor”. He fights to keep he and his new wife, Eileen safe, in such a tumultuous world.

This book particularly got me thinking, just because we rely so much on what scientists tell us. What if they really did get it wrong?

Swan Song

Swan Song doesn’t start out on a particularly happy note. The world is in turmoil, with the U.S. and USSR fighting all around the world. When all of the bombs are launched, the world is covered in mushroom shaped clouds. The novel follows several main characters, including a NYC bag lady called Sister Creep, Josh, aka Black Frankestein, a 7 foot tall wrestler with a heart the size of Texas, and Roland Croninger, an incredibly smart kid. Of course good vs. evil is prominent through out the novel. The bad lies within “The Man With the Scarlet Eye”, who is a shape shifter, always up to no good. The very refreshing good however is a blonde girl named Swan, who possesses the ability to replenish the earth.

The book is pretty big (950 pages!), and if you can get through it, its probably the most terrifying post apocalyptic novel out there!

On the Beach

“On the Beach” doesn’t only qualify as one of the best Post-Apocalyptic novels, it qualifies as one of the most depressing. If you’re looking for sunshine and rainbows, this isn’t one you’ll want to check out! The novel starts in the mid-sixties, after the air in the Northern Hemisphere has been polluted with nuclear fallout, killing all animal life, including humans. Air currents are slowly carrying the fallout to the southern hemisphere, where the only humans live, slowly succumbing to radiation poisoning. The Australian government makes arrangements for its citizens, providing free suicide pills and injections, allowing the people to avoid the slow and painful death of radiation poisoning. A submarine crew is dispatched to Seattle to respond to a signal, only to discover that the wind was blowing a coke bottle onto a telegraph machine.

The crew then realizes that the results of the nuclear war aren’t dissipating, and that the people living in the south will die shortly. The characters in the novel then try to happily live out their final days, some returning to their hometowns, others taking classes and staying busy. In the end, the characters don’t continue to run, but accept their death once the radiation reaches them. Probably the most depressing point in the book is when one Australian officer must explain to his wife how to euthanize their baby daughter and then kill herself, should the radiation reach them.

Like I said, not all sunshine and rainbows.

Z for Zachariah

“Z for Zachariah” starts by introducing the reader to Ann Burden, the protagonist, who has been living alone in a valley for over a year after a nuclear war, which has rendered all other places inhabitable. One day, Ann sees a stranger in a protective suit entering the valley, which changes her life forever. When he determines that the valley is safe, he takes off his suit and swims, but unfortunately, the water is contaminated by water being brought in from the outside. Once he is sick, Ann decides to try to help him.

Once he is better, he introduces himself as John R. Loomis, a scientist who was helping to design the protective suits underground when the war began. The sickness soon takes over his body completely, sending him into a coma, during which Ann continues to look after him.

He begins to recover and becomes highly possessive of Ann. One night, he attempts to rape her, and Ann decides she must leave the comfort of her home. She attempts to coexist in the valley with Loomis, but he makes it difficult, cutting her off from food and supplies, and even shooting her in the leg.

Eventually, Ann tells him she is taking the suit and the cart and leaving. She tells him that if he kills her, then he’ll truly be alone. Ann sets of in the direction of birds, hoping to continue her life.

This novel is popular among young adults, because the main character is a strong willed young person. There are obviously sad portions, but there are also light, almost comical moments that keep you turning the page.

I Am Legend

If the only opinions you have of ‘I am Legend’ come from the horrible movie adaptation starring Will Smith, erase them all. Probably one of the greatest pieces of fiction ever written, much less in the “post-apocalyptic” category, “I am Legend” deals with the idea of becoming obsolete, which plagues so many people.

After a bacterial pandemic wipes out the entire human race, Robert Neville, the novel’s main character, is the only human left in a world of vampires. Neville attempts to study and cure the disease, to which he became immune after a bite from a bat that was infected. Neville eventually discovers that the strain of bacteria is able to infect both the deceased and the living, leaving the living slightly human, although exhibiting signs of vampirism.

Robert comes across a woman who appears to be uninfected and captures her. He becomes suspicious of her after her reluctance to kill the vampires. She finally agrees to a blod test and just when Neville realizes she is infected, she knocks him out. She leaves him a note, sharying the adaptations that the infected have made towards sunlight and how they have even developed pills that keep their desires at bay. She tells him that they are attempting to rebuild society. Eventually the vampires come for him, and he is wounded and captured. When he knows death is near, Ruth comes to visit and gives him some pills that will make his death easier. He asks Ruth not to let society get heartless and after a kiss, she leaves. Neville finally realizes that he is the only survivor and is therefore feared by this new race. As he realizes that life with infection could be normal again one day, he chuckles before he dies, thinking “[I am] a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend.”

Faced with a shortage of small banknotes, people in Myanmar are resorting to bartering cigarettes, shampoo and other items.

The bartering illustrates the effects of surging inflation and the curious decision to stop printing small notes.

How shall I give it to you? You want coffee-mix, cigarettes, tissues, sweets or what?

That question is heard often in shops and restaurants in the former Burma, where coins and small notes disappeared years ago and other notes have now started to follow suit.

State banks were main source of small notes for shop-owners, but they stopped issuing new currency several years ago. Today, beggars who collect money on the street now provide shops with the bulk of their small notes, often in return for food.

Rampant inflation also plays a role. Consumer prices rose by an average 24 percent a year between 2005 and 2008, according to the Asian Development Bank. That has taken a toll on Myanmar’s currency, the kyat.

Officially, the kyat is pegged at 5.5 per dollar. But it fetches nowhere near that, trading instead at about 1,000 per dollar. The cost of printing small notes is now far more expensive than the face value of the notes themselves.

A Yangon government high school teacher said most of her pupils had never even seen coins or small notes.

SWEETS AS CURRENCY

In the commercial capital, Yangon, 100 kyat (around 10 U.S. cents) is worth a sachet of coffee-mix or a small container of shampoo. Tissue packets or a cigarette or sweets are the equivalent of 50 kyat.

“The shopkeeper gave me three sweets for change of 150 kyat when I bought a bottle of cough mixture last week,” said Ba Aye, a Yangon taxi driver.

“When I told her that sweets would make my cough worse, she offered me a Thai-made gas lighter. When I said ‘I don’t smoke’, she then asked me to accept three packets of tissues that would be useful for my runny nose.”

General-store owner Daw Khin Aye said most of her customers preferred small items like sweets to notes.

“The small notes that are in circulation are in very bad shape — worn out, torn, stained, dirty and in most cases stuck with tape,” she said.

In Sittwe, the capital of western Rakhine State, teashop owners manufacture their own coupons to use as currency.

“It’s far more convenient to use these self-circulated notes instead of small items,” teashop owner Ko Aung Khine said.

“But you need to make sure coupons can’t be forged. Mostly we use a computer to print it with the name of the shop, face value and signature of the shop owner,” he added.

Officially there are 13 denominations of notes in circulation — starting from 50 pya (one cent) up to 5,000 kyat. But only the three big notes (200, 500 and 1,000 kyat) are common. The rest are growing scarcer by the month.

“So far as I know, they print only 1,000 kyat notes now,” said a retired economist from Yangon University. “The cost of printing is far higher than the face value of most small notes… so they now print just the biggest ones.”

How much money is in circulation is anyone’s guess. Myanmar has not publicly released money supply data since 1996-97, when it put the value at 179.82 billion kyat.

When asked for the latest figure, a senior government official replied: “We cannot tell you. It’s a state secret.”

Remember when eating out didn’t require keeping a careful eye on the right-side of the menu? Tight budgets have forced many of us to select restaurants and menu selections based on cost, rather than taste preferences.

A recent study by Zagat, the restaurant and review guide, indicated 33 percent of Americans polled now pay more attention to restaurant prices than they have in the past and 28 percent of diners have switched to cheaper restaurants. In an even bigger blow to restaurants’ bottom lines, approximately 20 percent have cut out booze, appetizers and desserts. As a result, analysts expect 12,000 to 18,000 restaurants will close this year, ending a decade-long expansion in the industry.

In a desperate effort to make it through the recession, American eateries of all types have drastically cut back on expenses. Here are 23 changes you may have noted. (Note not all restaurants use these cost-saving methods.)

1. Reduced Portions
From bread baskets to entrees, portions have shrunk while some niceties have been eliminated altogether. That complimentary breadbasket may feature the cheaper breadsticks and a scant few pieces of bread. Some restaurants no longer automatically bring bread unless asked or charge extra. On the plus side, perhaps this is part of the reason the obesity epidemic is slowing down in America.

2. Disappearing Condiments and Fixings
Some sandwich joints have actually charge extra for more than the minimum of condiments and/or such basic fixings as lettuce, tomatoes, olives, etc. Apparently $5 only buys just the meat and bread.

3. Reconstituted Meats
We used to laugh that “parts was parts,” but fast food joints are no longer the only places inclined to feature unidentifiable parts. Reconstituted meats have been ground down and mixed with water and other by-products, then pressure assembled to look like real steak or chicken. For some time now the FDC has required processed cheese manufacturers label products containing less than 50-percent cheese as “cheese food.” Perhaps menus should start indicating when they’re serving “chicken food” and “beef food.”

4. Veal Substitutes
What you think is Veal Parmesan may actually be “Pork Parmesan. The look-alike meat is an easy cost-cutting substitution for diners who rarely taste veal. Look for your veal to be grey or light brown in color when cooked. A fried cutlet that’s still white in the middle is a swindle.

5. Weaker Drinks
Restaurants and bars mark alcohol up 200 to 300 percent, but many still want to stretch their investment further. Tricks include stretching with seltzer water, using smaller glasses, increasing ice content and, of course “short pouring,” or reducing the percentage of alcohol in your drink. Don’t bother sending your drink back for more alcohol, either, as the bartender likely will just pour additional booze into the straw to fake a stronger drink. While we’re on the topic, have you noticed those nice, comfortable wedges of lemon and lime are now wafer-thin slices.

6. Magic Plates
Check underneath your entree and you may find a porcelain hill that makes it look like you’re getting a larger pile of food. Another popular trick is the “incredibly shrinking plate.” The standard 12-inch plate is steadily shrinking until, ultimately, entrées will be served on dessert plates.

7. Adding Surcharges
Rather than raise prices, restaurants like to add a surcharge for an increased in fuel expenses, employee health care and serving us on holidays. Because the law allows restaurants to limit notification of surcharges in the fine print on their menus, you may not be aware of this extra cost until receiving the check, at which time it’s too late to downsize your order…or walk out.

8. Recycling Buffets
Is the lettuce brown around the edges? Are the tomatoes rather tired. Does that tuna dish look awfully familiar? Then you’re eating at a leftover buffet. Rather than toss uneaten food from yesterday’s or last week’s buffet, more restaurants are freezing everything for future use.

9. Iceberg Salads
Remember the days when salads contained arugula, watercress and colorful touches of red radicchio leaves? Today you could sink the Titanic on the iceberg chunks in our dinner salads.

10. Á la Carte Sides
Before you fork over $20 for an entrée, ask if that price includes any side dishes. You may need to budget another $5 to $10 if you want dinner salad or the formerly standard potatoes and vegetables.

11. Mystery Fish
The bottom-feeding catfish used to be one of the cheaper fillets. Now even the classless catfish is being replaced with the cheaper grouper. Last August, two teenagers in New York City collected 56 fish samples from stores and restaurants. Testing revealed 14 of the samples were mislabeled as a more expensive fish.

12. Shrinking Menus
It’s expensive to keep ingredients on hand for a wide variety of dishes, so restaurants are cutting down the number of dishes offered. You’ll also see more cross-pollinated dishes that feature the same ingredients in a variety of forms.

13. Cheaper Ingredients
Starting down the road to cheaper substitutions is a nasty one. The menu may mention butter but the kitchen recipe calls for “margarine.” That whip cream may just be Cool Whip (aka whipped lard), the seaweed is really cabbage and instant potatoes have stretched the mashed potatoes.

14. Is it Fresh?
Food distributors are charging restaurants fuel surcharges these days because of high gas prices. So, restaurants are trying to cut back on the number of deliveries they get. Instead of getting fresh produce every day, they order more food and less frequently.

15. Recycling Food
Preparing for a dinner rush requires a lot of extras, like rolls, desserts, side dishes, cuts of meat, etc. What happens to all those extras on a slow night? They end up in the buffet, reworked into meatloaf or worked into bread pudding. It’s criminal to throw these foods away, but rumors are rampant some restaurants are removing leftover foods from plates and recycling them. Yuck!

16. Cheaper Paper Goods
I’m all for cutting down on the number of napkins thrown into a take-out bag and using cheaper take-out containers, but I really hate it when restaurants skimp on toilet paper!

17. Begging for Sympathy
More restaurants are posting signs asking us to appreciate they’ve had to make cutbacks and raise prices due to higher commodity and fuel prices. Understandably, they want diners to understand they’re not just being greedy. I prefer this up-front approach to sneaker methods used by some restaurants.

18. Adding Comfort Foods
A restaurant I frequent serves a macaroni-and-cheese entree with lobster that is to DIE for. The New York bistro Artisanal recently launched Comfort Food Night and introduced a grilled-cheese bar to help bring people back to their childhood days. It’s a brilliant concept as we tend to crave comfort foods when times are tough.

19. Upselling
Your server suggests a loaded potato instead of a plain baked potato or adding a salad to your dinner. What they may not mention is these changes add to your bill (and the waiter’s tip). Watch out for upselling and ask about any price additions.

20. Menu Engineering
According to The Independent, restaurants use a combination of pictures, bold fonts and careful positioning of items to upsell diners. For example, restaurants like to box off high-profit items and avoid extensive straight lists that allow you to easily compare prices.

21. Trendy Buzz Words
Truffle oil, heirloom tomatoes and cedar plank salmon sound scrumptious and tend to induce customers into shelling our more dough.

22. Credit Card Surcharges
Luckily this is not common, but the occasional restaurant may sneak in a five-percent surcharge if you’re paying by credit card. By law, this will have to be mentioned in the menu but the print may be tiny, tiny, tiny.

23. Paying for Water
Under the guise of environmentalism, restaurants bring water only when you ask for it. This saves wait staff time while cutting down on water bills and dishwashing expenses. In addition, more servers now ask if you’d like bottled water, at a hefty mark-up, of course.

@couponsherpa

What is the Credit Crisis?

It is a worldwide financial fiasco involving terms you’ve probably never even heard.

• Sub-Prime Mortages
• Collateralized Debt Obligations
• Frozen Credit Markets
• Credit Default Swaps

Who is Affected By The Credit Crisis?

Everyone

How Did It Happen?

The credit crisis brings two groups of people together. Homeowners and investors. Homeownwers represent their mortgages and investors represent their money.

The mortgages represent houses, and the money represents large institutions like pension funds, sovereign funds, insurance companies, and mutual funds.

These groups are brought together through the financial system normally known as WALL ST.

How is Wall St. connected to Main St?

Years ago investors were sitting on piles of money looking for a good investment, to turn into MORE MONEY. Traditionally they would go to the Federal Reserve, where they would buy treasury bills. However, in the wake of the dot com bust and the attacks on 9/11 . Federal reserve chairman Alan Greenspan lowered the borrowing rate to only 1% to keep the economy strong.

1% is a very small return on investment so investors said “No thanks.” On the flip side this means banks can borrow from the bank for only 1%. Now add to that a large surplus of money from China, Japan, and Europe, and you have an overwhelming abundance of cheap CREDIT.

This makes borrowing money easy and causes them to go crazy with LEVERAGE.

“Leverage is borrowing money to amplify the outcome of a deal.”

How Does Leveraged Investing Work?

In a normal deal someone with 10,000 dollars buys a box for 10,000 dollars. He then sells that box to someone else for 11,000 dollars, making a $1,000 profit. Using leverage someone who has $10,000 will go and BORROW $990,000 instead. Using the original $10,000 as collateral.

He now has $1,000,000, and he can buy 100 boxes. He sells them to someone else for $1,100,000. Now he has to pay back his 990,000 plus 10,000 in INTEREST. After you subtract the initial $10,000 he is left with a $90,000 PROFIT

Leverage turns good deals into GREAT DEALS.

“This is how banks make their money”

Wall Street takes out lots of loans, makes great deals and gets really rich and then pays it back. Investors see this an want a piece of the action. This give Wall street an idea. They can connect their investors to homeowners with MORTGAGES.

Here’s how it works?

• A family wants a house, so they save for a down payment.
• They then contact a mortgage broker. The mortgage broker connects the family to a lender who gives them a loan.
• The broker makes a nice commission, the family buys a house, the banker makes some interest, and everyone is happy.
• One day the lender gets a call from and investment banker who wants to buy the mortgage, the lender sells it to him for a nice fee
• The investment banker then borrows billions of dollars and buys thousands of mortgages. He puts them into a nice box. Every month the investment banker sits back and collects the monthly payments from thousands of mortgages.

But the process doesn’t stop here.

What is a Collateralize debt obligation?

Each box of mortgages is cut into 3 separate smaller boxes named: Safe (AAA), Okay (BBB), and Risky (Unrated). They once again package these up and call it a COLLATERALIZED DEBT OBLIGATION (CDO)

As money comes in the top rated, safest investments are paid off first, then the okay loans are paid off, and whatever is left over goes into the risky loans.

If some homeowners don’t pay on the mortgages and go into default then less money is coming in and the risky box will not be filled with as much money. To compensate for the higher risk, the bottom risky tray pays out a higher interest rate, while the top safer investment receives a much lower rate.

To make the top tray even safer banks will sell insurance on it, called a CREDIT DEFAULT SWAP.

Now the investment banker can sell each piece of the pie to different investors who have different levels of risk and everyone is happy and making money.

The investment banker calls up the mortgage broker for more home loans, but everyone who is loan worthy already has a home.

Taking on more risk.

When a homeowner defaults on a loan, the investment banker is left with the home. Since homes are always increasing in value then banker is covered from any losses. Because of this he can start adding risk to his investments.

No down payment, no proof of income, FREE MONEY.

So instead of loaning to responsible homeowners called PRIME MORTGAGES.

they started to get people who were less responsible, these were SUBPRIME MORTGAGES.

TURNING POINT

Like usual the mortgage broker connects the family with a lender who writes the mortgage and the family buys a BIG HOUSE.

The lender sells the mortgage to an investment banker.

The investment banker turns it into a CDO and sells it in slices to the others

This works nicely for everyone, and everyone gets very very rich.

Except this time the model could not go on forever. Like playing a game of hot potato with ticking time bombs, each person has to pass on the risk to the next person.

As predicted the home owners defaulted.

Then the home is now owned by the banker who forecloses and one of his monthly payments turns into a house.

As more and more of his monthly payments turn into houses, the housing market gets saturated with too many houses for sale and houses start to drop in value.

As house prices plummet in value more and more families start to walk away from their mortgages once their home value are turned UPSIDE DOWN.

Now the investment banker is stuck with boxes of worthless houses.

The banker can no longer sell the CDO’s because everyone knows there is no money coming in anymore.

The investment bank goes into a downward spiral because the bank itself has borrowed Billions of dollars and sometimes TRILLIONS of dollars and he cant pay it back

The investment bank is not the only one in trouble because the investors have bought thousands of these junk bonds and the lender tries to sell mortgages but the banker has no more money to lend, the whole financial system is frozen and things get dark.

Everybody starts going bankrupt.

Welcome to the CRISIS OF CREDIT.

I recently made the switch from cotton socks to wool socks, and I have been very impressed with the difference.

I’m an active person and spend alot of time outside, and I usually wear boots. Normally I would wear normal store brand cotton socks, but by the end of the day they would always be damp and squishy. I hate the feeling of having wet feet. Plus over time I found that even the most expensive brand of cotton socks eventually wore out and became paper thin. After just a few washes I could tell that all of the padding had worn out for the most part.

In the colder months I used to try the “double sock” method. Even that didn’t do the trick for me, because after a few steps out in the snow my feet would just be twice as damp and my shoes would be twice as soggy.

I always passed on the more expensive wool socks because I thought that a sock was a sock, and I thought there was no point in spending more as long as I had a good pair of shoes. I can see that I was completely wrong.

Even though the cost more, they last much longer. Also wearing expensive shoes with bad socks nullifies any comfort that you might be hoping to get from your shoe.

What are the advantages of wool socks

1. Wool does not absorb moisture.

Instead it ‘wicks’ away sweat and water away from your skin. Also since wool does not absorb the water they will dry faster than cotton and be more resistant to bacteria and bad smells.

If your feet sweat alot, then you may think about switching to wool socks.

2. Wool socks provide more padding.

Having a good layer of padding on your feet is not just important for the bottom of your feet where you are stepping, its also just as important around your ankle’s and base of your foot.

One of the most important factors to keeping your feet warm in the winter is blood circulation. So if you tie your boots very tight it can sometimes cut off circulation to your feet and cause them to be much colder than your core body temperature.

Cotton socks provide almost no thickness and provide little buffer between your skin and your boot. However wool socks are much thicker and give more space. So even if you tie you shoes tight there is more room for blood circulation.

3. Wool lasts longer and is more durable

At my most active times I found myself going through store brand cotton socks as if they were made from paper towels, It felt like I was melting them right off my feet. Even though I was spending less money for a pack of 12 cheap cotton socks I had to buy new ones every other month.

Finally after switching to wool socks, I can tell the that the extra money spent goes into making a quality product. The material feels better, is more comfortable, and feels much more durable. Spending a little more money up front may actually save me money over the long term because I won’t be constantly replacing them.

How to wash wool socks?

Warning: do not toss your wool socks in the dryer, they will shrink.

Wool can easily lose its shape and become less defined if washed without care, and worst of all, it can shrink.

• Make sure your woolen item really needs to be washed. Unlike cotton and man-made materials, wool does not need to be washed frequently – even wool socks can be worn many times between washing if allowed to air out between wearings.
• Soak woolen items in cold water for a few hours before washing. Do this until all the woolen fibers are saturated. This method will help to stop the woolen item from shrinking.
• Use the right product. There are products specially made for washing wool. Dissolve the cleaner in the water first, to prevent agitating the wet wool. Alternately, you can try using baby shampoo or light detergent. Do not just assume you can machine wash with “woolite” or other detergent with “wool” in its name. Whatever soap you use, use very little as soap increases felting.

• Wash in sink by soaking and squishing being careful not to rub the wool against itself or it will felt. Heat, agitation, and detergent are the enemies of wool, aim to soak and rinse the dirt out. Wool is extremely easy to clean with just water.
• Dry flat in desired size/shape. A folding clothes rack can help here. Remove excess water with a towel by laying the item on a towel and rolling it up, squeezing and pressing gently. Unroll then leave in fresh air to dry.

Tips for washing wool:
If a wool item shrinks, wet thoroughly with cool water and stretch to former size. It helps to add hair relaxant to water, and rinse. Lay flat to dry.

Warning:
Hot water or a hot dryer will shrink wool. Even warm is too hot.

Friction will felt wool. (Meaning it will shrink and turn from a soft, woven, textured quality to a smoother,
harder material: felt.) Heat and soap will increase the amount of felting.

In addition to ruining your wool garment, running wool items through the wash cycle of your machine can also damage the machine as wool fuzz can detach and felt up forming hard clumps inside the pump.

Here the scenario, hours ago your President announced that the currency will be devalued by half. Soon everything in the country will be double the price of what it was today.

What do you do? What do you buy? Where do you go?

This actually just happened in Venezuela. Peoples response was not what you might expect. Thousands of people ran to the Spanish version of Best Buy, “Mejor Compra” to buy up all the TV sets and other imported electronics they could get their hands on….

Shouting “Buy, Buy, The World Is Going To Die!” Venezuelans went on a frantic shopping spree on Saturday following a sharp currency devaluation that is expected to drive up prices.

Shoppers crammed into electronics stores, eager to snap up imported televisions and computers ahead of the anticipated price hikes.

“I’ve been lining up for two hours outside to buy a television and two speakers because by Monday everything is bound to be double the current price,” said Miguel Gonzalez

Watching TV while my country goes to hell is not exactly what I had in mind, but if you didn’t know any better, then you might be prone to make the same mistakes.

It’s true that all imported good are about to get a whole lot more expensive. So buying ANYTHING at all will be better than waiting for your savings to be cut in half by the devaluation. However before you buy that new TV set you had your eye on, there are probably quite a few more things

I mean wouldn’t you rather be buying guns, bullets, socks, underwear, generator, food, or water??

You could make a run to the local coin or jewelry store and buy up all the gold and silver coins too…..

Nah, screw it lets get that new LCD Screen TV we wanted before the price goes up, make sure you throw in the Blu-ray player and HDMI cables.

Online currency exchange offers a massive money making opportunity to the savvy investor who is prepared to take a risk and speculate on the currency market.

Also known as the FOREX or foreign exchange market, this is a global trading arena that is open 24 hours a day from Monday through Friday. This is because no matter what time it may be where you live, there is always somewhere in the world that is open for business.

The Forex Market is the largest financial market in the world. The current amount of daily trading done in the Forex market is around 3 Trillion dollars. By comparison, the New York Stock Exchange trades around 30 billion dollars a day.

The 24 hour market provides many opportunities for traders that do not exist on the normal stock market.

For example, you can still have a day job and trade currency from home in the evenings or early mornings. You are not limited to trading your own country’s currency either. This can be an advantage during times of economic crisis when price movements in one currency pair may be difficult to predict, but others are relatively stable.

Currently the U.S. Dollar is going through a time of great turmoil. With much inflation on the horizon due to stimulus and the printing of trillions of dollars, FOREX can be one way to invest your money outside the realm of the U.S. Dollar.

How To FOREX Trade

Currency is always traded in pairs because you have to give one currency in order to buy another. You will see the different pairs written with their three letter codes, such as EUR/USD for the euro and US dollar. Prices will depend on the economic situation of the relevant countries.

If you are used to dealing in stocks, this may be confusing at first, but you can think of it as if you were buying stock in a whole country.

If you live in Canada then you would need to find out the Canadian exchange rate against the US Dollar or if in Europe the best Euro exchange rate again against the US dollar as the green back is the principle currency of the foreign exchange market.

To get started you just need a computer with a good fast internet connection. You cannot trade forex
with a dialup connection, it would be too slow. Your computer will need to display prices that are changing very rapidly, and you will want to act while the price is in the right zone.

In previous times you needed thousands of dollars to open a FOREX trading account with a broker but that has all changed now. As well as the old style standard accounts, many brokers offer mini and micro accounts where you can trade position sizes that are just 10% or 1% of the standard lot size. This means you can start out with just a few hundred dollars.

How to Practice Currency Trading

Fortunately, you do not have to start right out risking real money. You can sign up for a dummy or demo FOREX account with most brokers. This allows you to try out their trading platform, opening and closing dummy trades according to the real time FOREX prices. You can also test out systems in demo mode and keep track of your gains and losses.

Online currency exchange is fast moving and high risk. You must expect some losses and if your risk management is not good, you may see your start up funds wiped out. Be careful not to risk too much on one trade, no matter how confident you are.

Also there is no substitution for traditonal learning. There are many online courses that promise you the ability to “GET RICH” over night, with no experience, and no need to do any learning on you own. The truth is you WILL be able to make lots of money on FOREX, but only if you take the time to learn what you are doing. Online courses may be good but nothing beats reading the book first. The same way every college course comes with a professor AND A BOOK. Get a good FOREX training course or book and follow it until you are confident enough to risk real money.

In these tough economic times, there aren’t many things I wouldn’t do to save money or make my dollar go further.

When it comes to shopping this coupon mom is not playing around. She shows you how she was able to get 100 dollars of groceries for only 25 cents using coupons, price matching and her strategic shopping method.

“It’s not about changing what you eat, is about changing what you buy and which brands you like.”

Top Shopping Tips:

• Always check out the stores sale flyer.
• Always buy whats on the front page, they will have the biggest discounts
• Plan your shopping trips ahead of time so you will make more informed decisions.
• Know which stores have double and triple coupon programs.
• Look for internet coupons and unadvertised deals
• Buy the store brand for big discounts

Do you want to know how to get 100 dollars of groceries for just 25 cents?

Stephanie Nelson the founder of www.couponmom.com presents The Coupon Mom’s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half: The Strategic Shopping Method Proven to Slash Food and Drugstore Costs

Coupon Mom’s Book Description

Americans are hungry for bargains these days, but one woman has developed the ultimate strategy for enjoying a feast of savings. Taking the nation by storm, with appearances ranging from The Oprah Winfrey Show, Today and Good Morning America, Stephanie Nelson has shown countless women and men how to save thousands of dollars by becoming savvy coupon clippers-without sacrificing nutrition or quality. Now, in The Coupon Mom’s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half, Nelson demonstrates all of the tricks of the trade-beyond coupons and tailor-made for a variety of shopper lifestyles. Whether you’re a “busy” shopper and have only a small amount of time each week to devote to finding the best deal; a “rookie” shopper who is ready to put more effort into cutting bills; or a seasoned “varsity” shopper who is looking for new ways to get the deepest discounts possible, this book offers techniques thatw ill make it easy to save money at any level and on any timetable.

Extending her Strategic Shopping protocols to mass merchandisers, wholesale clubs, natural-food stores, drugstores, and other retailers, Nelson proves that value and variety can go hand in hand. With meal- planning tips, recipes, and cost-comparison guides, as well as inspiring real-life stories from the phenomenal Coupon Mom movement, this is a priceless guide to turning the checkout lane into a road of riches.

By Puru Saxena

Make no mistake the developed world is drowning in debt and there are only two viable options – a global economic depression or very high inflation. It is our contention that the policymakers have chosen the latter option and over the following years, we will experience the trauma of severe inflation.

The American government is staring at total obligations of US $115 trillion, America’s debt-to-GDP ratio is off the charts and the American public is also up to its eyeballs in debt. Under this scenario, you can bet your bottom dollar that the American establishment will try to reduce this debt overhang through a process known as monetary inflation. If you have any doubt whatsoever, take a look at the chart below, which captures the incredible expansion in America’s monetary base.

Expansion in the money supply

As you can see, over the past two years, the monetary base in America has expanded from US$827 billion to an astonishing US$1.93 trillion! Until now, this surge in the monetary base has not produced a highly visible inflationary impact…yet.

But it is notable that America is not alone in pursuing inflationary policies. All over the world, the developed nations are printing money and debasing their currencies. In this era of globalization, no country wants a strong currency and everyone is engaged in competitive currency devaluations. This massive money and debt creation will cause an inflationary boom over the coming years.

In fact, those who erroneously believe that deflation is unavoidable should review Figure 2, which highlights the mind-boggling expansion in the balance sheets of various central banks. As you can see, America is not the only nation guilty of printing money; the Europeans have also jumped on this train to Inflationville.

Inflation vs. Deflation

Now, we are aware that many prominent commentators are still calling for deflation. “After all,” they argue, “how can inflation be a problem when bond yields are so low?” Well, these deflationists seem to be missing the point because the US Treasury market is no longer an entirely free market. We would argue that the Federal Reserve’s intervention is largely responsible for keeping bond yields artificially low. Over the past several months, the Federal Reserve has purchased most of the net new issuance of Treasury securities. The American central bank is engaged in this desperate act in order to keep interest-rates low. However, it is buying these Treasuries by creating money out of thin air. This is inflationary.

If our assessment is correct, somewhere down the road, the Federal Reserve will lose its battle and T-bond yields will soar. As more and more bond investors wake up to the looming inflationary menace, they will start demanding a higher rate of return on their capital. When that happens, the dyke will break and the Federal Reserve will become irrelevant.

America has run out of choices. If the Federal Reserve does not inflate away this mountain of debt, the biggest sovereign default in history is guaranteed. Now, given the ability of the Federal Reserve to create confetti money, we are convinced that it will opt for the inflationary solution. Inflation would certainly make America’s debt more manageable, but it would also dilute the purchasing power of the dollar. Of course, this inflationary agenda is not a secret and this is why many creditor nations with huge reserves are beginning to diversify away from the American currency.

Where should position yourself

In the past, when inflationary episodes spiraled out of control, hard assets were the prime beneficiaries and this trend is likely to remain intact in this inflationary episode. If our assessment is correct, over the coming years, stocks, precious metals, commodities and real estate will appreciate in value versus paper currencies. Furthermore, on a relative basis, we expect precious metals and commodities to outperform all other asset-classes. Conversely, we anticipate that cash and fixed-income instruments will probably turn out to be the worst assets to own over the next decade.

Bearing in mind the looming inflationary nightmare, we urge you to protect your purchasing power by allocating capital to precious metals and commodities-related businesses. Finally, we suggest that you consider allocating a portion of your capital to the fast-growing economies in Asia, like China, India and Vietnam. Such investments should prosper during the low-growth, high-inflation environment to come.

via: The Daily Reckoning

History of the United States National Debt

The United States has had public debt since its inception. Debts incurred during the American Revolutionary War and under the Articles of Confederation led to the first yearly reported value of $75,463,476.52 on January 1, 1791. Over the following 45 years, the debt grew, briefly contracted to zero on January 8, 1835 under President Andrew Jackson but then quickly grew into the millions.

The first dramatic growth spurt of the debt occurred because of the Civil War. The debt was just $65 million in 1860, but passed $1 billion in 1863 and had reached $2.7 billion following the war. The debt slowly fluctuated for the rest of the century, finally growing steadily in the 1910s and early 1920s to roughly $22 billion as the country paid for involvement in World War I.

The buildup and involvement in World War II plus other social programs during the F.D. Roosevelt and Truman presidencies in the 1930s and 40’s caused a sixteenfold increase in the debt from $16 billion in 1930 to $260 billion in 1950. After this period, the debt’s growth closely matched the rate of inflation where it tripled in size from $260 billion in 1950 to around $909 billion in 1980. Public debt in dollars quadrupled during the Reagan and Bush presidencies from 1980 to 1992, and remained at about the same level by the end of the Clinton presidency in 2000. During the administration of President George W. Bush, the total debt increased from $5.6 trillion in January 2001 to $10.7 trillion by December 2008, rising from 54% of GDP to 75% of GDP. During March 2009, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that public debt will rise from 40.8% of GDP in 2008 to 70.1% in 2012.[8] The total debt is projected to continue increasing significantly during President Obama’s administration to nearly 100% of GDP, its highest level since World War II.

What is the National Debt ceiling

The Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917 established a statutory limit on federal debt. Congress had previously approved each debt issuance separately. The debt limit provided the U.S. Treasury with more leeway in the administration of debt, allowing for modern management techniques in government finance.

The U.S. Treasury Department now conducts more than 200 sales of debt by auction every year. The Treasury has been granted authority by Congress to issue such debt as was needed to fund government operations as long as the total debt (excepting some small special classes) does not exceed a stated ceiling.

The United States Congress has raised the debt limit several times in recent years. The debt limit was most recently raised to $12.104 trillion by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R.1), which was signed into law on February 17, 2009

As recently as December 2009, there has been a push to raise the Debt Ceiling again, this time by as much as 2 Trillion dollars.

Did You Know?

# U.S. official gold reserves, totaling 261.5 million troy ounces, have a book value as of 30 November 2009 of approximately $11 trillion, vs. a commodity value as of 17 December 2009 of approximately $288.5 billion

# Foreign exchange reserves $134 million as of October 2009

# The Strategic Petroleum Reserve had a value of approximately $69 billion as of December 2009, at a Market Price of $104/barrel with a $15/barrel discount for sour crude

# The national debt equates to $30,400 per person U.S. population, or $60,100 per head of the U.S. working population, as of February 2008

# In 2008, $242 billion was spent on interest payments servicing the debt, out of a total tax revenue of $2.5 trillion, or 9.6%. Including non-cash interest accrued primarily for Social Security, interest was $454 billion or 18% of tax revenue

# Total U.S. household debt, including mortgage loan and consumer debt, was $11.4 trillion in 2005. By comparison, total U.S. household assets, including real estate, equipment, and financial instruments such as mutual funds, was $62.5 trillion in 2005

# Total U.S Consumer Credit Card revolving credit debt was $931.0 billion in April 2009

# Total third world debt was estimated to be $1.3 trillion in 1990

What Are Risks to the U.S. Dollar

A variety of factors are placing increasing pressure on the value of the U.S. dollar, increasing the risk of devaluation or inflation and encouraging challenges to dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency. If another currency or basket of currencies replaced the dollar as the reserve currency, the U.S. would face higher interest rates to attract capital, reducing economic growth for the long-term. The Economist wrote in May 2009: “Having spent a fortune bailing out their banks, Western governments will have to pay a price in terms of higher taxes to meet the interest on that debt. In the case of countries (like Britain and America) that have trade as well as budget deficits, those higher taxes will be needed to meet the claims of foreign creditors. Given the political implications of such austerity, the temptation will be to default by stealth, by letting their currencies depreciate. Investors are increasingly alive to this danger…”

One year ago, Sarah Palin burst onto the national political stage like a comet. Yet even now, few Americans know who this remarkable woman really is.

On September 3, 2008 Alaska Governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention that electrified the nation and instantly made her one of the most recognizable women in the world.

As chief executive of America’s largest state, she had built a record as a reformer who cast aside politics-as-usual and pushed through changes other politicians only talked about: Energy independence. Ethics reform. And the biggest private sector infrastructure project in U.S. history. And while revitalizing public school funding and ensuring the state met its responsibilities to seniors and Alaska Native populations, Palin also beat the political “good ol’ boys club” at their own game and brought Big Oil to heel.

Like her GOP running mate, John McCain, Palin wasn’t a packaged and over-produced candidate. She was a Main Street American woman: a working mom, wife of a blue collar union man, and mother of five children, the eldest of whom was serving his country in a yearlong deployment in Iraq and the youngest, an infant with special needs. Palin’s hometown story touched a populist nerve, rallying hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans to the GOP ticket.

But as the campaign unfolded, Palin became a lightning rod for both praise and criticism. Supporters called her “refreshing” and “honest,” a kitchen-table public servant they felt would fight for their interests. Opponents derided her as a wide-eyed Pollyanna unprepared for national leadership. But none of them knew the real Sarah Palin.

In this eagerly anticipated memoir, Palin paints an intimate portrait of growing up in the wilds of Alaska; meeting her lifelong love; her decision to enter politics; the importance of faith and family; and the unique joys and trials of life as a high-profile working mother. She also opens up for the first time about the 2008 presidential race, providing a rare, mom’s-eye view of high-stakes national politics—from patriots dedicated to “Country First” to slick politicos bent on winning at any cost.

Going Rogue traces one ordinary citizen’s extraordinary journey and imparts Palin’s vision of a way forward for America and her unfailing hope in the greatest nation on earth.

Going Rogue: An American Life

Sarah Palin Biography

Sarah Palin grew up in Alaska towns, from Skagway to Wasilla to Anchorage, while her dad taught science and coached high school sports. She and her future husband, Todd Palin, graduated from Wasilla High School in 1982, and she went on to earn her college degree from the School of Journalism at the University of Idaho. Palin served two terms on the Wasilla City Council, then two terms as the city’s mayor and manager, and was elected by her peers as president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. She then chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. Palin was elected Alaska’s youngest, and first female, governor, serving from 2006 to 2009. While serving her state she was tapped as Senator John McCain’s running mate in 2008, becoming the first female Republican vice presidential candidate in our nation’s history.

The Palins reside in Wasilla with their five children, including a son in the U.S. Army, and one grandson. They enjoy an extended family throughout Alaska and the Lower 48.

On the cover of the October 19, 2009 issue of “Time” magazine ran this headline: “Why It’s Time to Retire the 401(k).” The cover picture was ominous, showing a 401(k) sinking like the Titanic.

I recommend reading this entire article, especially if you do have a 401(k). My concern is that the flaws of this retirement plan will grow into personal tragedies as the first of approximately 75 million baby boomers retire, leading to the biggest stock market crash in history.

But in spite of the apparent problems with the 401(k) plan, the darlings of financial media continue to tout its benefits. The same month “Time” ran its article, “More” magazine’s financial guru, Jean Chatzky, wrote an article about using low-interest savings to pay off high-interest credit cards. In the article she states, “There’s no better guaranteed return on your money (except, perhaps, a 401(k) match).”

Countering Jean’s wisdom of “no better guaranteed return,” the “Time” article stated, “At the end of 1998, the average 401(k) balance was $47,004. By the end of 2008, the average balance was down to $45,519.” If that is a great guaranteed return, I’m glad I don’t have a 401(k). The “Time” article pointed out that $100 in 1998, after inflation, was worth about $73 in 2008, a loss of $27 after ten years. So whom do you believe…”Time” or “More” magazine?

If you are unsure as to whom (and what) to believe, the “Time” article made two more statements worth considering. They are:

1. “The older you are the riskier a 401(k) gets.”

2. “Forty-four percent of all Americans are in danger of going broke in their post-work years.”

Now, I can hear some of you saying, “But the stock market is going back up. Green shoots are appearing. Everything is fine. The crash was just a correction.” For those optimists among you: I wish that all of your dreams come true and you live happily ever after.

I do not criticize the 401(k) plans just to criticize. I write because I am concerned. Let’s say “Time” magazine’s estimates are correct. Let’s say 44 percent of all Americans will go bankrupt after retirement. For approximately 75 million baby-boomers preparing to retire, that means 33.8 million of them will go bust once they stop working. To me, this is disturbing.

While many think the financial crisis is over, I believe the worst is yet to come. In spite of the green shoots in the stock market, the fundamentals of the U.S. government are worsening. I doubt Social Security can afford the avalanche of retiring baby boomers. The Social Security fund is empty, underfunded by approximately $10 trillion. For the first time in 35 years, Social Security will not pay a cost of living increase. And Medicare is projected to face a shortfall as well, of between $65 and $85 trillion.

In 2009, interest payments on our national debt are about $380 billion, which is $1 billion a day in interest. At the same time, the national debt is projected to climb to $20 trillion by 2012, which means the U.S. will have to borrow money just to make the interest payments.

I know the Federal Reserve Bank can continue to print more and more money…but city and state governments cannot. This means your city and state taxes will have to go up. If you think your property taxes are high now, just wait five years. I predict that, even if your home’s value does not go up, property tax rates will, and higher taxes will do wonders for property values. This means people counting on their home as their biggest asset may be disappointed.

In 1913, when the Fed was created, and in 1971, when President Richard Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard, the ultra rich were allowed to siphon off our wealth — via our own money, the very thing we work hard for and do our best to save. In other words, with every dollar the Fed prints, our wealth is being drained via increased taxes, debt, inflation, and savings.

A Cash Heist

There are four expenses that keep the poor and middle class struggling financially. They are:

1. Taxes — both apparent and hidden

2. Debt — mortgages, credit cards, and student loans.

3. Inflation — rising food and fuel costs

4. Retirement plans — 401(k) and savings

It is via these four expenses that the rich get richer. In other words, all four of these expenses are a cash heists, the ways the rich use the government to get into our pockets, draining us of our wealth.

The Silver Lining

The silver lining of all this: With a more sophisticated financial education, rather than have taxes, debt, inflation, and retirement accounts as drains on a person’s wealth, a person can convert those government-sponsored expenses into elements that work in one’s favor. By using the same rules of money the rich use, those four expenses will make you richer. In other words, taxes, debt, inflation, and not needing a retirement plan can make you richer if you use different rules of money. As stated earlier, in 1971 Nixon changed the rules — and so should you.

In closing, the 401(k) has a few good points…but not good enough, in my opinion, given the financial challenges that lie ahead.

Yahoo Finance

I live in a suburb of N.O. called Metairie. Parts of it were flooded briefly though a small portion was flooded due to the 17th street canal failure for about 2 weeks. My home was not flooded and sustained relatively minor damage.

I evacuated my family (including pets) to Atlanta on Sunday at noon after making sure other people I know including employees had left and did not need transport. I thought I was the last one out as everyone I knew told me they were long gone. I listened to the mayor order a mandatory evacuation of the city as I passed Slidell about 30 miles east of the city. My wife was behind me in another vehicle the whole way pissed off that she had to leave. The whole world was going west to Houston. I decided had at the last minute to head east into the storm’s projected route to avoid the traffic since I calculated I had only 18 hours to escape. I did not want to risk being on the road for this storm.

As it turned out, we made a great decision because the traffic was mainly headed west. We momentarily slowed down to 50 mph on parts of the I-10 but for the most part I did not slow down to under 80 mph until we were past the contra flow area about 25 miles north of the coast line on I-59. We picked the right window and the right direction for our quick escape. We spent the night in Birmingham after a 6 hour drive, (we were tired and emotionally spent) and drove with a heavy heart to Atlanta the next morning. I got us settled into a hotel near a relative’s home. I then told my wife to go find 2 furnished corporate apartments for us; we knew we were going to be in Atlanta a while. She asked how long (she always assumes I have the answer to everything). I said maybe permanently from the looks of things which really pissed her off.

We waited until the last minute to evacuate due to the reluctance of both my wife and mother to leave. My house is built of reinforced concrete; it is about 8 feet off the ground with parking and storage underneath. It has hurricane shutters, a 30 kW diesel generator with 300 gallons of fuel and is on relatively high ground (about 5 feet above sea level). I have always stock piled food shelf stable and MRE, water, firearms, ammunition, medical supplies and basic disaster supplies and consider my self reasonably prepared. I also keep a small 16 ft Boston Whaler in the garage.

I shut down my business on Friday at noon after we completed our much tested hurricane back up plan. I sent everyone home early and told them to contact me Saturday and Sunday if they decided to evacuate. I told them we would regroup Monday or Tuesday. My usual hurricane rule was in force for my employees. That is “you will not be penalized in any way if you miss work for one or two days due to an evacuation” (little did I know that would be 3 weeks before we would gather as even a partial group again). I gave a 2 week pay advance to everyone before they left telling everyone to be safe but to communicate with me, I normally do not do this but since payday was next Friday and Katrina had me spooked I did it. This 2 weeks pay helped some lower paid employees evacuate to safety. I kept everyone on the payroll and forgave the 2 week pay advance for all. I did this to retain everybody and I was not disappointed by anybody. Most were moved and some to tears when we met again and regrouped. Work provided some normalcy and security during these dark days.

Katrina of course hit and you know the story; carnage, looting, flooding death, etc. Around Wednesday after Katrina, I was going crazy with worry. My employees had not all checked in. Our office had no communications; the whole 504 area code was down. Property was obviously in need of attention and I was concerned about the business. I decided to go back and deal with the issues. I left my family back in Atlanta and went back alone.

I got to my home despite the fact that the city and parish were “sealed off”. I know the city well and knew it could not be “sealed off”. I got through un-challenged; the flooding in most of Jefferson Parish had been pumped out by then. Upon arriving home I cranked up the generator and had power, HVAC, internet, landline telephone (I could dial out but no one could dial in). I neglected to empty the refrigerator when I left so I did have that mess to clean up. That is a particularly nasty job but a large thick garbage bag, gas mask and chemical gloves make the job easy.

Once home, I assessed the damage and secured what little damage was done. The wind caused little damage to the entire city. The flooding is what caused the bulk of the damage. I fixed what I could then went check out other people’s property. I sent digital photos via the internet to my wife in Atlanta who contacted and forwarded the pictures.

I found out some friends from Lafayette, LA were coming down to the city on rescue parties by boat the next day. They were turned away for some obscure reason and stopped by my house to check on me. They agreed to stay a few days to help out our friends. That began the role I played for several friends; being the forward staging area for friends and business associates trying to get back to their businesses.

The generator made life comfortable but it burned copious amounts fuel. My 300 gallons was supposed to last 10 to 12 days but 300 gallons was only a 7 day supply. I had to drive to Baton Rouge with empty drums to buy diesel. Gasoline was in very short supply but diesel was nonexistent for civilians for about a week. I had plenty of natural gas for the grill, seafood boiler, water heater and dryer but it was useless for the generator. I have since added a smaller 15 kW air-cooled gas powered generator to supplement the diesel powered set. The diesel ran like a champ though for 3 weeks straight (500 hours). I stopped it twice a day to check the oil and coolant levels. I changed the oil and filter only once after 200 hours. I had neglected the oil & filter stockpile and had enough for only one filter change. I also had trouble finding the right oil and filter for about 4 weeks so I ran it with dirty oil.

I made many forays into the city with friends and family. Some were clandestine and others were overt and authorized. I passed looters actively looting stores and was shot at on at least one occasion. I will never forget one trip I made. I hired 9 off duty police officers to go with me into a flooded area. This officer was an acquaintance and a true blue cop a real Joe Friday. However, before we left he said “Now if something happens and we shoot someone, we are just going to leave him there ok? Do you understand what I am saying?” It was clear to me that things like that happened and that is what was done. Why do you think there are so many missing people whose bodies were never found? Look at the ages and sex of the missing people, most were under 35, male and lived in areas subject to the unrest.

The 3 things I remember most about the time was the oppressive heat & sun during the day and pitch black nights and the chaos and uncertainty of the whole situation.

The following is my list of what worked and did not work:

Communications:

Text messaging worked well all through the worst of the incident. The messages were often delayed but they got through eventually. A Blackberry proved to be a valuable and useful means to communicate. A pager also worked but was only a one way system. The text message interface on a PC also worked great also assuming you have internet service.

A cell phone with different area code was invaluable. I bought a prepaid cell phone in Atlanta. The Cingular system was dysfunctional, but Verizon and Sprint did work. I used Cingular and Virgin Mobile which is a Sprint reseller. The cell phone with a different area code allowed you to dial out and to receive calls. Forward your key telephone numbers to this cell and you can remain in communication. The entire 504 area code was unusable for about 30 days. We forwarded our phones before we left but the entire network including forwarding went down. So all of our phones just rang or you received an out of service message which is not good for business.

CB & FMRS radios were useless in the city due to significant range limitations. Around the house a cordless phone with a paging/intercom function worked better than the FMRS radio, since it would ring when you were wanted. I would carry the cordless phone and use the intercom function.

Marine VHF was useful for local area communication though it is strictly illegal to use it for this purpose. A 12 volt VHF unit on a boat in the driveway is good for about a mile to hand held sets. Though hand held sets could get through to the base station at this distance only if you could see the other person. They could also be used in the car on the highway and were useful since the channels are not much in use inland and the squelch function is useful. Be sure to get the VHF units with the ability to use alkaline batteries.

Telephone land lines worked well and in non-flooded areas the telephones land lines never went down. Cable was not robust at and went down early and stayed down a very long time. DSL since it uses land lines did not go down at all. Satellite dishes were blown away and like cable were inoperative. The internet was invaluable.

I set up routine a check in time for all parties with someone outside of the city. I surfaced to communicate and check in at 9am, noon and 6pm to communicate with my wife while she was in Atlanta.

Keep your cell phone batteries charged so have a car adapter, 110 volt adapter, AA adapter, and spare batteries. Anytime you see a place to charge them, charge them up. Keeping these items charged will be a PITA.

A TV made a poor news machine at first. AM & FM radios worked well, the internet was more comprehensive, but had a several hour lag time. A spare satellite dish had Dish TV back up and working in no time. A spare dish also had satellite internet up and operating. I recommend satellite TV and internet as long as you have a spare dish.

Lighting – Darkness, Darkness and more darkness!

Post disaster, street lights will not work and the place will be incredibly dark. When there was no moon the darkness was surreal.

Park your cars so that their head lights shine on likely areas of egress to your house or the place you are visiting. Use the remote fob switch to make the head lights and back up lights go one in the event that you hear someone outside. You can also use the car panic switch to set off the horn for a distraction.

Use a car battery booster with a 12v to 110v inverter to plug in a 110 volt area light to provide area lighting if your generator is not operational.

Use flood lights sparingly they attract too much attention in a dark city.

Spotlights with rechargeable batteries were less useful than those which took D cell batteries. The charges could not be relied upon when you needed them and recharging them once depleted was a PITA. A 12 volt corded spot light are cheaper and more reliable; of course they need a cord & a separate battery. Note that they can also be plugged into the battery booster.

Attempt to create appearance of many more people than you have. A group of 6 to 10 is more likely to thrive than a small group. A person alone is in great danger and should consider leaving.

Flashlights are not useful for area lighting, regardless of size & type. Lanterns are much more useful for area lighting. LED and fluorescent are great inside but Coleman double mantle lanterns dual fuel are great outdoors, but only out doors.

I buy only D cell, AA and/or AAA to simplify inventory needs.

Avoid candles and hurricane lamps, the light is poor for candles and both bring heat and more importantly fire risk into the house. All open flame of any kind should be kept only outside!

Keep a low profile

Be able to establish bonafides with a picture ID with your company name and address work as well as a letter on corporate letterhead, notarized and corporate seal on it.

A white pickup truck with a corporate logo and people inside dressed in PPE will be the key to transportation. Make sure it has a sign on it, magnetic signs with business name work well.

Impersonating a responder is illegal but impersonating a business is not, use the term safety guy or personnel guy. These folks are always in and out and nobody either hates them or really needs them so you will not get drafted by the locals. DoNOT I repeat do not, say you are an insurance adjuster or in the insurance business (even if you are) you will be taking your life into your own hands, seriously. They are considered equal to child molesters.

Personal Morale and Stress

Morale is vital to all on scene.

Cleaning yourself up and putting on clean clothes is a good morale booster. Washing clothes is a pain but it is important to have clean clothes available even if you have to do by hand. As long as the water from the tap is clear and not murky, cloudy or odiferous, you can use it to clean clothes in an electric washing machine, assuming you have a generator.

If you are the leader act like one. Express concern about your people whether you give a rat’s ass or not about them. They must think you care about them and will help them, it helps if you are sincere, but even if you are not, pretend to be sincere; your life may depend on it!

Get lots of rest at night. The night is the worst part. It will be very, very dark, which to city dwellers can be scary and disorienting. Sleep is the best way to handle this problem. However if possible always have someone awake 24/7. Preferably set up shifts to ensure all get adequate rest but the group is covered by someone awake. I had a rule that no one went outside alone at night, for any reason. If you heard something unusual, wake up the person who just got off duty or the person about to go on duty and have them go with you. The person on watch also had the car remote control to set off the car lights or the car alarm.

The nights were stressful due to the darkness and unusual quiet. Without power there were no A/C compressors, no cars and no people sounds. The only sounds were frogs croaking (yes in the city frogs) and silence. My generator installation was no noisier than an A/C unit. But with the central A/C units and the generator we were the noisiest thing for many blocks. Add inside and outside lights and we stood out for some distance. Hence the concern about security at night.

Drinking water gets boring so have something like Gatorade mix or tea.

Keep a positive attitude and a smile on your face! Your mood is contagious.

Heat saps strength, stamina & morale. Stay out of the sun, cool and hydrated. Make sure everybody has enough water and is drinking it, not just holding on to it. Read about heat exhaustion and heat stroke, know the symptoms, and act fast if you think the person is being affected by the heat.

Do not underestimate the emotion of seeing a beloved or even familiar place ruined.
Several cops committed suicide as a result of the stress; do not underestimate the level of stress involved.

Fire is a hazard and a real possibility. Have a fire watch and remember you cannot call the fire department or an EMS. There were instances of several houses catching fire and setting a neighboring house on fire. A 24 hour a day fire watch could save your life. Have the garden hoses ready outside, in the event a neighbor’s house catches fire.

Smoke alarms in the halls outside bedrooms and Carbon monoxide alarms in every bedroom and other strategic points are a must! The carbon monoxide alarms are mandatory if a generator is used.

Fuel & Power:

Always have enough fuel in a vehicle that can carry your group to a safe point without refueling. Always have a plan to get you and your group out to safe place.

Spare fuel in 5 gallons can is dangerous; store it outside in a shady spot. Hide it because if you do it may get requisitioned.

Diesel was almost impossible to find initially but gas was easy to find after the 3rd week.

Consider a tri-fuel generator and hook the generator up to natural gas. Natural gas remained on in most un-flooded sections but failed in flooded areas, so do not rely solely on natural gas have the capability to run on liquid gasoline as well. However a natural gas generator would have solved my fuel problems.

Generators are noisy and will disturb you, people nearby and attract unwanted attention. Find someway to keep the sound down. If you have a portable gas operated generator retrofit a car muffler (search the internet for article) to it and build a sound box of some kind. You want the noise signature to be as quite as possible. See this link:

http://www.alpharubicon.com/altenergy/gensetquiet.htm

Ideally have a large one permanently installed with quality sound deading material around it as I did.

Alternatively:
Dig a hole and put the generator in it and cover it with plywood. Allow for drainage.
Build a sandbag berm around it cover the berm with plywood
Enclose it in a building not connected to the house, route the exhaust outside!
Keep its noise to a minimum.

Have an electrician come and put a manual disconnect switch so you can hook the generator to the house. You can do something as simple as putting in the disconnect switch and providing a 50 amp 220 volt plug so you can hook up a portable generator to the house circuits. Avoid having a stand alone generator in the back yard with extension cords. Plan ahead and do it right! Also to keep the peace with your neighbor, plan on running 1 or 2 15 amp circuits to their house(s) if they do not have a generator. That is enough to run a fridge, lights & fans. Or a fridge and a small window A/C.

Weapons:

Type and quantity less important than training and proficiency. All those debates about which is best, is a meaningless discussion. The best one to have is one you have right now in your hand, learn to use it proficiently, including the ability to take it apart and repair it. Make sure you can hit a target at 35 meters one handed with either the left or right hand. Stop debating what is best settle on what works for you and spend the time training with it.

Do not openly brandish weapons the National Guard & cops will take them away despite any laws protecting you.

Have spares so that if cops take them away you have others. Do not resist attempts to by LEO to confiscate weapons. It will not end very well for you.

Be prepared to be forcibly removed for your premises and leave your pets or have your pets killed in front of you!

National Guard & LEO are not necessarily helpful, to be trusted or your friends. Trust yourself and your friends. Keep a low profile, avoid confrontations and be respectful and friendly (not subservient) to the NG and police when contact with them is unavoidable. Obey their instructions (at least when they are around) if possible and not counter to your goal. Never confront them or actively or violently resist them, you will lose and become just another unidentified body found in the rubble.

Cash, Documents and Commerce:

A Good way to make a friend is cold soft drinks – trade hot for cold if you can when you are giving them away as gifts. I went through a lot of Cokes.

Image important documents on a scanner and store them on a flash drive or on line by emailing them to yourself at for instance AOL or Google.

Drivers license, passport, social security card, birth certificate, marriage certificate,
Insurance policies, vaccination/medical records for family & pets should be imaged.

Use an online bank and have multiple accounts. Keep multiple credit cards with a zero balance so that in an emergency you can at least buy gas, a hotel room and some food.

You need at least $1,000 cash on hand. More is always better but do not carry all split it up in different pockets and use credit cards wherever possible. Keep it in small bills like $5, $10 & $20 along with a credit card. Checks, travelers checks and money orders are useless don’t waste your time with them.

Take photos of your insured property and make sure that they are not more than 2 year old. Use a digital camera and store the photos in multiple places.

Any photo albums, documents, or similar such things can be digitalized so that if the original is destroyed you at least have a copy. Look around your house and see what falls into that category. It is amazing how much you lose when you are looking at just a house slab.

Back up your data in multiple places and set out a contingency plan for your business. We use nothing but laptops and have contracted with an off site server to store all of our data files. Everybody can use a virtual private network to set up wherever we may finally stop assuming they can get to high speed internet connections.

Phone forwarding malfunctioned so all our lines did was to ring when they did not get a system busy. Have a contingency plan to notify all customers of a number change or arrange with the telephone company to use a trunk forwarding service.

We set up a toll free number and manned it with a small staff to disseminate contact info. Emails worked fine as did text messages. Web sites also worked well as a means to disseminate telephone numbers.

Looting. Looters and Requisitioning:

Police will loot. It is called requisitioning. They will take your spare gasoline, supplies, ammunition, first aid kits, ice, water, guns and even your vehicle! They are worse than looters in that they have the force of law behind them. They looted cars, booze, TV as well as necessities such as food water and clean clothes.

Avoid looting parties. They tend to be undisciplined and have numerous, armed people. If you join them, watch your back and go only with a group you know and then stick together. Take only what you need and make restitution when you can do so. Even when you need it… looting is wrong. It belongs to someone else.

The LEO & national guard will be hot, tired, scared and grumpy! Avoid them at all costs. They will be well armed, better trained and are more likely to shoot you than the looters. Always approach them slowly with your hands visible and in a non-threatening manner. Politeness (though not submission like you are guilty of something) and a smile on your face and a comment like “Boy am I glad to see you guys, thanks for the help”. If you are unsure of the situation extend your hand in a handshake. Their actions will tell volumes as to their intent. Never curse them, do offer them a cold coke or water. If you do not have a cold drink, say I would offer you guys one but I don’t have one.

The USCG were the best guys, they were most useful, professional and least dangerous (as long as you were not hostile to them) the worst were the National Guard units and local PD. They were stressed out lost their homes separated from loved ones etc. They were heavily armed and dangerous. No offense intended to any member of these units but that is my observation.

When you travel, travel in groups. No fewer than two, four in 2 vehicles are better. If you leave your vehicle(s) make sure someone or preferably 2 people stay with it (them).

Have a prearranged sign and counter sign for the group, include a trouble sign and counter sign. Do not shout everybody and anybody’s name when you think you see trouble. Use a signal when concerned or needing help. You do not have to be silly about it, but a shout of “Hey Mr. Murphy” is a whole more innocuous than “Hey George and Louis there are five guys coming towards me”. In the latter you have conveyed to the party coming at you that there are 2 other people who will be coming shortly. On the other hand if you shout “ Hey Mr. Murphy” while looking at the group and waving in a friendly like manner at the people coming at you, they may assume that you are addressing them and waving at them and not calling your buddies to come outside and help. It may just give you the edge in that situation.

Look out for people’s pets, save the ones you can. Bring food and water for them since it is likely one else will. Many pets were abandoned and dies a long linger death as a result.

Be very careful avoid any injuries of any kind. If you are injured, cut, get a blister, etc treat it aggressively, even a simple scratch in a disaster zone can be life threatening.

Get vaccination for hepatitis, tetanus and anything else you can talk your MD into giving you.

Do not take supplies from the Red Cross, Salvation Army or others unless you or someone you know truly needs them. Supplies are limited and others in need may do without because you wanted something you did not really need. I saw a single mother with a baby and toddler go without water when an “alpha” male barged in line and took stuff meant for her. The “alpha” males simply put the water in their pockets and walked away. I “found” her some water when the “alpha” males suddenly “dropped” their water and ran for their lives.

Be compassionate, but do not be silly, sometimes sympathy targets (old people, disabled people, kids and women) are used by looters as bait.

Do not be in the disaster area if you can avoid it. Leave the area until the situation stabilizes. If you have to be there stay only as long as necessary. It is not a game and it is sure as hell not fun.

Food, Water & Ice:

Ice is a very valuable commodity when the temperature is 95 degrees and the humidity is 100%. Keep some handy to trade or barter for favors. Use empty water bottles to make it at home in the freezer. It is a good barter commodity.

Safe, potable water is critical. You cannot have too much of it on hand. I had 10 five gallon bottles of water on hand, in addition to 6 cases of 20 oz bottles of water. That was no where near adequate.

Water is either safe or not. If you have the slightest doubt about the water; then it is not safe to drink it!

Unsafe water from the tap can be used for flushing toilets and washing clothes. It can also be used for washing you, but do not drink it and keep it away from your eyes, nose and mouth when showering with it. However, unsafe water from the tap and a 5% to 10% solution of bleach can be used for cleaning dishes with soap as long as the final rinse is in boiled or clean water (be sure the water has cooled and add 2% to 3% bleach to the rinse water). You can rinse the plate to get the food residue off with the running un-boiled water before washing them, but wash them with boiled water, if possible dip them in a mild bleach solution in the rinse cycle and hand dry.

To make clear water safe, boil the water for 10 to 20 minutes at a rolling boil. You can also add chlorine before boiling it if you are really nervous. Be careful and let the water stand at least an hour to avoid burning yourself. Boil as much as you can at one time because it is a PITA to boil water. I used a seafood boiler and natural gas for this chore. Keep the pot covered when the water is boiling and cooling Store it in a CLEAN preferably sterilized container. Used but clean 2 liter soft drink bottles are perfect for storing boiled water (but wait till it cools to pour it!).

Potable Water should be used as much as possible. For example water used for cooking rice and spaghetti can be reused for cleaning the pots and dishes.

An outside propane or natural gas burner with a large boiling pot will make quick work of producing many gallons of safe drinking water without the heat and humidity in the house. This boiling pot can also be used to sanitize plates, silverware and pots.

You can attach a large activated charcoal filter to an outside water hose to filter water that you boil for drinking. Boiling may or may not remove toxic chemicals in the water. Use bottled water from a known source if at all possible for all drinking, food preparation washing and bathing.

Water in a pinch can be made safer by filtering it and adding a small amount of Clorox or iodine tablets to the water. Murky or smelly water should not be used for anything, if at all possible!

You may be tempted to use the dishwasher and put it on heated water and the sanitize setting, but do not take the risk. It is just not worth the risk! Plan on hand washing and sanitizing the dishes yourself.

Paper towels, plates and deposable knives and forks work very well and many times are better than real china and silverware. Have lots of paper towels, garbage bags and deposable stuff on hand.

Garbage disposal is a problem; there was not garbage pick up for 2 months. Plan on bringing it to the dump your self. Sanitation is important and garbage stinks after a week in the sun! When you bring it to the dump put it on the trailer; do not put it in the car or trunk you will never get the stink out!

Note you can freeze bottle of unsafe water for ice, just label it as unsafe and do not use or drink the water.

Food is important to morale! Cook it and present it well! Sit down together and eat together, this is great morale builder.

Simple Menus are Important since fresh items are limited

Spaghetti & meatballs
Red beans rice & meat (sausage, hamburger, chicken)
Chicken and rice
Hamburgers and macaroni & cheese
Scrambled eggs, grits and toast
Steak and canned veggies
Jambalaya & meat of any kind

Use MRE only for lunch when out and about or as a last resort. Everybody should sit down and eat together at least once a day for better morale.

Vehicle:

4wd was not important but was useful mainly due to the higher ground clearance it afforded.

Bring rope to tie to branches to move them. Make sure the vehicle has auxiliary storage like a roof rack, a roof cargo carrier , a trailer hitch ”back porch” or have a trailer. Anything that you can use to carry additional bulky cargo, like roofing shingles, gas, clothes, food water, etc.

I used my boat as means to carry cargo such as garbage and fuel. It was all I had so I used it as a utility trailer. It had 2 -18 gallon gas tanks so filled up those tanks and put 3 -55 gallon drums in the boat. Use what you have.

Make sure your vehicle is in good shape, a broken fan belt, bad tire, leaking water pump or battery with a dead cell is useless and dangerous in a disaster zone.

Be sure to have a can of fix a flat, 12 volt air compressor, battery booster, tire plug kit, flash light with spare batteries and a plug in 12 volt spot light (they are cheaper and more reliable than those needing a charge) as well as basic tools like a screwdriver, pliers and crescent wrench are invaluable. A 12volt to 110 volt inverter (no more than 100 watts to avoid blowing fuses or worse a fusible link), small first aid kit and rope will also be invaluable. A 110 volt trouble light with a 25 foot cord to plug into the inverter will serve multiple purposes of light and power; just do not overload the inverter. Be sure to have a spare oil, brake fluid, ATF fluid and antifreeze, (it does not have to be in the car) you will not be able to find it.

The cargo area if not “hoseable” should be covered in plastic to prevent the spread of contaminants.

A cheaper car or pick up truck will attract a whole lot less negative attention than a blingmobile! Park the Mercedes and Lexus drive the pickup truck!

Tools:

Basic tools like a socket set, wrench, screwdrivers, etc. A cordless electric screwdriver and drill will also save you a lot of energy and sweat.

Other useful tools:
Crow bar large & small for breaking glass and prying open windows and doors. Pry bar for opening doors, Large bolt cutters, Claw hammer, Axe or Hatchet, Small sledge hammer and wedges (s.m.l).

PPE – very important! Hard hat, safety glasses, gloves leather & latex respirators or face mask, steel toed shoes WITH steel soles!
Gas chainsaw (nice but not required unless you live in a wooded area) I used the rope and car to pull large branches out of my way. A tree hand saw is just as useful and less costly in an urban area. In a wooded area buy 2 chainsaws, one is not enough.

Tarps several sizes are good you can always trade them if you do not need them.
An electric sawzall is particularly useful assuming you have a generator.

Chain and padlocks will always come in handy.

Electric extension cords get several and buy the thick contractors grade. Also a power strip with a surge suppressor for each cord will be useful. Tape (electrical & duct), Spray paint (white, orange & black for signs, warnings & messages),Preprinted signs like Looters will be shot are not as useful as handmade signs since the preprinted ones may indicate no one is around. Also date any spray painted signs so people know it is up post disaster.

Boats in Urban Settings and Flood Water:

If you have the misfortune of dealing with a flood, there will be all kind of hazards that you will encounter such that even the oldest of salts will be in a challenging environment.
Operate the boat only at idle or slow speeds. Do not let the boat get on a plane, displacement speed only. They will be signs, wires trees shrubs, debris and many other things that will destroy or damage an out drive. Better to hit something at a slow speed.

Trim the engine up to reduce your draft. Travel in pairs and maintain radio watches be wary of manhole covers if you go in the water. The covers may be gone. There are ditches and various other obstacles that are not apparent. Do not walk in the water if at all possible. Always wear a PFD even an inflatable one is better than nothing.

Navigation will be difficult since road signs may be obscured and your GPS will likely have a nautical chart rather than I-10 on it. Have someone on the boat who knows the area.

Power lines may still be energized, so stay away from them, do not touch them.

For the record, rescued people are not always grateful to be rescued. They may be in shock, terrified, disoriented and/or potentially dangerous. Always have at least one other you can trust in the boat with you. You can concentrate on steering and he/she should concentrate on the people in the boat. Never assume people can swim, provide a PFD for all and make them wear it; if nothing else it will be reassuring for them. If you encounter hostile people, exit the area ASAP. Always know how to get out of an area quickly.

Do not fool around in flood waters! They are nasty, disgusting and dangerous. Do not handle any floating bodies unless you want a very, very unpleasant experience. Do not ford the water in your vehicle if you can avoid it. Check the depth on foot before you even consider fording water. Most vehicles can get their drive train damaged by as little as a foot of water. The vehicle will also kick up wakes into people’s homes. The people in the house may object violently to you flooding their already damaged house. If you do ford water do so at an idle speed and paying close attention to water depth. If in doubt back up to higher ground! Judging the water depth is deceptive since cars have different heights. Often times the center of the road is the highest side. Consider using the sidewalk, lawns or road median to keep at least part of your vehicle high enough not to flood.

Elderly, Infirm, Pets and Kids:

None belong in a disaster zone and should be evacuated ASAP. Pets will be destroyed at the slightest bit of inconvenience to the authorities. Chip your pet and evacuate them. Keep their shots current and board them with friends families or a boarding facility. There were numerous instances of pets summarily destroyed for a variety of reasons including simply spite. Two deputies in St Bernard parish are facing charges for shooting pets for no apparent reason. The incidents were captured on videotape, despite this, they would never have been charged if left to the local officials. One can only imagine what else went on and was not uncovered. An elderly women recounted to me her story about how she refused to leave her home because her pet could not come with her. The LEO simply shot her beloved pet in front of her said “now the problem is solved” and put the woman in a boat. I heard from others in different areas that they were forced to abandon their pets under threat of physical threat. Some of these pets survived others did not. In a truly bad situation you should assume this attitude will extend to children and non-able bodied people as well. In fact in war time this type of behavior has been documented in various parts of the world.

There was also the case of 32 nursing home patients that were abandoned and subsequently drown in St Bernard Parish. In another case an elderly woman and her middle aged quadriplegic son were told a special van would come get them. No transportation arrived and they both died.

If you are handicapped, elderly have children or pets make your own plans to evacuate. Do not rely on any government plan to assist you. Rely only on yourself.

Evacuation Issues:

Leave early or Late – A tough call it depends on your circumstances and how likely your risk is to be vs. that of staying put. Just do not wait too long. allow 12 hours to get to safety!

Which route to use? – be flexible and do not be afraid to use back routes, speed is less important than steady progress away from danger. Keep a close watch on your gas. Look for gas at ½ a tank, search diligently for gas at ¼ of a tank, look for a safe place stop at 1/8 of a tank. Do not run out of gas. If you have to use your reserve tank find shelter nearby and wait until it is safe. Gas gives you options, no gas leaves you vulnerable. If necessary abandon one vehicle and strip all fuel from it. Discard stuff in the following order (if necessary) goods to make things fit: magazines, clothes, ice chests, food, spare tire, tools, adults, children & elderly, pets. Never discard water or fuel. If someone has be left behind (at a safe place obviously) leave two people and give them cash & credit card, water, cell phone and set an alternate rally point.

If possible travel in two cars, evacuation is very dangerous. Your car could break down and leave you and your loved ones stranded with an impending disaster enroute. Two cars capable of carrying all is the safest way to travel. Do not rely on the LEOs to assist, they will be busy and the phrase SOL comes to mind.

What to bring? See the above list but include at least 5 gallons of gasoline, food (simple stuff like bread and peanut butter) and at least 1 gallon of water for every two people. Be sure to carry the gas on top of the vehicle on the roof rack not inside the car. It will make everyone nauseous otherwise. Have maps, a laptop with an internet card to stay in touch with the outside world and a GPS is very useful. FRMS & CB radios do work well here. but are obnoxious to have on all the time. The driver’s job is to drive and do nothing else other than keep an eye outside the vehicle. The traffic will range from a creeping 10 to 20 mph to 60 mph bumper to bumper traffic. It is demanding and tiring to drive like this for 6 to 12 hours at a time. If possible appoint one of the passengers navigator. The navigator is responsible for keeping track of the locataion of both vehicles, nearby alternate routes and maintains communication with the other vehicle. Other passengers can be utilized to find accommodations, gas and other necessary information via cell phone (or internet) as well as tend to needs of the other passengers or driver. A 12 volt TV can provide invaluable news.

The traffic will be moving very slowing. 10 to 20 mph is not unusual, so be patient and do not plan on being able to get off the highway for anything for at least 5 to 8 hours.
A “piss bucket” is absolutely vital. For males a simple 32 oz cup WITH A LID, a 2 liter bottle and a funnel or a wide mouth 1 to 2 liter juice bottle will work nicely. Women may use the same thing but with a funnel. Be sure to have a towel handy! Do not dump it on the road unless you are traveling very slowly (which is normally the case) keep it sealed in Ziploc bag in between uses to avoid messes. Kids especially preteen girls may pose special problems due to modesty issues. Talk to those involved. It will be a problem and stopping may not be an option, assuming you can even pull over.

Destinations:

It depends on the situation but generally the farther away the better yet the closer the destination the easier it will be to get there. Where you go is up to your budget. I suggest some place with family and friends to help you assimilate in case the stay is a long one. For stays over 2 weeks, a furnished corporate apartment is generally a better deal and more comfortable and normal than a hotel room.

Evacuation by Air:

This is the safest and easiest way to evacuate but you cannot take much with you. This is generally best if you have a house elsewhere or you have small children, elderly or infirm people to remove. When you leave be sure to leave your car parked at an inside garage and at least one level above the ground floor. Do not count on this method unless you own your own plane since flights are generally booked well in advance.

Personal gear:

You should always carry the following:
A butt pack with flashlight, pistol (assuming you have a CCH permit), reloads, cigarette lighter, pepper spray, leatherman tool, latex gloves, small hand sanitizer and digital camera, spare batteries, spare data card. The camera should be kept in a baggy to protect it. Why the camera? So you can show others what you saw and get their input into situations.

Water at least one bottle

Clean towel, spare shoes, spare clothes, and wading boots. I typically wore a jumpsuit and running shoes. I changed my shoes to steel toed boots when I got out of the car and again when I got back in.

A hat and sunscreen were also very handy.

Sanitation:

Wash your hands wash your face with a clean towel before you go into the house if you have been out on “expedition”.
Hand sanitizer and plain old alcohol work great if potable water is not available..
Thick Plastic/chemical resistant gloves as well as latex gloves to protect yourself from chemicals like chlorine.

Leave your shoes out side and do not track any crud inside.

If you wear a jumpsuit with shorts underneath. Shuck the jumpsuit and put it in a garbage bag along with any towels used. Leave your boots outside. Everything dirty goes in the washing machine. Anything recovered from the flood water stays out side. Set up a hose and bucket with dish washing liquid to clean off anything nasty and leave it out side..

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