Why Investing in Food Storage is Better than Traditional Investments (W10:D1) Debt-Free Millionaire

Simplified Explanation: Becoming debt free is when you do not owe anyone or any company money from a previous debt. You will still have monthly bills, but you do not owe anyone a recurring amount of money because of past choices or purchases.

Real Life: Getting out of debt is a huge weight off everyone’s shoulders. When you finally get away from debt, you never want to return. Typically, a person will do everything possible to keep themselves away from getting back into debt (aside from the most essential role of financing a home). But when you can get out of that debt, too, you will feel total relief.

Know this: this chapter is filled with suggestions that are based on experience.

Staying out of debt: After getting out of debt, you may feel the relief of not owing anyone financially, and the hope is, that you will feel the desire never to get back into debt. This may be the perfect time to consider ways to stay out of debt, such as cutting up your credit cards and moving to debit cards; buying cars with cash, instead of financing them; and saving for things you would like to buy (and be patient while you’re saving, too). You have worked so hard to either stay out of debt, or pay back your debt, that you have seen the wisdom of never getting back in.

Pandemic or Global Events – When COVID hit the world in 2020, two strategies were taken to stop the spread of the disease. One was to lock down every citizen and business for 3 months (or more), while they got it under control, so the hospital beds that were needed were not overrun. The second was to let everything go forward, and people lived their lives with masks and other protective means, while the virus spread to those who were not protected. In the end, both had the same results with the virus: people died. But the death rates were lower in South Korea and Sweden (who did not lock down) than those of the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Poland, and many other European countries (per million citizens). Also, those who did not lock down continued to thrive in their economies. In the United States, individual states took two different directions with the lockdown. This almost went the way of the political line: blue states (Democrat-run states) continued to lock down. Their number of COVID cases and deaths rose and their economies crashed. The red states (Republican run states) opened up, even just slightly, and their numbers rose at the same amount, but their economies came back quickly. Then, the government, under Trump, first, and then Biden, came out and said, “we will save you by sending you $1,400, then $600, and then another $1,400 dollars.” The government locked the people down for a year in some states, not allowing them to work outside their home, and then gave them $3,400 total, and claimed they saved the people. The problem is, about one-third of people surveyed in the United States lost 10 to 25 percent of their income, not $3,400, while statistics show that a simple 4 months would have solved getting a handle on the pandemic numbers in the hospitals. In the United States, those states and people that thrived were those that locked down for 3-4 months, and then opened up again, such as Georgia, Florida, and Missouri (which is where I lived at the time). Many of the people who lived in the locked down states found themselves to be the answer, and moved out of states, such as New York and California.

Now, after the lockdowns have opened and the masks have gone away, for the most part, because of all the printed money that was injected into the economy, the United States and most of the globe is experiencing inflation. By July of 2022 the United States’ currency had inflated nearly 10%, meaning that you are paying 10% more for a loaf of bread or gallon of gas, on average.

Time to set up an emergency fund: After you have found your way out of debt, the next step is to build an emergency fund of 3-6 months. This is a safety net to prepare you for disasters that may come your way. Don’t be too quick to jump into investing, until you make sure your house is financially secure. This means building a food storage, and creating an emergency fund of 3-6 months to help you through any hard times that may come. For example, if a COVID lock down started up again and you lost your job for any reason, would you be prepared? Most people can’t survive past 3 months without outside assistance. You, on the other hand are prepared for things to come if you’ve followed these steps and have your emergency fund. Or, what if you got into a terrible accident and could not work for 6 months, while you recover? Your health insurance will take care of your medical expenses, for a while, and you will take care of the living expenses. Your car, on the other hand, may need to wait, or you may be able to stretch your emergency fund to take care of the replacement. If an accident is someone elses fault, their insurance should pay the bill. This emergency fund is 3-6 months’ worth of your expenses, in a normal month. Most people, when placed in a hard situation, will do extraordinary things to survive, including cutting their expenses in half sometimes. Knowing this, 3-6 months’ worth of expenses will get you through most of your standard emergencies.

How to you create food storage responsibly and quickly:You are constantly going to the store. Normally, you buy the same things each time you go. For those things that are made to store - such as cans, boxed and bottled items - and those that are made to freeze, buy two, each time you go to the grocery store. It may increase your food budget, but it will allow you to slowly increase your food storage until you have 3-6 months’ worth of food storage. If you set your food budget to a comfortable amount, and don’t use it all in a month, you can always use those funds to buy extra food for storage.

When you feel like you have a good amount of food storage, make sure you keep track of it, so nothing goes bad. Most cans can last 2 years after their expiration date. Suggestion: If you have certain shelves to hold the cans for 2022 and then another shelf to hold cans for 2023, it is easier to track how old your cans are and by when you should eat them. This is an easy way to track your food and cycle it though. Each year, at the end, you will go through all that previous year’s shelves and clear them out, eating those foods first. Make sure that you have recipes for all storage items you gather, and make sure you like those meals. This will allow you to buy foods you like and will eat in times of emergencies.

Now it is time to invest: After you are out of debt, have an emergency fund, and have started your food storage, it is now time to put your excess income into investing in your future. Make sure you educate yourself in every investment.

Here are some articles to read: https://econofact.org/food-inflation-in-the-u-s-and-abroad https://riteeat.com/2024/01/24/the-case-for-food-storage/