There is a chance that the world could be heading in to a depression, so it seems appropriate to make a list that will come in handy should that eventuate. We all hope that it won’t be the case, but there is no reason at all to not be prepared just in case. Hopefully at least one or two of these tips will be useful to you all.

It is a very good idea to get to know your neighbors well – even in times of a normal economy. Your neighbors can keep an eye on your home while you are away, they can feed the pets, and they can lend you a cup of sugar if you need one! In the event of a depression they can be even more useful – you can create a small community where you can share necessities that one may have and others lack, you can set up patrols (if the situation were so dire as to need it), and you can even have shared meals which can help to keep waste and costs down.

If you have a considerably large amount of money, you will probably want to consider investing some of it in metals – such as gold and silver (though these are already seeing massive price increases). Of course, if you have a fortune you probably already know this, but it doesn’t hurt to remind people. In the event of a collapse of your nation’s currency, you will need a backup – and precious metals have been shown in the past to be an excellent one.

If you regularly take medication, try to stockpile as much as you can. In a depression you may find that you can not afford drugs, or – in a worst case scenario, the drug companies may go under! Additionally, store up bottles of aspirin and other common over-the-counter drugs that we all tend to use from time to time throughout the year. As you use these drugs, be sure to use the ones that are the closest to their expiry date – to prolong the life of the others.

Right now. Begin saving as much money as you can. Cut down on all of your expenses (except debt repayment) and save every penny. If we end up in a depression, you are going to need it. This is also a good time to start thinking about selling any items in your home that you may not need. If it becomes very likely that a depression is going to hit, sell everything non-essential – that means the TV, DVD player, stereos, etc. I would recommend that you keep your computer (preferably a laptop in case you lose your home and need to move around) as it will come in handy when the depression ends.

You should try to get rid of as much debt as you can right now. While you can pay your mortgage now, you may not be able to in a month – and as banks are feeling the pinch, they are not going to tolerate even one missed payment. This can obviously lead very easily to you losing your home. If you think the recession now is painful, try suffering it on the streets! This is a tip to help you cope before the depression hits. If you find yourself in an untenable situation and the depression has already arrived, forget this tip and read the bonus item carefully.

If you own stock, it is now a good time to consider the types of companies that are likely to do well in a depression – these are the companies you should move your stocks in to. The companies most likely to survive and profit are dry food manufacturers, diaper and toilet paper manufacturers, and any company making products that are seen as essential to survive. “Comfort” and “sin” stocks like cigarettes, alcohol, etc. are also stocks that do extremely well during bad times as people rely on them to blot out their suffering.

Some trades are more in demand during a depression than others. For example, a baker, a handyman, or an electrician should be able to find work during the worst economic downturn, but a change control facilitator may not. Invest in some good old fashioned skills now and not only will it help you survive a depression, it may well be a complete career change for you in the future.

Right now you should be hoarding dried and canned foods. Also tablets for purifying water and other nice-to-haves like toilet paper, candles, and batteries. I know this sounds like preparations for a nuclear holocaust, but the effects could be horrifyingly similar. Keep all of your goods in a dry clean area. I would also recommend a book on the basics of cooking, so you can convert your flour to bread and perform other culinary miracles that require nothing processed or pre-packaged. This is a skill that will be invaluable whether we have a depression or not.

If you think you are in a job that is likely to not be needed during a depression, you should consider relocating to an area that has a lot of wildlife and land. If you lose your house, an investment in an RV now (not on credit!) could be your life-saver. You can drive it to a new town, find a private area where you won’t be disturbed, and park up while the depression rides out. Make sure you find an area where you can rely on plentiful fresh water and animals – which brings us to item one…

If things get so bad that people begin to steal off each other, this will come in very handy. You can use it to protect your family and belongings, as well as to kill animals for food. And if you really are in dire straits, you can use it to rob someone else! (Okay – I didn’t mean that – we should all try to help each other out – not kill each other). A gun will be most useful in hunting so be sure to buy one that is practical for shooting birds and larger animals. You will also want to buy a book on how to skin, clean, and prepare wild animals for human consumption.

Okay – this is going to appear very controversial – but this is about surviving a depression; this is a matter of living or dying. If you are about to go bankrupt, are out of work, and see no hope in the foreseeable future of correcting this situation, use your credit cards right to the limit to put yourself in a better position – whether it be buying food, or moving somewhere you might be able to find work. If we really do enter another great depression, you will have to be prepared to do things you would normally not do in order to ensure the survival of your family and yourself. Under any other circumstances, this would be a very very bad thing to do.

With the outbreak of the Wuhan Coronavirus, people all over the world are starting to take notice and think the worst. After all, pop culture is filled to the brim with apocalyptic scenarios involving the end of the world at the hands of a viral outbreak.

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Right now there’s little chance of people dying en masse, and there’s no risk of a zombie outbreak just yet, but that doesn’t mean the situation isn’t serious and that it couldn’t take a turn for the worst.

Preparing yourself for an outbreak that could wipe out millions of people can be done, and you don’t need to start digging a shelter in your backyard to do it.

Survival is all about being prepared. What you do today, could save your life tomorrow. To that end, here are the top ten essential tips to prepare for the coronavirus outbreak.

10 Stockpile Food And Water

The average person burns between one-and-a-half and 3,000 calories a day, but without food, the body begins to break down.

Dying from hunger is terrible, and it can take as many as 70 days. However, without liquids, dehydration will lead to death in just three or four.

Be sure to stockpile a couple of months of canned and dehydrated food per person. Military rations pack a ton of calories and have a shelf-life of up to five years, so get some if you can.

You’ll need enough water for at least two weeks but preferably four. Half a gallon a day for one person is about right.

If you run out of the fresh stuff, you can disinfect water from a questionable source by boiling it or adding a touch of iodine or bleach.

There’s also a great invention called the LifeStraw, which you can use to drink water directly from a contaminated source. The straw filters water as it passes through. I recommend getting several and keeping them on hand.^[1]

9 Buy Essential Tools

If the plague you’re attempting to survive is worse than the Black Death, there’s a good chance society will take a little while to get back on track after everything dies down. After all, if history’s taught us anything, it’s that anyone can succumb to illness, including monarchs, presidents, dictators, and the guy who rings you up at the supermarket.

If a big portion of the population dies off quickly, you’re going to have to fend for yourself, and that means you’re going to need some tools.

Imagine looking for food, but all you find are locked and empty houses. If you’ve got a crowbar you have nothing to worry about. And there’s nothing wrong with breaking into an abandoned home while trying to survive an apocalypse!

You’ll also need to have a standard set of tools in a toolbox. Most importantly it should include a hammer, screwdriver set, a wrench, and a multitool.^[2]

8 Get Yourself Some Weapons

Survivalists are well known for stockpiling guns and ammo, and not just for hunting. If the worst happens, and enough people die, society will crumble and collapse.

After that happens, life will look a lot like a post-apocalyptic movie, and you’re going to need to fend for yourself. As soon as zombies start walking about, they’ll kill you and your whole family for a hearty meal and a safe place to stay. Your best defense is a good offense, and that means you’ll need weapons.

Shotguns are great at hunting birds, but they’re also ideal for close-quarters combat. A rifle is needed for hunting bigger animals so get one with a good scope. And finally pistols: they’re small, easy to use, and have great stopping power. I’d also suggest you get a book on hunting and cleaning animals.

If you don’t have access to weapons due to local laws, a machete or crossbow is also great at hunting and defending yourself. At the very least, get a good hunting knife and hope for the best.^[3]

7 Stock Up On Disinfectant

Plague doctors wore strange masks with beaks filled with herbs meant to purify the air as they breathed. This was because they thought disease was spread through bad smells. That idea has been disproven, but it does give us a good example of how to prepare yourself when an infection is airborne or spread through touch.

Standard consumer products that kill most deadly pathogens are cheap and easily found. Stock up on bleach which can disinfect anything and as I mentioned earlier, it can make water safe to drink.

Hand soap is good in a pinch, but not when there’s a nasty bug in the air. Get some hand sanitizer, and use it whenever you touch common objects, or come in contact with other people. If you don’t have any of that, alcohol will kill most germs, but it should be used as a last resort.

If you decide to buy a modern mask, surgical ones won’t help against the coronavirus. You’ll be wanting a CBRN grade full face mask—these are chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense rated.^[4]

6 Create A Safe Room And House

You’re going to need to keep your house safe, and that means you’ll have to turn to that trusty item that’s helped keep the US Military running smoothly for decades: duct tape. It’s easy to tear, sticks to everything and will help you secure your home and keep the virus out. And while you’re buying the tape, grab a bunch of plastic drop cloths.

If you think closing the front door and shutting all the windows will keep the virus at bay, ask yourself, when was the last time an insect got in? If spiders and ants can find their way into your house, so can an airborne disease.

Use the drop cloths to cover every window and door, sealing them with duct tape as you go. If you have a fireplace: close the flue and seal that up too. The last thing you need to do is establish a quarantine room somewhere in your home. This is where you would put someone who is showing signs of infection to isolate them from the rest of the group.^[5]

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5 Prep Your Immune System

The only defense our bodies have against a potentially deadly infection is its immune system. The best way to keep yourself in fighting shape is to take everything from Lysine and Vitamin C to exercising regularly.

You’re going to want to stockpile some medicine, so gather up as much as you can. Score some antibiotics, and ensure that anyone who needs insulin or an EpiPen has a ready supply.

If you have a prescription, don’t wait until the last minute to fill it; have at least a month’s supply on hand, or you could experience dangerous withdrawal symptoms, especially where antidepressants are concerned. Going cold turkey on prescription medicines can mess you up faster than the plague, so always make sure you have ample.

Additionally, you should have cold medicine, multivitamins, antibiotic ointments, and a well-stocked first aid kit. After all, you don’t want to survive the plague of the century and end up dying from an infection after you get a cut on your hand.^[6]

4 Create A Bug Out Bag

One of the earliest things a government will do when there’s an outbreak is to quarantine the infected areas. This has happened in Wuhan, and within a relatively short period of time, more than ten million people have been forced to stay put.

But while this was happening, foreigners who weren’t infected were evacuated. If the same thing happens where you are, you may find yourself forced to flee with little or no notice. In these situations, it’s always good to have a bug out bag ready.

A well-stocked bag needs all the items I’ve talked about on this list . . . but just enough for a 72 hour period.

You should also add an emergency radio, flashlight, spare batteries, waterproof matches, and a flint and steel. Don’t forget clothes and feminine hygiene products as well. While you can buy bug out bags from various places online, most survivalists would agree, you should stock your own based on your personal needs and health requirements.

You’ll also want to keep a copy of your city’s disaster plan in it, which can indicate safe ways to travel in an emergency.^[7]

3 Prepare For A Barter Economy

If the outbreak wipes out a large portion of the local population, the survivors will be left to pick up the pieces. All of that precious cash you got out of the bank may not be much good in the aftermath.

You’re going to need to tap into history and learn the benefits of a barter economy. Everything in a post-pandemic situation will rely on trade: nobody is going to give up their penicillin for a bar of gold or a wad of cash.

Before Hitler and his national socialist party came to power in Germany, the nation was ruled by the Weimar Republic. The economy was a shambles, and the currency at the time was basically worthless. People turned to an underground bartering system and it worked well enough to keep things going. The same is true right now in modern day Venezuela.

The best way you can prepare for this is to stock up on a lot of a commonly needed items. This could be antiseptic ointment, face masks, other types of medicine, or anything else people will need to survive a plague of epic proportions. And don’t forget, basics such as toilet paper will be in high demand.^[8]

2 Get Hold Of Some Boredom Busters

Once an outbreak occurs and spreads to your area, you may find yourself quarantined for a long time. If the power has gone out, you can forget about watching The mandalorian or playing Fortnite.

But that doesn’t mean You have to let boredom be your downfall. Even if the power’s gone out, there’s still a lot you can do to stay sane when the “Social Influencer” in your group realizes that Instagram’s gone and he needs some attention.

Make sure you have lots of books to read. Get a variety of entertaining titles but you should also keep some survivalist manuals on hand as well. You never know when they might save your life.

Puzzle books and old school board games are also an excellent way to pass the time. Boredom may not kill you directly, but it can make your life miserable, so plan ahead.^[9]

1 Prepare For The Worst

It’s possible that someone in your group will die. When that happens, their body will begin to decompose almost immediately. It will release stored gasses and excrement, and it can still spread disease.

Ebola is especially nasty where infection from corpses is concerned, thanks to the massive amount of blood involved. But a corpse can be dangerous even if death was caused naturally. It is essential that you don’t touch the body without gloves and a mask.

Disposing of a corpse is no easy task, and if you’ve watched our video on incredible smells, you’ll know that the smell of burning humans is not something you want to experience. Instead of cremation, make like a Mexican drug cartel and dissolve the remains.

Your best bet is to bury the body and cover it with lye. Grab a shovel and dig a hole approximately six feet deep. Carefully deposit the body and sprinkle a few cups of lye over it, and bury it with dirt. Within a relatively short time, it will destroy all but the bones and teeth.^[10]

I’d like to point out that while this list is partly for entertainment, it does highlight a very real danger today. Please look up your city’s disaster plan and make sure you are as prepared as you can be. Pandemics and plagues don’t usually give advanced warning. Things are escalating and this may be your only chance to act.

Good luck! We may all need it.

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Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”. Sadly, you can’t get out of paying taxes, and death is a part of life. It’s something we all must accept sooner or later, but more importantly, we need to prepare for it.

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This list is about the stuff we can do to get our estate (and ourselves) ready for our inevitable demise, so we don’t become a burden to the ones we love. This list was inspired by a comment from a regular reader, Left_, who tragically lost a friend recently to the Chinese coronavirus. This brings the current pandemic very close to home. I’m sure you will all join me in offering him our condolences.

10 Write A Last Will & Testament

A last will & testament is a legal document you can use to designate what happens to your property after you die. It can also include the details of what will happen to your children, as it enables you to designate a guardian. The last thing it does is establish a person as your executor, which is someone who carried out your wishes as they are written down in your will. While you can write one yourself, it’s best to do it properly, which means going through legal channels.

There are websites online that offer services towards this end, but that may not work for everyone. If you have an attorney on retainer, they can handle it for you, but it really depends on what you’re leaving behind. For most people, an online will takes care of their property, but if you do need to establish a guardianship, or you have millions in assets, it’s best to have a lawyer handle your will. If you die without one, the laws in your state will determine what happens to your property, and it’s unlikely this will align with your wishes.^[1]

9 Create A Master File For Your Loved Ones

One of the worst things to happen to any family is for someone who handles all the finances to die unexpectedly. Not only do their loved ones have to cope with the loss, but they also end up having to scramble to pay the bills and keep your property from being repossessed. There’s an easy solution to this problem, but hardly anyone ever does it. You need to create a master file of all your financial information and keep it in a secure location your family members will have access to after you die.

Because this is your most sensitive information, you should store it in a fire safe in your home, and it wouldn’t hurt to keep a copy in a safety deposit box as well. It should consist of all of your bills, the appropriate account information, a listing of your assets, which should include all bank accounts, pensions, and other income information. You want to make sure you don’t leave your loved ones in need after you die, so this is incredibly important. You should include both a print copy and a digital copy, which you can place on a USB thumb drive or SD card.^[2]

8 Ensure Your Funeral Or Memorial Service Desires Are Known

While you can include your wishes concerning the way your remains are handled after death, it’s always best to have a conversation with someone close to you and document your wishes, so they can be taken care of after you die. This is something most people think about, but it tends to revolve around the choice between burial and cremation, but there are far more choices than those two. If you’re a Veteran, you need to indicate whether or not you want to be buried in a National Cemetery, which includes the presentation of a flag by active service members in most countries.

If you don’t want that, you need to let someone know, so they don’t assume something, and do it against your wishes. There are also sky burial options, which include having your ashes shot up into the upper atmosphere, where they are released to fall back over the planet’s surface. Whatever your desires, jot them down, tell your spouse or your children, and kill off any potential ambiguity related to your desires.^[3]

7 Create A Living Will And Designate A Medical Power Of Attorney

While a last will & testament handles your property, children, and overall estate, a living will handles your person while you’re still alive. This is the document that says exactly what you want to happen to your body when you become incapacitated. If you enter a coma, what should the doctors do? Should they keep you on a ventilator after brain death, or should they pull the proverbial plug? These are difficult questions to answer for anyone, so it’s important you talk about these choices with your loved ones before writing them down.

A living will is a legal document and needs to be handled by legal professionals. You can create one online in the same way as a last will & testament, but due to the fact that this is an advanced directive involving an infirmed person (you), it has to be done legally, meaning you can’t write one down on a napkin and call it a day. You also should designate a medical power of attorney, which is a person you choose to speak for your medical care on your behalf without putting them in legal jeopardy.^[4]

6 Don’t Forget About Your Pets

Most people have had a pet of some kind during their lives, and it’s not something you stop doing as you get older. That being said, most people who are sick or know they might die soon, often make arrangements for their pets, but what about the people who die unexpectedly? What happens to the puppy you just saved from the pound or your parrot you’ve been raising from the egg? Animals are treated as property under the law, which means you need to include instructions for them in your will, or they could end up being destroyed.

The best thing you can do for your pets is to make special arrangements in your will via something called a “pet trust.” A pet trust is a legal estate planning tool, which gives you the option to create a way to care for your pet after you die. It designates a person who will claim responsibility (ask them first!), and will set aside money to help them care for your animal. If you have pet insurance, which you absolutely should, you don’t want to burden anyone with that expense, so plan on paying it for several years, and allocate the necessary funds in your pet trust.^[5]

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5 Make Plans For Your Digital Life

Whether you realize it or not, you have a separate life online, and there’s a ton of information related to it. From your social media accounts to your pizza delivery preferences, there’s a ton of data floating around with your digital signature attached to it. For a lot of families, this could be their entire photo album, and that’s a lot of memories you don’t want to deprive your family of after you’re gone. You’ve probably read stories of families trying to get into their deceased relative’s Google or Apple account, and if the company is willing, it’s almost always a hassle, but you can prepare for it.

Most companies have a workaround you can implement to ensure your family has access after you die. Google lets you designate exactly what happens and who has access if you don’t log onto your computer for a specified period of time. So, if you want your spouse and children to have access to your Google Photos account if you don’t log on for 90 days, the system will automatically grant them access. Another option is to give them your username and password, but you should change that every so often, making it unfeasible and burdensome.^[6]

4 Decide About Organ Donation

Organ donation is something they ask you when you get your license or government ID renewed, and there’s a good reason for that. There will never be a time when a health care worker will assume you wanted your organs donated, which means they have to have the legal authority to strip you for parts — after all, you’re not using them anymore, so why not? Of course, you may have a moral or spiritual reason for objecting to organ donation, which is perfectly fine, and you have nothing to worry about; they won’t take your organs without permission.

When it comes to organ donation, there are several options you can specify beyond simply checking the box that says “Yes” on a government form. You can donate your body to science, which means your cadaver will be given to medical students for study. There are added steps to doing this, as there are private and government bodies set up to take possession of your remains after death. This is different from donating something like your heart or kidney to someone in need, so talk about these options with your family, spiritual advisor, and/or doctor before making a commitment. One important thing to consider is that your faith and government (or medical community) may have different definitions of what constitutes death: leading to organs being harvested whilst you might be deemed living by your religion. This may be the reason that Pope Benedict XVI withdrew his consent to be an organ donor.^[7]

3 Ensure Your Spiritual Needs Are Met

This list is mostly about the technical side of life and death, but the spiritual side also needs attending to. This section deals with the way you want your remains treated in death, or shortly before dying. If you are Catholic and need to have a priest organized for the sacrament of Extreme Unction (last rites), you need to make sure that’s known before you become incapacitated. The same goes for how your body is treated. Some faiths require a body to be washed a specific way, and if you don’t indicate your desires toward that end, they may not be fulfilled.

This is something that could be included in your last will & testament, but it’s important, so you want to make sure you go into detail. The instructions for how your remains will be handled can be extensive, so make sure they were written down and available for someone to access once you’re gone. Just because you’re dead or dying, that doesn’t mean you no longer have a voice; it just means that your recorded words will need to speak for you.^[8]

2 Leave A Message To Your Loved Ones

While some people claim to be able to communicate with the dead, nothing is certain, and your best bet for keeping in touch isn’t going to be by bugging Whoopi Goldberg into helping you. That only works in the movies, so you’re going to have to rely on a more terrestrial option when leaving a message for your loved ones. This is your opportunity to say goodbye, and it’s something that you don’t want to die without. People who are dying of cancer or some other horrible disease often have some time to do this, but unexpected death leaves your loved ones with nothing, and you don’t want that.

People in high-risk occupations often do this sort of thing, but most people don’t think about it. After all, it’s incredibly difficult to do, but that’s true of most things related to death. You should write your loved ones a letter, letting them know how much you care about them, and leave them with a final goodbye. You don’t have to stick to a letter, as many people opt to do this sort of thing with a video. Think of what you want to say before you record it, and when you’re ready, create your video message, and store it with your master file, or upload it to an app that will deliver it for you.^[9]

1 Update Your Information Regularly

All of the above information is great advice everyone should consider when planning for death, but what happens if it’s out of date? After all, you want to have this stuff around for your loved ones in case you die unexpectedly, but since you’re probably planning on keeping that from happening anytime soon, you can just put it off, right? Sadly, no. You don’t want to put anything on this list off, because it’s all about planning for death, which isn’t really something you can plan for. Go through these steps, and update them through the years, and hopefully, through the decades.

Your will can stand for quite some time, but if you have more children or your end up having grandchildren, you may want to leave something to, you’re going to need to update it. You should also update your master file as your accounts and financial information changes. Nobody is going to be helped if all it contains is your Blockbuster Video account information, so keep it updated! Your final messages should be changed every so often as well, so it doesn’t hurt to set a date every year or two for a change.^[10]

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