89 Tips That Will Help You Prepare For The Coming Economic DepressionMichael Snyder If you are not convinced that economic disaster is on the way, this article might not be for you. Instead, I would encourage you to go to my website where you will find more than 1,200 articles that set out the case for the coming economic collapse in excruciating detail. For those of you that are interested in getting prepared, I apologize in advance for the outline format of this article. To examine each of these points in detail would take an entire book. In fact, I am the co-author of a book that will soon be published that discusses many of these things in great depth. But you dont have to wait for a book to get prepared. Mostly, it comes down to common sense. In this article, I share 89 common sense tips that will help you get prepared for the coming economic depression. Hopefully a lot of people will find these to be very helpful. This first set of tips are 11 things that I strongly encourage my readers to do #1 Have An Emergency Fund This is so important that I wrote an entire article about this recently. #2 Dont Put All Of Your Eggs Into One Basket In addition to having an emergency fund, you will also want to have gold, silver and other hard assets. It is also a very good idea to keep a limited amount of cash at home in case you cant access an ATM during a major emergency of some sort. #3 Reduce Your Expenses And Get Out Of Debt During a time of crisis you want to be as lean and mean as possible. If you simplify your life and reduce your debt load now, you will be in much better shape when the next economic depression does arrive. #4 Move Your Money Away From Unsafe Investments When the financial world falls apart, you dont want your finances to be exposed. Markets tend to go down much faster than they go up, and during the next great financial crisis millions of Americans that have their life savings in stocks and bonds are going to get totally wiped out. #5 Store Food And Supplies Your dollars will never stretch farther than they do right now. You probably will not need emergency food and supplies in the short-term, but the truth is that none of us ever knows when a major emergency will strike. During 2014, my wife and I felt more of an urgency to stock up then ever before, and I hope that people are using this brief period of relative stability to do what they can to get prepared. #6 Learn To Grow Your Own Food Anything that you can do to become more independent of the system is a good thing. This includes growing your own food. And the truth is that some of the most expensive items in the grocery store these days are fresh fruits and vegetables. #7 Defending Yourself And Your Family As our world become increasingly unstable, people are going to become a lot more desperate. And desperate people do desperate things. You are going to need to have a plan for that. #8 Move Away From The Big Cities If Possible For a lot of people that are dependent on their current jobs, this is simply not possible right now. But if it is possible for you, this is something that I strongly recommend that you think about. Being stuck in the middle of a major city is not going to be a good place to be in the years ahead. #9 Be Ready To Bug Out There may come a time when you are forced to evacuate from your current location. This may happen with very short notice. If this ever does happen to you, the key will be to be prepared for it. #10 Build A Community Your neighbors and close friends can be an invaluable resource. A cord of multiple threads is not easily broken, and if you have people that you can depend upon during a crisis that can make a world of difference. #11 Have A Back-Up Plan And Be Flexible Mike Tyson once aptly observed that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. The years ahead are going to require a great deal of flexibility, and you may find that the plans that you have made need to be altered. So dont get fixated on just one approach. When there is a major emergency, some of the most simple items suddenly become some of the most important. The following are 11 items that I recommend that every household have on hand an axe And here are about a dozen more key items that should be on your list from Survival Mom But dont just get focused on acquiring things. Some of the most important elements of preparation involve things that we need to do for ourselves. Educate yourself on survival topics, and practice them. For example, even if you dont presently live at your retreat, you should plant a vegetable garden every year. It is better to learn through experience and make mistakes now, when the loss of crop is an annoyance rather than a crucial event. Comfort items to help get through high stress times. (Books, games, CDs, chocolates, etc.) This next tip comes from an excellent article thatDave Hodges published recently If you or your family has a chronic health condition, it is critical that you have 6 months to a year in medicine. Also, you should research natural alternatives to treatment for health conditions in case you are not able to meet this goal due to the inability to obtain prescriptions. Dont forget to obtain some pain medication and antibiotics in case of unforeseen emergencies. Probably one of the most popular topics for preppers to write about is food storage. But those that are new to prepping are often very confused about how to get started. It doesnt have to be complicated. If you start out by focusing on staples that you eat all the time, you should be in great shape. The following are some recommendations about food storage thatPat Henry of the Prepper Journal has shared And as I mentioned above, another key to getting prepared is self-defense. If you make all the preparations in the world, but somebody comes along and steals them from you, they wont end up doing you any good. The following are some basic tips about home security from prepping expertTodd Sepulveda Front Door Your front door is a layer. But it shouldnt be your only layer. Besides reinforcing the strike plate with 2 inch screws, you should have a solid deadbolt. Another layer could be a storm door with a lock or even burglar bars. A good latch is valuable too! If you want to add even more layers, utilizing a security door bar is a good idea. But you dont only want to make sure that your front door is securely layered. Take some time to layer all the doors in your home. Windows Every window has a lock. But you can add a layer by including sliding window locks for about $5. Other options would include tint or blinds, which would make it harder for someone to look inside your house. Burglar Alarm A burglar alarm is a serious layer. Alarms can be monitored by an alarm company or they can be self-monitored. Self-monitored systems have greatly advanced and will even allow you to view your home on your smartphone. Dogs A dog or dogs can be a great layer, especially if they bark. My dogs alert me the minute someone is in the front of the yard. They run and bark at the door and dont stop until I open it. Outside dogs are a layer to your perimeter. A big dog on the other side of the fence will make any criminal think twice. Outside Lights Lights that are mounted on the outside of your home, especially ones that are triggered by motion sensors are a must! Roaches run when you turn on the lights! Someone who is watching your house will not want to approach it if they know the lights are going to draw attention to them. Outside Landscaping Bushes can be a layer around windows. It is important that you dont create an environment that will create a hiding place for someone to lay in waiting. Make sure that the bushes you choose to plant are thorny and cause a lot of discomfort if someone wants to go through them. Personal Defense A firearm is a layer that you would want to have if needed. If you want to use something that is not so deadly, you can always pick up a can of ColdSteel Inferno to spray in someones face. Having a few of these cans hidden in different parts of the house is a good idea. Safe Room A safe room would be a last ditch layer. Some people are putting them into their homes. If this is a scenario you want to take, you should research the necessary components for a safe safe room. Neighborhood Watch Although a Neighborhood Watch isnt just focused on your home, it is a layer that could cause the bad guys to go looking in a different neighborhood altogether. Neighborhoods that have a Neighborhood Watch usually post signs in the entrances of their neighborhood. Neighbors Even if you dont have a Neighborhood Watch, you should get to know your neighbors, especially those pesky ones that stay in everyones businessbecause they are going to keep a lookout! You gotta take some bad with the good! Street Lights Sticking with your neighborhood, it would be a good idea to immediately report any street lights that are out to the city or county that manages them. Again, light causes the roaches to run for cover! Signs Dont underestimate the power of a cheap sign. A sign on a fence that reads Beware of Dog or a Security company sign on the front lawn somewhere will cause the bad guys to think twice before attempting to break into your house. The following are 7 key items thatSurvival Cache recommends including in each bug out bag 1. Water Finally, it is important to remember that nobody is perfect and that everyone makes mistakes. 1. Failure to inventory stored food supplies Are there any additions that you would make to this list of tips? Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. 