10 Things You Must Do

I'm a little behind on all the news. I went out to my farm this weekend and sprayed a bunch of 2-4-D on some Chinese Elm trees that were trying to take over and sprayed a bunch more Roundup on some wild plum thickets to keep them from taking over, so I've been away from the news and out of touch. I also picked up a 5 gallon bucket full of prickly pear pads to use as part of the security arrangements at the house.

Now that I've made my preemptive excuses for posting something you might have already seen, here is the link.

Not exactly an uplifting article.

I'll give the Cliff's Notes version:

Stop listening to those who claim that "The Market is telling you the recession is ending/over."

Get out of debt - NOW.

Stop spending more than you make - in fact, do the opposite - start saving. NOW.

I've said it before but it bears repeating: have the ability to make it even if you lose your job.

Pull ALL of your business from ANY bank that has received federal assistance.

If you have assets in the stock market, and have thus enjoyed the rally off SPX 666, either sell or hedge that exposure RIGHT NOW.

Figure out what you're going to do if we suffer a "sudden stop" and be prepared to execute that plan.

Don't count on metals.

Acquire lawful means of self-defense.

Figure out who your friends are - and aren't.

There's not much here that is news, really. Most of it is common sense i.e. get out of debt, have a means to protect yourself and your family, have an economic "plan B", have a plan to get away from your home area if the need arises, and the idea that the stock market is in a sucker's rally.

Taking your money out of banks that received federal "assistance" is more of a stick-in-the-eye to the government and the banks than it is a plan to survive economic hard times, at least as far as I can tell. I can't see a greater risk in having your money in a TARP bank instead of a non-TARP bank, but the stick-in-the-eye is a worthy reason by itself, but it has nothing to do with making it through economic hard times as far as I can tell. Sort of like not buying a GM vehicle simply because of the way the government handled that little situation.

Happy reading.