5 Alternative Currencies To Survive
- Food
- Precious Metals
- Crypto Currency
- Extra Gear
- Renewable Sources
We have long believed the dollar to be invincible. America has been the reserve fiat currency of the world for our lifetimes. Every other country has transacted in the reliable dollar. Every failing economy has rushed to convert their assets to the dollar for stability. But can the dollar maintain its vaulted status in a global recession or depression? Can the dollar maintain its reserve currency status through a pandemic, an unprecedented global slowdown, a trade war, closed borders, over thirty million people unemployed, a federal reserve that is flooding the economy with an avalanche of freshly printed dollars created out of thin air, and the rise of several other economies and currencies? Are we looking at global confidence leaving the dollar and moving to more reliable currencies? Where does that leave you when the dollar becomes worthless?
On this blog, we discuss emergency preparedness and preparing for natural and man-made disasters. In this blog we will examine five currencies which will become greater in value when the dollar loses its value. We’re not a financial expert, and these blogs are strictly for educational purposes, but it doesn’t take an economist to see that the US economy is facing serious challenges. It’s foolish for us to assume that the dollar will always hold its vaulted position against other fiat currencies, resources, and rising crypto currencies. If you’re not following what’s happening in our economy currently, you really should as it is already impacting many at this very moment as the value of the US dollar is slowly eroding away and you should begin to make plans for what you’ll do if the dollar completely loses its value entirely, something that is a possibility. To the prepper, currency comes in many forms and not just printed paper money and minted coins. Currency is a medium of exchange for goods and services, and that medium can change when economies collapse and printed money becomes worthless.
So we’ll share with you the 5 things we’re currently stocking up on. Some of these are for worst case scenarios and some of these are just smart investments in my opinion based on my research. Again, when it comes to investments, we are not a financial advisor and we encourage you to do your own research.
So let’s look at these 5 items.
1) Food
Of course, in the worst of possible scenarios where global economies have collapsed or tremendous natural disasters have hit, nothing is more valuable than the food sources you have safely stored. A mason jar full of beans, rice, or flour, may be worth more than an ounce of gold. Food retains its liquidity and can be traded for almost anything you might need. When supplies run low, the value of this commodity becomes greater than any other item someone could possibly own in that moment. If you can’t eat or feed your kids, what good is anything else that you own?
It’s important to remember your operational security or OPSEC when transacting or storing food. If people know you have supplies and they are truly desperate, you will have a target painted on yourself. Never reveal all your stores. Always make any food-based transactions away from your storage location, and remain mindful of the desperation levels of others.
Rice, beans, pasta, MREs, canned goods, freeze dried foods, anything with a long shelf life and decent caloric content will be worth more than currency in any prolonged crisis or disaster. Make sure you have your storage levels high enough to sustain yourself, your family, and then extra parsed out for trading. I’ll be doing videos in the coming weeks that will go into greater detail in regards to storing food and how much you should have.
2) Precious Metals
Precious metals have long been an insulation against inflation and a weak currency. When economies look to be faltering, you’ll often see the rich rapidly throw their money into precious metals. As a result, this causes the price of precious metals to increase as the demand increases while the supply decreases which you’ve seen play out over the last few weeks and months. However, the problem with precious metals for the prepper is one of liquidity. You can’t go to the local store and trade an ounce of silver or a gold nugget for a loaf of bread. If your precious metals aren’t stored with you, you may not even be able to access them. They are far from worthless, though. Gold and silver have intrinsic value in people’s minds.
Minted silver rounds and gram to quarter ounce denominations of minted gold will still maintain partial value for individual trades. Many people ask in the comment section and have emailed me asking why I recommend gold or silver if an economy may soon collapse. The answer is simple. If you’re holding cash during a collapse, it will become worthless. Precious metals have what is called, “a store of value” which means they store value while other items will not. Again, this is why you’re seeing many people move toward precious metals here recently as holding cash if an economy collapses will put you in a bad position. As I mentioned a moment ago, you will have some limited ability to do exchanges with precious metals during a total economic collapse, but nowhere near the levels of what you purchased it for. But which would you rather have if the market collapses? $2000 cash which will be practically worthless or a 1 ounce gold piece that will allow you to do a transaction? This is why I physically keep precious metals. Also, when economies do recover, either in the US or elsewhere, silver and gold will allow you to directly reestablish yourself economically. While your stores of food will be less valuable after a recovery, your gold and silver will maintain value throughout a global economic downturn and through a recovery. The number 1 advantage of this is that you have a strong store of value that will allow you to rebound once things recover. I’ll post a link in the description section below where I personally purchase my precious metals.
3) Crypto Currencies
The third critical currency to have in your prepper supplies is some crypto currency. At the moment, crypto currency, namely Bitcoin, Etherium, and Link constitute about 10% of my overall investment portfolio. Here like the gold and silver minted coins, liquidity is the issue. You can’t really go into a store and trade Bitcoin or some other crypto currency for a loaf of bread, at least not at the moment, but that will soon change. However, if there is a large scale migration away from the dollar or if it collapses entirely, the US government will try to control the fall. They’ll freeze people’s abilities to wire transfer money and they’ll close banks. It has happened before. So I’ve personally chosen to begin moving off the dollar as I see it as risky with an economy that is beginning to teeter on the brink of a recession and potentially an all out collapse. Holding large amounts of cash exposes you to risk.
So what is the value of Crypto currency for a prepper? We see 3 main advantages:
- Crypto currency is decentralized. No bank can control it or manipulate it like the Fed is currently doing to the dollar.
- Store of value. Like precious metals, crypto allows you to move off the dollar and store the value of your currency in another form. While we realize those that may be hearing this for the first time may be completely confused as we were when it was first introduced to us, we would encourage you to study it further. We’ll post links to resources that helped us when we were first starting out.
- We can transport it anywhere. Whereas precious metals, food, and other commodities have to be physically transported, as long as you have your crypto keys which you can back up on a ledger or in a secure online vault or exchange, you can literally transport all your crypto assets anywhere.
We realize many reading this part of the blog may be completely confused by this information and if you had told us all these points even a month ago, we wouldn’t understand a word you’re saying. We’ll post links to blogs that serve as a great starting point if you want to learn more about this technology. We personally believe blockchain and crypto currency will have a profound impact on our world’s economies in the near future and you need to at least be up to speed on this technology. Many investment agencies and individuals have started announcing their move to Bitcoin in the last several months as both an investment vehicle and a store of value. Now that we’ve got our head wrapped around it and spent the last month studying it, we understand why.
4) Extra Gear
If the idea of precious metals and crypto currency is one that you consider too risky, remember that survival gear will be highly sought after if there is an all out collapse. Like we saw in this last panic when the pandemic started, people realized that supplies were about to become limited after the fact. If a true collapse occurs and people realize that they need an axe, they won’t find any. So, if you have an extra or a couple extra, you have a tangible good to trade with.
Your extra gear is a rich commodity. Fishing poles, ammo, hunting supplies, survival knives, water filters, medicines, fire starters, lighters, feminine hygiene products, first aid supplies, zip ties, tarps, leather work gloves, reading glasses, duct tape, candle wax paracord, soap, tooth brushes, the list goes on and on. If you have a good supply of any one of these things you will be able to trade surplus for other items you may need.
Gear is currency when the dollar becomes worthless and the economy is down for an extended period of time. Remember the old adage that “Two is one and one is none.” The more of a valuable item you have that will be in high demand and short supply, the more you will have to trade for other essentials to get you through.
5) Renewable Resources
Finally, any renewable resource you can bring to bear will provide you a currency. A mini Sawyer water filter that can purify up to one-hundred-thousand gallons of water provides you with one-hundred thousand trading opportunities. A solar generator for charging will provide you a consistent stream of customers seeking to charge their essential equipment. Knowing how to set a trap to hunt with or a catfish trap in the river will provide you meat to trade with. Knowing how to and having the space to garden will provide you a renewable source of food to trade with. Your sourdough starter or fermentation skills will be precious when yeast or alcohol can’t be found.
Any form of renewable resource becomes a priceless commodity during a prolonged economic crisis. Take a critical look at your knowledge and skills, just like you critically look at your supplies. What can you bring to the table in a collapse? What can you produce that people will still want? How can you keep your value high through what you produce while normal economic means become worthless? Can you retain value through sustainable production of some kind? Can you cultivate one of your skills to produce tradeable, tangible goods?
Any renewable resource you can provide which is in short supply will be valuable through an economic crisis.
Conclusion
We don’t know the future of the US dollar as the reserve currency of the world. Everyday it seems that it is being artificially propped up, and that may indicate a potential future collapse. The poet Robert Frost wrote that “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” To presume that the dollar will forever retain its vaulted place as the world’s reserve currency is foolish. The threats to the dollar’s position and dominance are very real and we should prepare ourselves for the possibility of its rapid, overnight decline. It’s a very different world than the Great Depression years of the nineteen thirties, but we are facing similar economic downturns, unemployment, and looming evictions and foreclosures. If confidence in the dollar continues to erode, a cascading erosion of value could occur.
Prepare yourself through these five outlined alternate forms of currency. Choose the ones right for you and the area you live in. While I don’t have a crystal ball, I have done my best to try and advise this community of the threats I have seen coming over the horizon and have tried to provide useful information so you can prepare. The economy is weighing heavily on people’s minds right now, and rightfully so. You need to position yourself in the best way possible. If nothing happens, then you own valuable assets that will serve as a solid store of value and potentially solid investments.
As always, stay safe out there.
