[Ripon]

Ok fellow preppers, now I know we are all different, but please play along as I'm just curious and doing some home work,

The question is this quiz is:

You have just been given $2,000 in cash. You don't need this money for any normal living expenses, retirement,
or anything else and in fact its best put to being better prepared. However you need to take some action with it
and that gives you a multiple choice selection:

1) Keep it in an envelope in the mattress or some other safe place (figuratively) in cash?
2) Buy a used pick up truck or SUV because all you have a is a car.
3) Buy a Springfield M1A, 5 magazine and 500 rounds of ammo because you have no firearm like that,
4) Buy one gold American Eagle 1 oz coins and 10 Morgan silver dollars, because you have no PMs,
5) Buy 5 acres of bug out rural property close to a stream with some arable "spots" to grow on
because without it you have no place to retreat too but home and bugging in doesn't look good.

Which of those five would you choose - please note the reason behind each - not necessarily your position.

My answer FYI on all of those was all five - over different periods of time I'm just curious which ONE
would you hit first under the circumstances?

 

[survival]

Hands down #5. And if you tell me where I can get 5 acres for 2 grand, then I'd be all over that.

And of course it all depends on your situation as well as what you personally feel will increase or decrease in value. Personally, the land would be my first grab for that kind of money.

 

[Denver]

1. Not cash
2. Have a Jeep
3. Have a 30-06
4. Cant' eat coins
5. Johnny we have a winner. The main prep I want is a BOL that I can call my own. Garden and pistol range first, then the sky is the limit.

 

[wesley762]

Number 5, I have cash in hand right now where is it at and it's a done deal.

 

[Ripon]

Yo Denver thanks for playing but this was a quiz not about your position in life but the authors.
Each answer was followed by their particular situation - which doesn't match yours

1. Not cash
2. Have a Jeep
3. Have a 30-06
4. Cant' eat coins
5. Johnny we have a winner. The main prep I want is a BOL that I can call my own. Garden and pistol range first, then the sky is the limit.

 

[Ripon]

Come on guys getting 5 acres for 2k isn't that hard - maybe in your neck of the woods but I've seen 5 acre parcels in my area for 1400/1800 dollars
and yes there are creeks, springs and in fact you gotta be care ful with some - they are under water a few times a year. (its desert land but much of it
is arable)

 

[wesley762]

Come on guys getting 5 acres for 2k isn't that hard - maybe in your neck of the woods but I've seen 5 acre parcels in my area for 1400/1800 dollars
and yes there are creeks, springs and in fact you gotta be care ful with some - they are under water a few times a year. (its desert land but much of it
is arable)

In the Area that I am looking at where I live, quarter acer size lots are going for 10k to 15k. a guy I work with just sold a acer out in the sticks for almost 100k and it was empty lot. Most land in Idaho is going for a premium right now........

 

[Infidel]

Come on guys getting 5 acres for 2k isn't that hard - maybe in your neck of the woods but I've seen 5 acre parcels in my area for 1400/1800 dollars
and yes there are creeks, springs and in fact you gotta be care ful with some - they are under water a few times a year. (its desert land but much of it
is arable)

You can't buy 1 acre here for $2000 not that I would buy it anyway but it'd be nice if property were that cheap here. If there were 5 acres in a convenient bug out location for 2k I'd jump on it. By convenient I mean it needs to be a driveable distance, I'd want to be able to get there in a hurry.

-Infidel

 

[bennettvm]

If society falls apart - cash is worthless - actually is isn't worth much now lol. I have plenty of guns/ammo, a bug out vehicle, silver coins.

I would stay on my property/house as long as possible, but I would want the land for a bug out location and hunting on the weekends.

So I would purchase the land.

 

[rickkyw1720pf]

I am prepared enough that I would just keep it in cash, if I thought the buying land was a reasonable option in Kentucky I would add another $10k to it. I know a lot of preppers are against keeping cash but since you never know what is to come having 2k in cash could be a life saver. If the electrical grid or a cyber attach (one shut all the banks down in South Korea) happened, that 2k in cash would help you buy things that would be the most useful for that particular SHTF event.

 

[Fuzzee]

It depends on your situation. What you've got already in firearms, where you'd bug out too, where the land would be. I certainly wouldn't take paper money and save it if you could use it elsewhere and you can't eat coins. You can invest in them for long term crash savings if you can keep them safe long term, but not when you could use other things instead in preps. I'd go for the truck if my car was a modern, sensor ridden compact that couldn't barely handle a dirt road and buy a good condition, pre-sensor/pcm, carburated F100 or F150. Than work to make it tops. Or the M1A if I didn't have any guns as good in hitting power, capacity and reliability. If I had that and the land was in a good location, than the land. If you can't get to it safely and defend it, it wouldn't be much good though.

 

[PaulS]

Ok, I own my land, I have my guns, I don't trust the dollar to be worth anything before the SHTF so my best option would be to exchange it for precious metals to pay the taxes on my land.

How many of you have forgotten that after three years of no taxes you lose your land?

 

[Ripon]

Just wanted to remind, on the question, its not about how prepared you are now and what you would do of those things now. My gosh I'm sure some of you have it all covered and would not need to do any of those 5 things. My question is based upon the situation presnted - meaning you have no other cash, you have no other solid transportation (except a car), no other weapon like the M1A, no metals, and of course no property to bug out too.

 

[Fuzzee]

Just wanted to remind, on the question, its not about how prepared you are now and what you would do of those things now. My gosh I'm sure some of you have it all covered and would not need to do any of those 5 things. My question is based upon the situation presnted - meaning you have no other cash, you have no other solid transportation (except a car), no other weapon like the M1A, no metals, and of course no property to bug out too.

You'll have to pick the one which would serve you most at the point you're at. I'd say the M1A, but it's still going to be a investment of more cash for ammo to feed it even if you could get a nice M1A and a dozen mags for the $2000. Unless you've got a deal already for that M1A, 5 mags and 500 rounds. Of course if you can't handle carry and using it like many people can't, than it might not be the best option. 5 mags isn't much.

 

[PaulS]

So what you are really asking is which is most important in our minds.....

Cash is worthless unless you spend it before the SHTF so car, gun, metals or land.
The average family car gets better mileage than an SUV and $2k won't get much anyway.
The gun could be an important addition if you didn't have any semi-auto but if you have a hunting rifle in 30 caliber you really don't NEED the other so +1
the precious metals will protect you from inflation and might buy your way out of a crisis situation but it also might get you killed so +2 -1 total +1
The land - well $2k will only buy an acre around here but if you can hang on to it it does what the gold and silver does and gives you a place to dig in and protect youself so I will give it +3 but you might lose it to unpaid taxes half way through so -1 total +2
In my opinion the land is the best use of the money.

Is that the kind of evaluation and answer you were looking for?

 

[grinder37]

My money,in your given situation,would be on the truck/suv.You can haul more and get to more places ruling out the need to buy property.How would you know your new property is any safer than where you're at now?Everybody is gonna have the same idea of "heading to the hills".If you have some guns,you have personal protection unless you plan to be a one man army,even most gangs will scatter with a few well placed warning shots or by dropping one of them,they're not gonna ask if thats an M1,which would/could buy you the time needed to evade your mobile BOL with vehicle and gear intact,to fight another day,hence me choosing the truck/suv.I'm also in the "you can't eat coins" gang.Bullets and food will be the new currency.A pack of cigarettes or bottle of booze would barter for more than silver.IMO

 

[Ripon]

Thank you - Yes Paul that is the kind of info I am looking for. I recognize how different we all are; and how little value some
might put on various things and how much value we might put on others. This is clearly a different answer for everyone, but
in the circumstances I described I wanted to know what preppers were thinking.

The thing is my dad bought land in the 1970's and its been in the family sense. Land for me was never a necessity. I could
not fairly evaluate how preppers might feel about buying land. After reading some of the posts here I did check, and yes there
is a 5 acre parcel for sale with a listing price of $4500 near Denio Junction which is my neck of the woods - that is the asking
price. I know the folks who own it - $2k might buy it - $2500 most certainly will. Depends on why Jack wants the money?

Oddly enough two of the items important to most were last on the list for me - the M1A and the Truck. Only because I sold
my SUV a month or so ago and got a great price for it - reason I sold it. After selling that I decided to buy a used F150 that
was only $2k. And shortly after that I traded an AR (extra) I had for an M1A. I could have bought it for about $2k but
managed to pull off a better trade and keep the cash. I bought the metals a few years ago - only because I was stoked in
silver and hand no gold. I had accumulated enough silver in the 1980's and early 90's but had no gold so I decided to
exchange about 2k worth of silver for the gold ounce and Morgans. Off and on I've kept 2k around as an emergency fund.
Still do.

 

[Seneca]

Ok fellow preppers, now I know we are all different, but please play along as I'm just curious and doing some home work,

The question is this quiz is:

You have just been given $2,000 in cash. You don't need this money for any normal living expenses, retirement,
or anything else and in fact its best put to being better prepared. However you need to take some action with it
and that gives you a multiple choice selection:

1) Keep it in an envelope in the mattress or some other safe place (figuratively) in cash?
2) Buy a used pick up truck or SUV because all you have a is a car.
3) Buy a Springfield M1A, 5 magazine and 500 rounds of ammo because you have no firearm like that,
4) Buy one gold American Eagle 1 oz coins and 10 Morgan silver dollars, because you have no PMs,
5) Buy 5 acres of bug out rural property close to a stream with some arable "spots" to grow on
because without it you have no place to retreat too but home and bugging in doesn't look good.

Which of those five would you choose - please note the reason behind each - not necessarily your position.

My answer FYI on all of those was all five - over different periods of time I'm just curious which ONE
would you hit first under the circumstances?

I've got all but #4 covered, and I don't see coins as being particularly useful until things start to recover. I'd have have to go with #5 as being the most useful, even though I think five acres for 2000 bucks is highly optomistic. Well at least in this area...you might be able to buy an acre of scab rock for 2000, add a zero to that and it'll get you can a postage stamp sized building lot. Even with the housing market tanking and nobody building anything...lots are expensive...

I did see some very inexpensive lots in northern Nevada, yet on closer inspection they wouldn't be useful for anything other than a wind/solar farm or fallout bunker...

 

[JAGER]

#3 for me Ripton, Reason being if you don't have a means to protect yourself and/or your property, then it will be taken in a SHTF situation. Get a M1 or AR what ever your fancy is and spend the rest on ammo and PMs.

 

[Verteidiger]

Nice concept for a thread, Ripon.

Based on the hypothetical options you present, I would say get the Springfield M1A, 5 mags, and 500 rounds of ammo.

In prepping for when the SHTF, money will have initial value only, until people discover it has lost its value. Today cash is king, when SHTF it will get dethroned quickly (by food and water).

Vehicles will be valuable somewhat, but driving will be risky - even if you are a moving target; I ride motorcycles on the street and I live by one cardinal rule when I ride - DEATH WAITS AT EVERY INTERSECTION. That will also be the case when SHTF, if your vehicle still runs.

Land at that price won't be worth having - and therefore not worth defending. If SHTF, and massive loss of life has occurred, there will be lots of land with no owners to protect it (since they're dead), and there is rural land that is public. So I would pass on the land.

Precious metals are better than cash, so that would be my second choice. It will be the coin of the realm anywhere, but in SHTF, I think ammo displaces it as a barter item, and food and water. People have to live, and eat and drink. Ammo gets you food and protects you while you eat. I expect that when SHTF, I will be swapping ammo for PM, for people I trust or in a barter/trading swap-meet/street-market reemerging economy.

So, since you say I have no weapon like a semi-auto high-caliber self-defense rifle, and in a SHTF world gone mad, it would be my first item to buy. With it, I can defend my family, myself, and my current position. With it I can acquire food. With it I can commandeer vehicles, obtain precious metals, and take over land and hold it if no one else can win the real world game of king of the hill.

This assumes a Without Rule of Law scenario, I should add.

So, I'd get the M1A. In truth and in fact, when I started out on this journey as a dedicated preparer/prepper/survivalist, it was the first rifle I bought.

Again, nice thread concept, Ripon!