dudeone Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 The cost of preparing for doomsday By Blake Ellis | CNNMoney.com – Tue, Mar 13, 2012 12:27 PM EDT http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cost-preparing-doomsday-093700600.html The cost of preparing for doomsday isn't cheap. First you have to stock up on the appropriate gear, ammunition, food and shelter to survive a nuclear meltdown, asteroid, earthquake, solar flare or some other catastrophe. Then there's acquiring the materials you'll need to rebuild a community after the dust settles. The bottom line: Some self-described "preppers" are plunking down hundreds of thousands of dollars. So far, Patrick Geryl estimates he's already spent more than $130,000 on his survival preparations. Author of "How to Survive 2012" and eight other books about a catastrophe destined to occur this year, Geryl believes that a shift in the Earth's poles is going to result in solar flares, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that will throw the world into a nuclear meltdown. The dreaded event will occur on December 21, when the Mayan calendar allegedly ends, he said. Geryl plans to survive the turmoil in a small wooden bunker far from the nuclear radiation in South Africa, where he can live off the grid for about a year and rebuild a community with other survivors. In order to do so, he has spent years stocking up on nearly 100 survival essentials, including guns and ammunition, water purification tablets, waterproof matches, a drafting table for charting stars in the sky -- even condoms to use for carrying water. 9 signs the world will end in 2012 Books with survival tips, like a guide to edible plants, herbs and mushrooms, are also crucial, because he won't have access to the internet when disaster strikes, he said. He's still accumulating all of the necessities he'll need and is constantly adding more items to the list. [Check out his survival list here] To get to South Africa from his home in Belgium during a worldwide catastrophe is another issue. Geryl said he is currently considering sailing there in an "unsinkable yacht," which is made by a company called Etap in Belgium. However, he said the yachts, which have double walls and are insulated with foam so that they are supposedly unable to capsize, cost more than $100,000, so he doesn't know if he'll be able to afford one. Robert Bast, 46, is a prepper who works in Internet marketing during the day and runs an online community called Survive2012.com when he's off the clock. Bast, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and three children, has spent more than $350,000 preparing for "the end of the world as we know it." The end of the world, he says, could come at any time and result from any type of disaster. "What is certain is that in my lifetime, there is a strong likelihood that there will be a catastrophe of some kind -- the sun destroying power grids, a flu pandemic that kills millions, an asteroid or meteor or comet striking earth or a magnetic pole shift," said Bast. Bast has spent about $5,000 on stockpiles of food and water, and $11,000 on equipment including gas cookers, generators, batteries, water purifiers and solar power. He also purchased roughly an acre of land that's a 75-minute drive from Melbourne and 1,500 feet above sea level (in order to stay high and dry in case of a flood or tsunami). He has built a house there, as well as a bunker to serve as his "safe spot" in the event of an emergency. Together, the land, buildings and bunker have cost him a total of about $330,000. He's also spent $10,000 on an 8-year old Toyota HiLux pickup truck to drive to his safe spot. To afford all of this, Bast has been saving money from his job for years. He has a mortgage on his primary residence, and he took out a second mortgage for the home he built as his safe house. Phil Burns, a co-founder of the American Preppers Network and the subject of "Meet the Preppers" on Animal Planet, is preparing for all types of disaster scenarios. Among the more ominous: A natural disaster or economic collapse that causes mass starvation, causing people to become so desperate for food and shelter that they lose their minds and resort to violence. In the preparedness world, these people are often referred to as "zombies." How to survive a zombie apocalypse To ensure his survival in the event of a disaster like this, Burns, 38, has been prepping for years. He now has a year's worth of food in storage, including 4,000 pounds of wheat, beans and rice that cost about $5,000. He even has 20 bottles of different food flavorings, so that "one day I could have vanilla rice and the next I could have orange rice -- because just plain rice gets old." He also has an RV and trailer to use as a "bug out vehicle" to get to his "bug out location,"which is a fully-stocked 40-acre retreat tucked away in the mountains of Idaho. To protect himself from any attackers and to be able to hunt for food as a family, he has purchased several guns for each of his eight children (who learned how to shoot at age 4). Burns declined to disclose the number of guns he and his wife have, nor how much money they have spent on them. While Burns has spent a pretty penny on his own preparations -- about $20,000 on food and guns alone -- he says that preparedness is a lifestyle and doesn't believe everyone should start spending huge amounts of money getting ready for the end of the world. Financial apocalypse 2012 Instead, Burns advises beginning preppers to start by setting aside up to 20% of their income for preparations -- whether it goes toward supplies, emergency training classes or shelter. Anyone can become a prepper if they are willing to dedicate the energy and resources to it, he said. "A lot of people say preppers are paranoid, scared, pessimistic, always believing that there's going to be a disaster," said Burns. "But if you look at it with open eyes, we're actually optimists -- we're saying, 'I don't care what you throw at me, I can survive it.' " Are you concerned that a disaster is imminent? What are you doing to prepare? E-mail blake.ellis@turner.com for the chance to be included in an upcoming story on CNNMoney. View this article on CNNMoney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Brahma Bull Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Wish I could cash in on this. Living with fear every day is much worse for someone's health. Good luck with that unsinkable yacht. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift-4 Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Any word on the price of self-humiliation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Light Racicot Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Geryl plans to survive the turmoil in a small wooden bunker far from the nuclear radiation in South Africa, where he can live off the grid for about a year and rebuild a community with other survivors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xbox Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 If 2012 somehow did happen (which it wont) There wont be any survivors. so LMAO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inane Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 CNN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Brahma Bull Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Any word on the price of self-humiliation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Doomsday talk is a big money maker. Back in year 1000 i suppose the monasteries were full to capacity with those who were trying to save their souls through donation. (As if God takes bribes.) I wonder if those people all felt like suckers when they realized that the end of the world has been put on hold indefinitely. My guess is yes, but at least their money went to the right place. Right? (The catholic church is the richest non-taxed organazation on the planet. The big organized religions in the US have accumilated more wealth than the big US car companies, oil companies and computer companies combined. Non-taxed. They have enough money in their coffers to ensure the extinction of poverty for every man, woman and child in the US.) Fear sells. TOML "Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift-4 Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 "Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliboy Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 For the most part I think these people are crazy. However, sometimes the crazy people end up being right. For years all the people who believed in planet X were called crazy, yet now they have a new telescope out looking for the thing. Also, a solar flare big enough to take out the power grid absolutely can happen between now and the end of 2013. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
please recycle Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 For the most part I think these people are crazy. However, sometimes the crazy people end up being right. For years all the people who believed in planet X were called crazy, yet now they have a new telescope out looking for the thing. Also, a solar flare big enough to take out the power grid absolutely can happen between now and the end of 2013. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliboy Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 No. What they called Planet X or "Nibiru" is different than what scientists are actually using a telescope to look for now. The asteroid they are using that new telescope to watch has been known about for years and will pass between the earth and the moon sometime in the relatively near future. Then the Planet X people just started calling that asteroid Planet X even though it's way different than the original description that everyone was freaking out about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Thank you William Wallace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dajusta Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 The Mayans did not have leap year apart of their Calender. Which means OUR calender has one extra day every four months. Which means the Mayan Dec 21 2012 is already long gone. It aint coming folks'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dajusta Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 double post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aliboy Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 The Mayans did not have leap year apart of their Calender. Which means OUR calender has one extra day every four months. Which means the Mayan Dec 21 2012 is already long gone. It aint coming folks'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiznak Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Luckily, I still have the stuff I bought for Y2K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PredsFanFromLa Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 The Mayans did not have leap year apart of their Calender. Which means OUR calender has one extra day every four months. Which means the Mayan Dec 21 2012 is already long gone. It aint coming folks'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nucklehead Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Wood: The obvious choice for protecting yourself from a nuclear winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amish Rake Fighter Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 It doesn't hurt to protect yourself against adversity but some of these preppers are going overboard for the wrong reasons. The biggest risk facing us right now is the slow motion economic collapse of our largest trading partner and their status as the overseer of the world's reserve currency. Every fiat currency has a shelf life and the average is around 30 years, that's just a fact and there are literally hundreds if not thousands of examples to back this up. Right now the $US has been fully fiat for 40 years and it has lost 80%+ of it's purchasing power over that time. The most obvious way to protect yourself from this is to acquire hard assets like farmland and precious metals. It's not really feasible for everyone but you can also protect yourself from inflation by growing as much food as you can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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