We here at the CPN are always happy when we stumble into the American Preppers Public Forum and bump into a fellow Canadian! We are even happier when that fellow Canadian says that he heard about the Network through James Talmage Stevens Family Preparedness Guide on Blog Talk Radio – Thanks for helping to spread the word James!
So without further ado – we at the CPN would like to welcome our newest contributor – CdnGuy! CdnGuy has been a prepper for quite some time and lives in the beautiful province of Alberta, having grown up in Ontario. Look for more articles from CdnGuy to show up here at the CPN mainpage and over at the Alberta Preppers Network.
The following article is a submission from CdnGuy and we hope for many more! Thanks for finding us CdnGuy!
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Preparedness as a Retirement Plan
The concept of retirement is a relatively new one. Not so long ago, when we were a more agrarian based society, few people ever retired. Their daily duties just changed. As we grew older, we would take over running the farm, and then we would maybe step back and let our kids do that. Maybe we would take over maintenance of the equipment or something little less physically demanding, but required experience. Maybe we would help out more inside the home. But flat out retirement to travel south or play golf all day was the domain of the ultra rich. Even then, most tycoons were still wheeling and dealing well into their 60’s and beyond
Nowadays with retirement plans tanking and pension funds bleeding out, we may find ourselves without the ability to retire once again. However, this time, we won’t have the farm to feed us and the multi-generational home to keep us occupied and close to our loved ones. If we’re very fortunate, we may be able to find a spot in a retirement home and sell our current homes to pay for it.
Me, I have a different plan. My plan depends on me getting prepared to take care of myself and my wife for as long as we are physically able. If my plan works, we’ll also be able to ‘retire’ early. That plan is preparedness.
When you think about it, if you can provide most of your own food, utilities, and medicine and your shelter is bought and paid for, how much money do you really need? Enough to pay the property taxes, run your vehicle, and take care of emergencies. Maybe you need some money for a bit of travel as well. But not as much money as two people working for more than 40 hours a week each generate.
It’s not hard to imagine a household income of around $100,000 a year or about $73,000 after taxes. Now, we know a lot of people are going to have mortgage payments around $1400 a month, utilities of at least $400 a month, TV and Internet for another $200 a month, $500 for food, $400 for various insurances, $200 for gas for the vehicles…it goes on and on.
So just the cost of living consumes $3100 of your after-tax income. Yearly, that’s about half of your income. If you can pay off your home, produce half of your utilities, drop the fancy TV package and step down a notch on the Internet access (that’s a tough one for me) and produce half of your food, you cut that outlay to about $1100 dollars a month. At that point, one of you can effectively retire. Or, the two of you can work half as much.
So what do you do with the extra 20-30 hours a week? Do the soul-building things like work your garden, love your spouse, split some wood, read books, start a business, whatever! Now, you are working for you. And should everything go for a poop, you are completely prepared to live comfortably and well with little to no income.
I find the thought of retiring to my homestead around the age of 50 to be a much more motivating and positive thought, than think of prepping to cope with disaster. Disaster may never come, but time always marches on.
Submitted by CdnGuy
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Again – welcome CdnGuy – we look forward to more great articles from you!