Do You Factor in "Time" with your Preps?

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Morgan101

Morgan101

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I have thought about this for some time, and want to pose the question here. Some may think it is a morbid discussion, but just hear me out. How long do you realistically think you are going to live? 20 years? 30 years? 40 years? For arguments sake let's use these numbers as a reference. Life expectancy in the U.S. is 81 for women and 77 for men. We can all do the math. Of course, family history and genetics will be a factor.

If I consider a realistic time frame how long do my preps have to last? I am basing mine on 20 years. If the world shut down tomorrow, there are some things I know I will never have to buy again. I have enough Winter coats to last two lifetimes. I have enough boots and shoes to last for two lifetimes. Clothes would certainly last for twenty years. Good Lord willing, and the Creek don't rise, unless something cataclysmic happens, my house will last far longer than I will.

Neither of my children could give a lick about prepping. I have preached. I have pointed out examples as nauseum. Prepping is (eye roll) Dad's Hobby. My daughter is a thousand miles away. I can't help her with my cache. I do not factor them into my long term plans.

Am I way off base with this logic? Does anybody else consider a time frame when they prep?
 
I would like my obit to say, she died unexpectedly at the age of 150. But, that’s dreaming.
I know that I have more than I can use now, and my kids are not on board either. But, if it comes down to it, somebody will be blessed by my leftovers. In my dreams, the kids will appreciate what I’ve done, but hopefully I will be giving encouragement to someone who does.
 
Tootsie said:
I would like my obit to say, she died unexpectedly at the age of 150. But, that’s dreaming.
I know that I have more than I can use now, and my kids are not on board either. But, if it comes down to it, somebody will be blessed by my leftovers. In my dreams, the kids will appreciate what I’ve done, but hopefully I will be giving encouragement to someone who does.
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That's the Woody Allen philosophy. " I don't want to become immortal for what I have done. I want to become immortal by not dying. "
 
I have adopted the borg mentality . My prepping isn't done with just me in mind but primarily my descendants . Fortunately for me , I have all my descendants either living within 1/4 mile of me or less than I hour away . Whether they prep or don't prep , or to what degree they prep , my preparations are all done to secure their survival . Hopefully after the apocalypse , they can sit around the fire and talk about the guy that provided them with the ability to survive . I might be only a memory but hopefully they will appreciate my unselfish endeavor . My physical life is fleeting but the memory is immortal .
 
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Based on my parents age when they passrd I have about 13 years max. The Princess on the other hand may out live the shelf life of our longest preps shelf life.

My son appreciates the preps and they are still working on the stuff we gave them when covid hit. His challenge is making ends meet with 2 girls to raise.

Ben
 
It makes total sense to prep with time in mind, and each person's situation is different. I know I've passed that stage in life where I'm more oriented to how much time is left, rather than how long I've been alive. I figure that once I'm gone, whenever that may be, I have children who might benefit from what I've done/saved. But I have two sons and a daughter-in-law that are 500 and (gulp) 1000 miles away. So realistically I figure if I die, it's going to the son that's nearby.

I figure nothing is wasted - I prep for myself and my immediate family (estimating about 30 years for hubby and me), and whenever we die it goes to any of our offspring that are here (and our *good* neighbors).
 
We did our Will recently and I included a provision for two close friends to come get anything they want that is prepping related. Daughter (who lives up North) will be glad for any help cleaning out house to sell. No family anywhere near.

I am hoping for us to be around awhile, but...
 
Time is an ever changing issue here, the wife was given 6 months - 3 years ago, so our prepps are base on fairly short time horizons, I figure I have 20 years left in me so my prepps are built around 2 scenarios:

1 - keeping all the equipment the wife needs going for up to a year in a SHTF event, right now I think I could only cover about 3 months and her medicines are only good for 2 weeks...
2 - being able to maintain a reasonable life for up to 5 years alone in a SHTF event, I have enough short term (<18 months) supplies for a family of 3 for about 18 months.

For the long term prepps (>5 year shelf life) my thinking is that we need to eat down those prepps over 20 years, we will try to consume our long term prepps slowly each year, so for example we need to eat just over 50 pounds of our wheat each year. I would prefer to not have any long term preps left when the kids clean out the house....
 
Mom is 20 years older than I and still kicking. As far as I know my biological father is still alive. I don't have 20 years worth of preps set aside.
 
My family history isn't good for living a long life. Grandpa was 69 and dad was 72.
One uncle died at 43.
I try to have enough to last but in reality, we need to store more.
I don't prep for long-term SHTF because of our age and health we will probably not last long. It will be a hell of a fight but we will lose in the end. It'll be another Alamo.
I do take my age into account when making larger purchases. I don't need any more tools but I would like to have an 18" drum sander. I'll never buy one tho.
 
I'll be very lucky if I make it another 20 years.
But I'm not going to dwell on it. Thats just not productive
Our stuff and who it would go to is something we haven't figured out yet.
None of the nieces or nephews have given a thought to us for almost 30 years now, so I don't see why we should do the same for them.
I have it in my head to have everything sold and then given to some charities. They would appreciate it

But who knows, things may get to a point where we have to sell everything ourselves just to live so theres no telling what would be left :dunno:
 
Sounds like many of us are thinking along the same lines. In a true TEOTWAWKI scenario my wife probably wouldn't last six months. Once the maintenance medication is no longer available she would be in dire straits. If I make it another twenty years I will have outlived both of my parents by a considerable margin.

Who gets what's left? If there is a merciful God it will go to my children. What they do with it is up to them. If I have the time to plan I will distribute things differently. There will be a considerable amount of gear, and guns that would be better suited, and better utilized by my niece and nephew. We will address it when the time comes.
 
I do.

There will come a time, hopefully in 20 years or more. When I say...."I am no longer prepping to survive, I am prepping to take as many enemies of my children down with me in my final run"

I would like to hope for longer, but my generation is not living as long as our parents, I acknowledge that this is a world in the process of resetting and that I will not live as long as my grandparents and my children will probably not live as long as I do. It is what it is.
 
Time, and the dynamics of my aging during this timeframe, are very much something I consider and plan for.

A large part of my prepping strategy was to have in place multiple options and fall back plans that would supplement my stores. I purposefully planned to live in what is a remote location by lower 48 standards away from the crowds where this had more reasonable opportunities to be able to execute.

As I age, I know that living this subsistence lifestyle would become harder. It was really only a year ago I began prepping for advancing in age seriously enough where prepping for age is now a primary driver of how I am expending funds. So yes, I prep with a 20 year timeframe, which is about the extent of my useful life expectancy. And my preps includes prepping for being old.
 
We are covered for a couple of years, I figure that would get us through the a big change in the world. The problem I always think about is my age. I'm 53 and rough as a cob but I'm not close to the man I was 20 years ago. I reckon it will be a young mans game if it really goes south. I'm not saying I think I'd lay down. I'm saying I'd fight but I know where I am in life.
 
To answer your question, yes, I've taken long-term storage into consideration. My kids live a few miles away and they know what we have and where it is. Obviously, my wife and I want them to have what we have after we've shuffled off the proverbial mortal coil.

Bacpacker said:
I do the older I get. I'm planning to 90. But 80 to 85 falls more in line with family history. We have no kids, so not even sure what will happen with out stuff. Probably my niece and wife nephew.
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I encourage you to look for local preppers and get to know them. You can probably find a way to put your stores to good use that way.
 
BKT I have met some folks around the area and have agreement with one to head there if need be. If we get hung up here, or get to the point of death, My sister and niece will get it all. She don't live too far from us. Wife nephew lives north of Atlanta and was prepping for a while, but seems to have backed off since he got married. Will have to pick his brain more if that time gets closer.
 
Morgan101 said:
For arguments sake let's use these numbers as a reference. Life expectancy in the U.S. is 81 for women and 77 for men.
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Going by those ages, and presuming a severe SHTF. I would need 46 years worth of food. Since I am lacking a warehouse to store that food, as well as the money to buy it, for the really long term my focus is on sustainability. Currently we are very fortunate in that neither hubby or I take medication at all.
Not to add to the morbidity of the topic, but living 46 years to die in my 80s, in a post apocalyptic world would be a huge achievement and rather unlikely even for the best preppers. Considering the harsh life that would come with such a situation 30 years is probably a very slightly more attainable goal.
Given we have no family on this continent, and no children, I have absolutely no idea what would happen to any stores we did not use up before we die. It's not something I am concerned about honestly.
 
Rebecca said:
I have absolutely no idea what would happen to any stores we did not use up before we die. It's not something I am concerned about honestly.
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It concerns me, because anything that doesn't get used, is something that made my life right now worse. Prepping can destroy your life if done incorrectly. It's not a benign 'hobby'. It's more like an extreme sport. Rewarding...but with significant risks.

I am very cautious when spending money on dedicated preps.....preps that ONLY benefit me if SHTF. This is a fairly small amount of my total prepping, the vast majority of my preps improve my quality of life regardless, but there are always those things that are money down the drain unless you really need them. There is no avoiding that, I just make sure Its REALLY needed before I sacrifice 'normal' quality of life, for future possible, survival.
 
Aerindel said:
It concerns me, because anything that doesn't get used, is something that made my life right now worse. Prepping can destroy your life if done incorrectly. It's not a benign 'hobby'. It's more like an extreme sport. Rewarding...but with significant risks.

I am very cautious when spending money on dedicated preps.....preps that ONLY benefit me if SHTF. This is a fairly small amount of my total prepping, the vast majority of my preps improve my quality of life regardless, but there are always those things that are money down the drain unless you really need them. There is no avoiding that, I just make sure Its REALLY needed before I sacrifice 'normal' quality of life, for future possible, survival.
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I think I understand where your coming from, and it is something people should watch for.

But it's difficult for me to explain where we are at personally. This is our lifestyle, and we love it. Extreme sport is a good description and I get that most people on here would deem it poor quality of life. Maybe it has consumed us but if we are happy then does it matter? Not to me.

There are things people talk about buying as preps, or planing to learn, that's just my life and I am happy with it. We use a weird mix of 21st century and 18th century. I don't think there is anything that makes our life worse or makes us sacrifice now for later. There are things like food or ammo that sure we can't use all up now and that could be called money wasted. But most everything from tools to vehicles has a use now and after SHTF.
I think back to when I had a "normal" life. You know.., 3 bedroom house, electricity, 9 to 5 boring soul killing job, city 30 mins away, a dryer, dishwasher, a TV. And I shudder in horror. Nope, if this homestead prepping thing is destroying us it's doing it slower than the nightmare of the "normalcy"

I'm explaining badly..I'll blame it on the late hour here.
 
Rebecca said:
I think back to when I had a "normal" life. You know.., 3 bedroom house, electricity, 9 to 5 boring soul killing job, city 30 mins away, a dryer, dishwasher, a TV. And I shudder in horror. Nope, if this homestead prepping thing is destroying us it's doing it slower than the nightmare of the "normalcy"

I'm explaining badly..I'll blame it on the late hour here.
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No, I totally get it, and I totally agree.

Food and ammo are NOT in my wasted category, those are things that I will use and enjoy no matter what.

The things I think about a lot are things like generators, which are totally useless unless the power goes out.

Body armor, that does you no good unless you get shot.

Certain kinds of perimeter defenses.

Bunkers.

Things that I view as important and are 'fun' in terms of the prepping lifestyle, but are also a place where you can dump thousands of dollars without actually getting anything out of it....unless.........

All things that I have, but things I view as 'dangerous' in the zero sum game of life. I think you can go too far down certain rabbit holes and wreck your life just as easily as you could with drugs, sex, fast cars, etc. You can't, and shouldn't avoid dedicated preps...but its a 'danger zone' to be careful in.

I've run into more than one ex-survivalist who at some point dumped all there stuff and gave up on the lifestyle because they ended up bankrupt, or miserable, or simply aged out, with their stores expired and unused.

You really could say I'm a third generation survivalist at this point....and both of the prior generations gave up on the game at some point in failure, bankrupt, depressed, and sick. If their timeline is like mine, I have 10-20 years left in this game.

I hope to do better. But I have seen where this road can lead if you are not careful. I always feel like I am walking a knife edge between survival in the 'real' world, and survival in the fictional, so far, world of the apocalyptic future.
 
I need to up date my will.
I told my children that I had twenty years at the most when I was in my late 50's. It up set my daughter, but I wanted them to understand that I & their mother would not live for ever.
I am not worried about the lose of preps, my children can use it as they see fit.
 
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joel said:
I need to up date my will.
I told my children that I had twenty years at the most when I was in my late 50's. It up set my daughter, but I wanted them to understand that I & they mother would not live for ever.
I am not worried about the lose of preps, my children can use it as they see fit.
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I don't want to live past age 80. 'Our kind' was spec'd to die quietly of colon cancer at 65.
Two of my brothers did.
My dad cheated and got his polyps clipped in his 50's and lived to 85.
I saw the misery that was his life after age 80 and I don't want to do that.
I got my polyps clipped in my 50's and have sailed past the 'finish-line' of 65, months ago.
On topics with preps:
Back in my 50's I was gung-ho to face a post-apocolyptic world as "The Road Warrior".
I even had the car and gazoline.:D
If civilization goes back to medieval times, I don't want to live in it very long. For what?
To sit around and tell children how great it was back when we had electric washing-machines?
Count me out.
But if there is a setback that lasts 4-6 months, I am ready to play.:thumbs:
 
I have no idea how long I'll live, but I always have grandkids around me, so they'll need stuff. So far, mom is 88, Uncle Mel is 97, my dad passed at 96, and Great Aunt Edna lived to 105 and just passed a few years ago. I know I'll always need extra food because if things go really bad, our grown kids will end up here and not in the cities where they're at. We grew alot this year and trade alot locally for what we don't have, but having lots of storage is a buffer I like to have.
 
I think a lot about death this month, a 67 year old active friend who I thought would be at my funeral, even tho he was seven year older then I, just drop dead from a heart attack 48 hour before his doctor app. We will never know if that doctor could have saved his life. Yesterday a 56 year old friend & his wife were on vacation in NYC,NY & he had his first heart attack & is in the hospital.
At this point I wonder who will be next.
 
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