Thanks!
You are correct on the advice to your nephew. I was a reluctant participant in the US Army, but, it turned out to be a life altering (in a positive way) experience.
My kids, though, are past that stage. One is an attorney, the other a successful programmer. They have assets to lose if there is a financial collapse. I can’t get them to see beyond what the FDIC can and cannot do for them. The concepts of the ATM not working and the government grabbing their retirement funds are what I cannot get across.
I can’t seem to formulate a plan for what they should actually do and sell it.
I suggest you print out what Ann Barnhardt has said this past week, Dec. 5th. throught Dec. 9th, at her blog.
She does a good job of explaining what is going to happen. She even says that taking the tax penalty when cashing out the 401K is worth it, as the government will seize all.
Good luck with your children. Maybe they’ll listen, maybe they won’t. But at least you’ve tried to alert them to the potential dangers of our future. That is all that we, as loving elders, can do to aid the young.
Our children roll their eyes and laugh behind our backs at the paranoia of the geezers. Until they actually lose their financial cushions and their futures, they are unlikely to listen to anyone who isn’t telling them soothing tales. And, when it actually happens, they will blame the capitalists, producers and conservatives because that is what they are conditioned to do.
I know countless families like yours. In the end, the culture won and we cannot protect adult children from consequences.
If the worst sort of collapse happens, how many of them will even be able to get from wherever they are to any sort of even relative safety?
In the end, most parents continue to worry, make sure their kids know there is some preparation ongoing by their parents and leave the rest to God.
At some point they may even ask you how you knew all this when every news source they respect has told them it can’t happen here. If we are very lucky, they will neither blame us nor give us up to the authorities in the name of fairness.
It’s painful, but no one I know has an answer. The best response I have seen is one family where the father has managed to set up two of his kids in business managing family real estate assets. One other child is in the military and the fourth has a slew of kids, a stubborn independent spouse, is on welfare, but knows that Dad has the means and the place for them all to be safe. Ironically, it is only the fourth who is a conservative and has the personal skills to survive after a collapse.
It is a strange world, these days.