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By Root 770 0

that you can hire out in a relatively unregulated business (not requiring any special licenses, guild membership, or a union card). Examples include Ditch Witch trenching machines (ditch witch.com), vehicle-mounted posthole augers, vehicle-mounted well-drilling rigs, portable sawmills, cherry-picker bucket hoists, Bobcat tractors, small tracked excavators, and so forth. Once you’ve identified a clear unfilled need, and after you’ve confirmed that nobody else in your local area already has a machine that they presently rent out, then start looking to buy one. Ideally, you’ll want one that is a few years old (since brand-new machinery is usually too expensive), in reliable running condition, and reasonably priced. As necessary, get a trailer to transport it. Practice with it at your own property, so that you’ll be competent and confident that you can do a good job. Practice loading, hauling, and unloading your machinery (if needed) a few times, so that you won’t look like an idiot when doing so. Be sure to get liability insurance started before you officially launch your business. Then it is simple enough to advertise your services on the Internet and through your local chamber of commerce, and post flyers at the local feed store and supermarket. You can “scale” the size of your second business (read: how busy you’ll be) by setting your prices. If you want a lot of hours, then price it low. If you are getting too much work, then just start raising your rates to slow down your business. Then, if and when you ever lose your primary income stream, you can drop your rates on your secondary business substantially, so that it can take up the slack for your lost income. If necessary, add a second or third piece of equipment that you can rent out, to diversify your business.

Some other good examples of home-based businesses might include:

• Mail order/Internet sales/eBay auctioning of preparedness-related products

• Locksmithing

• Gunsmithing

• Medical transcription

• Accounting

• Repair/refurbishment

• Freelance writing

• Blogging (with paid advertising). If you have knowledge about a niche industry and there is currently no blog on the subject, then start your own. (It worked for me!)

• Mail order/Internet sales of entertainment items. (When times get bad, people still set aside a sizable percentage of their income to “escape” from their troubles. For example, movie-rental shops have done remarkably well during recessions.)

• Burglar-alarm installation

• Tinsmithing

• Broom- and basketmaking

• Wheel- and barrel-making

• Pewter casting

• Weaving and spinning

• Candle- and soapmaking

• Leatherworking

Keep in mind that if you choose publishing or another mail-order venture selling something compact and lightweight, then you can take advantage of a national or even global market. But if you are selling a service or a relatively bulky or heavy handcrafted item, then your market will be essentially local, so choose your venture wisely.

Tangibles

If after you have expanded your food-storage program and developed a home-based business you still have some remaining cash, then it should be used either to pay down your mortgage or to invest in tangibles. If you expect chronic deflation, then apply it to your mortgage. But if you expect Uncle Sugar to inflate his way out of the current economic morass (as I do), then put it in tangibles. I recommend that you put your money in productive farmland in lightly populated dryland farming regions, precious metals, and guns. Unlike dollar-denominated investments, these can’t be inflated away to nothing.

Precious Metals as a Hedge—Not an Investment

Looking at the past fifty to a hundred years, the current bull market in precious metals is a bit of an anomaly. The precious metals, in general, are not an investment per se. Rather, they are more like a form of protection against the destruction of the U.S. dollar. With the exception of the present day—which, again, is anomalous—people can expect to buy precious metals with no firm hope