What Amount of Prep is Enough?

A lot of people are focusing on the idea of the Perfect Prep.

I'm of the belief that there really is no such thing.

I mean, don't get me wrong, you SHOULD prepare for unpleasant possibilities. For those cases, we prepare by:

• Buying insurance on common disasters - flood, fire, burglary, loss of income, loss of life, medical issues. The idea is to have sufficient money available to make recovery possible, not to try to live in the lap of luxury. So, buy enough insurance, but don't impoverish yourself in the process.
• Stocking pantries, planting a garden, filling your freezer. Not stockpiling so much food that spoilage is a major problem (particularly the food in the freezer), but enough to ride out a temporary situation.
• Having tools and supplies to handle life without access to outside assistance, whether for home maintenance, health issues, communications, travel, and other daily needs that might be effected by civil disruption, natural or contrived.
• Building and maintaining healthy bodies; having a good supply of common meds; being able to rehab injuries. If you're not as fit as you can be, you're a liability.

But, what if the situation you've prepared for does not arise? What if circumstances are very different?

What if your carefully paid for and stocked getaway home is taken for taxes (which can be inflated to be higher than any mortgage)?

What if a land redistribution scheme takes your homestead from you?

What if civil unrest, war, or natural disaster - or an UNnatural disaster, such as deliberate diversion of needed water from your area - makes living in that place impossible?

What then?

What if you have planned for inflation, only to find that the value of your preps plummets, due to deflation?

Perhaps the most important part of disaster prep is building resilience into the plan. Watching the changes in the local and national situations, and adapting to the needs of the future.

So, for that reason, I would say that communications is the essential prep. You have to be able to freely communicate locally, regionally, and nationally.

For that, you need radio. No other means is so difficult to disrupt or outlaw. Get a handheld radio, and learn how to use it. You can join a club for help with the process.

Some worry about having "the government" know about your communications capability. That's less important than the value of having contacts among the amateur community, who can help flatten the learning curve.

Radios are easier to hide than guns.