What Preps are you doing this week

[Yorkshire Andy]

Sorted my car bag out well rather built one up rather than have it all floating round loose in my boot.....

http://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-rucks ... 5-6533.prd


the car has its own bag with spares and tools.. parts etc

[munchh]

Just got my crusader cook set, extra waterproofs and sleeping bag into my work van, I work nights and found myself stuck in the snow a few years back, I wont mind if it happens now.

[pseudonym]

Re-seasoning all my Cast Iron.

Managed to buy a 10" skillet for £4 in a charity shop yesterday.

[nickdutch]

Put a few pennies (almost literally!) aside in the stock market and am only planning on keeping it there for about a year and then move it out in case things start to get a bit tricky in the economy. I am using a "strategy" based on a combination of my own research, broker recommendations and a reading between the lines of what youtube commentators are suggesting (taking into account that to the most part they are selling their own politics).

[Ghost Prepper]

I Stocked up on more food and updated my medical supplies. I also plan on a wild camp to a large forest some miles from me, where I plan to work on my survival shelter building skills ( i'll always have the car if it doesn't work out )

[Malthouse]

Added a pencil sharpener to my BOB

[TwoDo]

Put a few pennies (almost literally!) aside in the stock market and am only planning on keeping it there for about a year and then move it out in case things start to get a bit tricky in the economy. I am using a "strategy" based on a combination of my own research, broker recommendations and a reading between the lines of what youtube commentators are suggesting (taking into account that to the most part they are selling their own politics).

In general, for small amounts, the stock market is almost never a win situation. The fees will eat you alive. Here's why: say you put in £100 and decide to buy as many shares as possible of XYZ @ £1 each. Do you get 100 shares? No you get 93 because the dealing fee is £7 (typically). That is a 7% commission. So, in order to break even, you need to pick a stock that will appreciate by 7.52% by the time you sell it. You may get lucky and do it once or even twice but if you could consistently turn out that sort of result you could be making tens of millions per year in the city as a hot-shot hedge fund manager.

So, say the XYZ price has gone to about £1.10 per share and you decide to sell. Well you still loose money as you take another £7 hit on the sale (dealing fees again). Plus, there is a difference between the quoted price (the bid and ask spread) which will ensure you will probably not get a price of £1.10 - probably more like 1.07 or something depending on how thinly the share is traded. And you will need to trade the thin ones because the popular ones with a tight spread will rarely ever shift by enough to make a profit.

If you did make a good pick and got more than a 15% return (which is what you need for such a small amount to cover the fees) you still were only in one stock. You'll have hitched your wagon to one horse. This is contrary to what most people would consider a wise strategy - diversification. So if you decide to spread out a bit and put your £100 over four stocks (still not very diversified really) the dealing fees will consume your capital. Not diversifying puts your input capital in peril - and preserving your base capital is usually priority one.

The dealing fees don't make a lot of difference to somebody buying £1000 worth of shares or more in a block - percentage wise the £7 is a fairly minor cost. For micro amounts, the usual advice is to bang the money in an index tracker ISA but where's the fun in that. Other than that I don't think it is possible to deal in shares where the fees are a percentage of the amount rather than flat.

However, if you wish to dabble, you could consider taking a look at something like bullionvault.com where you can purchase small amounts of gold and silver (a gram) and the dealing fees are a percentage of the amount (0.5%). You could then still indulge your penchant for making strategies with a bit of bimetallic arbitrage or buy in one vault and sell in another or just buy and sell according to your predictions of the precious metal prices. There is still a fee to hold the gold but it is not too outrageous and if you are in cash it does not apply. Hell maybe you'll get lucky and be in PMs if the price of gold hits 50K an ounce like the FOFOA crowd predict.

I know you didn't ask for my opinion and free advice is worth what you pay for it but that's my tuppence. Good luck

[TwoDo]

duplicate sorry

[jansman]

I am chillin'out, and just taking stock of life. Life can look bad sometimes, and some contributions on websites can make people worry more.
Apart from the death of my Dad in 2000, last year was THE bad 'un. Up to now.
We had a massive income crash (10,000 a year to be frank). We had/have preps. They saw us through handsomely.
2014 sees me setting up a food production 'system' in my garden. I am fortunate that the garden is Mahoosive. for a terrace. It swung the original sale to be fair, as I always wanted to grow food. As many here will know, my little patch of rented land is being built on, and I have to vacate by September.
I had a 5 year plan (that sounds Stalinist!!) but I have to adapt. Hey ho !

So... I keep growing , storing, working and sitting in front of the wood stove and I have learned not to worry about what I cannot control.
I like to use the saying of the Bedhouin Arabs. " Today we have food , water and shelter. Tomorrow is another day".
Don't lose sleep guys.

[Hillybilly444]

Added a pencil sharpener to my BOB

Snap