With so many supposedly sophisticated people cheated by “fake gold bars” (gold on the surface tungsten underneath) and similar things, how do you protect yourself?
I personally use a Fisch gold detector for gold coins and I know that they work, even though they are expensive. Still, $300 is cheap when you consider what you stand to lose by buying even one fake coin. When it comes to bars, you can always measure the volume and weight, and use those values to calculate the density.
However, there are other methods. There are all sorts of fake coin detectors. They all work by measuring weight and volume. I recommend being careful. That is the main reason why I only buy PMs from reputable dealers. If you are in a SHTF scenario, make sure that you have a way of determining whether or not the PM coin someone is trying to hand you is a fake.
One of the things that I have always blogged about is being ready for disasters. A disaster that involves the collapse of society is the one that preppers seem to find the most “sexy” and they spend their time planning on it- stockpiling guns, ammo, food, and the like. The thing with that is, it is also the disaster that we are least likely to experience.
The most likely disaster that we are likely to affect is a personal one. A disaster that affects just you, or your family. A personal disaster may be something as small as a flat tire, or as personally destructive as cancer, or simply being laid off from your job. We cannot know what that disaster will be, but there is a pretty good chance that the best way to fix it will be… money.
Even if that disaster is more widespread- say one that affects your neighborhood, your town, or even the entire county, whether it is a tornado, earthquake, or hurricane, a wildfire, or a chemical spill, one thing that you are always going to need at some point is money.
That’s why it amazes me that 57% of Americans can’t even deal with an emergency that would cost them $1,000. Sure, stockpiling food, ammo, or some other piece of cool gear is more fun, but money is going to be your friend in most disasters at some point. Having $1000 in emergency cash is going to help you out of more disasters than that new ACOG or that second 1911. I know what you are thinking- “Divemedic, didn’t you say that the dollar is in trouble? If I stockpile too many dollars, aren’t I at risk of it becoming worthless?”
You sure are, but it is still important to have a reserve to get you through those personal disasters. The ideal emergency savings fund is to have at least three month’s expenses, but having a year’s worth gives you a level of financial independence that we are all looking for.
Here is what I did, and what I recommend. Put away a few bucks a week. For this example, let’s say that you have $4000 per month in expenses. Soon, you will have emergency funds if you follow this plan:
Have a week’s expenses available in the house in the event of an immediate problem. Not a week’s pay- a week’s expenses. In cash. Seal it in an envelope and squirrel it away somewhere. You can put it in the gun safe, or you can make a “poor man’s safe:” mount an add-on electrical box in the wall, and put a CATV or phone jack plate on it. You can hide the cash in the empty box. For less than $10, you have a place to hide things that thieves won’t look at twice. With $1000 in there, you have emergency cash that is readily at hand, likely won’t be stolen, and it puts you ahead of 57% of Americans. (EDITED TO ADD: I use mixed bills, so in an emergency I have change: 20 $1 bills, 10 $5 bills, 13 $10 bills, 10 $20 bills, 7 $100 bills /End Edit) Now you just have to forget it’s there and not touch it when you need a few bucks to pay for pizza. Self control. That money is for disasters, not as a slush fund.
Now that you don’t have to worry about a flat tire or a broken window. You have a cushion that will make sure that you don’t have to hock your wedding ring, your handgun, or have to go hungry just because of that flat tire. Just remember to replace it if you ever need to use it in an emergency.
Now that you have that emergency stash of a week’s cash on hand, you need to work on hitting a month’s cash. For that, we keep it in a savings account. We have a savings account at the local bank where we keep the rest of a month’s expenses, but we exclude it from being able to be touched with an ATM, so we have to go into the bank during banking hours to get it. That makes sure that we aren’t tempted to spend it for something that isn’t important. Ask your bank, they will tell you how to set it up that way. Putting that money in the local bank means that you have access to it within a day or two. Three week’s cash isn’t so large that we need to worry too much about inflation killing it. Sure, it doesn’t earn any interest to speak of, but it’s only $3000 or so. Not gonna break you. Now that money can be used for a bigger disaster. Your home’s air conditioner just broke, and now you can deal with it. You broke your arm and need to pay the doctor. Something like that is no longer the big problem that it would have been. So you have a week’s cash in the house, and three weeks in the bank. That’s your first month, and now you can deal with $4000 worth of disaster. You are now more prepared for financial catastrophe than 65% of Americans.
Once you are here, use all of your savings money to eliminate your credit card debt, if you have any. Credit cards charge such large interest amounts that they are poison to your financial future. Get rid of the balances on them before you go any further in saving for emergencies. Then start working on the second month of emergency money.
For your second month, you can put it somewhere that makes it less convenient for you to raid. If you have a large disaster, you can get to the money within a week or so, and you can seek out a place where you will get interest. I recommend an Internet bank like Ally, Synchrony, or Capital One. They are offering rates of 4 or 5 percent, and you can transfer the cash into your checking account within a couple of business days if you need it.
For your third month: You can start stockpiling precious metals. The problem with PMs is that you can’t buy and sell for what the metal is worth. The other party to such a transaction wants to make money on the deal, so there is a penalty to buying and selling, but that is an advantage. You see, we can be our own worst enemy when it comes to emergency savings when we spend it for something that isn’t a true emergency. If you lose a little when you sell a PM, you are less likely to be frivolous with your emergency fund.
So for that third month, silver rounds are a great choice. With silver running about $20-25 an ounce, stockpiling half and full ounce silver rounds is a good way to save. Buying a few of them at a time is relatively painless. There are 20 rounds to a tube. Six tubes of one ounce silver rounds, and four tubes of half ounce rounds will weigh in at 160 ounces (ten pounds). That’s $4000 of PM that you can convert to dollars at a slight loss, and if there is a TEOTWAWKI event, you have very tradeable silver “coins” that you can use for trade. If you need cash in dollars, you can sell the rounds (at a slight premium- say 10% off melt value) within a couple of hours or days. When you complete this, you will have an emergency fund that will carry you through an entire quarter without a job, or cover a pretty significant issue like “the house needs a new roof” without getting killed financially. This is a level of independence that three quarters of America don’t have.
Once you get to this point, all of your extra money should go to getting rid of car payments and other major expenses. You don’t have credit card balances, you have 90 days worth of emergency money, not get that monkey off your back. Do you really need a new car every two years? Pay that off, get rid of that monthly payment. It will be easier to save for the next step that way. It will also reduce your monthly expenses by quite a bit, and will allow you to stretch those emergency funds.
For month four, five, and six, we have less of a need for trade, and more of a need to store value. So gold is where you can store a bit of emergency money. Don’t get coins. The premium for coins means paying 5 percent more than if you buy gold bars. Larger bars mean less premium, so the key here is to keep larger bars to reduce the amount you lose while buying and selling, but still make them small enough to be useful for trade. Gold bars are concentrated wealth. They are easy to store or hide.
For month four, buy 5 two gram bars, 4 five gram bars, and a 1 ounce bar. That gives you some flexibility to cash out what you need without cashing out an entire month’s worth of gold. The best part is that together, they weigh only about 2 ounces.
For month five and six, buy a four of the one ounce bars. That is another $8,000 or so. Now you have almost $25,000 in emergency money. That’s enough to get you through half a year of having no money, and gives you a level of financial independence that gets you to the point where losing a job, a major illness, or a pretty significant disaster will not be the major problem that it would have been.
Now concentrate on paying off that house. Pay extra payments towards that mortgage. With no mortgage, your six month’s worth of funds is now a year’s worth, because your monthly expenses are minimal.
It also makes you more stable than 95% of the American public. You can do it with a minimum of heartache, and the peace of mind it gives you is incredible, and now you have “fuck you money” because your house is paid, you have a year’s living expenses in the bank, and you don’t have to worry about the money it will take to deal with most disasters.
Now, the disclaimer: I don’t advertise, and receive nothing for my reviews or articles. I have no relationship with any products, companies, or vendors that I review or recommend here, other than being a customer. If I ever *DO* have a financial interest, I will disclose it. Otherwise, I pay what you would pay. No discounts or other incentives here. I only post these things because I think that my readers would be interested
A common misconception is that you are legally liable for every bullet you fire in a self defense situation. That is not exactly the case. The answer to this is called the doctrine of transferred intent.
The simple reason is that the shooter (self-defense actor) was not the proximate cause of the harm to the innocent bystander. Although that may seem counter intuitive to say (given he was the one who actually fired the gun), it was in fact the attacker provoking the self-defense actor who caused the bystander harm.
In the legal world this is called the doctrine of transferred intent. It has been recited in numerous cases (see State v. Green, 157 W. Va. 1031, 1034, 206 S.E.2d 923, 926 (1974)).
If you want to be able to listen to a radio station in the area of a recent event, try using this link. It brings up a globe, which you can rotate to the area of the world in question. Then simply click on one of the green dots in the area to listen in.
Once you pick your flavor of ammo as we did earlier this week, how much of it should we have on hand? Some people say that the most handgun ammunition that you need on hand is 250 or 500 rounds. That’s ridiculous. I have more than that in any given caliber.
For starters, there are two types of ammo: range ammo and war shots. PewPew Tactical recommends 500 rounds as a starting point, with 150 of those rounds being war shots. I still think that’s low. So what do I consider to be a good amount of ammo?
For range ammo, I buy in bulk because it’s cheaper, meaning in 1,000 round cases. If I find a good deal, I snap it up. That’s how I scored 9mm FMJ for 15 cents a round back in January of 2020, when I got 2,000 rounds for $300. Of course, that was pre-COVID. Good luck getting 9mm at that price now.
For starters, .22lr comes in bricks of 500 rounds. I own a few .22 firearms, both pistols and rifles. You will seldom see me with less than a couple of thousand rounds of .22 lying about. Of course, there is really no such thing as a “war shot” with .22lr. A brick of .22 will cost you about $30 at today’s prices, making it the cheapest way to shoot. It’s also great for squirrels and rats. That’s why I keep a bunch on hand.
When it comes to range ammo, I try to stock a minimum of 500 rounds per caliber. For the high use calibers of 9mm and .45, I find that 1,000 rounds on hand is a minimum.
For defensive handguns, we need to consider war shots. For semi-autos, I try to keep a minimum of 500 war shots per handgun. For revolvers, 150 war shots per handgun. So if I have a pair of 9mm handguns, that’s 1,000 rounds.
When we get into 5.56mm and 7.62x51mm, we get into a whole different ballgame. For the AR, all I stock in 5.56mm is Green Tips. I don’t do different war shots and range ammo, because I want my war shots to perform identically to my range ammo. For that reason, I try to keep a minimum of 5,000 rounds on hand of 5.56mm.
Likewise for the 7.62x51mm, but my round count there is lower simply because it is more expensive and takes up more room. So I want my minimum there to be no less than 2,500 rounds. With the 7.62, I look for nothing but the 147 grain. That way, every round is similar in performance to every other round.
For shotguns, all I have are 12 gauges. I stock 250 defense rounds in buckshot and slug, and 250 rounds of #7 shot (for hunting).
Toss in a few smoke grenades and a couple of pepper grenades, and the fire marshal’s office will shit themselves if they ever find out about that stash.
So as you can see, that means a lot of ammo on hand. We are talking about more than 20,000 rounds of ammo. I didn’t get there by buying it all at once. I just buy ammo on a regular schedule, buy a case at a time when I do buy, and try to get more than I shoot. Eventually, you get a decent stockpile.
How long can you safely store a loaded mag before the spring weakens and causes misfires?
The answer to that depends on the magazine manufacturer. Cheaper magazine manufacturers, especially ones with polymer feed lips, are more prone to failure. Not of the spring, but of the magazine itself. Scorpion had a well documented issue with that. It turns out that the factory Scorpion magazines would dry out when left in a dehumidified safe for long periods. That’s why the Scorpion PMAG is a better choice than the factory one.
The damage is done by compression and decompression of the spring. The more cycles that a spring goes through, the more it weakens it. I wouldn’t worry, however. It takes thousands of cycles to wear out a spring. Still, I think of magazines as consumable items, which is why I have so many of them.
SmileyFtW asks:
Why the waste of space with the foam? Load the cans tight for maximum capacity I would think. Same stuff in one can; label the can and move on. If one can is to be an assortment, say so on the can and ID the contents so it is obvious to what each one is
That was actually what I was doing up until now. What I got was cans that either contained a bunch of different mags in the same can, or the can wasn’t full. Example. Let’s say that I have a bunch of Smith and Wesson magazines:
12 magazines for a Shield 9mm
8 magazines for a Shield 40S&W
6 magazines for a Shield Plus
30 magazines for an M&P9 9mm
12 magazines for an M&P9C 9mm compact
12 Magazines for an M&P40 .40S&W
That’s 80 magazines. They will likely fit into one caliber can, but they aren’t cross compatible. The worst part is that some will fit in the handgun, but not function. For example, an M&P9 magazine will fit in the M&P40, but you don’t want to attempt to fire it like that. So with this system, good luck finding the right magazine in a hurry.
Another reason for padding them is preventing damage. One of the biggest reasons for malfunctions in a quality handgun (that isn’t a 1911) is a damaged magazine. My carry guns are life saving equipment, as far as I am concerned. The number one quality that I need in a carry gun is reliability. I need to know that it will go ‘bang’ every time I squeeze the trigger. Since quality handgun magazines cost anywhere from $35 to $60 each, having 100 magazines is a significant investment. By padding my magazines, I am protecting them and my investment. I lower the chances of malfunction which will, at best cost me some range time and money replacing it, and at worst will cause a malfunction during a firefight.
That’s also why I number my magazines. I know which ones have malfunctions. Note that number 2 and 5 are both missing in this picture. It’s because they are currently loaded and ‘in use’ by one of my handguns.
It’s a simple numbering system. If it starts with a 9, it’s a magazine that will fit the S&W9. If it ends in a “c” it’s for the M&P9C. This makes sense in my mind, because the compact can accept the full sized mags (but not vice-versa). The magazine numbers that start with a ‘G’ are for the Glock 19. (That’s the only model of Glock that I have, thanks to Project Gaston)
A similar code works, with the M&PShield Plus mag numbers all starting with ‘P’, the 45 magazines starting with ’45’, etc. I have a spreadsheet* that I use to track magazines, ammo, firearms, and firearm spare parts.
*I also keep a list of spare parts on hand: springs, firing pins, sights, and other fiddly bits. That’s why I have so many M&Ps: common spares, and the best spare part is simply having a spare pistol. Not only that, but I also know how to detail strip and troubleshoot the M&P series very well, which simplifies repairs. The Glock is easy to do the same with, but I generally don’t like the way that the Glock fits my hand. I’m still learning all of the ins and outs of the AR system.
We talk about gear, we talk about kits. What about skills? When it all falls apart, what do you know how to do? I have a pretty good set of skills, and many of them will allow me to trade and participate in an EOTWAWKI society. I am certified or skilled as:
Mastery level:
a nurse and paramedic
an electrician, having been trained to do so in the military
an electric motor repairman. I can rebuild, repair, rewind, and completely overhaul electric motors and generators. Again, military.
A master SCUBA diver
Journeyman level:
I can maintain and perform simple to moderate repairs on a variety of firearms.
I can do simple machine work.
I can do simple auto and machinery repair. (Things like power transmissions and gear boxes)
a HAM radio operator
Apprentice level:
I can do simple welding, brazing, and cutting, along with some metal work.
I can perform simple electronic repairs
I am always looking at adding to my skillset. Be as widely skilled as you possibly can. Everything that you learn is something else that you know. You never know which skill it will be that saves you or your life.
I have a great set of tools, measuring equipment, and a pretty well equipped workshop.
I am planning on buying a MIG welder in the near future.
I have spares in stock for firearms like sights, springs, and other parts. Electrical parts, magnet wire, bearings, brushes, switches, light bulbs, and other parts.
Parts for the cars like brake pads, fuses, motor oil, and spark plugs.
Spare radios, antennas, and coaxial cable.
All of this puts me in a great place to be an asset to my neighbors and community. Don’t be a sponge, be a contributor. Be the person that others want on their team.
There are many people who say that they don’t trust some version of online business, whether it be passwords, password wallets, or some other version of encryption security. They claim that by keeping their passwords on paper, that this is a higher level of security than storing it on their computer. They are right, and they are wrong. The answer to this lies in the way that encryption works. I am greatly simplifying this, so it will be a bit easier to understand.
All digital encryption works using the same basic principles. Digital encryption is simply a very complex math problem where there is a formula that permits only one answer to a problem posed by the number that is put into it, the password. The output that results from the password being run through the algorithm is called the hash. There can only be one hash for each password. Password hashing is typical on the server side when the server operators don’t need to know the plaintext password, they just need to demonstrate that the user knows the plaintext.
A common hash function is Message-digest algorithm 5 (MD5), which takes a message of any length as input and converts it to an output of a fixed 128-bit hash value length to be used for authenticating the original message. Here are a few examples of what a hash looks like:
When you enter your password into a website, it is converted into a hash. If the hash matches the one that is on file, the website grants you access.
Small changes matter a lot – Take a look at examples 1 and 2. Just one digit has been shifted, from an “o” to a “0.” This is a very small change, and yet the second output is unrecognizable from the first.
The output length never changes – The input in example 3 is considerably longer than the other examples, yet it produces an output of the same length (32 characters). You could input an entire book into the md5() hash function and you would still get a 32-character string as the output.
Repeatable – An input will always give the same output when hashed using the same function. If this weren’t the case, they would just be generating a random output, which would be useless for passwords. (I included the same function in example 1 as example 4 just to see if you were paying attention.)
Knowing that hashes are the same length regardless of the password you choose, you might be tempted to pick a short, memorable password. In fact, you should do the opposite. The password you choose is critical for keeping your data secure. Why is that?
MD5 isn’t the only hashing algorithm. There are others, like the SHA-2 hash code family, one widely used today, with algorithms that are longer and harder to break. The names of SHA-2 algorithms are connected to length, so SHA-224 represents 224 bits in length. The same format works for SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512. The more bits in the hash, the more complex and difficult it is to break, and the longer an input password that can be used.
If a website is hacked, cybercriminals don’t get access to your password. Instead, they just get access to the encrypted hash created by your password. It’s impossible to reverse a hash function, so trying millions of combinations to try and produce the same hash (a brute-force attack) is the way that hackers have been attacking passwords.
So that’s what they do. They breach a website because they want the hashes. Banks, Home Depot, Amazon, all of the breaches that you hear of where passwords are compromised, that’s what they are after. That’s what happened to LastPass, as well. They got the password wallets, which included the hashes for the master passwords.
Once a cybercriminal obtains password hashes from a website, the real process of password hacking begins. This process happens offline, on the cybercriminal’s computer. Cybercriminals put combinations of characters into a hashing function until a hash that matches yours is created.
Because the functions themselves are well known, password cybercriminals can easily calculate hashes for known words and other commonly chosen combinations. Then they scan for known hashes using commercially available cracking tools. These dictionaries go far beyond simple words. They include prefixes, suffixes, the practice of changing letters for numbers (e.g. 1 instead of l), and much more. This means weak passwords can be broken very quickly. Humans suck at random. That’s why human created passwords are garbage.
A long password is better, because it takes more to guess a long password than a short one. A random one is better, because this foils dictionary attacks. Not reusing passwords is a way to keep a hash found on one website from being matched with others.
69% of people admit to sharing some passwords with others
71% of people admit to using common passwords like p@ssw0rd, their pets’ names, or children’s birthdays
72% of people admit to reusing the same password on 4 or more accounts
56% of people claim that they would not use passwords at all if they could
The average user has 25 online accounts but uses just 6.5 passwords to protect them
So why does all of this matter? If you write your passwords on a piece of paper and then burn the paper, no one will ever get the passwords, but the hackers don’t care. They want the hash so they can brute force your passwords. It doesn’t matter if YOU use electronic password storage, because any company that you do business with does, but in the form of hashes. Using a password notebook like this one keeps the password out of electronics, but that doesn’t secure the hash.
They are so fast, that number-only passwords are useless. Even if you choose a good combination of letters, numbers, and special characters, passwords of eleven characters or less will be brute forced before a company even notifies the public of the breach. A series of leaks over the past few years containing 100 million passwords have given hackers dictionaries of passwords from people in different walks of life. The ever-growing list of leaked passwords allows programmers to write rules that make cracking algorithms faster and more accurate; password attacks have become cut-and-paste exercises that even script kiddies can perform with ease.
That’s why I was so pissed at LastPass for not disclosing the breach for months. How long is your password, what does it consist of, and how would it fare if the black hats had the hash to play with for 3 or 4 months? What if the black hat uses more than one computer?
That’s why, for now, I recommend that you use a randomly generated password comprised of numerals, special characters, uppercase, and lowercase letters, and your password should be no fewer than 17 characters long. Do not use words, even with common misspellings. Dictionary attacks live on words like p@ssw0rD123.
Diceware has a flaw in that it is susceptible to dictionary attacks. There are only 7,776 words in the diceware word list. Using that list to generate 4 words results in 3.6 quadrillion possible word combinations. That’s a lot for a human to guess, but a trivial exercise for a computer making a few billion guesses per second. If no other randomness is inserted, a 4 word password generated by diceware would be cracked in less than 3 hours. There was a time when diceware was a good idea, but increases in computing technology have made it useless.
That same technology makes other schemes just as useless: fingerprints, facial recognition, and others. A strong, random password and a hardware key are currently the only secure methods for identifying valid, authorized users.
There are new hashing algorithms that complicate the process of cracking, like SHA512, Bcrypt, or PBKDF2. The complexity of the math involved limits the speed of those cracking computers to less than a 10,000 guesses per second, which greatly increases security. However, it costs money for a business to stay current with this kind of technology, and many companies just aren’t willing to spend the cash. That means it is up to YOU to keep your password long and complicated.
Don’t be complacent. There was a time when an 8 character password was nearly impervious to attack.
