Welcome To The Circus: Bread, Circuses, And Debt Traps (Part 5)

Begin to focus on yourself!

and

Dec 08, 2022

Give Up Or Focus On Yourself

Now that you know the bread, circuses, and debt traps, you have two options. Your first option is to give up and accept society's dismal fate for you never being able to afford anything or build wealth. Your second option is to work to better yourself by investing in yourself. It is up to you. Will you give up? Or will you focus on yourself? I hope you choose the second option even though it is the more difficult.

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Smith Sense

Doug Casey's Take

Stop Focusing On The Circus

The best way to not join the circus is never to join the circus. That may sound simple, but society wants you to waste time on meaningless things and go into debt.

Strategies To Focus On Yourself

Now that you are aware of bread, circuses, and debt traps that society has laid out to ensnare you, here are ten strategies to focus on yourself.

Self-Education

Self-education is more valuable than any overpriced piece of paper you will receive by going to college. You can educate yourself on a topic or skill until you master it. You can then apply it to your life since applied knowledge is the only way to use knowledge. Otherwise, knowledge is worthless. You can educate yourself today by reading articles online and watching YouTube videos from people who have mastered a skill or knowledge and are teaching people through their YouTube channels.

Instead of going to college, you can go to trade school. You can also work part-time or full-time to build up your savings. You can then decide how you want to invest the money that you make from your job.

Savings

Have a savings account. You can save as much or as little as you want. The usual recommended amount to save is 20%. That is according to the 50/30/20 budgeting formula. Once you save up money in your primary savings account, you can put a small amount into a high-interest savings account. A higher-interest savings account has a higher interest rate than regular savings accounts that banks offer.

Investing

Once you have built up your savings, you can start to invest a small portion of your money. You can invest in dividend-paying stocks if you want to build passive income. You can find undervalued stocks that may or may not pay a dividend. It could be worth considering if the company’s management team and finances look good. It will be up to you to calculate a P/E ratio to determine whether it is overpriced or on sale.

Precious Metals

As you learn about investing, consider saving some of your money in precious metals such as gold and silver. While precious physical metals are not investments, you likely won’t make money from them. You will be saving your devalued currency in a hard asset. You also physically hold. You do not need to rely on or trust the bank to access your money. In an SHTF scenario, you can also use physical silver to barter. If things get bad, you may even be able to buy a house with a few ounces of gold.

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is another way to escape the banking system. You will want to store any cryptocurrencies in a hardware wallet, so they are in your possession and not on a cryptocurrency exchange. Bitcoin is the most well-known cryptocurrency. Monero is another cryptocurrency that is well-known that is a privacy coin. The advantage of cryptocurrency compared to precious metals is that they are easily transportable. You only need to have your hardware wallet and know your key phrases to access them. More places are beginning to accept well-known cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum for payment.

Online Business

The best way, though, is to start your own online business. The advantages of an online business are that they have a low startup cost today, and you don’t need full-time employees. You can start small by doing everything yourself. As it grows, you can then add contractors from sites like Fiverr and Upwork to free up your time and delegate specialized tasks that you need to get done to grow your business.

Another great advantage of an online business is that you can work from anywhere worldwide. This will allow you to travel the world. It will also give you the option to move to a less expensive country to save more money so that you will have more money to reinvest back into your business. It would also allow you to invest in a second business or venture.

Healthcare

You don’t have to participate in the healthcare industrial complex. The best use of hospitals is only for emergencies to repair limbs, provide surgeries, and similar extreme circumstances. If you are healthy, you may want to consider if seeing the doctor once a year for a fifteen-minute check-up is worth it or wasting money.

Insurance

Due to the Affordable Care Act, Americans are required to buy insurance, or they will be taxed. You can decide what type of insurance plan you need depending on your healthcare needs. If you only see the doctor once a year or go to a specialized doctor once or a couple of times a year, you can use less expensive health insurance to save money. If you are healthy, why do you need health insurance or constantly need to see a doctor? Health insurance is a scam.

Exercise

The best way to avoid the doctor and healthcare system and reduce your monthly insurance cost is to follow a healthy diet and exercise. There are many diets that you can choose from today. You can regularly exercise and go to the gym. You will feel physically and mentally better when you eat better and exercise.

Move Abroad

The cost of living is insane in the United States. Instead, rather than moving to a somewhat less expensive state. But why not move to another less expensive country? If you are from the United States, as long as the dollar remains the world reserve currency, you will be able to triage the dollar. You will do this by living in a less expensive country, but your living costs will be reduced when you pay in dollars or transfer dollars to the currency used. You will get more for your money and a lower living cost.

Sovereign Man has a cost-of-living index that allows you to compare the cost of living of where you currently live to a city in a country you may be interested in moving to. There is nothing wrong with deciding to move to another country. It could save you money. It could give you a better standard of living than in your current country. You may find that you meet like-minded people in the ex-pat community. It will also allow you to learn about another culture as you adjust to it once you move.

Conclusion

The world has become a circus today. People have lost trust in institutions such as the government, medical system, banks, real estate, and the higher education system. You can start to focus on yourself to begin to escape the circus by focusing on self-education, money, health, and moving to a less expensive country.

We’re not for everyone.

Only if you want to.

A guest post by

James Bollen

James Bollen is the founder and president of Secure Single. He is an entrepreneur, Internet marketer, content creator, and author. He is a committed contrarian who encourages people to design their own guardrails.