Life is full of risks.
We are mortal beings, after all, and many things can injure or kill us. We can’t get behind the wheel of a car without running the risk of injury or death.
Tens of thousands of people die each year on our roads. Many more are injured or suffer significant monetary losses as a result of something as mundane as driving a car.
Your home is most likely the largest single purchase you’ll ever make in your life. It’s a cost you spend most of your working life paying down.
Your house payment is likely the largest single payment you make each month. It may even eat up to a third or more of your take-home pay.
You breathe a massive sigh of relief once it’s paid off. When the deed rests in your safe, the weight of the world lifts off your shoulders.
You have hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention years of hard labor, wrapped up in your house. But that house can disappear in the blink of an eye from the:
- Speed of a 300-mile-per-hour tornado.
- It can crumble in an earthquake.
- It can get blown away by an errant hurricane.
- It can burn up due to a dropped cigarette, faulty electrical panel, or space heater.
Life is full of risks, some of which you can minimize, others over which you have no control.
Insurance, whether life, auto, property, health, or concealed carry insurance, is a way to manage those risks.
Insurance exists because we cannot predict the future.
We buy insurance policies to protect us against unforeseen tragedies. But let’s be clear about what insurance is and is NOT.
What Insurance IS and What It’s Not
Insurance is based on math, probabilities, on actuarial science. Insurance companies attempt to evaluate your entire life’s history.
They need to know your:
- age
- education
- car type/model
- health
- where you live
- where you work
- whether you’re married
- medical history
- etc.
And actuarial science determines the risks associated with your life. Based on your factors, the underwriters calculate a monthly payment to cover a certain level of risk.
Insurance is NOT charity.
It’s not about paying for things that have already happened.
When a man with a pre-existing health problem calls an insurance company for the first time and says, “Hey, here’s a few hundred dollars for a premium, now I need a heart transplant.”
That is NOT insurance.
When a man calls and says, “My house burned down. I need a policy, so you’ll buy me a new house,” that is NOT insurance either.
The prevailing theory is that everyone lives with risks, but not everyone will have that accident or develop that illness. The thought here is that thousands will pay into the system, but only hundreds will take out of it.
This system makes sense, right?
Not everyone’s house will burn down. Maybe only one house in a hundred will burn down. The $300,000 that insurance pays out for your burned-out shell of a house came from 100,000 others, $3 at a time, whose homes didn’t burn down.
They distribute the risk and costs to many people.
In some cases, insurance is forced upon us, like auto insurance, because our future on 20th Century streets and highways is not that hard to foresee.
We will get in an accident at some point. You will either hit someone or get hit by someone else.
How do they know this? In this case, it isn’t only probabilities and theory – we have a history of people hitting other people from which to draw.
Likewise, health insurance is NOT insurance against unexpected illness. Indeed, we don’t know which health problem will strike, but it’s nearly guaranteed one will someday.
The only person who escapes the certain big health insurance claim is the unlucky bastard who gets hit by a truck at fifty years old. He drops dead before hospital services are necessary.
Health insurance should not even be called insurance. Insurance is a form of risk management, but the risk is mostly 100% – except for the random guy hit by a truck (as just mentioned).
We Buy Insurance with One Key Assumption
We buy insurance to protect our homes, cars, property, and health. Because we can’t see the future and we want to avoid losing everything should tragedy strike.
But this all assumes one key component – that no matter how bad the tragedy, civil society will still be there.
In fact, no matter how bad things get, we assume the insurance company will be there, right? Someone has to be there to cut us the check. And not only that – we believe someone will be there to cash that check for us.
And that the money derived from that check is worth something, right?
What If None Of That Was True?
What if the tragedy was so profound that “Jake from State Farm” showed up for work in his khakis, but no one else was there, and the phone lines were dead?
What if “Mayhem” was in the parking lot laughing and dancing?
What if paper money meant nothing?
So what do you do about insurance for a post-apocalyptic, post-civil society world?
What does that look like, and where can I get that policy? Who underwrites that? Who evaluates that risk?
Who checks my credit score, and what might that even mean in a collapsed monetary system? Who determines the monthly premium?
And to whom do I pay the premium? How would I even file a claim, and who would be the adjuster? In what currency is the claim even paid?
Though this may sound complicated, post-apocalyptic insurance is far simpler than traditional insurance.
- You’re the agent.
- You’re the underwriter.
- And you’re the claims adjuster.
It’s all in your hands, on your timetable.
So what does that mean? You decide how much “insurance” to buy, what kind of insurance to buy, and how much you are willing to spend.
You don’t have to worry about filing a claim because the payout is right there in your house, garage, or safe.
In our current world, you pay for your insurance with dollars, right? Money. Cold, hard cash.
Cold hard cash still has value in today’s world. You can trade those dollars for goods and services simply because it is a method of wealth exchange recognized and used by all.
Paper money is accepted as long as it is accepted – do you sense the paradox?
The moment someone says – “nope, I no longer accept dollars,” – we enter a brave new world.
A world turned upside down, where a man with a pile of cash or a large bank account is now a pauper.
So What Exactly Is Insurance For The Apocalypse?
Insurance for a collapsed, lawless society is what I like to call”living a Resilient Life.”
“Resilient Life” insurance is something that covers all the types of risks that fall outside of ANY formal insurance policy.
This type of insurance can take the form of many things:
- Food stockpiles
- Weapons, firearms, and ammunition
- Hand tools and survival gear
- Seeds for planting
- Solar panels/generators
- Emergency generators
- Water purification systems
- Debt elimination / Survival gold
- And even farm animals
Think about it. In traditional insurance, what are you getting back?
Your house burns down. You wreck your car. So, you get a cash payout to replace the loss, right?
Well, in a post-apocalyptic world, you need a home, but so do a lot of people, sometimes ruthless people. So your weapons become a form of insurance against the loss of your house.
Today when someone loses his or her job, they collect unemployment insurance – which you’ve been paying into since your first day on the job. However, in a post-apocalyptic world, it’s a guarantee you lost your job. Unless you’re the last guy at the CDC trying to orchestrate a cure for a deadly pandemic.
But for everyone else, you’re out of work.
So instead of unemployment insurance, you live a resilient life, building a food stockpile, starting a backyard garden, and keeping chickens out back.
This type of unemployment insurance can keep your family ALIVE.
So are the weapons and ammo keeping you safe at home.
Not only can that AR-15 or Glock 9mm be your homeowner’s insurance, but it can also be your property insurance and even your life insurance policies.
Now I know what you are saying – it’s a long shot you’ll wind up in a total breakdown of society, a post-apocalyptic nightmare scenario.
Maybe it’s a hundred-thousand to one long shot, right?
You face similar odds of your house burning down. And similar odds of dropping dead at age fifty. Yet – you still have homeowners’ insurance. You may even have life insurance as well.
Ever bought a Powerball lottery ticket? The odds you win the jackpot are more like one in 300 million. Yet – millions of people still buy those lottery tickets week in and week out.
So why not look at the odds one more time? Make the calculated decision to prepare and invest in your family’s protection, becoming part of the “Resilient Few” instead of the “Fragile Masses.”
Sure, it’s not a pleasant future to contemplate, but – then again – an unpleasant future is why we buy insurance in the first place.
“Just In Case” Jack
p.s. – Being prepared and mentally resilient are the two main aspects EVERYONE should focus on to be ready for future uncertainties and disasters.
If you agree and it’s something you seek, I recommend checking out The Resilient Life.
It’s a system and community of folks that support and adopt a resilient attitude toward all life’s ups and downs.
Because becoming a more resilient person provides the benefits of “options” and “security” in your life. More flexibility. All qualities necessary for achieving true fulfillment and happiness.
If this sounds like something you’d like to learn more about – Click Here to Check It Out!
"Just in Case" Jack
Co-Founder of TheResilientLife.com and SkilledSurvival.com. Creates content, helps members, and is the visionary behind The Resilient Life’s way of living. Husband, father, mechanical engineer, survivalist, and prepper.
See how to find purpose & fulfilment through living a resilient life.