Learn about gardening and join a shooting range I guess.

IMO, there are three “levels” of economic hardship:

1. Severe recession: Where the economy shrinks, many small/medium businesses go bankrupt, unemployment hits around 7-10%
2. Legit depression: Numerous core institutions in most or all sectors of the economy go bankrupt. Even highly skilled people cannot find work and are reduced to charity, begging, or stealing. Unemployment hits 15-25%
3. Total economic collapse: All major institutions in all sectors fail, or cease having any legitimacy. The country’s currency becomes worthless due to either hyperinflation or governmental collapse. All people except the super wealthy elite, become destitute.

The last time the US experienced the second level was the Great Depression, where during the depths of the dust bowl and the depression, unemployment hit about 25%

If you genuinely think we are in for anything worse than level 2, you should flee the country now, or buy a gun and stockpile ammunition, food, and medicine.

Realistically, level 3 isn’t going to happen. Level 1 very likely will, level 2 I would give a 5% chance personally, but that is based only on vibes.

Have some savings in cash, a few hundred bucks mostly in small denominations should be alright. Don’t do more than that.

Buy cheap bulk foods. Beans, chickpeas, lentils, raw oats, rice, four, potatoes. Buy several of those big 24 packs of bottled water. Most large retailers have them for 4-6 bucks a pack. You need A least 5-6 bottles a day to stay minimally hydrated. That’s roughly 4 days of water per 24-pack. You should have at least a week of water per person.

Other folks here have good advice. Connect with a local community. If not your direct neighbors, then a group that meets nearby. You need other people for support. If you’re in a really bad place, they will be the last line of dependable aid.

Quit your vices. Cigs, alcohol, excessive caffeine, and junk food all cost a lot of money, aren’t healthy, and will make you much more vulnerable to economic upsets. It also allows others to take easier advantage of you, because of your desperation to get a fix.

or that mainstream (S&P, Nasdaq) financial investments were no longer sound, what can one do to prepare for “the worst”?

Investors that factor in world markets would probably do okay as long as you’re talking just U.S. economic troubles. e.g. right now VT (total world stock ETF) is weighted 64.70% U.S. market due to market strength. So in theory if the U.S. tanked and other countries have better markets for investing then the weights would shift to the other side and maybe being closer to 30% U.S. vs rest of the world’s markets weighted towards 70%.

Don’t spend on anything besided essentials, keep an eye on the news to see if any of the long running institutions Americans use to save their money are being sacked and take your money out accordingly.

The less individuals contribute to the economy the worse the effects of this administration will show.

For anyone that wants it, here’s a local copy of this page with all the replies included: https://mega.nz/file/2IdilIiI#cprrG2E58S1Wg2kp5YNEjfLMBh1hPHiQzuWMpsXI3dk

I’m old enough to have lived through several recessions, though I was poor for the first couple of them. I think a recession more likely than a collapse. If it’s a recession:

1. If you can keep your job you will be ok, really. Try to keep your job if you can. Yes even if they do temporary pay cuts.

2. If you’ve been unable to buy a house, a recession may make it possible. That is how we got our first house - prices tanked, we got a run down house, couldn’t improve it really but it was a place to live for a long time, and when you buy in a crash, taxes stay low here.

3. Remember there have been worse times and you are descended mostly from people who survived them.

4. Be nice to people. Always be nice on your way up, because what comes up must come down. We used to have to dumpster dive, and I have lived on the streets and in a car, don’t want to again, at all, but there are plenty of less extreme tactics - live with more people in one house, we used to have one family in each bedroom, not one person, and that makes housing cost so much easier.

#1 is really the most important though - if you can keep a job you will be ok. If that falls through, do not think you are on your own, reach out to others and work together.

A lot of good advice on this thread, particularly the emphasis on social connections and food. Given OP asked to assume near or total economic collapse though:

1. Some people advocated building up money savings. If you are convinced there will be runaway inflation (part of what I assume is meant by collapse) then this is exactly wrong. The thing to do would be to convert as much money as possible into durable goods while the money still has any value. Look into the history of prior examples like the collapse of the deutsche mark in 1922, and the rush on payday to buy necessities immediately.

2. Gold is also being suggested. If your threat model includes social collapse gold won’t do you much good. Gold has financial value but no use value for individuals (it is useful industrially, but not in a way you can take advantage of). Unless you’re planning to run, bulkier but more immediately useful goods like food and tools are likely to hold more value. When everyone’s starving, a baseball bat to guard it with is worth more than a lump of shiny but useless metal.

3. If you aren’t assuming social collapse, foreign currency is another option. Be careful, because you want to pick one that is not likely to track your local currency and fall together. The advantage here is that when your local currency stabilizes, the value of gold will drop quickly and it will be very hard to guess exactly the right time to cash out. Foreign currencies won’t have that same crash effect.

All that said, don’t jump into action out if panic. Take time to think it through calmly - collapse is probably not coming in the next week or two. The actions that will save you financially in a collapse can destroy you if that collapse doesn’t come. Make a plan for what to do if you’re wrong to avoid shooting yourself in the foot (or, as many people do after that kind of mistake, the head).

Take out tons of credit cards, loans etc and max them out with no intention of paying any of it back. Burn it to the ground.

We can’t lol

Find books written about farming/saving during ww2. Get a freezer and a canner. Stock up on beans/rice/etc (long shelf life foods). Save bones from meat, boil them for 6 hours, then let fool and strain them. Can/freeze the broth (I put mine in quart freezer bags flattened out in the freezer). One quart added to 1qt water is filled with nutes for soups and such. If you have a fireplace, keep a bag of dryer lint for kindling. Buy heirloom seeds, learn how to save seeds (Whenever I grow green beans I always have 100+ dried pods in autumn as I usually only have enough to harvest 2x with any real quantity. Each dried pod has at least 4 beans). Buy things you need now that tariffs will affect the most (electronics, coffee, etc.) Start learning how to fix things yourself, get basic tools (drill, hammers, driver sets, wrenches, etc). Fix car problems now, before parts go up. If you know ANYONE still alive now from the 30s to 40s, pick their brains on what they did. Also, get books on identifying plants. Sorrel is awesome to add to food for flavor, dandelions are a good source of Vit C… my knowledge is limited, but so far that’s what I’ve tried (do NOT eat roots of dandelion).

Spend absolutely no money that you don’t need to. This saves money for you and keeps it out of people’s hands that don’t need it. The faster the collapse, the more equal it will be.

I don’t want to advise this, but I’m pulling all my money from the larger of my 401(k). (Keeping the smaller just in case it turns out I’m crazy, and if I am, I can always reinvest, with only some minor losses in time)

I bought a couple ATVs with trailers, with camo netting, working on filling those trailers with supplies and a lot of gas. I also bought an old jeep CJ7, with a trailer for the ATVs. Think lighters, camp stoves, portable solar panels, blankets, water filters, a good axe or hatchet, a couple knives, some emergency rations.

This is America. There’s more guns than people. Make sure you have at least one.

The economic hardships, you won’t be able to escape. When we lose hegemony/petrol dollar, it’s likely to be the fastest collapse in history.

This is just a quick summary. Some of us have been planning for something like this for a decade or more. There’s no way to be able to give you anything much more specific without knowing where you live or your current circumstances, experiences, or skills. But rely on any skills, training or knowledge you do have. Emphasize them and try to improve them. Make yourself a useful member of a rebuilt (small) society. I.e. growing, sewing, defense, engineering etc.

Whatever you do, do not give up. And be creative. Lighting a fire, and putting some seriously hot peppers in the fire can be a good area denial defense, light the fire and travel in the direction the wind is coming from.

Remember your local community is one of the most valuable resources. Get to know your neighbors, invest in your social capital.

I remember coming across post in a /r/collapse on reddit that poked fun at a lot of peoples plans. He stated he was in a war torn country and found a lot of plans revolve around personal survivorship instead of community based. And the immediate local community is the one that most people fall back on and the one that often times helps out the most.

Buy gold, keep cash on a safe at home, make sure all documents are current and aren’t about to expire (in case you need to quickly leave the country). Prioritize essential purchases over luxury ones and if short on cash pay those over debt payments

I honestly don’t really know, but i can guess.

Stock on basic food items, maybe enough for a year or more (including noodles, rice).

Maybe, if you can afford the space/time for it, learn how to grow some basic vegetables on your balcony/garden, to go along with the calories.

That is all i can do. Maybe, also look into viable long-term accomodations in case you lose your house/apartment. Could be homeless shelters, could be sanctuaries, idk.

potatoes can keep your ass alive and can dead ass be grown in buckets and sacks. They’re not picky plants, either. Just watch a couple YouTube videos to get your bearings, go buy a couple potatoes from the grocery store, and plant those bitches. You’re probably going to want to try and get potatoes that haven’t been treated to keep them from sprouting, or else give them a good scrub and let them sit on the windowsill till they start sprouting. You could also go and buy seed potatoes, but that’s really not needed and it’s a higher up front cost. Plant them literally anywhere. Plant some french marigolds alongside for a good edible flower that will help control the pests that like munching on potatoes.

Learn to Forage this one takes some time, dedication, caution, and research, but you would be absolutely blown away just how much you’re surrounded by edible weeds and unrecognized fruit trees. Get in the habit of identifying the plants that you see (plant net is a helpful tool) around you, learning about them, and spotting them elsewhere as you go through life.

Ditch the car if you can. Shit’s expensive, yo. Especially if you live in a city, a bicycle, e-bike, or motorcycle can do most of what you need out of a car most of the time if you get creative.

Skill up start learning the simple stuff- how to patch and darn tears in your clothes, how to cook on a budget (there’s great depression cookbooks around that are pretty good), how to repair and service stuff, how to jam and can your leftovers, how to entertain yourself cheap with card and dice games or drawing, and a really huge underrated one is how to talk to other people. If you’re terrible at dealing with other people, get to fucking work on it yesterday and thank me later. I found the book Verbal Judo to be enormously helpful.

NETWORK bring small gifts to your neighbors when you can, share your good fortune with them, ask them how you can help, start getting involved in the lives of the people around you and get to know them. If you don’t have some kind of regular meeting you go to with otherwise unrelated folks, find one. This is a way to build resilience, because there’s going to be times where things aren’t so rough for you, and times where things are extra rough. That’s true for everyone. If you have other people who can lean on you and you can lean on, we can all help smooth out each other’s journeys through the downturn.

Don’t be afraid to get ghetto. Do what you’ve got to do. Summer’s hot, man, go ahead and put foil on cardboard and put that shit in your windows. Winter’s fucking cold; it’s easier and cheaper to heat small spaces than big spaces, just don’t catch your shit on fire or give yourself CO poisoning (NO combustion indoors, that includes using a kitchen stove for heat! Make sure the heater is completely by itself on a non-flammable surface). You can’t eat a lawn; fuck that grass, plant potatoes, onions, and marigolds. Will some people find it impossible to mind their own goddamn business? Certainly, but it’s a small price to pay for surviving. Need a coat? Go to Goodwill, go to a garage sale, shit, ask your neighbors if they have one they don’t want anymore. Don’t be above asking for help. Don’t be a fucking thief, but keep your eyes open for opportunities; people throw all kinds of good shit away all the time, even during downturns. If something breaks, prioritize whether it needs to be fixed now, patched now, or if it just has to wait; if it’s just about keeping up appearances, it can wait.

Start prepping now set aside an emergency stash of:

• Cash (my rule of thumb for rock bottom minimum is ~$100/person). This is cash for absolute emergencies, treat it as a non-renewable resource. I would say not to use it trying to stay in your mortgage even though you don’t have a plan for the month after that.

• Food: brown rice, dry beans, macaroni (whole grain is best), and bulk powdered potatoes will get you a long way. Learn to use these ingredients before you actually depend on them, and have a bulk supply on hand. Also, set aside some salt and pepper to keep you from completely losing your fucking mind. Each of these individual things can really help you stretch your meals or tie together a few other random ingredients into something edible. They’re not a complete nutrition source on their own, but they’ll just about keep your ass alive. Add to your food stash as you see fit, but try to keep it cheap, flexible, and durable.

• Luxuries: if you like coffee, set aside a couple containers of it. It doesn’t have to be great; Folgers will rock your fucking world once you’ve been without coffee long enough. Same deal with chocolate or candy. Basically, give yourself something to look forward to.

This is hardly a comprehensive list, you know your own unique needs and situation better than I do, and there’s going to be other better or worse advice for that here. Go with what fits for you.

I hate to say it, but things get worse than you think in a downturn. Lots of people get depressed and blame themselves for what’s happening. Please remember that the way you feel isn’t the way you’re always going to feel. Shit sucks, and everything is temporary.