What a Disintegrating Suitcase Can Teach Us About Prepping for a Crisis
We spent our New Year’s Day scrambling to buy a new suitcase.
Why?
Our daughter, Audrey, was leaving on January 2nd for a conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. She needed a big suitcase to fit all her stuff in one place instead of carrying multiple bags.
She went back to campus on New Year’s Eve. I’d given her our big 28 inch Jeep suitcase for her trip. No one had used it for years and it just sat in the attic.
Unfortunately, that extra time gave the interior lining time to dry rot.
When Audrey started packing her stuff in the suitcase, the lining didn’t just flake off. It turned to dust.
So now it’s New Year’s Day (and a Sunday at that) and she needs a new suitcase. And she’s at college an hour’s drive away.
She and my wife get on the phone and spring into action looking for places that were:
- open on a major holiday, and
- had luggage the size she needed.
They narrow it down to Target. The Tuscaloosa Target showed one 28 inch piece available. The Target near us showed 3 were in stock.
Audrey planned to go to Target before her small group met at 6:30pm.
But my wife and I were wary. So we take off at 5pm to our Target to buy a suitcase just in case.
Fast forward to us in the luggage section of our Target. The three “available” were nowhere to be found.
But we saw a different one that would work if needed. We buy the suitcase.
If Audrey’s luggage hunt comes up empty, I’d drive the hour to take her the one we purchased.
Then we wait.
We forgo a traditional New Year’s Day supper of ham and black-eyed peas. Instead, we end up at Freddy’s having a hamburger and fries.
Just after 6pm, Audrey calls to say she bought the suitcase from her Target.
Crisis averted.
And Darren didn’t have to make a 2-hour round trip to deliver one piece of empty luggage.
But this got me thinking.
What will you do if a crisis hits you?
Something like a tornado damaging your roof. Or a hurricane flooding your basement. Or a wildfire heading toward your house.
Will you be able to put your hands on all your money documents quickly?
Or would finding those documents add to the stress of whatever curveball life has thrown you?
If you aren’t sure, you need to download my “Stock Your Treasure Chest” PDF.
It’s a checklist of all the money papers you should have in one place. Preferably a fire-proof vault at home.
If you follow the checklist and compile everything in one place, you’ll sleep better at night.
I can’t stop bad things from happening to you.
But I can keep those bad things from turning into devastation.
Click here to download the “Stock Your Treasure Chest” PDF.
And sleep soundly knowing your money papers are together and protected.
Darren
P.S. Don’t let a small crisis turn into something much larger.
