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I remember when I purchased my first brand new truck. My old truck was totaled out in a flood and after more than two months of research and test driving I was ready to make a purchase. It was a brand new 2012 Toyota Tundra. I can easily provide several pages of details regarding my choice but I’ll summarize it with one word, “dependability”. Toyota’s are known for their amazing reliability and there’s are reason why there’s an Instagram page call “toyotasofwar”. They simply work – especially in the most harsh conditions. I still own the truck today and compared to other trucks I’ve driven in the past, it has been such an amazing pleasure to own. I’ll never forget when the truck’s warranty was coming to an end. I never had a single issue with my Toyota but because of past experiences with other trucks I knew I was going to purchase an aftermarket extended warranty. And of course, I never used it. But at the time, it was piece of mind for an overbuilt truck – it was added insurance.

While reminiscing on the purchase of my Tundra I somehow got sidetracked on the thought of auto insurance.  Specifically, if car insurance was not required in order to drive on public roads I wondered how many people would purchase it.  Of course, some of us are better drivers than others but how many times have you paid your policy without filing a claim?  Most of us have probably made thousands of dollars in insurance payments over the years and have never had to actually use it. Nonetheless, I’d bet that a fairly high number of people would still purchase a policy even it if it wasn’t required to drive.  We’d likely justify the purchase on the fact that there are a number of variables we simply cannot control like other drivers, shopping carts, heil storms, and floods.  We’d justify the purchase of insurance because many of us want to protect the investment we made in our automobiles.  In the most basic sense, insurance is a form of preparedness, i.e., we have a policy just in case something bad happens.    

People often stigmatize “preppers” and individuals who have a mentality geared towards preparedness, but in reality, a lot of us are preppers in one form or another. Think about it, how many of us have purchased that extended warranty “just in case” something happens to our favorite flat screen TV, computer, or automobile. I wonder how many of us have insurance on our cell phone to protect or replace it just in case it gets damaged. If we think it’s important to have insurance on some of the luxury items we own, wouldn’t it be reasonable to have the same outlook on items that are necessary for life? At its core, Modern Preparedness is a form of insurance against some of the major events in life that are outside of our control. And just like good insurance or an extended warranty, I’d rather have it and not need it instead of needing it and not having it. So my question is this, what are some of the items in your life that are truly necessary for you (and your family) to live in the event of an emergency? Do you have enough of it on hand? Do you and/or your loved ones know how to properly use it? Does it need to be stored at a certain temperature? Ultimately, do you have a plan? If you don’t G.I.T. Outfitters is here to help with some of your basic needs.