Hello! (new member from Sweden)

Vortex · Coal Joined: Dec 24, 2006 Posts: 13 Location: Sweden

I have been visiting this forum and others for some years as an anonymous guest, gathering valuable information and thoughts. Short presentation about me, my localization and my future plans are below.

Male, 28 years old. Living in middle of Sweden in a little city consisting of about 20 000 citizens, 10 000 in the main core and the other half in the surrounding area. I have been planning and working with Peak Oil in mind since many years. I do not own a car (but I have a driving license), I commute with a friend who has a car to work and we spend no more than 30 minutes per day commuting. I did some travelling a few years ago. Visited the surrounding Scandiavian countries (except for Iceland), Spain, France, Germany, Austria, the US (Florida), Estonia and Italy. It is interesting to meet different cultures and talk to people living there. Perhaps I will pay a visit to some South American countries, Australia, some Asian countries and Russia before it is to late.

I graduated in 2003, masters degree in business and economics. I am now working for a small Swedish company which is 100% localized. Everything we sell is manufactured and machined in Sweden. There are enough margins to avoid outsourcing, which is one of the primary goals also – the management wants to keep it 100% Swedish.

I currently live in a small apartment, about 42 square meters (452 square foot). I bought it for only $2180 and the monthly fee is $270 including heating but not electricity. I consume about 2500 kWh per year. I had to spend another $1000 in order to renovate and refinish the whole thing, new floor and new wallpapers and so on.

My plan is to hang on this cheap ass living in order to save up/invest for a house and garden designed to meet the new era of Peak Oil. I began investing in oil, gas and uranium stocks in 2004. I have now about 1 million SEK ($147 000) and my plan is to have at least 2.5 million SEK (about $367 000) before I reach the age of 32. This seems to be a small amount for American readers, but keep in mind that 1 million SEK can buy the housing and land where I live which would be much more expensive in the US.

Today, I spend time reading, training and preparing for the future. I have also built a network of food providers. They can sell me lamb for $3 per kg, cattle beef for $5.14 per kg and cheap eggs. These are about half the prices, if not less, than the nearby Supermarket wants. I expect my friends prices to be higher in the future though. Fruits (mostly red and black currants, apples and rhubarbs) can be had for free from neighbors, or in exchange for simple services as mowing the lawn when they are on vacation or similar. Berries (blueberry and lingonberry) and edible fungus can be found almost everywhere in the surrounding forests, I live about 200 meters from such a forest area.

If there are any questions, please ask!

coyote

Sounds like you're pretty much doing all the right things, Vortex. And the assets you're talking about sound pretty nice to me. Welcome!
_________________
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Heineken

Sounds as if you've got your act together, Vortex. You'll probably be eating those lingonberries long after most of us Americans are skeletonized in our cars.

Wish I could grow lingonberries and currants, but it's too hot here. However, I'm finding figs and some other exotic fruits an excellent consolation prize.

Welcome to the site as a new member!
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Colorado-Valley · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 16, 2004 Posts: 733

I've been planting lingonberries here in Colorado, and they seem to do fine. Yumm ... good stuff!

I discovered lingonberries years ago when I went to an Ikea store and had lunch in their restaurant.

The meatballs were great, too.

EnergyHog · Heavy Crude Joined: Mar 27, 2006 Posts: 215

Vortex · Coal Joined: Dec 24, 2006 Posts: 13 Location: Sweden

Regarding the resources... well, yes, if China and India will continue building up a growing internal market and expand their middle class as the western countries did in the beginning of the later century, all natural resources will have a rising demand.

Remember that our societies also must have a steady inflow of resources, energy in order to maintain our high living standards at status quo level. Medical care, for example, is one of the biggest issues. Medical care draws a lot of resources and with the growing share of older citizens and low birth numbers, this will create interesting problems in a nearby future in the western countries.

In a longer time frame, I think that the diminishing output of oil will cause a declining output of lot of other resources as lack of fuel and energy will impact mining operations and refineries, for example. Food will most certainly be scarce and mass starvation will be imminent. During the WW2, Swedes were subjected to rationing and a lot of vegetables such as potatoes were home grown and also grown at public places. Most civil cars and other vehicles were fueld by wood gas generators.

It is difficult to foresee the future... today I plan to do an exit in five years and then convert the money into land, house and a garden and perhaps a bit of a forest. I have no debt and it is difficult to buy such as expensive things like these without going to the bank and taking a loan. I try to follow the market and news every day to see if there are something that could cause a drastic change that in turn would render my investments worthless.

Vortex · Coal Joined: Dec 24, 2006 Posts: 13 Location: Sweden

Thanks for the feedback!

I have learnt a lot from this forum regarding gardening, rifles/guns
and other things. Hope I can share a bit from my perspective,
experience and also cultural matters. Even though our culture, conditions and climate differs, basic preparation seems to be almost the same.

Yeah, lingonberries are great! They are easy to collect, much easier
than blueberries. The meatbolls at IKEA are not very good compared to
the ones you do at home. I can put up a recipe of meatballs if someone
wants it, almost every home has its own kind of recipe, so there are
no real "Offical National Meatball Recipe".

It is relatively common here (at least in the northern parts of
Sweden) to blend lingonberry with vodka. A common blend is 6.8
tablespoon of these berries in a flask with 0.63 pints of vodka. Let
it rest for two or three weeks. Some also blend it further with a
little honey.

In the 1900:th century and earlier, Sweden was almost a nation of
alcoholics. The mean alcohol consumption was 12.15 gallons of vodka
per person and year! The government was more or less forced to ban
home distilling and even today, the sale of alcoholic beverages is
managed by the state monopoly only. Many Swedes do not like that, but
one advantage is that the state monopoly is forced to sell what the
customer wants. If I, for example, would like to order a very rare
kind of whiskey or flask of wine, the monopoly must carry out my
order.

Black currant is also used together with vodka, I like that blend
better than lingonberry.