Top Ten Personal Safety Tips That Will Save Your Life

We live in an unsafe world. While many of my friends and family may think I’m paranoid, I prefer to think that I’m just more aware. I have prepared 10 basic safety tips worthy of both Tim Ferris and Jason Bourne. The first five are among the very best of the traditional safety tips you have heard in the past. The last five are equally important but perhaps a little more extreme for those of us who like being really prepared.

1. The number one greatest thing you can do to ensure your family’s security is to choose a home in a safe neighborhood in a safe community. Research indicates that there is no single greater factor to ensure your family’s protection from crime and attack. Local law enforcement agencies are a good resource along with your state government website where crime statistics are usually published for the public every quarter. Put your family’s safety ahead of your own career when finding a good home.
2. In a recent survey among USA law enforcement officials when asked “What is the single greatest thing we can do to our home to prevent home invasion and burglary” the number one answer was, “Get a dog.” The second most popular answer was to get a “Home Security Alarm” sign and install it in a prominent place. Naturally big loud dogs are best and dog barking alarms can be purchased for little to nothing. Diversion signs can also be found for sale.
3. When you go on vacation go the extra mile to get a house sitter to live in your home while you are away. If this becomes impossible put timers on your lights and TV, put a temporary hold on your mail, and ask a neighbor to park in your driveway. Keep a small collection of high quality hidden safes to use within your home an in your luggage when you travel. Disguising your valuable is the best way to keep them safe.
4. Three more solid safety tips for the exterior of your home. Get motion activated flood lights in your yard. This will not only illuminate potential predators but will also light up the yard for late night family football games. Trim bushes and hedges to be too small for someone to hide in or behind. Install dead bolts on all exterior doors and change the locks after first moving into your home.
5. In regards to your vehicle safety: Purchase an emergency glass hammer and keep it in your vehicle as an emergency exit tool. Keep your car remote in your pocket at all times and on your night stand at night. The panic button makes for an easy and loud personal alarm when needed. Keep an emergency road kit and first aid kit in the trunk of your car at all times along with basic tools.
6. Take a firearm safety tips or state certified concealed weapon class in your local area. The education is priceless and after the class you can decide if it would be wise for your family to purchase a handgun to keep in the home. Continue to train on the range and seek out as much ongoing education as possible in the way of books and other local firearm courses.
7. Seek out security software for your cell phone. Smart-phones have software available that makes tracking them down easy via GPS and built in GPRS frequencies. This will come in handy not only if you lose your phone but also if you are kidnapped or lost. Make sure that family members are familiar with how to use the software to locate your device. (iPhone) (Android) (BlackBerry) (WindowsMobile) (Nokia Symbian)
8. Purchase and memorize “The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook.” Yes, I’m serious. This book will cover all the extra important things like hot wiring a car, performing 180 degree turns in your car, taking a punch correctly, escaping wild animals, and performing emergency tracheotomies. If that weren’t enough you will also learn how to land a plane, treat a bullet wound, and survive lost in the wilderness or adrift at sea. If you want to go the extra mile buy it’s sequel, “The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel.”
9. Establish emergency procedures with your loved ones. In addition to standard fire escape routes and safe rooms for your home also consider the following. Decide on key rendezvous locations and assign each one a code name. Potential locations could include: relative/friend’s home, zoo, shopping mall, etc. Also establish a code name for each family member and an emergency phrase that family members can use to signal that they are under duress.
10. Keep emergency stashes of the most important essentials in key locations. Essentials may include: cash, firearm plus ammunition, photocopies of passports birth certificates and insurance policies, a prepaid cell phone w/ charger, etc. Storage locations may include: safe deposit box, buried lock box in one of your key rendezvous locations, rented storage space, etc.

Did I forget any safety tips?