I don't think the number of rules are important, but here are mine.
1) Avoid debts, specially debts on things that loose value due to peak oil. If you have a debt on your car, sell it rapidly while it has value and if you really need a car buy an inexpensive (10 years old), reliable, fuel efficient and manual one. Only small, 4 seaters, fuel efficient cars will have some value after the peak. SUVs and sport cars are expensive and will be the first kind of vehicules to become totally worthless. Manuals need less maintenance, are easier to repair, more fuel efficient and harder to drive (so less likely to be stolen, specially in the US
). With the money saved by this car swap, pay back eventual other debts, specially credit cards and high interest debts.
2) Locate in a small city. (3000 to 30000 inhabitants). Big cities will be a nightmare because of blackouts, high crime rate, police/military brutality and massive unemployment. Big cities are also the most likely target of mass bombing and (nuclear) war. I also think that survivalism is a very bad idea and unlikely to be sustainable beyond a few weeks. It's illusory to think that anyone can survive in the long run alone.
In a small city, there is everything that is needed.
2.1) Not far from a food source, since fields are typically outside of small cities.
2.2) Community, possibilities of exchange with neighbours. Someone can make clothes, the other shoes, the other bread, someone can repair a water system...
2.3) In a small city, trade can work directly using tangible goods instead of money, which is very important in case of hyperinflation or deflation. (There may be also a local money system introduced by the local authorities)
2.4) The pressure of the community makes people behave. In big cities, noone knows anyone so people are not afraid to commit crimes and loot (Think about the black outs and lootings in Los Angeles or the recent events in New Orleans). Lone survivalists are likely to be trigger-happy paranoids thus noone will trust them. A small city seem to provide the right compromise and is likely to be a decent place to live with a working local economy even if it's completely cut off the rest of the world.
2.5) In a small city everything and everyone can be reached by walking or biking. A farmer could easily sell his production to people in the city instead of Wal-Mart.
2.6) A small city can provide a place where the economy works based on trust instead of the threat of law enforcement. It means that the economy will continue to work even without attorneys, judges, policemen, foreclosures, etc... Someone who defrauds other people will loose their trust and be excluded... Integration in a small/medium community is the key to survival.
3) A rule that has not been cited in this thread but is very important IMHO during a time of decline: Learn to repair and reuse things and stop throwing away. Most people are not able to repair the simplest appliances and items and throw everything away. People who know how to repair things will be a valuable person and will much more easily get other things in return. The flow of cheap chinese clothes will probably be interrupted rapidly in case of a crisis, typically by protectionist measures, hyperinflation, (trade) wars, etc... Someone able to repair schoes, clothes and eventually make them will be valuable. Someone able to make things work by taking parts of cars will be valuable. Someone able to make bread will be valuable. Someone who knows how to repair bikes will be useful. It doesn't matter what you do but you must know how to work with your hands. Paper-shuffling-office-workers will be the worst off because their skills will be the least useful.
4) Don't trust the govnerment, big corporations or religious leaders - solutions will come from inventive small companies, individuals and communities. In a time of crisis the govnerments, specially imperial ones, tend to be much more brutal in order to ensure its power and income allegedly to ensure order and enforce laws. (But don't count on laws to be enforced) Big companies collude with the govnerment and in time of crisis and become the economic part of the govt. There will be mass layoffs at the worst times, except perhaps in the weaponry industry... So the best is to work in a small local company that makes something useful even if no oil and no electricity is available.
5) Avoid violence. Let the stupid people kill each other and don't take part in it, stay neutral. Don't attach to much importance to your properties. Looting will happen and it's much better to loose objects than your life. What really counts is your skills, specially your skills to do manual work and solution-oriented and practice-oriented intellectual work.
6) When a crisis unfolds, help your neighbours and relatives. Make them small services, help them, repair one of their objects, exchange some things with them. There is nothing better to be integrated in the community and to obtain a job from someone at a time where lots of people could have lost theirs. Show that you're a useful, dependable person and people will come to you. A small service given a the beginning of the crisis can generate very important returns later, not necessarily in the sense of goods, but in the sense of a service, a useful information, etc... Helping others should be seen from an egoist point of view as an investment.
I like it! (even if it was No. 7 