Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure. -Confucius
As an international investor, I try to stay aware of what is happening in the world.
Unfortunately, as we all know, the news has lately been clogged with the US Presidential campaign. (It’s a mud slinging fest at best, so don’t worry, I’m not about to talk about that!)
Unbelievably, there are other things going on in the world, some of which are very alarming.
If you’re curious, I suggest you type “Russia” in a Google search. What do you find?
There are dozens and dozens of articles in the past week from high profile outlets (such as The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph, and numerous others) claiming that we are on the brink of World War 3.
Seriously. Check it out.
I’m not going to comment or speculate with my opinions of what is going on in the multiple different conflicts throughout our world. We can all probably agree that there are a lot of people dying for some very confusing and frustrating reasons.
Here is what I do want to point out: How are you prepared?
I mean this in a broad sense. Physically, mentally, financially, and emotionally – how are you prepared for massive chaos?
Before you think I am trying to rattle your cage, let me use the internet outage which happened this past Friday and effected most of the Eastern US as an example. As Wired put it, “Initial reports indicate that the attack was part of a genre of DDoS that infects Internet of Things devices (think webcams, DVRs, routers, etc.) all over the world with malware. Once infected, those Internet-connected devices become part of a botnet army, driving malicious traffic toward a given target.”
Now imagine if this internet outage had been aimed at financial services. We’ve already seen credit card numbers hacked, people’s identities stolen, and numerous other types of virtual attacks. To think that there won’t be more in the near future is very naive.
So if you have 100% of your wealth online (as in a brokerage account or your regular bank account), you should think about what it means to have all of that disappear.
Diversifying into real estate, precious metals, and collectibles is a great way to spread your risk. You could even buy a vacation home and justify the purchase as a ‘bug-out’ location – even if it’s in a tropical paradise!
Remember to check out the easy 300% gains you could get. As we see future market turmoil and volatility, there will be many more opportunities like this one which I will share with you.
