Prepper Finances

Self-sufficiency is kind of your thing. You thrive on having things in place for when situations go south. You carry a multi-tool in your pocket or purse. You carry a battery backup when yo travel. You would be (or already have been) an early adopter for solar, or hydrogen fuel cells. When things go south, you just grin, because you are already positioned to weather the storm. If this describes you, you’re probably mostly aligned with the Self-Sufficient Prepper financial archetype.

You’re not bothered by going to a public grocery store weekly or every couple of weeks to get food – mainstream resources are an important part of your preparedness – but your most important parts are more reliant on your planning, and personal oversight. You know there will be a time in your life that you need to rely on your preparations, so you’re constantly on the lookout for new ways to optimize. While you may not be into certain financial instruments, you probably have some retirement planning, and you have probably explored alternative investments. Sure, you are probably more focused on protecting wealth than you are on growing it, but you’re engaged on multiple sides of the spectrum and each tool or resource is evaluated independently for financial suitability and applicability to your unique scenario.

Not everything is handled by a single solution. Layers of financial security will best ride out temporary or long-term situations. So, you plan. You plan for the here and now. But you also have intermediate goals. You’re also aware of how compounding interest can help you in the long-run. Sure, you are not completely enamored with the “full faith and credit” of some of the institutions that are catering to the masses, but with the right mix of financial tooling, and a good mindset, a proper plan can get you to where you want to be. You’d rather be bill-free, and own a homestead than be a billionaire, but you’re not afraid to use some of the resources available to the mainstream financial consumer if it means getting to that homestead quicker. 

If it’s a new instrument that can help you optimize your portfolio, you’re willing to be sold – for a bit. Your mentality is that money is important, and it helps you accomplish the preparedness goals you have. Even if you have to deal with some of the market volatility, and trust a big financial isntitution to get the benefit of the investment. You are contributing to your retirement regularly through payroll channels. You might even have a Bloomberg subscription, or belong to an email list for CNBC – just to make sure you know what’s happening in the markets. Tax minimization is an important factor, but you’re really trying to build wealth right now, so it’s more of a tool to increase compounding, than it is a way to protest the government.

You prefer good old American Equities to fully diversifying your portfolio – because there is a lot of money being left on the table if you’re giving up potential returns for a little bit of safety. That doesn’t mean you aren’t diversified among sectors, though. You just findamentally beleive that the market will go up 5-9% on average annually over the long-term, and tech is really good right now. Your planning has allowed you to feel confident in a market downturn, because you have a long-term time horizon. You’ll probably move to a higher percentage of fixed income over time, just to make sure you are mitigating some risk closer to retirement, but you’re all in on the markets. 

Money is a means to accomplish goals. You’re going to travel – with the appropriate preparation and to the right destinations to avoid an international risk. You are also OK with trusting the system your financial planner has helped you to build. But there is a little nagging belief in the back of your head that you need to be a bit more prepare than the mainstream. You’re confident that everything is going to be alright, but you want to have options, too. Credit card debt is not as palatable as say, a home mortgage, but a bit of revolving debt is acceptable to you, as long as it contributes positively to your personal goals. You try to utilize good judgment on all money matters, but you are also willing to indulge a bit as cool opportunities come up. If you align with these concepts – you’re probably good to go by choosing this archetype. 

If you prefer to have gold rather than fiat/paper money, you may skew towards being a worst case scenario prepper. Having a portable store of wealth like silver or gold may seem more appropriate to you – being able to bug out with a large amount of stored financial power may be a goal on your list of preps.

A general distrust of goverment is a given, probably. Taxes suck (you’re not alone in that belief); fiat money is less than trust-inducing; manipulating the economy by contracting or increasing the money supply through the treasury seems ridiculous to you. Knowing your money could be frozen at the bank level, or that you may have to be subjected to regulatory oversight by a bunch of bureaucrats makes you throw up in your mouth a little. You’re probably more cloesly alignned with this archetype of financial prepper if these are true statements for you.  

It’s not easy being reliant mostly on yourself from a financial perspective. It takes a lot of extra work to make up for the challenges it brings. But the idea that you’re in complete control of your financial potential is important to you, even if it means you won’t be a multi-millionaire, generally. Having a comfortable lifestyle is your main goal, but you’ll sacrifice a bit of temporary comfort for long-term peace of mind. If you feel like this may be you – and you are willing to do some extra research and utilize some more historically relevant concepts – from a time when money wasn’t so casual – you’re probably more aligned with the ideas of a worst case scenario financial prepper.