The increasing importance of contingency planning is not just a national, enterprise, or institutional mandate: individuals and families will be severely impacted as governments fluctuate or collapse.
Of course your business does contingency planning, even if it’s informal. The world is not simplifying and risks are increasing. Someone thinks or asks “How can we secure our supplies if James goes out of business or the shippers go on strike?” As a result you may add another supplier or two and arrange alternate shipping or on-site storage for your suppliers.
You may strategically think of them less, but your life and family are more important than your business. You are the only one who can ask “What if the currency our finances are held in is devalued by 50%, or the borders are closed during a banking holiday when food is scarce?”
You and I know that almost no one will do the following:
If slow-to-be-issued exit visas are required to leave the country, and only $500 may be transfered from the country per year, will you be trapped? What ifs like this are at the center of contingency planning. Look at trends and extrapolate scenarios, give them a percentage likelihood of occurring, assign a cost to preparing a contingent countering action. You can’t do everything this afternoon, but you can start at the highest risk scenarios with the least cost in time and money. Occasionally one risk is so great it will supersede all else, regardless of time and expense. Start cracking.
What we can and might do:
Invest a bit in transportable, emergency wealth like gold or silver.
Travel outside the country of birth and make friends with locals.
Open a bank account in another country.
Find reputable counselors in another livable country. (we might provide referrals)
leave behind our childish ways.
Okay, that last one was for me. I have a bad habit of doing what I want at the moment, instead of planning and doing what is best for the future. I’ll bet I’m not alone. It takes growing up to face the future and do something about it when I could play a round of golf instead.
Now if I were on the links and saw a drone overhead it might cause several reactions; wondering if it was watching or targeting one of my foursome, a desire to act rather than keep planning, and a request for a Mulligan. But short of a sudden reminder of 24/7 threats, golf is usually a devise for sublimation of worries, even justified concerns. I might think of contingencies while searching for my ball, but I’ll probably forget about them at the nineteenth hole.
You’re sitting at your computer or tapping on your phone to read this, so do three small things now.
*) Save one of our free reports to another tab for latter reading.
*) Call a travel agent and get brochures for a trip outside your country; no all-inclusive resorts, few if any tours, golf courses optional. Paradise will have some flaws, but having a life over invested in one local may be fatal.
*) Stop by a coin store and buy a bullion tenth ounce gold or two and several silver rounds or coins.
You’ve started, that’s the hard part. The harder part is continuing. The hardest part is once life interrupts your plans, picking up where you left off. Don’t quit. Restart. Enjoy the opportunities you’ve discovered. There is a large and beautiful world out there with new frustrations and unimaginably glorious rewards.
Build your ramp. Jump the fence. Explore.
Bill Freeman