12 Things Investors Need in a Doomsday Scenario
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Last Updated on: 2nd September 2021, 06:05 pm
Imagine a global collapse the likes of which investors have never seen before. A true doomsday scenario. Think about what happened in 2008 and 10x that. What on earth would you do? Not that anybody would be worried about their Internet connection when the whole world is collapsing, but just in case we’re publishing this to teach you about defensive investing. In other words, how to protect yourself in a worst-case scenario. Thinking about Armageddon or the end of times is a fairly dark concept, but if you invest your wealth properly, knowing that you’re secure even in the worst of circumstances can be the light at the end of the tunnel that most people only hope they’re going to have.
Don’t worry about getting all your bases covered, we’re not just going to talk money. After all, one of the reasons to have your finances set up in case of a doomsday scenario is so that you can afford basic things like food and water and trying to take care of yourself and the people you love.
So without further ado let’s discuss how to take care of your finances when the worst of the worst happens.
Table of Contents
Things Investors Need to Buy to Prepare for Doomsday
Having your money right in an emergency is imperative, but what you do with that money is just as important. Let’s count down a list of all of the survival supplies people would want to have at their disposal. Some of them are easy to think about, but others require some critical thought.
Water
It’s possible to go many, many days without food, but water is a different story. More than 60% of the human body is made of water. It represents what we are as human beings and controls most of our bodily functions. It’s estimated that in the average temperature, a human being can last about 100 hours without water before serious consequences kick in. If it’s a little bit colder outside, the body can last a little bit longer, and if it’s hot, definitely shorter. Research shows that a human being can lose between one and 1.5 litres of water per hour in extreme temperatures. If and when doomsday happens, no doubt water will come at a premium.
Water purification tablets are also must have. In a dire situation the water around you might not be clean enough to drink by itself.
Food
Even though a human being can go much longer without food than they can without water, you’re still going to want to eat eventually. Canned goods that are non-perishable are the best for long-term survival, though not the most appetizing.
A Whistle and a Mirror
A whistle is a great survival tool to have in case you get trapped under rubble or stranded in an area where few people can hear you shout. A mirror is good in the same situations because you can use the sun’s reflection to send out an .S.O.S. signal should you get stranded on an island by yourself.
Masks
Whether the world ends because of a pandemic disease, a comet striking the Earth, a massive earthquake or any number of other disasters, there’s a chance you’ll need to keep free of debris or deadly viruses. A mask would definitely come in handy on doomsday.
Potassium Iodide
What is potassium iodide you ask? It’s an iodine solution that can block radioactive waste from being absorbed into your thyroid and killing you. In case the world is ending because of nuclear fallout, potassium iodide will have you covered.
Mylar Blankets
Sleeping in with a mylar blanket is like wrapping yourself in aluminum foil and getting ready to bake. Mylar blanks use your own body heat to keep you warm and act as a sleeping bag, so you get the best of both worlds with one tool.
Emergency Candles
A good emergency candle can cost $50 but they last for more than 100 hours. A good buy for when it gets dark outside, because in an emergency, there probably won’t be any electricity and you’re going to want to see what you’re doing.
Investing for Doomsday
By no means is the above list an exhaustive list of things you need. We’re not Bear Grylls or Survivorman. We can’t teach you how to build a shelter or start a fire. But you will need money to put out fires when the world is going through a meltdown, so let’s get serious. Here are some of the best investing strategies for surviving the worst of the worst case scenarios.
Buy into Sinful Stocks
Generally speaking when the world is heading for a meltdown, nearly everything drops in value. That will include almost every company listed on a stock market exchange. That said, if you’re really serious about investing odds are you’re probably already fairly exposed to the market anyway. So what you want to do during a global crisis is invest in ‘sinful’ stocks. Sinful stocks is a term for a company is that prophet off of people’s vices.
While people are definitely better served avoiding sinful activities when the world is collapsing, human nature and the way the brain is wired causes us to look for ways to soothe pain quickly, even if the long-term effects of that are not good.
People tend to smoke more cigarettes and cannabis, gamble more of their money and drink more alcohol when times are tough. None of the recommendations on this blog posts should be taken as financial advice, but a company like Constellation Brands might be a good buy. They are one of the largest alcohol companies in the world and they recently bought a stake in cannabis producer Tweed, the largest legal licensed producer in Canada by market capitalization. You can also invest with smaller alcohol companies that allow investors to buy into more valuable beverages, like whisky.
A tobacco producer like Altria or Philip Morris International may also be a good buy. Not only has the cigarette maker had a stranglehold on the industry for decades, they are at the forefront of research surrounding vaping and e-cigarettes, the biggest trend in the industry right now. Rest assured this company will do anything to maintain its share of the market and might be a stable influence on your portfolio when times are tough across the globe.
Buy Government Bonds
The return on government bonds is much lower than what you would get on the stock market, but as the 2008 economic collapse proved, governments and banks will get bailed out in times of crisis. Bonds are probably the safest form of investment virtually always guaranteed to be repaid. Obviously if the world is melting down, there may not be any guarantees. But for those investors that can help it be involved in the market, if you were going to buy the sinful stocks anyway, you might as well have some government bonds to round out your doomsday portfolio.
Invest in Swiss Francs
The Swiss Franc has the lowest ratio of government debt to gross domestic product in the world. What does that mean? It means the currency is relatively stable because the country’s citizens produce more than they spend relative to other nations across the globe. In general investing in foreign currencies is a volatile market but if you had to pick one to bet your while fine during times of crisis, it would be the Swiss franc.
Invest in Gold
This is one classic investment strategy investors have been implementing for decades. Gold is a valuable precious metal, not just for fashion but also for industrial use. It’s so valuable in fact that when governments are struggling with debt, they’ll impose all kinds of rules that push citizens to sell those precious metals back to the government. That’s been done many, many times since the 1930s. That said you might not want to put all of your wealth in a bank, so having some gold in your possession is a good idea in case of crisis.
Invest in Bitcoin
Bitcoin is known as digital gold. It’s a completely decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that isn’t owned by anybody. An algorithm controls the rate of inflation so no government or persons of influence can devalue the currency and force people to sell their souls to governments. It was invented in 2008 during the global financial crisis. Whenever the next one happens, even if it’s accompanied by a doomsday scenario, people are still going to need a way to spend money and exchange of value.
Nobody can hack the decentralized database that Bitcoin is built on. That’s called a blockchain. Investing in Bitcoin right now might be hard to trust, but you can do it in an investment retirement account, so that you can benefit in the long run and still get access to the funds should a catastrophic event happen.
Ready for Doomsday
Consider yourself and your family ready for doomsday, minus a few items and emergency trinkets we probably didn’t list in this posting. Still at least you had of the game right now and ready for survival. Survival just like anything else in life costs money. Take the necessary steps to protect your wealth and even if that rainy day never comes, you can enjoy your riches in the sunshine on a beach somewhere. Isn’t that what we all work so hard for anyway?