Like most families in mine duties were divided.
My father was in charge of the money; which meant investing and the big bills. My mother held down the fort at home.
Me, I had the best job of all – to enjoy myself and boy did I do that.
For us, it worked. That is until my father sadly left us a few years ago.
With him gone my mother was forced to deal with something she had avoided for so long – money.
I still remember getting the phone call to learn of my father’s passing. It came out of nowhere, he was gone.
No longer would he be there to give advice. No longer would I hear his laugh.
His stories. His love. Gone
I walked to work that day and all I remember hearing my father’s words in my ears over and over, “Adrian, should anything happen to me, look after your mother as she will need help (understanding her financial situation).”
We thought we had more time.
We all do.
Today I am my mother’s financial advisor, or at least one of them. And these days my advice is simple – prepare for the worst.
Just the other day a friend made a good point to me. He had read that Moody’s (a rating agency) was considering lowering America’s AAA rating. His question was, “How the hell does America have a AAA rating?”
Good point. The world is facing a crisis unlike any it has ever seen before.
The American dollar, which makes up 70% of the world’s money, has dropped 20% in 3 years?
In other words, anyone who has held dollars the past three years has essentially lost 20%.
The DOW may have gained back three fourths of what it lost in the crash of 2008 on paper but unemployment is still hovering at 9% officially and, unofficially, somewhere in the realm of 22%.
How does this happen?
I think Lee Hsein Loong said it best in the movie Inside Job, “When you start thinking that you can create something out of nothing, it’s very difficult to resist.”
Of course he was referring to a country’s power to print money.
Time and time again governments abuse the power they have and every time, the result is the same, collapse.
This time will be somewhat different because unlike countries such as Germany in the 1920s and Zimbabwe recently, the problem is not limited to a single country. It has become an epidemic that has spread all over the Western world.
Only time will tell how this will all play out. But I do expect things to get worse (a lot worse) before they get better.
Here I try and share ideas and stories that help you live better lives.
Today’s post is all about being prepared.
We all know that life is not just rainbows and pixie dust.
Bad things do happen.
Below you will find a video that talks about what could happen, I hope it doesn’t, but why not take the time to watch it just in case.
Adrian Shepherd