[ No text ]

[ No text ]

[ No text ]

[ No text ]

Preparing for the financial apocalypse

If full-scale war does break out, no one knows quite what to expect. But here are some tips, just in case the world as we know it blows up and the Four Horsemen climb back on their mounts.

1. Don’t keep all your nest eggs in one currency. The professionals recommend socking some cash in foreign funds. Curbs on money flowing in and out would be an ever-present risk. But cash will still pour into Brazil, India, Indonesia and other former have-nots of what used to be known as the underdeveloped world, while the old haves, including the U.S., Japan and parts of Europe, become less attractive. Which happens when you’re weighed down with soaring deficits, aging populations, creeping political paralysis and dimming prospects.

2. Build a bunker, preferably reinforced, to store your gold bullion. The stuff takes up a lot of space and it’s heavy. The bunker could come in handy for other uses, too.

3. Dump those long-term bonds. You don’t want to be a lender at times like these. The U.S. is trying to reflate its way out of trouble, with the help of a depreciating greenback. But the consequence could be double-digit inflation, which is death to fixed-income investments. A mere 3-per-cent rise in interest rates, which would take Canadian and U.S. rates back to historic levels, would wipe out about 45 per cent of the principal.

4. To be on the safe side, go further than even Bank of CanadaGovernor Mark Carney suggests and stop borrowing, even if you can afford the rates for now.

5. Buy land in some remote spot and get one of those long guns, registered or not. After the financial meltdown of 2008, a Wall Street strategist actually suggested buying a farm in northern Saskatchewan that could be reached by road and provide enough food to make a family self-sufficient.

[ No text ]

[ No text ]

[ No text ]

[ No text ]

[ No text ]