Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

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Preparation and Experience Can Help, But at What Cost?

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With everything that’s going on in the world today, Your Survival Guy is concerned about your safety. Stuff happens, and before you know it, you’re stuck in the fog. You know from here and here about my own experiences in fog. It happens fast. You deal with it. Because living life on the dock is no way to live. Preparation and experience can help. But at what cost?

You know this market is foggy. You know our government is in debt up to its eyeballs. Remember the government bailout of GM, leaving common shareholders, the investing class, in ruins? The more government creep we have in the marketplace, the more they’ll act like stakeholders picking winners and losers. History shows they’re not too keen on helping everyone. You know what I mean.

But there are steps you can take right now to help fortify your portfolio. To harden your assets. To see if you’re on the right course. To match your risk profile with your investments (harder than you think). Are you investing with risk in mind or hoping stock prices will save the day? To me, depending on prices is not investing, and it’s no way to live.

Investment Concerns? Save Money. Get My Friday Email. It’s Free

My back-of-a-napkin test is this: Look at your portfolio in terms of hours of work you’d need to replace it. That’s a long shift, don’t you think? Time can be your enemy.

Action Line: When you start thinking about money in terms of replacement costs, you quickly realize safety needs to be at the top of the list. Inertia is a mighty foe. Don’t put off what you need to do today for your family’s longevity. When you want some help, let’s talk.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.
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