![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brin_bellway[cw: apocalypse]
Speaking of investment, I came across a thread on some personal-finance subreddit that was like "what's the point of saving for retirement if civilization will collapse before then".
He got a bunch of responses, mostly arguing that it was unlikely enough not to be a significant factor and that there's also no point in betting on the end of the world because you won't be able to *collect* that bet anyway. To my dismay, nobody really seemed to be giving the dude the advice *I* would.
My advice goes something like this:
Yes, it's *possible* that civilization will collapse before you get a chance to retire. When something *might* happen--*especially* in the realm of finance--that *doesn't* mean we don't bet against it happening. What it means is that we *hedge* that bet.
By all means, prepare for the possibility of civilisation collapsing! Take first-aid courses! Learn to garden! Learn how to run mesh networks! If you turn out to dislike any of these things strongly enough that you would really rather avoid them until/unless actively desperate (I hate gardening myself), see if you can network with local people who *are* into those things (or encourage local people you already know to try them and see if they stick) so that you know who to turn to for help if it becomes necessary!
If you're poor-but-not-broke†, have a basic evacuation kit in an old backpack, a solar-powered external phone battery, and a water-filtration straw; if you can afford them, get a higher-quality evacuation kit (I look forward to being able to follow this guide), solar panels on your roof hooked up to batteries in your basement (*in addition* to small solar chargers, because sometimes portability is important in itself; also, these'll cut your electricity bill way down even if shit *doesn't* hit the fan), and a household water-filtration system (again, in addition to the straw). And of course, three months of non-perishables.
I am 100% in favour of more people hedging against possible disastrous futures! I either do or plan to do all of these things myself!
*But also*, I have a retirement account and plans to max it out as soon as everything more acutely urgent has been paid for. When I get to a point where I can readily afford life insurance, I expect I will even go so far as to sign up for cryonics, hedging the possibility of unusually *good* futures.
"Reckless idiot who will be completely screwed the moment the slightest breeze hits their house of cards" and "doomsday cultist who ends up having to *hope* for society to collapse because a collapsed society is the only kind they're equipped to live in" are *both* bad archetypes to embody! Don't *just* plan for good futures, don't *just* plan for bad futures: plan for *both*.
---
†Broke people can't afford to make *any* bets on what the future is going to be like and are outside the scope of this post. Good luck: may you be in a position to do some of these things someday.
Speaking of investment, I came across a thread on some personal-finance subreddit that was like "what's the point of saving for retirement if civilization will collapse before then".
He got a bunch of responses, mostly arguing that it was unlikely enough not to be a significant factor and that there's also no point in betting on the end of the world because you won't be able to *collect* that bet anyway. To my dismay, nobody really seemed to be giving the dude the advice *I* would.
My advice goes something like this:
Yes, it's *possible* that civilization will collapse before you get a chance to retire. When something *might* happen--*especially* in the realm of finance--that *doesn't* mean we don't bet against it happening. What it means is that we *hedge* that bet.
By all means, prepare for the possibility of civilisation collapsing! Take first-aid courses! Learn to garden! Learn how to run mesh networks! If you turn out to dislike any of these things strongly enough that you would really rather avoid them until/unless actively desperate (I hate gardening myself), see if you can network with local people who *are* into those things (or encourage local people you already know to try them and see if they stick) so that you know who to turn to for help if it becomes necessary!
If you're poor-but-not-broke†, have a basic evacuation kit in an old backpack, a solar-powered external phone battery, and a water-filtration straw; if you can afford them, get a higher-quality evacuation kit (I look forward to being able to follow this guide), solar panels on your roof hooked up to batteries in your basement (*in addition* to small solar chargers, because sometimes portability is important in itself; also, these'll cut your electricity bill way down even if shit *doesn't* hit the fan), and a household water-filtration system (again, in addition to the straw). And of course, three months of non-perishables.
I am 100% in favour of more people hedging against possible disastrous futures! I either do or plan to do all of these things myself!
*But also*, I have a retirement account and plans to max it out as soon as everything more acutely urgent has been paid for. When I get to a point where I can readily afford life insurance, I expect I will even go so far as to sign up for cryonics, hedging the possibility of unusually *good* futures.
"Reckless idiot who will be completely screwed the moment the slightest breeze hits their house of cards" and "doomsday cultist who ends up having to *hope* for society to collapse because a collapsed society is the only kind they're equipped to live in" are *both* bad archetypes to embody! Don't *just* plan for good futures, don't *just* plan for bad futures: plan for *both*.
---
†Broke people can't afford to make *any* bets on what the future is going to be like and are outside the scope of this post. Good luck: may you be in a position to do some of these things someday.
