The Alpha Strategy: The Ultimate Plan of Financial Self-Defense (by John Pugsley)

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TopHatFox
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The Alpha Strategy: The Ultimate Plan of Financial Self-Defense (by John Pugsley)

Post by TopHatFox »

http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/prote ... s-rpf0084/

Thoughts?

I would likely apply the Alpha Strategy by living in a small, efficient space w/ a few month max of bulk goods at my fully-bought or built small home (a headquarters or rental for worldly adventures), and possibly storing long term extra supplies in a storage space near this house. I would also own bicycle tools, general household tools, and whatever other tools I find useful as I learn more skills. I'd further learn as many of skills and potential careers as I can throughout my life, which I like doing anyway. Also, by progressively living more simply, I need less material goods in my life, which means I need to physically store less lifetime supplies of stuff. The functions stack. (:

It seems ERE is very similar to the Alpha Strategy, but with money!

Sere
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Re: The Alpha Strategy: The Ultimate Plan of Financial Self-Defense (by John Pugsley)

Post by Sere »

Thanks for sharing this @Zalo, listening now :)

vexed87
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Re: The Alpha Strategy: The Ultimate Plan of Financial Self-Defense (by John Pugsley)

Post by vexed87 »

I just skim read the book this monring, enjoyable read and makes me feel less bad about all the BIFL products I have blown money on recently. I can't say it will stop me storing excess wealth in stocks/bonds/gold etc, but I'll be a lot less hesitant to buy good products now.

It may be addressed in the book (I didn't finish it yet), but it doesn't really factor in the chances of (hyper)deflation, where it might make sense to hold cash as it doesn't always make more sense to hedge your bets so to speak.

There is a lot to be said for the cost of storing all your stuff though...

jacob
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Re: The Alpha Strategy: The Ultimate Plan of Financial Self-Defense (by John Pugsley)

Post by jacob »

The first half of the Alpha strategy book is one of the better/best pieces of economics ever written. To perhaps unjustly summarize the second half: buy all the storable stuff you'd ever need now (three tons of tp!) and these real assets will be inflation protected and also do better than financial assets. The book was written in the late 70s/early 80s after a decade of inflation and poor financial returns. Perhaps unknowingly, super-preppers still follow large parts of this strategy by e.g. storing 15 years worth of food. Thousands of rounds of ammo. Complete unused toolsets. And so on.

unno2002
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Re: The Alpha Strategy: The Ultimate Plan of Financial Self-Defense (by John Pugsley)

Post by unno2002 »

Concur. If you are going to need something “down the road”, and can buy it now for later use, there is a good chance it will be a better “investment” than normal investments. Buying food on sale, in bulk cuts down on overall food costs. I regularly joke that one of our “highest return” investments for the past few years has been cans of corned beef. I could NOT have guaranteed after tax returns that would have kept up with the rising price of a can…

The book Alpha Strategy should be available online free to read at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6230684/The-Alpha-Strategy

Jack Spirko, a podcaster on preparedness, speaks on how preparedness is also a retirement plan.
http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/episo ... ement-plan
http://www.survivalpodcast.net/audio/20 ... estead.mp3

jacob
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Re: The Alpha Strategy: The Ultimate Plan of Financial Self-Defense (by John Pugsley)

Post by jacob »

Also, the consistently highest ROI investment is a small garden for personal consumption. Unfortunately, it doesn't scale well.

oldbeyond
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Re: The Alpha Strategy: The Ultimate Plan of Financial Self-Defense (by John Pugsley)

Post by oldbeyond »

To me, storing real goods can be a very useful tactic. Not only as a hedge against inflation, but also against problems with the monetary/financial system(look at Greece) or calamities affecting the production and distribution of goods(extreme weather events, political upheaval, terrorism etc). Of course there are also negatives, like storage costs, deterioration of the goods, the risk of theft/robbery etc. The extent of adoption of the tactic and the particulars of implementation will vary widely among different people with different circumstances, but I've noticed a tendency to reject it completely in a lot of people. I guess it's the cultural perception of storing real goods as something that crazy preppers do, but the fact that it is possible to overdo something doesn't completely disqualify it from consideration. The temptation to do so seems stronger with The Alpha Strategy than with car-free living, investing in the stock market or minimalism for example, though.

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