The majority of people work all their life and look forward to a pleasant retirement. Their retirement plan involves paper assets to provide for their living expenses in the future. The major problem with this type of plan is that they have no backup plan to provide for themselves in the event that all paper assets are destroyed through inflation or default.

It does not matter if your plan is wrapped up in stocks, bonds, currency, CD’s, pensions or social security payments. When fiat currencies collapse, all paper assets go at the same time. When this happens, you no longer have the means to pay for your future needs without working for them. This is the Achilles heel of the retirement system that we use.

The old saying about putting all your eggs in one basket applies here. It was not until the later part of the 20th century that retirement actually became a prospect for people. Until then most people simply worked until they died. Retirement is now considered a given in society but few realize how fragile the system is and how fast it can be taken away through a world changing event. It is this fragility that necessitates the rethinking and forward planning of retirement at this point in time.

There are two reasons to save for retirement.

1) To enable you to stop working full time and enjoy more of your time in a leisurely way.

2) To insure you can pay someone else to care for or provide services for you when you are physically unable to do so any more.

The most widely used method today is to save some of your current production in the form of currency or paper assets which provide a medium of exchange to acquire the things you will need in the future. In the event of a failure of fiat currency, you will loose your saved production for future use if it is kept in paper assets that become worthless.

One way to avoid this loss is to keep your savings in an alternate form that will still have value after a currency collapse. This can take the form of an alternate medium of exchange such as gold, silver or diamonds or in the form of goods that will still command a premium in the future.

It may take the form of land that can be leased, rented or sold in the future. Leasing or renting will provide a continuous income for many years while selling will provide a one time source of money that must be evaluated to determine if the selling price will last the amount of time you require. Some combination of the three may be appropriate over a long term period.

The ability to own buildings to lease, rent or sell may also be a way to store wealth until needed in the future. Regardless of the dollar value of things after a collapse, you will be able to adjust the price to current values maintaining your purchasing power.

Some people may say it is unwise to buy and hold because you might pay $100,000 for a building today and after a currency reset it may only be valued at $10,000. This is true on the surface but that is only if the new currency has the same purchasing power of the old one which will be unlikely. If the value of hard assets drop after a currency collapse it will likely be only in dollar value but not in purchasing power.

This is a distinction people will have to learn. A silver dime from 1964 is still only a dime that will buy very little today but the value of the metal in the dime still has as much purchasing power today as it did then. With a new currency if the value of your assets drops it will likely be relative to the value of everything else. That means a quart of milk may suddenly cost .15 cents and a loaf of bread .10 cents while your building becomes $10,000. Those hung up on the dollar price of things need to start thinking in value terms rather than dollar terms.

There are many different ways to employ a strategy to insure you can preserve your current excess production until you need it in the future. Your plan needs to reflect your personality, your location and your future desires in order to make you feel comfortable with it.

Here is one example that may work for some. You may want to buy a small plot of land maybe 10 to 30 acres in size. Construct a small but comfortable home on it equipped with the tools and livestock you will need to provide most of your necessities for years to come. Once you have the land set up to insure you can provide the things you need you will then need to think about how you will store your excess wealth in a way you can use in the future when it is needed.

You might want to build 3 or 4 small cottages that you can rent out. Each can have a small yard capable of housing some small livestock and a garden. You may have a small shed or barn in the backyard of each cottage as well for the tenant to use. This will provide a tenant the ability to produce much of the food they will need helping to reduce their expenses.

In the aftermath of a collapse, many people will be destitute and have few valuables to enable them to get by. Someone in this position will need shelter and food for their family and you will be in a position to offer it to them. In exchange for their help on your farm you can provide them the means to care for their family and later as things improve they may be able to earn money and pay actual rent. Their ability to produce some things themselves may allow them to sell products to do this.

Keep in mind that the two reasons to store money are to reduce your work load in the future and to help care for yourself when you are no longer able to do so yourself. In a restored currency situation you will be able to save money to buy the help you need in the future. In the absence of a restored currency system you will be able to offer a service, housing, in exchange for your tenants services that you are unable to do yourself. It may be growing some food or cutting wood or home repairs. As long as you get the things you need you will have the same benefit as having the money to buy it.

This type of collapse scenario works best if you have family members that can care for you later in life but lacking that, you will need a plan. The three main things people will need most are food, shelter and clothing. Your ability to produce or provide these things will give you a resource to help provide for your retirement. As things improve the opportunities will increase but the basics will never change.

The storing of your excess wealth in assets such as gold and silver will give you a store of value to draw on in the future but you should not overlook the basic things that may take precedence in society during and immediately following a collapse. Land, tools, livestock and buildings are always going to be necessary when society must fall back on the basics for survival. In the immediate aftermath of a collapse your precious metals may have little value until society restores itself to a condition where people have the basic needs fulfilled and commerce is once again possible.

With this in mind you need to develop a plan that you feel comfortable with to insure you will have the things you need later in life. Your planning horizon needs to be at least a few decades to insure you will have the resources available to get you through and insure a pleasant retirement.