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But the question and topic of refugees, the idea of people leaving their country or fleeing their country has been quite popular in discussions the last few days. And this sparked a question that came up in our Radical Personal Finance Community Facebook group. The question was this, "If I were unexpectedly detained or deported while I was traveling with the uncertainty of my job or my possessions or even my bank accounts being accessible to me or even available to me, if I were to somehow return, what would I do and how would I manage?

How might I create a plan to restart my life from scratch if I had to begin again in a different country?" Does anybody have any ideas on how to plan for these sorts of disaster scenarios? Well, today, let's tackle this important question and see if I can give you some ideas that might be helpful for you if you ever face this unfortunate circumstance.

Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge, skills, insight, and advanced ideas and encouragement that you need to live a rich and meaningful life now while also building a plan for your financial security in 10 years or less. My name is Joshua Sheets, and I'm your host.

Interesting question, isn't it? Have you ever thought about this one? Well, today, let's think about it. I don't want to make light of the situation. Many people are rightly concerned about refugees, and I'm going to tackle this question with an eye toward helping you with some ideas that I think can be helpful.

Unfortunately, the term "refugee" is a term that we have to really think carefully about. We have to sketch out the exact scenario that we are talking about. I have a little bit of secondhand experience from working with various people who have been refugees in different circumstances, and I've thought a lot about this question myself.

And so we're going to tackle this question on a few levels. We're going to talk about kind of the worst-case scenario. What do you do if you're detained by the government officials of a foreign country? What if you're just affected by such a scenario? And then also, what would you do if you were actually forced to flee as a refugee from your country?

I'm going to give you some very practical and tactical advice and hopefully stimulate your thinking so that you can give some consideration to this. I'm very proud that this listener of mine has been thinking about the circumstances that they see on the news and then applying that thinking to their own situation.

This is exactly what you should do. You should be constantly wargaming different circumstances. If you see somebody else go through something that's tragic and difficult, think about yourself. What would you do if you were in that circumstance? So that's today's show. Before I launch into the content, I just want to thank today as we begin the patrons of the show.

Did you know that there are 260 of your fellow listeners who support the show as patrons of Radical Personal Finance? 260. Now, I want to say something just to recognize how much I appreciate those 260 of you. Right now, on a daily basis, there are about 15,000 to 20,000 people who tune into Radical Personal Finance every day.

That means that out of 200 – sorry, if we just use the lower number, 15,000, we have a tiny, tiny percentage of you who actually pay and support the show and I want to thank you for that. A lot of times, it's easy for individuals to feel like our voices don't matter.

For example, when confronted with political turmoil and problems on a large national or international scale, it's easy to feel like our voices don't really matter. The reason is because our voices don't really matter in that context. Unless you have some unique influence or position or platform that gives you a larger voice, your individual voice doesn't matter in that context.

But when you go out into the world, there are many places in which your voice does matter. Your voice to your next door neighbor on either side of you does matter. Your voice to the people on your street does matter. And your voice to people who do things like I do, independent media creators, does matter.

So if you're one of my 260 patrons, I want to just thank you and recognize that in a world that's very big, each of your voices matters to me. And if you are one of my non-patron listeners who would like to support the show and simply say, "Joshua, you're doing a great job.

I appreciate the work that you put into it. You'd like to pay me for that work," totally voluntary. I'm happy for you to listen to the show for free. But if you're in a financial position where you'd like to do that, I invite you to consider becoming a patron.

Go to RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron. RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron. Now, before I get into the details, I'm going to play some audio here. And this is audio that comes down from a video that was put together by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UNHCR. And I think this will give you an interesting thing to consider of what it actually means to be a refugee.

This is a listing of the—a reading by some actors of what the actual refugees took with them as they were sent on as refugees. So let's start with this five minutes of audio as we begin. If you had to flee your home— What would you take? Wallet. Empty. Wallet.

Wallet. Money. Coins. Pennies. Torch. Whistle. Laser point. Seen more clearly out at sea. Three bags. One bag. Rucksack. Trunk. Yellow plastic bag for paper, cello tape to waterproof. And yellow cards for refugees. A national ID. Army service record. And an information booklet from the government. Diploma. Certificate from high school.

Passport. If you've got one, you can take it. Expensive one-way ticket. Fake. Flag. Flag. National flag. Flash drive, laptop, phone. Mobile. Phone number, phone number, phone number. SIM card. Spare one. Phone. Phone. Smartphone with Skype and FaceTime. Headphones. Charger. Charger. Overseas adapter. House keys. House keys. House keys. We have suffered so much.

I want to study so that I can become someone again. Painkillers. Painkillers. Seasickness tablets. Walking stick. Walking stick. White cane. Crutches. Wheelchair. Syringes to use in emergency. Bandages. Bandages, toiletries, toothpaste, toothbrush and toothpaste. Nail clipper, comb. Shampoo and hair gel. Barber equipment. And sunscreen. And ointment for sunburn. Tablets for son's epilepsy.

One every day. And all vaccinations recorded to date for the baby. And face whitening cream. I want my skin to be white and my hair to be spiked. I don't want them to know I'm a refugee. What if somebody spots me and calls the police? Because I'm illegal. But not if I'm white.

That's right, isn't it? Traditional clothing. Warm clothing. Baby clothing. Favorite clothing. Dirty clothing. Wet clothing. Layered clothing. Pants. Sewing machine. It's my life. It's my blood. Four dresses. A change of clothes. Till I go to another one. One shirt, one shirt and one missing sandal. Pair of shoes. New, never worn.

A hijab. A gift from a friend. My favorite scarf with the skulls on. I just love the color. My turban. My turban's my guardian. Now it protects my identity and my faith. Without it, I'm vulnerable. Headscarf from someone who died in the conflict. A hat for the baby. And socks for the baby.

One nappy. Just one. And sanitary towels. Sports jacket for warmth. And some have a life jacket too. And some don't. The most painful thing about being a refugee is that you wake up one day to find you've lost all of your liberty and can no longer decide on your life.

It's like everything is closed in your face. So there's nothing else but the sea. There's nothing but the sea as a way to get out and be free. Cigarettes. Cotton. Packet. Lighters. Stay pipe. Gin scent. Jury can. A bottle of wine for a one week trip. Bottled oil. Lemons.

Dates. Biscuits. Crackers. Corned beef in a tin. Tea set for the others on the boat. We're thirsty, tired and afraid. I'll make some tea, that's what we do. We make a family. Baby food. Marshmallows. Bread that wasn't fully baked. The man who threw us out wouldn't let us finish up.

Metal cooking pot to make some dinner for the children. One man only brought a cup. I'd have been ashamed to ask every day for a cup just to take a drink of water. People get tired of being asked for things all the time and eventually they will say no.

Now I have my own cup. It gives me independence no matter where I go. Plastic carpets. Rug. Pillow. Animal skin tent. A piece of mortar from the house. A piece of soil from the garden wrapped in fabric. Sacred soil. Sacred books. Sacred texts. Rosary and prayer beads. Rosary. Prayer beads.

Rosary. My headdress hides the key to a small metal chest containing all of the essentials for a wedding. Ring. Ring. Ring. Mother's wedding ring. So my mother gave me hers. My earrings. I make jewelry. All the jewelry of my people. It symbolizes freedom. No one tells me what to wear.

Heart necklace. Heart necklace. Virgin Mary necklace. Bracelet. Bracelet. Bracelet. No, the bracelet's not my favorite thing. That's Nancy. She's my doll. The night we fled, my mother put her on my bed so we would not forget her. But in all the rush, she did get left behind. I don't mind.

She'll keep watch. Watch. Digital. And analog. Family portrait. Photos. Photos. Memories of my father. Memories of my father. I have nothing from my home. Everything was broken in the struggle. We were out in just ten minutes. They destroyed the house around my sickbed. The neighbors heard me shout and came and carried me out.

I carried both my children in baskets, swinging from a pole across my shoulders. And I carried my virginity out at sea. We rubbed ourselves in vomit so the pirates wouldn't touch us. I escaped with my children. Sister. Brother. Husband. Wife. With my soul. With my smile. With my life.

Across the world, 65 million people have been forced to flee their homes. Stand with refugees. Stand with us. Sign the petition now. Go to withrefugees.org. Hopefully you don't mind my dramatic reading, but at least that way you can get the sense of the video without having to go and watch it yourself.

I'll link to it in the blog post for today's notes if you want to see. So I begin with this video because I think it – or with this dramatic reading of these refugees' accounts because I think it sets proper tone for the discussion today. This is the constant challenge that I face in knowing how to tackle these things.

The circumstances that many of the Syrian refugees are facing, which are the refugees who have been making the news very much recently in the last few days, are – it's almost the most basic of problems. It often can feel very hollow and very out of touch to have the type of conversation that you and I generally are going to have on a show like this.

For example, when I talk about what would I need to do if I were a refugee, I'm going to give you suggestions like preposition a couple of years' worth of living expenses in a foreign bank account. When you hear accounts of a refugee where a woman says that she rubs herself in vomit so that the pirates won't rape her, it kind of makes you sit down and say, "Why do I even bother to open my mouth?" I think it's helpful to start there.

It's also helpful because it gives us some context to realize that when we approach things like financial planning, we should start with the simpler things. We should start with the things that are actually going to make a difference. Long-time listeners of the show will recognize that for me, financial advice is not limited to something that pertains to mutual funds that you put in your IRA.

This is one of my deep frustrations with the financial industry. The financial services industry generally gives advice on things that are saleable such as mutual funds put within the context of an IRA. Is there anything wrong with that? No. There's nothing wrong with that. But when you go out and survey the mass of a population, even in the wealthiest country in the world, which is the United States of America, what you find is that many people are much more concerned with simpler, more basic things of life.

They're more concerned with, "Where are my groceries going to come from this week?" They're more concerned with, "Is my car going to break down?" That's why when we talk about retirement, you've heard me say again and again and again, it's irrelevant. You're relevant to most people because most people only have a few hundred dollars that they could put their hands on if they have any savings at all.

So, yes, retirement matters, but it matters to a small subset of the population at this point in time. How do you get somebody from a few hundred dollars of savings, if that, to the point where they have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and going on millions of dollars?

I don't know. But that's the question that I tackle here on the show every day. And the reason that I do shows on things that are very practical is because the types of things that you just heard is what a majority of the world's population faces. If you need to get out because you're a refugee, what you need is food.

What you need is water. What you need is a plane ticket. What you need is a phone. And so let's always try to be reasonable when we're dealing with the context of what we're actually facing and try to actually focus on the things that are the most important first.

Don't try to go first to money when you can solve something simpler than money. And then also don't go to something else when you can solve it with a little bit of money. Now, for me, this question of refugees is something I have thought probably an inordinate amount about.

And a lot of that would be based upon my own personal experience and background. For context, I've generally been pretty aware of religious persecution that happens all around the world. Years ago, back in the 1970s, my parents worked as missionaries. They lived and worked in the Philippines and they were involved in transmitting radio signals behind the bamboo curtain.

My father was involved in establishing radio transmission sites and building antennas all throughout the Philippines which were specifically intended to transmit Christian radio broadcasts behind the bamboo curtain. And my parents and especially my father has always had a deep interest in the Chinese culture and the Chinese situation. Well, because of that, I have long been familiar with refugee status and long been familiar with the challenges that that brings.

Both the two biggest ones that have happened during my parents' lifetime, not during my lifetime, was the Iron Curtain, the persecution of Christians in the USSR and also the Bamboo Curtain, the persecution of Christians in China. And so my parents had many contacts and many friends who were actively involved in working and trying to work with Christians behind the bamboo and behind the Iron Curtain.

Many tens of thousands of people lost their freedom and lost their lives. I've read many, many firsthand accounts of Christians in those countries who under the rule of an oppressive atheist government faced death, faced torture, faced imprisonment, etc. And I've often wondered, "Well, what would I do in similar circumstances?" That was kind of the historical backdrop of my life, some of the things that I was aware of and exposed to in terms of the religious persecution that many people have faced.

Bringing it more modern day, I continue to be involved with other people around the world who face similar levels of persecution. I have friends who, one of whom you've heard on the show in the past, my friend from Nigeria, I have friends who are involved in Nigeria and Kenya who come up day by day against persecution.

And it's generally religious persecution. I'm connected with Christians throughout the world who don't have enough food to eat on a weekly basis and who meet in fear of the local – they're in Nigeria, it's Boko Haram. And I'm in contact with people in Kenya who were forced off of their land.

They were forced off of their farm and sent off as refugees, a man and his wife and their children. And now they've gone on and adopted another dozen children who were made refugees by the war. And so these are circumstances that I'm actively involved in to a small degree around the world.

I read on a monthly basis Voices of the Martyr, Voice of the Martyr magazine, which is a Christian magazine where every month it talks about various places where Christians throughout the world are being martyred. So I'm personally very sensitive to religious persecution and it's very, very troubling. It's very, very troubling to see the things that are happening in Syria and just the persecution that's coming against so many people there and throughout the Middle East.

Now the challenge is that so little of that seems to translate over to our context. I've never personally been in fear of my life. I've never personally wondered if I was going to have to get on a plane tonight because my door has been spray-painted and if I'm not gone in 24 hours, I know they're coming back to kill me and my family.

I haven't faced that. Many people throughout the world face that. I haven't faced that. And so the context is a little bit different. I have personally thought a substantial amount about the context of being a refugee and refugee status, etc. Over the last few years, I've watched in the United States a very troubling trend toward increasing religious persecution in the United States.

It's very hard to even call it persecution in the context of what that word means on a global basis. On a global basis, the word persecution generally means you're going to be dead. In the US, it means you've got to face maybe a few angry people. You've got to face the loss of your business, the loss of your job, etc.

But I hold a vast array of very politically unpopular opinions and perspectives and I've watched systematically while people who believe things similar to me have faced the loss of their jobs, the loss of their businesses, have faced legal action, etc. It's very, very concerning. And so even for the last couple of years as I have transitioned to this more strangely public and vocal position of being a podcast host, I've had to seriously consider this.

I was expecting a Hillary Clinton presidency and deeply concerned about the ability to speak freely, deeply concerned about religious liberty, deeply concerned about those things and thus taking action and making sure that I had a backup plan in case I faced similar circumstances that many other people have faced.

So all that to say that – forgive me if that was too long of an introduction – that this is a question that I think carefully about. But it's also a question that you have to be very careful of not overblowing. It's very easy to become paranoid. It's very easy to look at – it's very easy to look at things and think, "Well, this is the only direction," and then all of a sudden circumstances change.

So to get on to the content, I just want to make you aware that we have to be very careful that we don't put ourselves into the situation that other people face. The situation of a Syrian refugee getting on an overcrowded boat, heading across the Mediterranean, seeking their life, to maintain their life, is very different than something – than somebody like me or perhaps you might face in the United States of America.

There's almost no comparison. But we all need to be aware of and paying attention to the things that can happen because things can change very quickly. Politics can change very quickly. Politicians can change very quickly. And if you're not paying attention to the circumstances around you, you might very quickly wind up in – well, difficult circumstances that possibly could have been avoided.

So let's talk through some practical situations that you can think of in terms of financial planning. And I want to first talk with kind of the most immediate, just some very simple planning and preparation that you can do for an immediate short-term scenario. And then we're going to transition to that real question that the listener asked, which was, "What if I were a refugee and I had to start all over again in a different country?" So the first kind of most difficult situation, practical situation, would be a detention.

Are you actually detained or are you not detained by border officials? This is the circumstance that drew such a hubbub these past few days here in the United States as there were – if my memory and understanding of the numbers is correct – just under 300 people who had found out mid-travel that they were no longer welcome into the United States of America.

And so these people were detained at an airport. And this is the worst situation that you can possibly be in. If you're actually detained, there is very little that you can do. And I faced this recently last month with a friend of mine who is an illegal immigrant to the United States of America and he was traveling.

He had traveled to Puerto Rico and he's from Venezuela, a refugee from Venezuela. But he was not – does not have legal refugee status, which is another place. If you want to look at refugees, look at what's happening in Venezuela and watch that carefully. So he's an illegal immigrant to the United States and because I speak Spanish, I wind up working with all kinds of illegal immigrants, which is so interesting.

It gives me a different perspective than many people. But he's an illegal immigrant and he was picked up in detention in Puerto Rico, randomly selected out of a line, checked his ID, checked his immigration, and he was arrested. They brought him to Miami, put him into a detention center and right before Christmas, I spent two days down in Miami working through the court process after he'd been in jail for a few weeks trying to get him freed from prison.

We were eventually able to actually get him released. It was quite a challenge. But this is the worst situation because if you are detained, you're not really going to have access to anything. Detention is prison. Detention is prison. And when you're crossing borders, you are at your most vulnerable.

If you've never gone and participated in an international border crossing, I encourage you. Please go and do it now so you can recognize how vulnerable you will be in that circumstance. I've experienced crossing – crossing over into Canada and I was traveling alone, traveling in a car, and I watched my entire car basically be taken apart.

Whatever reason, I flagged something and I went through a complete search, complete search of my person, complete search of all of my belongings, and I have – and then my entire car taken apart by immigration officials looking to see if I had any contraband. I was eventually allowed to go free.

And so it was not that bad. But still, it's a very vulnerable position to be in when you're crossing a border. Now, that was one of the easiest and simplest border crossings staffed by professional border agents who take their job seriously, try to do it in a straightforward way, are generally not seeking to enrich themselves at the cost of the traveler.

Crossing from the United States to Canada, simple, relatively easy border crossing. Probably one of the most difficult that I crossed was when I was traveling on a bus from the Dominican Republic to Haiti. I was with my wife and this bus crossing is – if you've ever been to Haiti, just picture in your mind maybe perhaps a movie that you may have seen with dirt roads and a border staffed with people and touts everywhere and vendors and big trucks and it's just a nightmare.

And in that situation, you are trying to cross over a very disorganized border in a language that you don't speak and you're entirely at the mercy of the border agents. It's a very humbling experience. So if you are actually detained, there's very little that you can do. All of your stuff is going to be taken away and you're not going to have access to anything there that's going to help you.

So what would be a couple things for you to plan and prepare for in advance? Well, number one, don't have anything incriminating that might cause you problems. Don't have anything in your baggage that would lead to suspicious investigation. Don't have anything incriminating on your person. Don't have anything incriminating on your device, especially information.

If you're crossing over and you're crossing a border where you're concerned about certain things, you should have nothing on any device or computer that's not encrypted. Something as simple as having all of your data password protected with hard passwords, having two-stage security logins, if appropriate, and having all of your data encrypted would be very important, very simple planning things that you can do.

Now, what will actually help you in a circumstance like that? Well, first is just simply your social network. That was how I wound up working with my friend who was detained. If he hadn't had me and other people in his social network, it would have been much, much more difficult.

I spent time sitting there in immigration court watching the cases come through. And if you have somebody in your actual network, somebody who can help you with lawyer fees, et cetera, you stand a chance. If not, it's very, very difficult. So if you're in a situation like that, contact with somebody outside would be a big deal.

And you can look at the news coverage of the last few days and see that. If you're a famous person or you have the ability to make a couple of phone calls and you can get somebody to come down and start working on your release, that's going to be much more useful if you can apply some political pressure to the border detention officials than if you're just an unknown somebody.

So having contact and the means of contacting somebody outside will be very valuable. So one thing that's very practical is make sure that you can – you have a few phone numbers that you know off the top of your head. Yes, you may – you'll probably if you're in many contexts, you'll be given the opportunity to make a phone call or establish contact with somebody outside of the immigration area.

If that is – if that opportunity is given to you, you'll need to be able to have the knowledge of contacting somebody. And if all the money is – if all the info is stored in your smartphone, which perhaps you haven't wanted to unlock for the border official to go through or if perhaps you are not given access to it, you need to have the simple ability to get in contact with somebody.

So commit to memory a few important phone numbers. Also in this circumstance, having money that's accessible will make a big difference. With my friend who I recently went through this process with, it was coming down to having enough money to post bail – or bond, excuse me, post bond and to bond out of jail.

So in his case, it wasn't a violent arrest. The judge very kindly set a reasonable bond and he could bond out of prison. When he's in prison, he's not permitted access to anything. He's not permitted access to the computer. He's not permitted access to his cell phone. He's not permitted access to anything.

The only thing that he has access to is the ability to make a phone call using the recorded prison system to people in his network. Well, it's really challenging because what happens is if you're in prison for a few weeks, it's very hard for you to keep your business going.

It's very hard for you to be able to keep your customers happy. So having the money to be able to make bond is a big deal. And having the money set aside or having somebody with money or having access to credit so you can come up with money, that's the only way you're going to get out of prison.

And you're going to have a lot easier time fixing your problems if you're outside, if you're out of prison than if you're in prison. So with his circumstance being an immigrant, he was able to come up with the bond money through the use of loans within his social network.

He was able to come up with the bond money and he was able to go ahead and get out. Once he's out, he can work on the problem and he can start to fix the problem. He can apply for refugee status. He can figure out how to keep his income going, et cetera.

But all of that can only be done out. So money is valuable. Having liquid money is valuable. And I'm going to harp on this throughout the show. I harp on this constantly not only in this show but in past shows that having access to liquid cash is a big deal for emergency planning.

Having contacts with a lawyer, knowing some people who are in the legal business. I don't know that you should necessarily go out and run out and find them immediately. But having the ability to call a few friends who are lawyers and say, "Hey, listen. I'm in" – in the case of my friend, "I'm in jail in Miami, Florida.

I need an immigration lawyer, somebody who's good. Who do you recommend?" Being able to get in through that way and getting a recommendation to somebody good is very important. And then a network of people who would actually be willing to support you is valuable. So a network of people who could bring pressure if necessary.

If you're detained in a foreign country and you can bring political pressure on that foreign country is a big, big deal. Notice how in the recent coverage of immigration coverage of so-and-so is an important scientist or such-and-such has this important human interest story. They're an innocent person. This pressure is very helpful for getting the wheels of government to move.

It could be come down to something as simple as making sure that somebody else could do something like harness the power of your social media presence. And this is something I realized as I was thinking it through myself. I'm the only one with access to my social media presence.

And so it's – and I have it very well locked down as secure as I know how to make it so that I don't get hacked and scammed. Well, in that circumstance, if I'm in prison, my computers are all shut down. There's no access to that. My phone is shut down, etc.

How would my wife, if she needed to reach out and contact people within my social sphere or use something like my Facebook profile to update people, how would she have access to that? I realized it was a hole in my own thoughts. I need to fix that hole. So making sure that perhaps somebody else has access to it.

So that's the first scenario. If you are actually detained, there's very little that you can do until you're out of detention. So try not to get detained. If you are detained, try to make sure that you have nothing incriminating, nothing that's going to solve – cause problems for you until you get out because you're not really going to be able to do anything until you get out.

Now, similarly, what if you are affected by something but you're not actually detained? You're just a fellow traveler and there's detention going on. There's protests, etc. Just a couple of simple tips. This often happens when people are traveling and when there are problems. If you see police action, if you see protests, etc.

Often if you are in a situation where you're a refugee or if you're around people who are refugees, you're going to face problems even if you're not personally detained. And your number one goal is don't be detained and keep your physical safety as – keep yourself physically safe. So what should you do?

Get away from the crowds. If you were a traveler at an airport where there were protests this past weekend and you saw that, your first question should be how do I get away? Nothing but trouble comes when you are associating or near mobs of people. Nothing but trouble comes from being anywhere near protests, crowds, etc.

Now, if there's a circumstance where you feel, "Hey, I need to go and attend this protest or something for a reason," be very, very careful and make sure that you always have a plan to get out quickly. If you're in a situation, especially if you're in a foreign country where you don't know, pay attention to local intelligence.

Pay attention to the things that you hear. There is almost always – for those who are veteran travelers, there's almost always advance notice of what's going on on the ground. What you learn if you ever get outside of the United States and go to places that aren't – I don't know, the UK, places where you're very comfortable in being, you learn to pay attention to the information locally and you learn to talk to people.

You've got to talk to strangers. Strangers and local and fellow travelers, they will let you know where to go and where not to go. They'll let you know that with the local news networks, meaning news informally, the informal grapevine, not referring to television, radio stations, etc., although those obviously could be a source of local intelligence.

People will let you know what to do. This has happened to me on a couple of occasions where I've been in cities where I think, "Oh, OK. It will be no problem to get a hotel," and all of a sudden somebody says, "Where are you going? Wait a second.

That's not quite the best circumstance. Let me help you." This happened – I described a moment ago my situation in Haiti when we crossed over the border. Well, my wife and I met somebody on the bus and we started to describe our travel plans and this person quickly became concerned with what we were planning to do and said, "Listen.

That's not a good plan. Let me help you." And so they gave us a ride to a different hotel than where we planned to stay and made sure that we were safely settled into the place where we were to be before they went on their way. That was very, very helpful.

So if you're in a situation where you're coming up against crowds, crowds of protests, make an alternative travel plan and move quickly. Move quickly. One little travel or tip for you is when you're traveling, try to always carry enough currency, cash, dollar bills, $20 bills, etc. with you to get home through some other method.

If you find that there's a protest at the airport and you're not going to be able to do that, go rent a car. Rent a car and drive home or go get a bus ticket. Go get a train ticket. If you wind up someplace and all of a sudden you see that things are going to go bad and they're shutting things down, move quickly.

Buy yourself an alternative ticket on another airline and figure out a different way to get home or to get to a safer destination. The best way to avoid trouble is to avoid trouble. So try to always move. Try to always leave. Very, very important. Things can happen in a moment.

During 9/11, it was probably the best most recent example where most of us will remember. My father was traveling on 9/11 and I think he was in Texas. Airplanes were grounded. He was in Texas, couldn't get home. Stayed a night to figure out if things would change and then pretty quickly went ahead and rented a car and drove home, sharing the car with somebody else.

The problem is that if you wait too long when you're in a situation like that, if it's a terrorist attack, an act of war, whatever is going on, if you wait too long, you'll have a lot of competition for the supplies and resources that are available. You go to rent a car but everyone else had that idea so all the car rentals are gone.

But if you'd moved quickly, you would have been able to get in there quickly. And it's the same in every single disaster situation that I have ever observed. Whether it's a hurricane, if you go early, you get your gas before the lines get long or a winter snowstorm, if you go and get your groceries before and you should have been laying in your groceries during the summer before.

Move quickly and go early. And just always ask yourself what's the worst that could happen. If you move quickly and you rent the car and you drive, well, you're going to get home and it's going to cost you a day. But if you don't go quickly and you get stuck and now all of a sudden you're in a place that's physically unsafe, people are protesting and they're rioting and the riots turn violent.

And all of a sudden you have the clash where the state police come in and now there's violence on all sides. It's not worth it. Get out. So make an alternative travel plan. Move quickly. Always try to carry enough cash with you to get home with some other method.

Other things that would help you if you're in this situation, you're not detained, having your luggage with you. A simple rule that I personally try to practice is based upon an old saying. I don't know who to attribute it to but I've said it for years. There are two types of luggage, carry on and lost.

Now, obviously, there are times in which you need to check baggage. Obviously, there are times in which that's helpful. But if you can travel light, do so. If you can't and where you can just go carry on, do so. So you always have your baggage with you. When your plane starts getting rerouted, when you wind up overnight in the airport, it's nice to have all of your luggage with you because that eliminates one of the impediments to your being able to get in a rental car and go.

If you're worried about your suitcase which is checked and you say, "Well, I'll just wait a little bit longer," you might be too long in one place where it's dangerous. Get the car and go. Having all of your luggage with you is very, very valuable. If you can't have all of your luggage with you, make sure that you have thoughtfully put the most important items into your hand luggage.

And don't let yourself get separated from your hand luggage. Make sure that whatever you're going to need in terms of your equipment is with you in your hand luggage. You don't generally need a lot of clothing with you if you're traveling. Maybe an extra pair of socks, an extra pair of underwear, and a long-sleeved shirt or a light jacket would all be all you need.

But things like your cell phone charger or water bottles or water filtration bottles or water purifying kits or having some useful little tools with you, notebook, snacks, a book to read to pass the time, the cord for your laptop, all of these things had better be with you in your hand luggage.

So make sure that you're prepared. Make sure that you have as much as you can with you. And that way, you should have a modular packing system so you know what you have and you always have the most important things with you. If you need to separate by always packing with modules, which is how I kind of approach it and what happens to me sometimes, I have a small second suitcase.

Well, you get on an airplane and the overhead bins are full. Problem is they take your bag from you and they check it through to your destination. So you got to be able to say, "OK, what do I need?" Grab it out. Grab the module out and make sure that you have things with you.

Very important. There are a lot of useful items that you can take with you even through airports and even when flying, things that are very, very valuable in a worst-case scenario, extra batteries for your items. I mean there are so many things that could go through. Best thing to do is in this world, go online and start searching around the survivalist websites for what they include and what they term bug-out bags or 72-hour bags and look for airport bug-out bags.

You can find all kinds of things that you can keep with you that are going to be very useful. But remember, think ahead and plan ahead. Now, let's talk about the actual scenario of being a refugee, not just traveling, not actually being detained, but you've got to go. For some reason, you've got to go.

What are the most useful things to have with you? If you were getting out of Syria, as you may have heard, what you'd really want in that circumstance is a – you'd want a well-prepared survivalist bug-out bag. You'd want all of the comfort items that the survivalists talk about when they're preparing a bag.

You want one of those for each member of the family. But there are a few things that you can do that will be the most useful aspects. All of that stuff is valuable. Here we have to recognize our own affluence and recognize the fact that the situation that somebody who is a Syrian escapee refugee faces is very different than what you and I face.

There's no excuse for you and I not to be prepared to go in 10 minutes' notice and have things that are going to make us comfortable. But what are the few items that will make the difference to be able to get out and to get out safely? There's just a few.

Application of the 80/20 Pareto principle. What are the 20 percent of items that will give you 80 percent of the way there? Number one, passports. Make sure that at all times you have updated passports for your entire family. If you are a US American citizen and you don't have a passport, which many of us don't, get one.

You should get one if you're a citizen of other countries. But the problem with US Americans is because the United States is so large, very few people find themselves in a situation where they need to go abroad, where they want to go abroad. Many people will take a vacation to a neighboring state and it's a very different experience from one state to the next sometimes.

So many US Americans neglect to even bother to get a passport. But you've got to have a passport to get out of your country. You're not always going to want to leave the country. Generally, your home country is going to be where you have the most connections, the most contacts, et cetera.

But sometimes you do. Sometimes you do need to. And depending on the context, if you're a US American, if something is facing you that involves the US government, one of your best things will be to get out of the country. But you can't do that easily if you don't have a passport.

If you have a passport, you can call up an airline. You can book an airplane ticket. You can book a plane ticket. I'm sorry. You're playing the same thing. You can book a boat ticket. You can book a train ticket. You can book a bus ticket. But all of those things require a passport.

You can be out of the country in a few hours if you have a passport. But if you don't have a passport, now all of a sudden you're trying to figure out how do I get out of my country if I don't have a passport. So don't let something so simple and so relatively inexpensive catch you unaware.

Make sure that you have current up-to-date passports for you and each member of your family. Then you can get out. There are always options to get out. I live here in Florida. I could get to the Canadian border if I were going to go to the Canadian border in about a 20-hour road driving trip.

That's really far. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not that far. Most of us have cars. Most of us have the ability. If you were going to talk to a Syrian refugee and he said you had the ability in one day to be out of the country that's causing you so many problems with your car, they would think that's the best thing in the world.

They don't have cars. That's why they're walking. That's why they're getting on buses. That's why they're getting on boats. You and I have cars. It's not that difficult to make sure that you have enough fuel to get you up across the border. You watch this happen during every single major storm.

People try to get away. They don't have enough fuel and they get stuck on the road. There's no reason for this to happen. So many of you are closer to a border, closer to the Canadian border. I can get to the Mexican border in about the same amount of time.

It's about 21 hours or so from me. Now, I'm probably not going to go to Mexico. I'd probably rather go to Canada for obvious reasons. But that's an option. If there are problems in Canada, I'm going to Mexico. I can get on an airplane. I can get in any country in Central America in a few hours.

If worse comes to worse and I need to get on a boat, I can be in the Bahamas in a day or less if the seas are good. So these things are private plane. I can be in the Bahamas in a couple hours. If I've got passports, all those things are easy.

If I don't have passports, none of those are options. Now, let me move on quickly. Another thing that you can do is in the United States is you can purchase not only a passport but you can purchase a passport card. If you're thinking of a worst-case scenario that you might become a refugee, this is well worth considering.

It costs a little bit of extra money. But the passport card will give you land entry across a border, across the Canadian border, across the Mexican border as well. It won't get you entry using air travel but it will get you entry by land travel. So if you're out of circumstance, one good way to plan would be to have both of these items and have yourself in a situation where if one of them gets lost or one of them gets stolen, then you have the other item in a different – the other card in a different circumstance.

Forgive me. I'm getting tongue-tied because I'm trying to go quicker. In a different place. You can purchase a second U.S. passport if you go through that application process if you have need for one. Or if you have the money and the inclination, you can go ahead and set up a second passport and citizenship with a second country.

That is much more difficult and it takes much more time and just generally a lot more money. But there are a number of countries that you could establish a second citizenship in if you're willing to devote the money. Don't start there. But if you have substantial assets, I think that's a very prudent planning mechanism.

As with everything, we have to apply a lens of scale to our activities and recognize that with a passport, just getting a passport for you and your family, a few hundred dollars depending on how many people in your family, you can solve most of your problems. Next, big thing that solves all the problems.

Have enough money easily accessible to you to cover travel expenses. When you're traveling or when you're a refugee, money solves problems. Money solves problems. Remember that. Money solves problems. If you have money, there are very few problems that you can't solve. If you don't have money, there are all kinds of problems that you face.

People quickly say, "Well, what if the money is worthless?" This is a very extreme scenario that almost nobody is likely to face. People quickly say, "Well, I need to have the stuff because I can't have money." Listen, the potential of your currency not being valuable is so remote that it should be very low on your planning list.

You should make sure that you have money and you can get your hand on money. It's a big deal. So, a couple ways. Number one, as always, cash, currency, making sure you have greenbacks if you're in the United States or whatever color your money is. Currency is a big deal.

Credit cards, give access to lines of money. One thing that's very valuable is if you have multiple credit cards and you're traveling, make sure that you distribute some backup cards in case your luggage gets stolen, in case your wallet gets stolen, in case you get roughed up. If you're a refugee and you're dealing with a non-peaceful situation, theft is common.

So, secret an extra credit card away in a place where if your primary possessions get taken from you that you still have options. Don't keep all your cash together. Which leads me to the next one. Pre-position money abroad at least enough to live on for a couple of years if possible.

Obviously, to somebody who's listening who doesn't have a substantial amount of money, obviously to a refugee fleeing with nothing but the clothes on their back from Syria, this advice is not particularly helpful. But many of you do have enough money. Many of you have plenty of money, more than you would need.

If you're concerned about this, if you're concerned about political persecution, if you're concerned about religious persecution, etc., put yourself in a position to where you have assets stored abroad. This is very, very simple. All you need to do is go and open a foreign bank account. For US American citizens, the obvious simple way to do this and the simple place to do this is Canada.

You can drive to Canada, fly to Canada, stroke a check, and open a Canadian bank account. Now you'll be dealing with a very stable government, very stable monetary system, and you'll have the ability to keep money in a bank abroad. And it's very, very simple. Yes, you will need to file a form indicating that you have a foreign bank account, but this is not a big deal to do.

This is very simple. Now why is this important? The reason it's important is because it's hard to get money across international borders. Remember, anytime you cross an international border, you're going to be asked about the money and the currency that you have to declare. And anything north of $10,000 has to be declared legally.

If you don't declare it, you wind yourself up causing unnecessary problems for yourself. Now think about the prospect of traveling with only $10,000 of currency to another country, the worry of having the $10,000 taken from you, especially if you're in a place where the border guards will rough you up, where the border guards will take your stuff, which is not uncommon throughout the world.

Think about that versus knowing that you've got $30,000 tucked aside in a foreign bank account, enough to live on for a year, a couple years. You'll be much more confident and relaxed if you know you have a foreign bank account. Depending on the level of your wealth, you may consider establishing multiple foreign bank accounts in multiple foreign countries.

You need to look at your situation, look at the country that you're living in, look at what options are available to you for banking, and then decide where and how to open up a foreign bank account. You are not going to get a super private, super secret Swiss bank account.

That's not the point. You can't get as an American resident. You can't even get those anymore. As a U.S. citizen, if you are one, you are persona non grata to the rest of the world. But we're not trying to have secrecy here. We're trying to have options. If you need to have secrecy, it's probably because you're involved in something that's illegal.

Now, no problem. Something that you're doing now, which is totally fine and moral and upright and legal, could quickly become declared illegal. And so if you're concerned about that, it's good to plan for that. But let's start with the easy things. Opening a foreign bank account is simple. Look at the countries that are near you and choose an option.

Relatively easy. You may consider going ahead and establishing a physical safe deposit box if you feel that's necessary and appropriate. So it would be very simple. For example, many of you in the United States live near the Canadian border. It's very simple for you to go ahead and establish a Canadian bank account and a Canadian safe deposit box.

And then let's say that something is going on and you've got to get out of the country. You've got to flee as a refugee in maybe 6, 10, 24 hours. I guess at the maximum, just over 24 hours. If you're in the very south of the United States, down in Brownsville, Texas, to cross the Canadian border, you're looking about 25, 27 hours, something like that.

So in about a day of solid driving, you can be across the border. You can be across the border with a Canadian bank account and a safe deposit box with some currency in it. That will set you up. That will get you started. If you just do these few things, passports, currency, and preposition some money abroad, if you became a refugee, you would be having a much easier time of it than any of your other fellow refugees.

A couple of other obvious things that are important. Documents. One of the biggest problems that refugees face is documentation. How do you prove who you are? If you're in a war zone or if your house gets burned down, et cetera, think of if your house got burned down right now.

Right now. And every one of your important papers were burned. Birth certificate, social security cards, death certificates, all of these things were burned. What kind of situation would you face? It would be really tough. Now, you can get all these things replaced, but it's not easy. Especially it's not easy if you're in a foreign country.

So, one simple thing is digitize your documents, encrypt them, and have them ready to go with you on a USB stick, an SD card, saved, encrypted, and also have a backup copy in an external location. If you had a Canadian safe deposit box, it would be a really good idea for you to go ahead and put into that safe deposit box an encrypted USB drive with all of your documents on it.

Account numbers, things like that so that you can keep going. If you had to flee as a refugee and you weren't able to bring your computer with you, you weren't able to bring your passwords with you, you weren't able to bring any of those things with you, you just had to go, would you be able to start again?

And then also methods of communication. These are the big ones. Methods of communication, having them established in advance. Facebook is the most important method of communication for the fleeing Syrian refugees right now. What they do is they all communicate on Facebook and they set up Facebook groups, private Facebook groups.

And at every stage, while they're making the trek across Europe, at every stage, the refugees are communicating with another and they're getting local information, local intelligence. This is a big deal. So something like having access to a digital device, perhaps a second digital device, a backup plan, or having the cash to go ahead and buy one, it's a big deal so that you can communicate with others.

At the end of the show, I'll give you some ideas for how to do that if you need to do it a little bit more surreptitiously. But having Facebook set up is a big deal. Setting up some of the other communication apps for you and your family, a couple ones that I find really useful.

Skype, of course, is useful. It's useful on a computer. There's a voice chatting app which does a great job called Zello. Z-E-L-L-O. We use that sometimes in my family if we want to have a group chat. It works like a radio system where everybody can just dial in from their phone and it gives a nice group chatting experience.

It does a great job. Other apps, having access to email that you can access on the road. Going ahead and if you're in a refugee situation, making sure that all of your email is encrypted so you're not making things easier for the government authorities than necessary. There are a number of encrypted chat apps that you can go ahead and set up on your phone in advance.

There's one called Wicker Me, W-I-C-K-E-R, Wicker Me, which is very secure. It's an encrypted chat app that you can use now to chat with anybody else. Another one that's very useful if you are in a refugee system is one called Fire Chat. Fire Chat will allow you to use your phone with Fire Chat installed and it creates it as a kind of a mesh network where it will communicate device to device.

But then it also allows your phone to reach out and to communicate to other people using an internet node or using somebody else's phone. It can work without the existence of a cell phone network. So if you had a phone but you didn't have a proper SIM card for how to connect to it, you can use Fire Chat to be able to communicate with your family, with your loved ones, etc.

Encrypted, doesn't require cell phone service on your phone, very, very useful, Fire Chat. There are lots of other aspects of planning that you can make and you can go as kind of secret commando as you want with this. You can set it up so that if you are a refugee, you're going to meet your family at this time and this place, etc.

I think that's all great. I think it's easy. If the commando like CIA super secret agent stuff, one thing that's really – it sounds a little crazy. What happens is a lot of people get interested in it and it makes you feel cool. So go ahead and do it.

But setting up communication methodology in advance. With these few things, communication methods, documents established, enough money in your pocket and pre-positioned and passports for your family, you will be more well off than the vast majority of other refugees. If you add to that some simple practical tools of ways to charge your phones, food, snacks, water, etc., traveling, all of the stuff about, "Hey, how do I go and be able to live out of a backpack for a few days without needing to resupply?" If you add a backpack for you and your family members, enough to get you up across the border, you're going to be very well prepared as a refugee and you're going to be doing much better.

So now as we transition to the end here, what would you do in order to set up a new life? What would you do if you had to get out and start afresh? Here we're talking about in some ways the worst-case scenario. It's not the worst case because you're actually out.

You're free. And there are many people who have found themselves in prison for decades by a government that thought that they were traitors, a government that thought that they – an opposition party government. And governments can change so quickly. Those of us who live in relatively stable Western societies, we are very fortunate to live under stable governments.

Much of the world doesn't have that luxury. We're seeing the erosion of that. We're seeing the backlash that comes when you have a violent change of political party and how quickly things can change. So what would you need to set up a new life, assuming you're out of prison?

Number one, you want your family with you. That's why this stuff is so important. That's why this type of planning can be very valuable to you. Yes, you might be able to get out at the last minute. But can you get you and your whole family out? At the last minute.

If the helicopters are filling up, is there space for all of you on the helicopter? Well, if you waited to the last minute, you didn't have any plans, you didn't have anything in advance, there might not be. So you want to have your family with you. With your family at your side, you'll have the emotional fortitude to be able to start again.

Throughout history, there have been so many people who've had to leave it all and start fresh. Just study the history of the Jews. The Jews have been so persecuted throughout history. And they've almost constantly had to go, new city, new place, start again. That's one of the reasons why Jews have become so good at managing money.

Because instead of needing a lot of bulky tools to set up a business, they're able to carry money. It's also why Jews are well-known for their experience in certain industries, such as jewels or such as tailors. A tailor, somebody who's going with the tools, which is going to be my next thing on the list, the knowledge and the tools.

If a tailor has to go, he can pack the basic tools of his trade in a small bag and he can flee. That's very different than somebody in a different trade who has to go and has a whole workshop full of tools. So if you want to study what has had to be done, just study the Jews.

The Jews have been persecuted by the Christians. Jews have been persecuted by the Muslims. The Jews have faced more persecution than any other ethnic or religious group that I'm aware of in the history of the world. So study what they have done and then that can give you some ideas that you need to inform how would you do it.

So your family at your side, the knowledge of a skill or trade or business that is useful and the tools of that trade. Whatever that means to you, do you have an area of knowledge and you have the tools of a trade where you could go and go across the border and start again?

And then finally, money. Money that's positioned there and that's taken with you. Now of course here we could get very kind of super secret commando in terms of how do you transfer a lot of cash across a border. Generally I think it's very dangerous. You don't want to transfer cash across a border.

You are at your most exposed when you're crossing a border. There is nothing you can do if you're detained. And there's nothing that you can hide if you're detained. The idea that somehow you can hide your stash of gold coins, if you're a serious prisoner, there's no way. Your baggage will be searched.

Your clothing will be searched. Your bags will be taken apart. Every lining pulled out. You'll be x-rayed in case there's something hidden inside of you. You can't hide anything with a thorough enough search. Of course many times refugees don't face that type of search. If you're an actual refugee, you're probably fleeing with a number of other people.

You're trying to flee in an inconspicuous way. So yes, of course you can carry wealth with you. So in this circumstance, the most compact form of wealth that I know of that's physical symbols of wealth would be gold coins. You can hide a bunch of gold coins relatively easily.

A tenth ounce American gold eagle is – is it smaller than a dime? It's about the size of a dime. A one ounce gold American eagle is heavy but it's like a big quarter. It's like a big, thick, fat, heavy quarter. And so yes, you could sew a belt with a bunch of coins in it.

You can hide that on the lining of your clothing, et cetera. And that's what many people have done. I think if you are getting to this level of planning and you're concerned, you're living in a part of the world where this is really relevant or you're really concerned, I think your best approach here would be to purchase currency such as gold eagles from the American government or maple leaves, et cetera.

Things that are very quickly certified as being authentic rather than silver rounds or gold rounds from an independent mint. I think in this case you want to have something that is easily recognizable. A South African krugerrand or a Canadian maple leaf is very simple to convert into the local currency in any pawn shop or similar type of establishment in any country in the world.

So if you're worried about having money to flee with, I'd much rather have coins, gold coins, than I would – I don't know, a bracelet or necklaces, things like that. I certainly would be very slow to think about jewels unless you are an actual jeweler and you have a pocket full of diamonds.

Certainly, it would be a very compact form of wealth. But for most people, how would you make sure that you're getting an actual price for it, a proper price? So in the type of refugee scenario that we're talking about, I think you'd be much better served with gold coins.

But you don't want to run that risk. That's bad planning because you would be so vulnerable in that situation trying to cross a border, detained in an airport, detained at a land border crossing somewhere. This is the most vulnerable place to be. And so if at all possible, you want to have the money prepositioned abroad.

One of the ideas that came up during the transfer was – during the conversation in the Facebook group was cryptocurrency. Is there a place for cryptocurrency? I think that makes sense. I think there's a good possibility for that. With cryptocurrencies, you can establish an account. You can have your login, your verification information that only you know.

It can be very safe and a good way to store money. Absolutely. I'm more nervous than many people are. I would be – I'd much rather have a Canadian bank account than cryptocurrency myself at this point. But I think increasingly that will have value with you. When you especially compare some of the benefits of cryptocurrencies as the marketplace of suppliers continues to grow and as the ability to do transactions mobily continues to grow, then I think that is very, very useful.

However, big caveat here. The best way to not become a refugee in need is to not become a refugee. I want to make sure to emphasize this. As with most things, the earlier you can move, the better. You can usually see problems coming. If you see a problem coming for you, get out quickly.

Get out early. Worst-case scenario, you're wrong, which case you lost a couple weeks or a couple months or something. But better to be – what's the saying go? Better to be a few days early than a minute late. Make sure that you've thought this through in advance. Put your plans in place so that you can get out.

As I close today's show, I just want to also comment on solutions. One of the best things that you might be able to do if you're in a situation where you're concerned about becoming a refugee is do something in advance to help forestall the problem. Meaning change the circumstances that are going to lead to refugee status.

Not always possible, but you should be thinking about that. Usually, that's going to come down to information. So can you get information out of an area that's under target, that's under attack? It's something that very few people do. Most of us, our information is just all out there. None of it's protected and we don't have any backup plan.

If our phone goes down, we're doomed. But recognize the power that you have to create information. That's why I encourage many of you – that's one reason why I encourage many of you to start practicing now in case you're ever in a situation. Make sure that you have ways to take pictures, to film, to do a video and ways to get those videos out.

I'll link to a good website called witness.org. They're very active as far as activism around the world, helping people to film human rights violations and atrocities that are happening locally and to get the information out. There's lots of training and resources there on how to create compelling video for local problems, et cetera.

It's very good, witness.org. But there are all kinds of things. But you have to learn and practice these things now. You want to go ahead and be thinking about it now. If you were worried about Donald Trump becoming president, the time to prepare for Donald Trump to become president was during a President Obama administration.

Now, I was concerned about Hillary Clinton becoming president. Also concerned about aspects of Donald Trump. But if you are rejoicing in the fact that President Trump is president, recognize this. Seems to be how politics often functions. And I see some underlying currents that are very worrying. So, if you are not paying attention and whatever your local leader as well, if you're outside of the United States, now's the time to prepare.

So, now's the time to go ahead. If you're getting information out, make sure that you go ahead and set up a backup server for your website or go ahead and use an offshore server. Make sure that you're learning how to use encrypted email now. Make sure that you're learning how to use secure computers now.

Might be a good idea to go ahead and make sure that you have some backup cell phones that aren't connected to you. One very useful thing, you might purchase a satellite phone. Not all that expensive to have right now, but if you're concerned about information security, satellite phone could be a good thing to do if you're in the information publishing business.

Or at least have some simple cheap prepaid burner phones. You might want to make sure that you've paid attention of how to get signals out, having a backup computer, having a, you know, you can buy a long-range USB wireless antenna to use so that you can access a public Wi-Fi network, etc.

To be able to post information if you are being targeted for your political views. You might want to make sure that you have thought ahead and planned for contacts and other people that can support you. Again, I don't want you to become a refugee. All you need to do is turn on the news, go on YouTube, it's a good place, and look at what many of the refugees around the world face.

And you can't help them if you are in the same circumstance. So as always, very important place to start. Start by making sure that you don't become a refugee. Start by making sure that you're prepared for you. Hope it was fun. It was kind of dark today. But hey, it's a timely topic, right?

I think by thinking about a lot of these things, you can avoid it and hopefully it's all unnecessary. Whole point of good planning, disaster planning, preparedness planning is you think it through and then you recognize, hey, I'm prepared for it. I got a plan and no big deal. I can move on.

I don't have to stress and freak out about it anymore. But pay attention to the news. Pay attention to what's going on. And then make plans for the type of situations that you see. I realize that my intro and outro are incompatible and hypocritical. I said at the beginning that hopefully you're paying attention to your own business and not worrying too much about the news.

And then I said I just had to pay attention to the news, so forgive me. I think there's a proper balance of awareness that's valuable, being informed that's valuable, but also recognizing that you got to focus on what you can actually affect. That's the point that I'm driving at.

Thank you for listening to today's show. If you have questions on today's show, come on by the show and comment. I hope that these things are practical. I hope it's a rational way to look at it and that the ideas are useful. Again, when you come to planning like this, remember 20% of the things are going to get you 80% of the results.

Don't get bogged down into thinking the world is ending. I have to have all of these things. But recognize that if you are a member of a targeted class, and most of us are by somebody, whether it's based upon your religion, your political ideology, etc., it's very simple and very easy that you could be targeted.

It could happen locally. It could happen largely. A lot of the things that concern me deeply do not have to do with, at least in the United States, do not have to do with necessarily the actions of the government. What has me deeply concerned is the actions of the social media crowd, how quickly your life can be destroyed.

That deeply concerns me, and I think it should you as well, especially if you do something silly like air all your opinions in public like I do, and then it exposes you to significant danger. But, hey, thank you for listening. If you'd like to support the show, please become a patron, radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron.

Thank you to those of you who do that, radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron. I'll be back with you tomorrow.