Happy Wednesday, Wise Owl Nation!

Every week I think about what would be the most relevant and impactful topic to go over, and the concept of long term thinking and preparing for the worst has been burning in the back of my mind.

So this week that is what I want to start to explore with you.

The last 50-80 years or so have been a relative golden age for humanity on average.

The world wars and global pandemics were a thing of the past.

Violence on a global scale was on a dramatic decline and the western world was getting fat off of cheap money and a never-ending financial bull market.

Then Covid-19 broke out of the Wuhan district in China, swept the world, and caught global leaders with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar.

Some countries were prepared for this, and some countries were very unprepared.

I look for wisdom in all things and the last six months has been one of the most eye-opening calls to action I've ever heard of.

We need to be better about preparation. We need to start thinking longer term. We need to learn from our own mistakes as well as from the mistakes made by others.

Let's get into it.

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Quote of the week:

Wisdom Tip of the Week: A system of value exchange

This section this week is all about the mindset of preparation and long term thinking.

This is how I think about preparation and what I do to try to cover my basis.

It starts with creating a system and a network of value exchange.

When shit hits the fan humans always do best when they have a community give and receive value to/from.

So this is what I am doing right now.

1) You can't be good at everything, so build relationships with people that have skills you don't.

This is serious! Know a guy or gal that has skills in areas you don't. Offer a skill trade with them if you want.

A few great friends to have:

• An entrepreneur friend that is good at creating value for others and getting paid for it
• A builder friend - someone that can build or fix things. This could be a carpenter or a mechanic.
• A lawyer friend
• A medical friend - this could be a nurse, doctor, physicians assistant, etc.
• A finance friend - Someone that knows how to preserve and grow money once they have it
• A crypto friend - Someone that knows the world of crypto. How it works and how to navigate that landscape safely.

2) Build as many skills as you can, so you can be someone else's expert.

I can't tell you how many people have reached out to me regarding crypto, because they are starting to get the feeling that the freedom and financial potential of Crypto is paramount to their futures.

Five things I am learning right now:

• Everything about the future of Crypto. This is an area I want to stay a subject-matter-expert, so I can help friends and family.
• How to grow food in my backyard
• How to cook with any ingredients
• How to play profitable online poker (mainly for something fun to do that could pay off later)
• All about streaming and making YouTube videos (more content!)

I'm trying to increase my skillet, so I always have some skills that can provide for myself and for my family.

What are you going to start learning? Let me know! Let's share resources.

Health Preparedness Tip of the Week: Strengthen your mind and body

This feels like common sense, but to prepare for the worst that life can throw at you, the most important thing you can do is build a strong mental and physical foundation. This means you need to put in the work every single day to strengthen and improve your body and mind.

We just covered the importance of planning, relationship building, and learning. All of these areas get much easier with a strong mind and body.

For your reading convenience I put together two quick fire checklists you can start doing every day.

Do this checklist every day for a month. You'll be an evolved version of you after those thirty days.

Strengthen your mind:

• Go a day without complaining. Then try to do it again.
• Limit social media. You really don't care about those enraged political posts anyway.
• Relax your eyebrows (seriously)
• Spend a few minutes each day breathing slowly. Six second inhales followed by six second exhales. Breath through your nose while doing this
• Do at least one thing that sucks each day. This will built up a tolerance for doing things that suck.
• Do something fun

Strengthen your body:

• Exercise in some form every day to start hardening your body and get it used to movement. This could be as simple as going for a ten-minute walk in the morning.
• Drink at least a liter of water (2 water bottles). Drink two liters if you want to be a real badass.
• Sleep eight hours at night.
• Take a 10-minute nap with your legs raised above your heart to recharge during the day.
• Learn how to stretch your body - I recommend starting with the five Tibetan rites. Stretch every day.

Do this for a month. Your world will dramatically change.

Wealth Preparedness Tip of the Week: Save, hedge, and cover your Ass

The United States has a Presidential election coming in less than 90 days.

The most divisive President in recent history is up for reelection in a time of global pandemic and economic turmoil. Regardless of who wins the election on November, something is going to happen to the Stock Market.

The markets might rally and go up, but they are due to go down.

Since Covid-19 started we haven't seen the markets go down much because of how much money the government is printing.

This can't last forever. The US Dollar will either hyper inflate or the stock market has to go down. At some point owning a $3,000 Tesla stock becomes worthless when you have to spend $300 on a gallon of milk.

The following is a list of what I am doing right now, and what I recommend to everyone else. It's not financial advice, but it is common sense.

Checklist of things to start doing right now:

• Save an emergency fund of at least six months. Don't be afraid to use this money if you need to.
• Pay the minimum on your debts while you build this fund. Debt sucks, but having no emergency fund sucks worse
• Stop spending money on dumb shit for a couple of months. Dumb shit could include any monthly subscriptions that don't add serious value to your life.
• Put something into crypto so you can have funds anywhere you go. Start by creating a Coinbase account and buying some Bitcoin and Ether. This also acts as a hedge in case the US dollar inflates or stocks go berserk. Seriously. Stop wasting time. It takes ten minutes to set up an account and start to protect yourself.
• Convert any crypto coins you own that aren't Bitcoin or Ethereum into Bitcoin or Ethereum.
• Learn how to diversify your income by creating new income streams
• Invest in yourself. Spending some money on books or courses to level up yourself is always okay.

And a few things to avoid:

• All MLMs (multi-level marketing) or any job that requires you to "recruit people." You need a network that likes you, not one that avoids you because you always have an "opportunity."
• Buying a house just because interest rates are low. Do you have a 20% down payment? Are you planning to live there for over 10 years? Do you have a stable job?
• Putting all of your money in one asset class.
• Buying any Crypto other than Bitcoin or Ethereum if you don't know exactly what it is you are buying and why you are buying it.

More Resources

I will be adding to this section over time as we find resources that will help you all.

• Check out the Wise Owl Store
• All Wise Healthy Wealthy Articles on Medium
• Start your own Sendfox Newsletter
• Free products to help you level up