It also shows the value of diversity of investment - not just in the stock market sense of the word. As individuals we are often extremely exposed to: a mortgage in a single location; a single job; a single currency/economy; a single startup.

It is hard to diversify as an individual unless you have significant capital to invest.

At least this has gotten better. Not too long ago you would have most likely been 100% exposed to the small farm that provides food for you and your family and a bad harvest could literally kill you.

Considering freeze dried food can last for 30+ years, it might make sense to bulk purchase a few years worth of supply. Couple that Starlink and a homestead and you could be set financially for a long time.

Everyone should live their lives as if tomorrow may never come (after all, it might not!) I know a couple physically healthy, well-off people who would shoot themselves if the economy collapsed tomorrow and they lost everything.

If you do that, though, you are screwed when tomorrow does come, and you have no money, destroyed your body, and have not prepared at all.

You and scarmig are both looking at the extremes. We're all screwed eventually, as death spares no life.

But we never know when that day will come. So a more nuanced perspective would be to treat the now as your finale, and the future as your encore. That way, no matter when death knocks, you leave on a high note.

If you put everything into your eventual encore, it's going to be one helluva encore if you get one, but incredibly bitter set piece leading up to it gets cut short, that chance never comes, and you realize just how flat your set piece ended up being. But it'll likewise be bitter if you pour everything into your finale, but end on a low note when you realize it's time for your encore and you've got nothing left for it.

So avoid both extremes, and enjoy today while hedging for a potential tomorrow. As long as you keep that in mind, and consciously attempt to not invert it (i.e. maximize for a theoretical future by sacrificing your certain present), you'll generally be in a good place no matter when death knocks.

I agree with this.... I approach it as "now is as important as the future". Don't sacrifice your now for your future, but also don't sacrifice your future for your now.

That makes no sense. By that logic we shouldn't spend any effort on education, we shouldn't have children or any long term plans whatsoever. I think I already made that point in a comment long ago where someone said you can't take things with you if you die. Taken on an extreme. Imagine if a person dies and he could actually take anything he desired with him. He'd certainly bring his family and his house and the planet he lived on with him. The end result would be 8 billion dead humans who no longer have a planet and were left behind. Is that really the type of world you want? People committing vandalism and self destructive behavior because they have nothing to lose?

> My parents grew up in the Soviet Union and received a fairly large nest egg when my grandparents passed.

Wait, there was inheritance in the Soviet Union? How did that work? Genuinely curious.

I may be mistaken here, but I’m pretty certain people still got paid money and could do what they liked with it.

Like everywhere else. There were limits on what could be a private property, but there was stilll a private property. West calls USSR "communist", but according to communist party people were still building communism, not living in it. IIRC the term used right before the collapse was "mature socialism". Now when I think of it, I do not remember a deadline for that building to finish ever being mentioned.

Dunno about Soviet Union but in communist Poland there were national banks and they managed saving accounts for workers. It was optional but heavily encouraged, part of your earnings went directly to it every month. It was called "PKO Saving's book".

My grandparents participated in it and after decades of saving a few percent of their earnings each month the total from both of them was just enough to buy their grandkids 2 pairs of shoes :)