Every time things are going well economically we are told that there’s nothing to worry about and everything is fine. This is not a bubble. If you warn about a coming crash you are accused of fear mongering. And then a crash happens and no one is prepared. Don’t be one of those people. Don’t be one of those people who think that it can’t happen (despite a crash happening at least once every decade).
I’m not telling you to panic. The worse thing you can do is panic. If you are prepared, there’s no need to panic. And you should be preparing for what happens when a collapse does come, and it will come. Whether you are preparing to retire this year or in 30 years, these suggestions apply to you.
When a crash does occur, you don’t have to wait and watch your 401K crash 30% or more. There are ways that you can diversify to protect your finances when that bubble ends up popping. And as we saw in the 2008 crash, when that bubble pops, it happens fast. .
Please don’t just take my word for it but do your own homework. Take the time to research market trends and honestly look at how things are going economically. I am not an expert but these are things that I am doing with my personal finances for what I see coming in the near future. Review your own portfolio and access how much risk you want to take and if you should be diversifying a little more. Review the suggestions that I am going to make and determine if it makes sense for you.
I am not advocating for selling everything in your 401K or IRA, just that you consider moving some of your investment into something that will benefit you when the markets do begin to collapse. Past performance does not guarantee future earnings but I would argue that these are a pretty safe bet over the next few years.
This week I made the decision to move 10% of my assets into Inverse Equities ETF’s. These are stocks that allow you to be able to short the markets and make money while the markets are falling. In times that the markets are crashing, these ETF’s are surging. When the markets were near their lowest points in early 2009, these were at record highs. As the economy improved, you saw these ETF’s decline in value. This is not an exhaustive list and only a handful of options that will help you to at least protect some of your assets when things do start to collapse, and many of them could have an extremely high return on investment if things do get as bad as they did in 2008-2009.
- ProShares Short Dow30 (DOG). This ETF allows you to short the NASDAQ. On February 1st 2009, we saw this peak at $332.12. As we started recovering from the 2008-2009 crash, this began to fall and at the time of this writing is currently valued at $38.48. If things do get as bad as they did in 2008, and I think they could get worse, you could see a 8 time or more return on your investment, during a time when almost everything else is down 30% or more.
- ProShares Short S&P500 (SH). With this ETF we saw it peak at $171.90 on February 1st 2009, and has since fallen to $17.58. In a crash like 2008, you could make nearly 10 times your investment.
- ProShares Short QQQ (PSQ). With this one we saw a peak of $323.48 on December 1st 2008, it declined a little and then peaked again at $309.36 before falling to $14.25 at the time of this writing. A return to $309 would give you back nearly 22 times your investment.
- ProShares Short Russell2000 (RWM). We again saw a peak when the markets were near their bottom at the end of 2008-early 2009. This reached a high on November 1st 2008 at $390.00, before falling to $22.57
These are just a few and this list has more suggestions: https://etfdb.com/etfdb-category/inverse-equities/.
You shouldn’t stay in these indefinitely. When the markets bottom out, I would advise to sell everything I just listed and move that money back into an index fund tied to the S&P 500, DOW Jones, or Nasdaq. This way you are making money when the markets are going down and then when they are going up.
It’s not easy to predict the exact timing of a collapse. There are many indicators and they are all pointing toward a collapse coming within the next two years. It’s possible that we see the DOW Jones jump another 10% before that crash comes. But moving a portion of your assets into these will help to secure your financial future when that time does come, whether it’s this year or several years from now.