As living standards rise around the world, one effect, seen throughout the United States in particular, is the growth of and reliance on service providers. Indeed, 79% of American workers are employed in service occupations. Certainly, many of these services enable the lifestyles to which we have become accustomed; however, such luxury is frequently and surreptitiously offset by the power we abdicate. For instance, if you lost all access to your bank account—both in person and online—as a result of a bank-initiated investigation, what would you do? For many people, such a situation would be nothing less than calamitous and could lead to unpaid bills, late fees, credit card charges, and untold stress.
Such was the situation in which I recently found myself when a large U.S. bank froze my checking account because I had initiated on consecutive days two transfers to an external account of mine (still in the U.S.), behavior the bank deemed suspicious. I was informed that the bank’s investigation would take 15 to 30 days, during which all funds in my account would be frozen.
As one might expect, I was slightly more than perturbed by this decision and especially by the given timeframe, but the whole experience served as a stark reminder of the importance of being proactive—a concept that, without hyperbole, can save lives but that also can simply help you to live a less stressful life. Others such as Jack Spirko of The Survival Podcast have and continue to delve into the world of being proactive far more thoroughly than I can in one article, so I instead want to focus on three key areas and provide several practical suggestions in each that I have found personally useful.
Wealth
In terms of wealth and money, I have no hot stock tips, business ideas, or crypto schemes. Apologies if you were sticking around for those. Instead, I have two straightforward suggestions that anyone can implement and that have made my life infinitely more relaxing.
First, diversify. A frozen bank account can be a devastation if it is one’s sole account or simply an annoyance thanks to multiple bank accounts across various financial providers. Thus, I believe keeping a variety of account types (checking, savings, money market, investment) with a variety of banks, some large and some small and some commercial banks and some credit unions, is a proactive step to protecting one’s money. In fact, we can take this advice even further by including a diversity of locations, namely overseas bank accounts. Joshua Sheets of Radical Personal Finance, among others, has discussed this topic many times, so I recommend listening to some of his advice on the topic. However, any and all bank accounts can be frozen, hacked, or interfered with by governments or other bad actors (for example, if you support something of which the government disapproves), so keeping cash on hand at all times is a related proactive step.
Diversity also extends to asset types (e.g., stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities [including gold and silver], crypto, and cash) and incomes. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is an axiom for a reason—it’s prudent. I do not trust the fortunes of one company, one apartment, one coin, or one country; likewise, I do not trust one income, so I recommend having multiple income streams from different sources. Such sources might include W2 wage or salary income, consulting or part-time work, business income, interest, dividends, and rents from real estate holdings.
In addition to diversifying, a second proactive strategy is saving. (I did mention these would be straightforward suggestions.) The savings rate in the United States has steadily declined from 10%–15% in the 1960s through the 1980s to less than 5% for most of this millennium thus far, and household debt has reached a record level this year at $17.8 trillion. Increased debt coupled with decreased savings portends not only financial but also personal and health disasters for many people as relationships are strained and stress-related health issues rise. Saving need not be impossible, though. Building a lifestyle that enables one to save half of his or her earnings is an excellent foundation for a permanent savings mindset. Certainly, that type of lifestyle is not always easy or comfortable, but saving diligently will generally lead to greater comfort and freedom in the long run.
Health
If there is one aspect of health on which most people—even in our polarized climate—can agree, it is that many diseases, including some of the most common causes of death in the United States, can be prevented with lifestyle changes (here, here, and here). Thus, being proactive when it comes to health can mean the difference between simply being alive longer and truly living longer.
One simple, proactive lifestyle change I made several decades ago was exercising daily outdoors. Like the aforementioned act of saving, exercising outdoors is not always easy or comfortable in most parts of the world, but I have found it to be superior to exercising indoors, both physically and mentally. However, just exercising anywhere daily is, in my opinion, crucial to being proactive about health.
Second—and here I fail often—avoiding seed oils, high fructose corn syrup, and ultra-processed foods is a lifestyle change that is a proactive step to lifelong health. As Dr. Casey Means explains in her book Good Energy, metabolic function is key to health, and ultra-processed foods seem to interfere with and negatively change that function over time. Indeed, in my anecdotal research, I have found greater satiety and less post-meal lethargy whenever I eat less-processed, more natural foods.
An ancillary benefit of these changes is that you can implement them without invasive procedures or a lifelong dependence on Big Pharma.
Learning
Finally, learning and knowing how to learn are crucial, proactive steps to a better life, so my suggestions herein focus on these two with respect in particular to younger people.
First, exit government schools—immediately. Nothing about the government-school system has the best interests of your children as part of its operating procedure or goals. Although some learning is sometimes a byproduct of seven coercive hours per day for 13 years, rarely does that learning have permanence or relevance for those involved, and rarely does that learning help young people to be autodidacts—to learn how to teach themselves. Far more often, government schools foster uncritical, uncreative, and unprepared graduates who have learned that only teachers hold the keys to learning and that learning is something that must be forced.
Second, and in contrast to government schools, implement a learning system that you and your children control, monitor, and value. Do not rely solely on others and then be surprised—as many were in 2020—that those others are not meeting your expectations, especially when you have little say in who is actually teaching your children as is the case in government schools. The proliferation of quality curricula, online options, and in-person microschools has made implementing such a system easier than ever:
Khan Academy offers free, online courses in nearly any subject
Curricula such as iLumenEd, Classical Conversations, Quantum Courses, Life of Fred, and thousands of others allow parents to tailor learning to their children’s needs, interests, and goals
Microschools and alternative-education programs enable parents and students to find options that work for them:
o Creatavista (teachers come to you)
o Prenda
o Aviation Institute of Maintenance
Third, provide children with a diversity of experiences and perspectives so that they can be prepared for anything. Most learning happens outside of a formal classroom, so even a quick trip to a local park can be a great opportunity to learn about and discuss with your children types of trees and berries and what they can safely eat in nature, how to exercise outdoors, basic first aid, what various animals do to prepare for winter, why they should pack out their trash, and numerous other topics and lessons based on your children’s interests. (It could even be an opportunity to change a “flat” tire in order to get home.)
Similarly, fill your home with an array of reading materials on a variety of topics and allow your children to investigate at their leisure, perhaps as a complement to nightly reading time. When children wake up in the morning to find nine new books arranged on the breakfast table, they are quite likely to take an interest in one or two (or nine). We can never know what our children’s interests and vocations will be as they age, but this type of diversity of reading materials enables them to form a fuller understanding of the world and themselves and is a great proactive step towards their later success.
Finally, expose your children to (real) economics and financial literacy as early and as often as possible—their future selves and the rest of the world thank you.
Great selection here of actionable tips and advice that will immediately make your life better and more enjoyable. This is especially true of the "Health" portion that discusses avoidance of seed oils and ultra-processed foods - two simple but hugely impactful changes people can make right away.
If thing get worse in the good ol' USA, I would even add one suggestion. Namely, evaluate and identify other places to live, raise your family, etc.