Like it or not, the COVID19 pandemic has sped up the change that is already taking place in the world. If you continue to believe the world will be the same post COVID19, you’re in for a rude awakening. The world we knew and the world that lies ahead will be completely different. Either you can prepare for it or you can get swept under by its current. There is no stopping it, only getting ahead of it and riding the wave.
If you’re one of the fortunate few, and you properly prepare for an alternate reality ahead, you can easily ride the momentum of change and come out massively ahead. For many though, this won’t be the case. Most will continue to respond as if nothing is changing. In a few years, they’ll wonder why their standard of living has degraded to a point of desperation.
The Current State of Affairs
It’s impossible to prepare for the future unless we connect the dots on what’s been happening in the past, present, and how it’s affecting what lies ahead. Now, it’s impossible to foresee everything that will happen in the future. If that were the case, we’d all be trillionaires. But sometimes the writing is on the wall. It’s so apparent for those that have been watching, that we can expect it to come to pass with a high degree of certainty.
Let’s take some time to analyze and dissect some changes that are taking place. Then we can discuss ways in which we can adequately prepare ourselves to not only survive but thrive economically during the post COVID19 era.
Globalization
Our world has increasingly become more interconnected caused mostly by the advent and wide proliferation of the internet, spurring hyper globalization. Over half of the world population now has internet access and soon, the entire world will be living online.
Digital innovation and global logistics in shipment and international travel have broken down geographical barriers. We’ve grown from small nation tribes to a globally symbiotic and connected nervous system where one thing happening in one country affects the rest of the world.
It might seem like COVID would slow the progress of globalization. But in reality, the world figured out how much we’re already connected by the spread of the virus. There is no more pretending that we live on isolated islands.
I imagine that in the future we’ll see more coordinated efforts to work on global agendas rather than singular national efforts. We see that with efforts on vaccines and environmental concerns, for better or worse.
Money Printing
Another important area that COVID has impacted is the U.S. money supply. In an instant, the government “printed” 2.2 TRILLION dollars to provide aid for American citizens in form of bailouts, grants, and loans.
The thought behind it is that we’d lose more money if the government didn’t bail out the nation; so it was the right thing to do. I’m not arguing the correctness of the decision. I’m just stating a fact that we’re accustomed to printing money. It has now become the norm not the exception.
Currently, our total national debt is in excess of $27.4 Trillion dollars (https://www.usdebtclock.org/). At this point, we’ve gone beyond the thought of EVER paying back the total debt amount.
It’s similar to when you’ve racked up so much credit card debt, revolving debt, and all sorts of undisclosed debt obligations that you just know it’s impossible to pay back. So instead of being thrifty and savvy with your money, you throw away discretion and rack up even more debt — because at this point WHO CARES. You can just file for bankruptcy.
Now take yourself out of the story and reinsert the United States. Who is going to force us into bankruptcy? No one. So the thought is, let’s continue to print our way out of trouble. The sad reality is, there are consequences. There will be a tipping point. Even if we aren’t forced into an untenable position by our debt obligations, we’re already seeing the cracks in our economic system — ridiculous housing prices, inflation, unhinged stock valuations, and so on.
Technology Boom
If technology wasn’t already booming at a blinding pace, COVID pushed it into overdrive. If you look at grocery stores, there are now more cashier-less systems in place than there are people working there. Fast food restaurants are forgoing cashiers and introducing more automated ordering kiosks. Big box retailers are shuttering their doors after a losing battle against technology giants like Amazon.
We live in a world where it is plausible to never leave your house and actually be okay; at least that’s what we think. We can practically get anything we need to be delivered. There are endless entertainment options in the form of Netflix, online gaming, music, and social apps. We can communicate with friends and family through the myriad of video calling applications. We’re able to work from home with a laptop and internet connection. We quite literally live in the technology era.
With a raging pandemic striking, business owners, especially brick and mortar businesses, are seeing how susceptible they are to externalities that can bankrupt their business in short order. There is no doubt that many companies will no longer look the same as they were before if they survive liquidation.
More companies that can go online, will do so. That doesn’t mean the brick and mortar businesses will cease to exist. Humans are naturally physical beings and we like social interaction. But the business landscape will change.
We don’t know how drastically it will change, but we do know that more technology, in the form of machines and software, will continue to eat up the world and displace many workers. Large corporations and even small businesses will continue to outsource work. Businesses will automate jobs.
How to Prepare
There is a saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In our case, it’s “An ounce of preparation is worth a pound of gold.”
If there is a possibility that the changes we just discussed take place in our world, it’s gravely important to position yourself so that you’re riding the momentum of change and not being trampled by it.
The good thing is that it’s not too late. There is still time to “buy your toilet” paper before it runs out. Below are some tips on how to take advantage of the changing tides and actually use them to have your best years ahead.
Learn The Power Of Digital Distribution
Digital distribution is the use of the internet and the various connected systems to get digital and physical products to customers. This can be in the form of software (think social media apps, online education, websites, etc), media content (songs, videos, audio, movies), and consumer products (toys, clothing, jewelry, etc).
Many people do not realize the power of the internet yet. Oddly, the internet has been around since the 60’s, but it was probably unrecognizable to us then. Many intelligent people at the time even dismissed the usefulness of it because they weren’t able to visualize what it would become. Now, the internet has crept into the lives of practically everyone in the world and changed how we live.
Yet, we’re still not seeing the full potential of what it can do for individuals. But for the ambitious ones, it’s opening the playing field for many, even those in poor countries. There are some that are making 100x what they could make working at a local job by taking advantage of the global reach.
Start Learning
Now is the time to start learning and taking advantage of the ability to connect with billions of potential customers around the world. All it takes is finding even a small niche of customers that are willing to engage with your content or buy your products to make millions, if not billions of dollars.
The online business world is unsaturated, contrary to what some might believe. It’s still the early wild west. There are still billions of people that don’t have internet access. But when everyone does, eventually making money online will be more challenging. That’s why the time is NOW to get good at it and stamp your place in this world.
Here are some businesses to consider:
- Selling physical products through an E-commerce site.
- Selling physical products through Amazon FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon).
- Creating an online course teaching people something you know. (Learn more here)
- Becoming an influencer and make money by partnerships, endorsements, and selling your own merch.
- Creating your own software company.
- Create a blog. (Learn more here)
- Start your own podcast. (Learn more here)
Those are just some ways you can take advantage of the trend of globalization and technological advancement. It’s now easier than ever to start your own online business.
If you want to discover other business ideas, you can find them here.
Create Multiple Streams of Income
Gone are the days where most people can survive off of one income stream. It simply won’t cut it nowadays. Our purchasing power is diminishing as the value of our dollar decreases and income growth from salary is stagnant.
Most people are accustomed to having just their job income and waiting for their retirement from pensions and social security. The latter probably won’t exist in the future and pensions are only going to be available for high-paying jobs.
Now is the time to build multiple streams of income and with the internet and technology, it’s much easier to do.
Businesses can be automated online through simple to use software, tasks can be outsourced to virtual assistants in other countries, and most jobs can be handled by freelancers through market places like Fiverr and Upwork. It’s now even easier for one person to handle multiple businesses.
Buy Assets
The government uses money “printing” and interest rate manipulation to drive economic growth. These tactics typically flow towards big public businesses and real estate. This is great if you’re an asset holder.
Buying stocks allows you to benefit from money printing because it artificially drives up stock prices. Also, because mortgage rates are kept low, more people are able to afford houses. With more people buying, demand increases, and real estate prices skyrocket. If you own productive real estate, you win.
In this economy, you want to use your excess money from your multiple streams of income to invest in appreciating assets. That’s why the rich get richer and the poor typically stay poor if they don’t figure out ways to become owners (businesses or assets).
Store of Wealth
Lastly, you can make all of the money in the world but if hyper inflation hits, like the Venezuelan Bolivar, or just the slow devaluation of your money, you’re losing purchasing power.
As you make more money, you want to find ways that remove the government’s influence in diminishing your hard-earned money. It’s easier than we’d expect for a country to rapidly erode the value of their citizen’s money. We can hark back to illustrations like Germany, Zimbabwe, Greece, and more recently Venezuela.
Hard money with liquidity is what you want. Hard money doesn’t erode value over time but actually accretes value. Most hard money with liquidity is scarce, highly desirable by many, and is easily valued.
Some forms of hard money are:
- Gold
- Silver
- Bitcoin (Some call it digital gold)
If you’re not familiar with Bitcoin (BTC), do yourself a favor and read up on it. A good book to get your feet wet is The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous. It’s yet to prove itself FULLY as a store of value because it’s still highly volatile, but the adoption rate by the retail market and Wall Street are showing strong indications that it could be the best future store of value accessible to everyone.
Bringing It Home
Just to recap, your takeaway strategy is:
- Learn about digital distribution
- Create multiple streams of income by building online businesses
- Buy assets like stocks and real estate
- Buy hard assets like gold, silver, and Bitcoin with your money from your businesses and assets income.
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. By implementing the strategies above you’ll be in great hands in the post COVID world. Stay healthy and hungry.