Great post and sound advice! The thing with investing in stocks is that there is always 3rd party risk involved and the fact that there is a great divide between you and your (cash) money. If there is a real crisis you wont be quick enough to get out of your stocks, no-one can time the market. If you do decide to sell your share investments there has to be someone willing to buy that off you. If nobody is willing to buy then you cant sell and liquidate your (paper) shares ... you get left holding the cat in the bag! Better to have some real, tangible (things) like gold, silver, land - or even tools, fishing gear, canned food, skills and knowledge, a network of like minded people...