The resilient investor - Hal Brill

The way you spend your time, your energy, and your purchasing dollars are investments just as much as any brokerage account is, and they deserve the same kind of attention. The Resilient Investor shows you how to expand the concept of investing beyond stocks and bonds, wake up from dangerous old investing patterns, open your eyes to new opportunities, and build a better world.

The book's centerpiece is the Resilient Investment Map, which first lays out three classes of assets: personal (your time), tangible (the things you own or have access to), and financial (traditional investment funds). Then it offers three different strategies for those assets. You can invest them in ways that strengthen yourself, your family, and your community; in ways that encourage the continued growth of a sustainable global economy; or in more visionary efforts that will help create a better future. You'll learn how to diversify your investment eggs into many more baskets than those offered by Wall Street.

The goal is to make yourself more resilient: able to anticipate and prepare for disturbance, rebuild as necessary, and adapt and evolve when possible. For example, investing in food and energy self-sufficiency will help if the financial system takes another tumble. But, as the authors persuasively argue, the choices that ultimately make you the most resilient also enhance our communities, our economy, and the planet - paying true dividends to everyone.