Plan for the Worst
Research for Online Investors

by John Dalt

2/2/11

The Egyptian government cut off internet service last week in a failed effort to stop the riots in Cairo.  They eventually relented and restored service.  What will you do, if you lose internet service for a few days?  How about cellular service and land line telephones?  What if they could not be restored for a week, or month?

These are things we thought about after the World Trade Center Attack on September 1, 2001.  We made plans with our daughters what to do if a terrorist attack happened in our state.  We had girls gone to school every day, and I still owned a business and was generally too far from home for immediate response.

We kept our Class A motor home fueled and stocked with canned food.  All we had to do was add water and go.  But, where to?  We made plans with our daughters, if they could not come home.  Each would drive west sixty miles from our home, and the city, to meet.

You may think we were nuts, but you probably had a similar plan.  Today, we may have all been lulled into a sense of complacency since there has not been a serious attack against the U.S. in almost ten years.  Guess what?  It will happen again.  You should plan now.  The next one may be worse.

A nuclear dirty bomb or a cyber attack that destroyed our communications grid are two possibilities.  You should think about what you would do.  We talked to our oldest daughter last night.  She is a “road warrior” presently making weekly trips into Chicago.  Chicago had the biggest snow storm in their history this week.  Our daughter planned ahead on Monday and rented a 4 x 4 vehicle so she wouldn’t get stuck in the snow.

When she got to her hotel room last night, there was no electricity.  Her lap top battery was dead.  She didn’t have a flashlight.  Her iPhone battery was low.  It was cold.  She went to sleep in her clothes.  This episode was a slap in the face to her planned life.  Mother Nature had thrown her a curve.

Sunday night one of my childhood friend’s home burned down.  He and his family got out safely, but only with the shirt on their backs.  I know they wish they would have planned ahead for just the kind of emergency they just went through.  None of us ever do, and always wish we would have.

We all become complacent in our lives.  It is important to think about what we would do if the unimaginable happened.  Because sooner or later, it will.  I talked to my online broker.  In the case of lost communications in our area, all phone calls would roll over to their back-up service centers.  They have three that are in different parts of the country.  I would suggest you get a direct number, just in case the rollover process does not work.

I carry their phone number and our account numbers in my briefcase. I print out copies of our long-term holdings monthly and latest trading alerts daily.  Our computer is backed up constantly online, ready to be downloaded onto a new laptop if mine is lost or destroyed.  My initial advice is to be prepared for the worst and hope you never have to execute your plan.

The information presented in this newsletter is based on generally available news releases, corporate filings, current events, interviews and the editor’s opinions. It may contain errors and you should not make investment decisions based solely on what you believe you have read here. Do your own research, it is your money. If you lose it, it is your responsibility, not ours or your grandmothers! The editor may or may not have a position in any securities discussed. The editor may have held a position in a security earlier, or in the future.

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