CHAPTER 3
Weaning off Wall Street

The Three Investment Strategies:
Close to Home, Sustainable Global Economy, and Evolutionary

AS WE TURN OUR FOCUS TOWARD THE COLUMNS OF THE RESILIENT Investing Map, it is time to recall our quick survey of the VUCA world—volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous—in which we live. There's an unfathomable intertwining of relationships that underlies the global economy and the physical world, making predictions virtually impossible. As financial advisors it has not been easy for us to overcome our desire for certainty about where the world is heading. But once we acknowledged that the world as it is may not be sitting on the most solid of foundations—and that our clients hold a range of views about our possible futures—it became essential to explore strategies that speak to both emerging innovations and local resilience.

Even a few years ago, such a multifaceted approach would have been impractical, as there were few opportunities to invest our money in either the close-to-home or evolutionary strategy. Now we are energized by the explosion of creativity taking place in virtually all the RIM zones—particularly for one's financial assets, where it is increasingly possible to select options that do not come from Wall Street. In recent years formerly obscure niches, such as international microfinance, local food systems, and “social purpose bonds,” have catapulted into categories recognized by institutional investors. The World Economic Forum describes these outside-the-box approaches as moving “from the margins to the mainstream.” And while some of the ways to invest in personal and tangible assets are timeless, here too there have been exciting innovations, many of which—such as the sharing economy—have been empowered by technological advances.

In this chapter we look at how each of the strategies has a unique mindset, one derived from, but not locked to, the scenarios we explored earlier. In chapter 4 we flesh out the nine zones with a few examples so you can get a taste for how each strategy suggests different ways that you can grow your personal, tangible, and financial assets.