CHAPTER 4
A Field Guide to Resilient Investing

A Tour of the Nine Zones of the Resilient Investing Map

NOW THAT YOU ARE ORIENTED TO THE ROWS AND COLUMNS OF THE RIM, you are probably eager to see the colorful variety of investments that are blossoming all across this expanded territory. What do you find in the place where tangible assets chart an evolutionary course, or financial assets come close to home? This section is designed as a field guide, one that will help you recognize some of the species that you will encounter in each of the nine investment zones.

Here is where you’ll experience just how rich and vibrant resilient investing can be; the write-ups are packed with detail, providing a solid introduction to the diversity of options available in each zone. As with any field guide, this detail is fascinating but perhaps best taken in small doses; digging in to a couple of these zones in a sitting may give you more than enough to chew on. If so, we suggest that you return to this section periodically. Of course, the book's website fills out every zone in ways we can’t fit into a book.

A couple of quick points of context are in order before you dive in. First, the specific options mentioned in each investment zone are just a few of many similar or related opportunities, intended to give the flavor of what can be done there; they should not be seen as specific recommendations. You will want to get to know more of them, and dig deeper, so that you can make an informed choice for yourself about which ones to bring into your resilient investing portfolio. Second, because everything is connected, many of these investments cross over into zones other than the one we put them in. That is to be expected; life is holistic—and messy. In the real world, not everything fits into tidy compartments.

Now, let's start our tour.