On Thursday, February 24, 2022 for reasons that are too many to cover in this episode, Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine. World citizens had waited with baited breath during the China Olympics as we debated the question “will he or won’t he?” As people wondered why this was happening, I just thought does Putin have a Thanos complex and want to start collecting his infinity stones? But, this podcast episode isn’t about the politics of war. It’s about money. Because in all of the personal finance conversations that I’ve had never have I discussed preparing my finances for war.
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In the weeks leading up to the conflict, journalists would interview Ukrainian citizens and ask them about their fears, concerns and what they planned on doing. No one asked about how people were preparing to leave and what that meant. Every time there is a conflict, I find myself thinking about this. How one week people are heading to the park, taking their kids to school or buying a bougie coffee. Then the next week their world has been turned upside down. It’s not just Ukraine. There are various regional conflicts across the world. Ethiopia, Syria and Yemen are a few countries currently involved in conflicts. Then, there are the countries that are dealing with economic strife that has displaced its citizens such as Venezuela.
I’ll never forget watching several of my friends make the decision to leave Venezuela. Some had financial resources and were able to leave ahead of the deepening financial crisis. Others were able to leverage familial contacts in new countries, and in the case of some, they bounced around from one country to the next for years.
When I was younger, my mother shared a story with me. A friend of hers from overseas shared that you should always have gold or jewelry that can be sold in case of emergency. In fact, when my mom told me this story, she gave me an 18k gold bangle that many years later I ended up selling at a pawn shop in Barcelona during a poorly planed trip abroad that was disrupted by massive protests in France-impacting my ability to reenter the country.
Very Few People
Have a financial plan for the complete breakdown of life as you know it. I’m not talking about going off-grid and living off the land. I’m talking about walking 30 hours to a border and then having to rely on the goodness of others at a moment’s notice.
I have questions such as:
- How do you access your online accounts when your laptop is broken or lost?
- What if the internet is blocked?
- Do you have WhatsApp? In fact, it’s my belief that many folks are receiving overseas remittances via WhatsApp and I’m curious to see the data on this. And for my American listeners-WhatsApp is THE app that the majority of folks outside of the US use for messaging, etc. PayPal and other similar financial tools would be worth looking at.
- What happens if the internet goes down or electricity is knocked out?
- Do you have your passport?
- Can you speak in more than one language. I noticed that many of the Ukranians interviewed spoke English in addition to Ukraine.
- How can you legally work outside of your country if you’re displaced?
- What’s your cultural competency and ability to navigate new spaces? Most Americans struggle with this question.
Different Types of War
I think it’s also important to point out that there are different types of war as noted before. There’s actual conflict when one country is an aggressor over another, there’s branded wars such as the “War on Drugs” and there are idealogical wars that have the potential to destabilize countries. There’s also unspoken war or aggressive action against groups of people. In China this is allegedly how the Uyghur Muslim minority are treated and in the United States this looks like how many Black and Brown people feel they’re being treated.
In fact, there is a record number of Black women leaving the United States. I know Black women who are in the process of financially preparing for their departure out of the United States. You may know someone too.
2022 and SWIFT Action
One of the financial actions during the current Russia/Ukraine conflict that I’ve watched with the most interest is how several Russian banks were blocked from the SWIFT banking network. What if you had account with one of those banks? What would you do?
I used to feel a little weird about the fact that I had several different bank accounts. I have a credit union account, a have an account with a pretty large multinational bank and I so use FinTech as well.
With a push of some buttons and code, access to people’s money was changed in an instant. And as I was working on this episode Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Russia.
What if you’re from the country that people would like financially penalized?
I know this episode is heavy, but this has been on my mind. It’s always on my mind when I see coverage of war. I always ask myself “What would I do?”
You’re not prepared for your world to be gone in an instant. Most people aren’t. I know that I’m not prepared financially right now for the logistics of having to quickly leave my country.
War Sucks and What’s in Your Wallet?
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