This is the most uncomfortable post in this series. But it needs to be said (and you need to hear it): if you live in a country with chronic instability, you need an exit strategy.
An exit strategy does not mean you are leaving today. It means you have a plan if you need to leave tomorrow (and you might).
What an exit strategy looks like:
-
A valid passport. If your passport is expired or about to expire, renew it right fucking now. Governments stop issuing passports during crises. Do not wait until it is too late.
-
Foreign currency in cash. Enough to leave and survive for 3 months somewhere else. USD, EUR. Hidden somewhere safe. Not in a bank (you know why).
-
An external support network. A relative abroad.(rarely help but why not..) A friend in another country. A contact who can help you get started elsewhere. Build these relationships before you need them (because once you need them, it is too late to start).
-
Digital copies of your critical documents. Passport, birth certificate, degrees, property deeds. Encrypted in the cloud. If you flee with nothing else, flee with your paperwork.
-
A destination. Even a vague one. Kenya? UAE? Europe? America? Research visa requirements now, not when you are panicking and the airport is chaos.
The economic argument: Some countries do not recover. Zimbabwe never recovered from 2008. Venezuela never recovered from 2015. Lebanon never recovered from 2019. The smart ones who left early saved their wealth and their futures. The ones who stayed hoping things would improve lost everything.
This is not politics. This is observation. If your country is on a downward trajectory, your savings are on the same trajectory. Your wealth is tied to your country’s fate. If the country sinks, your wealth goes down with it.
The hardest question in personal finance for the third world: do you stay and fight, or do you leave and build somewhere else? There is no right answer. But the question deserves an honest fucking answer.
Seven parts. Hopefully helpful. Hopefully unnecessary.