[padolsey]

Yes to that. And this may be my own risk-averseness, but I don't have complete confidence in all these derivative instruments anyway. I don't have time or sufficient interest to look into the construction of ETFs and how their holdings are managed, so I will opt for a mixture of stock-picking, index funds, bonds, ETFs, and just plain old savings accounts at banks I can see on the cold hard cement of the city. I try to be diversified in which financial instruments I choose. It seems most people have blind faith that X or Y instrument are constructed, managed and regulated in a reliable and trustworthy way. They entrust their money into weird mechanisms where they believe they own AAPL stock but actually it's just a derivative slice on precarious terms (fractional shares or other slimey broker-made nonsense).

[bombcar]

You can certainly over-engineer your solution, but just watch the world and see how "you would have fared" in situations that affect others.

For example, everything goes to shit if Rogers goes down so hard that no electronic payments of anything works; so maybe some percentage of an emergency fund should be literal cash on hand.