We read the tea leaves years ago and got ready with food and other options. Starting now I'd need a lot more assets, but I'd do the same thing. Get rid of debt. I've been debt free since the first time I retired back in the 90's. Credit card is the only thing I have now and it's paid off each month.

As Am_Fear_Liath_Mor indicated the bail-ins that occurred recently in Cyprus should have wakened a few folks. Do you really think the FDIC has enough $$ to pay all of us when Citi, BOA, WF & JP Morgan Chase go TU at the same time? The recent happenings in Poland should be very alarming, essentially taking half the assets of a/the major retirement fund.

So now we have both bank deposits and retirement funds being taken by for all intents and purposes, the government. Here in the USA our central bank (The Fed) just prints more money and over time a very subtle theft of buying power is taken. The official inflation rate is low because food and fuel are not included in those calculations. They used to be included but they raised the inflation rate to an unacceptable level. Using the old numbers I think the current inflation rate is higher, check shadowstats.com/. Just wait for the bond market to collapse and interest rates to rise. I'm hearing rumors that our retirement funds 401K/IRA's may be legislated into the bond market to keep that market from imploding Then it gets ugly.

Good luck.