The Wealth Preservation Pyramid: A Tool To Help you Survive & Thrive Going Into Harder Times

Investing | Paid Subscriber Post

Hey everyone,

I’m excited to share the latest and likely final iteration of my Wealth Preservation Pyramid. This is a tool I have been using and refining for a few years, mostly through real-world application with coaching clients. It has proven to be a great model for supporting others to safeguard and grow their wealth, but I have never fully laid out the thinking behind it in an article. So here it is, I am hoping it will help you all moving forwards when it comes to protecting your wealth.

The article will explain in detail you can begin using the pyramid to analyze your own portfolio, and then use it to help balance different requirements like preservation, growth, liquidity, and risk. The goal is to ensure you are positioned to thrive, regardless of market conditions. I wanted to release this now, given I have a strong suspicion 2025 will be the year many people relearn some hard lessons about the importance of the aforementioned. Let's make sure we are not one of them!

I look forward to hearing your feedback,

Mike

What Is the Wealth Preservation Pyramid?

I first created The Wealth Preservation pyramid three years ago as a tool to help explain the nuances of risk management and wealth preservation, but it has gone through numerous refinements since then to help increase its effectiveness. At its core, the pyramid offers a clear and practical framework for navigating the risks of today’s debt-driven financial system while also positioning yourself for long term growth.

At the base of the pyramid is what I call the 'wealth foundation', the bedrock of your financial security. This foundation provides stability and resilience in the face of systemic risks, market volatility, inflation, and the increasingly frequent geopolitical shocks effecting the global economy. We also have an intermediary between the wealth foundation and the higher tiers which are more focused on wealth growth, emphasizing short-term liquidity. Proper use of the lower tiers will ensure a solid base while offering the flexibility to reallocate capital to more speculative tiers when opportunities arise.

As you ascend the pyramid, the emphasis shifts toward wealth growth. Where the potential for higher returns increase, but so too do the risks—with the potential for substantial losses and sudden illiquidity should a market downturn ensue. Combined, these layers form a comprehensive, strategy for building and preserving wealth, whilst also helping you to mitigate many of the risks we face—from the collapse of the everything bubble and a major banking crisis, to a full blown financial reset.

It should come as no surprise that gold occupies an exalted position at the very base of the pyramid. There is a reason that for over 5000 years gold has been the ultimate tool for wealth preservation. Even though today, many class gold as an ‘investment’, this is a relatively modern understanding. Our great grandparents certainly didn’t see gold as an investment, they understood it as real money. Tangible physical wealth that would protect what they had worked so hard to build. They combined this wealth foundation with practical measures—like stocked pantries and food gardens—as well as a psychological readiness for enduring harder times.

The financial resilience this provided enabled many families to endure the Great Depression—a time when millions of Americans faced unemployment, economic collapse, and relentless waves of bank failures. While those who had most of their wealth tied up in speculative assets or the banking system lost much, if not all, of their families wealth, individuals who had prepared by holding gold and essential resources were able to navigate the crisis without succumbing to poverty or starvation. These lessons remain as relevant today as they were then. The principles of financial prudence have not changed, and the wealth preservation pyramid is designed to help you reassert this time-tested wisdom in your own financial life.

For many, the structure and allocations of the pyramid may seem shocking, especially in an era where knowledge around wealth preservation has been largely lost. Decades of easy-money policies, asset bubbles, and artificially low interest rates have fostered a culture that prioritizes speculation over stability. This is by design, in fact—it is a cornerstone of the debt-based financial system, which depends on perpetual credit expansion and widespread risky behaviour. For the few who benefit from this system, the less the general public understands about its true fragility, the better.