The Alpha Strategy (The Ultimate Plan of Financial Self-Defense) is a rather interesting book from the 1980s. The basic precepts outline strategies to protect your wealth from various erosive effects such as inflation, taxation and theft, primarily by storing “future consumables” as a hedge. Invest in a garden or cache food to reduce your vulnerability to inflation. Buy a chainsaw and stockpile wood and you don’t worry as much about interruptions in a natural gas supply.
The opposite trends seem to be prevalent these days, with subscriptions to cell phone services, leased cars, Netflix, cleaning services, and other monthly charges becoming commonplace for households and making us more rather than less dependent. If instead we can make investments in permanent assets that can decrease these outflows, we build ourselves a more resilient foundation. If you are curious and would like to listen to some commentary on the Alpha Strategy, try this podcast here.
Now, what in the world does this old dusty book have to do with renewable energy? Well, let’s consider a number of strategies for investments in a solar-photovoltaic (PV) system or indirect means to offset your energy bills. Since I’m not a financial advisor, this is more about the psychology of options, rather than a detailed look at system costs, taxes and internal rates of return. I’ll use approximations to my own energy use and setting as crude examples.
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