Please give this article a good read. The concentrated information it presents – with all that’s going on in the world now – could make a major difference in growing and preserving your wealth.

In the early days of the COVID pandemic, I saw lots of trends that seemed to present major threats to family wealth. A stock market bubble was building that made no sense given the economic upheaval. It has since floated up into space, and even the sharp losses recently are nothing compared to how low I fear it may go, and how much of your wealth it may take with it. There were major rumblings of tax increases, inflation was clearly shooting up beyond the Fed’s head-in-sand “transitory” stance, and other nasty stuff seemed to be building.

In the Fall of 2020, during the darkest days of the still-new COVID pandemic, I wrote a piece in this space for Forbes called Investors’ & Retirees’ Perfect Storm Warning: Market Crash, Hyperinflation & Massive Tax Hikes. That article focused on a host of destabilizing factors I saw gathering in the world economy, which threatened quite dire consequences. Since most of my professional work is counseling higher net worth families on investments, tax, estate and asset protection planning and associated disciplines, I am particularly sensitive to such risks to those that hold substantial wealth.

Within a very short time, that article had got something like a hundred-thousand views, rather a record for me. That inspired me to write my most recent book, The Financial Storm Warning for Investors: How to Prepare and Protect Your Wealth from Tax Hikes and Market Crashes, which I squeezed in between Master of Tax Law semesters at Georgetown Law.

My motivation was pretty simple: identify the factors I saw piling up that telegraphed catastrophic financial disruptions to wealth holders like those likely to be reading Forbes, and suggest strategies and techniques to avoid the worst outcomes and even profit from the changed world while there was still time.

The dangers I saw – a bit before my time it seems – included raging inflation, a rapidly-deglobalizing world, hockey stick-rising interest rates, geopolitical tension and conflict, particularly with Russia and China, and plummeting stock and bond values.

Among many others, the book’s predictions included a dangerous resurgence of inflation, soaring interest rates, cratering bond values, global flashpoints with Russia and China, and possibly the worst market crash in decades – all of which has come true since publication.

Alas, in the short time since I noticed the trends and made the predictions, much of this has come to pass, and I fear it is just the beginning. Even more, I fear the other shoes about to drop, including the out-of-control Federal deficit, massive tax hikes on wealth holders, and the gas-on-fire effect of the bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare – just when America’s biggest retired generation can afford it least.

In many ways the worse may be yet to come.

I am deeply concerned about a truly massive stock meltdown, which could ruin retirements and crush family wealth for generations.

Make no mistake – the viscous tech-led swoon the stock market has suffered so far in 2022 may be only the beginning of what may become the most devastating market sell off in a generation – or several. Current conditions eerily harken to the last major tech-led bust, where NASDAQ plunged about 80% and took nearly two decades to just break even.

Twenty years. A quarter of a lifetime. Longer than the average retirement – just to break even. That’s before taxes and inflation, by the way.

But this time could be worse. Lots worse. The world’s in much more precarious straits than it was in the Y2K days.

As much as the Fed still crows and prays about a soft landing, oddsmakers increasing predict a vicious recession.

Traditional adversaries like Russia are increasingly girding for major conflict and a new cold war… or worse. The drums of war beat ever louder. Russian state media are even trumpeting the inevitability of WWIII replete with tactical – or worse – nuclear strikes.

Our Federal government continues to borrow, spend, and print money at such record levels that mega-inflation – and massive income and estate tax hikes are inevitable. In the end, they won’t matter – except to eviscerate the wealth of those without the very best tax advice. Federal deficits are already pushing WWII record levels and forecast to double from there. Higher interest rates on the massive debt just bring doom sooner.

Social Security and Medicare are set to go bust in the very near future, piling onto an exploding Federal debt that even confiscatory tax hikes and radical services reduction may not be able to cure. America seems headed toward the banana republic sinkhole of devaluation and monetization of the ballooning debt.

The skies are dark indeed, but there is still time to learn to survive what may be the financial storm of the century…or several.

What are the golden keys to sidestep disaster and even prosper?

Learn technical analysis fast or find an advisor who knows how. Active and adroit management of asset classes is already critical to wealth preservation. Buy and hold – or hold and pray – won’t get you through the kind of market tsunami I see coming. Your kids probably won’t break even on the smoldering remains of your portfolio for their retirement. No, you must learn to sidestep the doo-doo before it catches fire, and park your dough in the promising sectors that will rock during the even darker days ahead.

Figure out ways to manage Inflation control and dial in specifics on “inflation alpha” investments with pricing power and labor cost control. You want things likely to prosper during times of high inflation and interest rates.

And for gosh sake, get savvy to the master wealth skill, smart tax, and find an advisor expert in this rare art. Most aren’t, and you can tell by the pain of your tax return where yours stands. Expertly applied, tax law offers remarkable opportunities to convert avoidable tax to family wealth. Don’t get soaked, get savvy. You’re going to need the money!

My many contributions to Forbes, and my recent book, map clear paths to avoid taxes, grow your portfolio without suffering pounding losses, how to beat inflation and protect assets, and lots more.

Let he and she who have eyes, educate thyselves.

Good luck, and stay dry!

For FREE book chapters to help decide if you need the book in your library, visit www.financialstormwarning.com or just click here.

Visit www.wealthmasterclass.org for more resources including free online “wealth master” classes taught by the author's.

The Financial Storm Warning for Investors, published by Palgrave, is available to buy on SpringerLink

Jeff Camarda is a lifelong wealth researcher, author, advisor, educator, and thought leader. He has a burning desire to teach the smartest ways to build and keep family wealth. With an entertaining and clear style, he makes the most complex financial strategies easy to master, and fun to learn and apply. An award-winning wealth researcher and practical client coach, he’s repeatedly earned “top advisor” accolades from Barron’s, Forbes, Bloomberg and many others. With a master’s and PhD in Financial Planning, he’s completed the CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, CFS®, BCM™, and gold-standard CFA® investments programs. He holds a Federal EA tax license, with unlimited IRS practice rights, and is a continuing candidate in Georgetown Law’s Master of Tax Law graduate program. Visit www.wealthmasterclass.org for more resources including free online “wealth master” classes taught by the authors.