Disclaimer: I am not a financial professional (even though I play one on tv) . Please consult someone smarter than me before making financial decisions.

With examples of prepper entrepreneurship around like Tim Ralston, it’s enough to make a regular guy like you or I think about how it would be possible to make some cash while the system is still around. To restate a point: while any form of dependence on the financial system goes against the fundamental ideals of prepping, making careful risks can help your ability to prepare resources before a conflict.

An interesting article just came over the wire about the ‘Doomsday Preppers Portfolio’. The author of the article is not even a prepper, which serves to show that even people in the financial industry are aware of the potential downfall of society. The interesting thing about investing in stocks is that they can move in the opposite direction of the market.

On the day the stock market crashed in September of 2008, I remember doing a search on google finance to see the damage. The biggest outlier? Campbell’s soup with a positive close on the day of the crash. There is actually a measure for how a stock correlates to the market called beta, Campbell’s in this example must have had a negative value.

Likewise, the author of the above article recommends a number of stocks of companies that are probably well known to you, including Ruger, Cabela’s, and Generac. If you can understand why you would want to shop at Cabela’s in 2012, you can understand why a number of people might want to. It shouldn’t be surprising that the stock is up 90% this year alone.

Not everyone has a great idea like the crovel, but many of us have resources tied up in electronics sources like banks, 401ks and mutual funds already. If we are betting on the collapse of society with our time by prepping, why not make some money at the same time? With $5000 in the bank for this year, you would have earned $150 with a generous 3% interest rate. That same money invested in Cabela’s would have earned you $4500. That’s a lot of MREs.

This is obviously an extreme example, diversification is very important in creating a financial strategy. Hindsight is 20/20 and there is risk involved with any investment that can be expected to make a big return. But making educated investment decisions based on directions the population is headed can indeed boost your resources in a big way.