If the pension system fails to perform in the years up to your retirement, and inflation continues to rapidly erode the value of money — how exposed would you be?
A
Completely exposed. My retirement depends entirely on the pension system.
B
Partially exposed. I have some assets outside but the pension is still my main plan.
C
I have exited or significantly reduced my pension exposure.
D
I hold physical assets outside the system entirely.
Financial Sovereignty — 2 of 3
The book "The Great Taking" documents how regulations have been rewritten to put all risk onto private investors in a collapse. How much of your wealth is held by third parties who could legally claim it before you?
A
Everything. I only have a bank account and no cash at home. In a collapse scenario, close to 100% could be inaccessible or taken.
B
Most of it. I have a bank account and some cash at home, but my savings and pension are all institutional.
C
A significant portion. I hold shares or funds through brokers — legally the broker holds them, not me.
D
I hold self-custody assets — physical silver, gold, or crypto in my own wallet. No third party stands between me and my assets.
Financial Sovereignty — 3 of 3
How much of your financial life is organised around servicing debt — mortgage, car finance, credit — versus owning assets outright?
A
Almost entirely. My monthly obligations go to debt repayment. I own very little outright.
B
Significantly. I have a mortgage and other obligations I cannot easily exit.
C
Some debt but I am actively reducing it and building owned assets alongside.
D
Debt-free or close to it. My assets are owned, not leveraged.
Physical Sovereignty — 1 of 3
If your housing costs doubled next year — mortgage rate rise, rent increase, council tax rises — what are your options?
A
I could not afford that. I would be in serious difficulty.
B
I would cut spending elsewhere and manage, with difficulty.
C
I have some flexibility — savings, family options, or the ability to relocate.
D
I own my home outright or have an off-grid alternative that costs almost nothing to run.
Physical Sovereignty — 2 of 3
How dependent are you on your utility suppliers for water, energy, and heat?
A
Completely. If they fail, the lights turn off, the house goes cold, and we would need to buy in water.
B
Mostly. If they fail we would be in the dark, but we have firewood and a wood stove. We can boil rainwater if necessary.
C
Only partially. We have a battery system, a small generator, a water filter, and a wood stove.
D
Largely independent. I have off-grid water and energy systems that sustain us without utility suppliers.
Physical Sovereignty — 3 of 3
Based on what you have observed around your home over the past five years — will it be a secure and healthy place to live as you age?
A
Yes. Great neighbours, clean environment, strong community cohesion. I feel secure here long term.
B
Mostly. Some concerns about cost of living or community change but nothing that alarms me yet.
C
Increasingly uncertain. I notice community cohesion weakening and environmental changes — fewer insects, birds disappearing — and wonder about the next 20 years.
D
No. Community cohesion is eroding, the environment is deteriorating visibly, and I have serious doubts about whether this place will support a good quality of life as I age.
Inner Sovereignty — 1 of 4
When governments and media push a strong narrative — health recommendations, financial advice, social initiatives — how do you respond?
A
I trust official sources and follow the guidance without question.
B
I follow along but feel some unease. I occasionally question but rarely act on my doubts.
C
I research independently and form my own view, but social pressure often shapes my final decision.
D
I complete my own research and make an independent decision based on my own findings — regardless of the narrative and regardless of what people around me are doing.
Inner Sovereignty — 2 of 4
When you feel financial anxiety — checking prices, watching markets, worrying about the future — what do you do?
A
Do nothing except worry. The anxiety just sits there.
B
React out of fear. I often make decisions from the anxiety rather than from clear thinking.
C
I notice the fear and try not to act from it, with mixed success.
D
I have built enough physical sovereignty that the financial anxiety has mostly dissolved. The system's prices no longer reach my nervous system the way they used to.
Inner Sovereignty — 3 of 4
Over the past five years, have you noticed a gradual erosion of the feeling of personal freedom — surveillance increasing, choices narrowing, decisions that affect your life being made further and further from you?
A
No. I feel as free as I ever did.
B
Vaguely. Something feels different but I cannot quite name it.
C
Yes. I notice it regularly — in small things and large ones.
D
Clearly. I have named it, studied it, and am actively building my life outside its reach.
Inner Sovereignty — 4 of 4
How much of your identity is built around your career, your title, your LinkedIn profile, or your professional role?
A
Almost entirely. I am what I do.
B
Significantly. Leaving my career would feel like losing myself.
C
Somewhat. I have other sources of identity but the career still matters more than I'd like.
D
My identity has separated from my professional role. I know who I am without it.
One final question
In 1940s occupied France, a young man came to Jean-Paul Sartre with an impossible choice. His brother had been killed by the Germans. His ageing mother depended on him alone. The Free French forces needed fighters.
Fight for the abstract cause — freedom, sovereignty, a different future. Or stay and honour the concrete obligation in front of him.
Sartre refused to tell him what to do. He said: "You are free. Choose."
Here is your version of the same question.
Duty to the everyday
My family, my mortgage, my obligations. I cannot move yet.
Duty to the abstract cause
Building sovereignty, creating a different future. I need to begin.
Sartre called this "bad faith" — living according to roles and obligations assigned by others rather than chosen by you. It is not a moral failure. It is the most human of positions. But be honest about what it costs. A life lived entirely in response to obligation, without movement toward your own authentic choice, gradually hollows out. You are not choosing your future. You are letting others choose it for you.
"If you do not plan, you become part of someone else's plan."
Duty to the abstract cause
The harder, more honest choice
Sartre would recognise this. But the obligations you feel to your family are real — and living in a way that abandons them entirely is its own form of bad faith. The path forward is not abandonment. It is building something real alongside what you already carry. Reduce what you need. Build the node. Let the denominator change. A person who is building sovereignty is a better parent, partner, and provider than one who is slowly hollowed out by a system they no longer believe in. The people who depend on you need your authentic self — not the compliant version the system prefers.