The day I lost all my money

I was deep in the Himalayas in Northern Nepal on the 10th day of a 15 day hike. The altitude was just over 4000 meters and the clouds were rolling in so I decided to stop at a small refuge in the mountains. The rooms were very basic and unsecured so I decided to break my 25 year backpacking rule of diversification.

Usually I would split my travel money into 3 sections: The first batch consisting of my daily allowance will go into my shirt pocket with my credit card and passport. The second batch consisting of my hard currency ($, Euro etc) and 50% of my local currency would go into my wallet/money-belt and the last batch would be the other half of my local currency which I would hide in my backpack.

I was keen to do an acclimatisation hike up the mountain to a small monastery before sunset and in my haste decided to put all my money into my wallet and take it with me. I forgot all about it and that evening I joined the 6 or so other guests round the little Yak dung stove in the dimly lit dining room to escape the bitter cold.

When I woke the following morning I did what I always do, I re-packed my backpack to make sure that I had everything. My final check was to sort out my money diversification strategy. After going through all my pockets I realized that my wallet was missing. At first I thought nothing of it and unpacked everything in order to locate it. As I checked every pocket I started to get that cold, clammy uneasy feeling.

I calmly walked down to the place where we sat the previous night and looked under all the tables and chairs. I then went back to my room and, being in full denial, re-checked everything. At that moment the gravity of my situation started to dawn on me. I had 5 days of tough hiking to get off the mountain and back to civilization. Without money to pay for food and shelter I was completely dependent on the charity of other people for my survival.

In a full panic I rushed back down to the lounge in the hope of a miracle, and I encountered one. The Sherpa guide of one of the other guests saw my frantic search and asked if I was looking for my money belt. I actually became dizzy with relieve when I realized that I was going to be okay.

Now you can ask me, what is the moral of the story? And my answer is DIVERSIFICATION!!

If you go through life and start building up a portfolio of assets through diligent and responsible investing, the most unnecessary and gutted feeling you will ever encounter will be the permanent loss of all your savings due to betting everything on one single asset.

And remember! The "safest" place might not be that safe!