Protect What You Built
The financial system you have built is only as strong as what backs it up.
What it is
Protection means ensuring that illness, redundancy or an unexpected death cannot dismantle the financial structure you have spent years building. It covers income protection, life cover, and a true emergency fund. Not insurance for its own sake. Protection for the system's sake.
When you need it
Stage 6, after you have built wealth worth protecting. Buying protection before you have assets or income to cover reduces its value. Once your buffer, goals, and investments are in place, protection is what makes them durable.
Why it works
Every system is fragile at a single point of failure. Identifying that point and insuring against it converts a good financial system into a resilient one. Most people never reach this stage because they protect too early or not at all. The right moment is after the foundations are solid. Only then.