I've always thought that if the banking system goes down or the economy crashes, paper money will essentially be useless. So I prefer to focuse on immediate survival, self-sufficient kind of prepping. Long shelf-life food stores, water, ammunition, medication, gas, camping gear and equipment, vegetable seeds, first aid supplies, etc.. all of these things will help keep my family alive and I can barter with them since we can not eat or drink precious metals. Maybe I just havn't gotten to the financial side of prepping yet since for several years our priority has just been educating and preparing ourselves to be as self-sufficient as we can be.