We prepare for a crash by having different goals than everyone else. We don't care about making as much money as possible. My wife and I have made good money a

We prepare for a crash by having different goals than everyone else. We don't care about making as much money as possible. My wife and I have made good money and instead of investing it or keeping it in my company's stock (AMZN, great investment right?) we've cashed all of it in ASAP and paid down the mortgage. Sure, some RRSPs and TFSAs (401k and roth ira equivalents), but for the most part it's just been aggressively attacking the mortgage. The bank lets us make double payments, with the extra going to the principal. It also lets us dump 10% of the total loaned amount once per year. And my wife and I have done this all aggressively. We borrowed nearly half a million CDN$ because Toronto housing is stupidly expensive, and we'll have it paid off in the 7th year. If the markets crash, we'll be living rent/mortgage free (or close to it), and can invest all our income at the bottom of the crash. If they don't, I'll still be rent free. If one of us loses our job, we can refinance the mortgage, pay the minimum, and get by on one income. We even keep a cushion in our bank account equal to 6 months bills and base mortgage payments. Our goal is not to make as much money as possible. It's to minimize the risk that we ever go broke, that we ever need to worry about money. My father gave me a piece of advice once that's stuck with me: if you earn an extra dollar, you have to pay tax on it. If you reduce your expenses by a dollar, you get to keep it all.