I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand.

It's time for some money rehab. Doomsday prepping used to be a very niche category but after the past few

years we've had the preppers are a little less fringe and in fact there are new preppers. They are the top 1%.

Today we're going to take a look at the totally wild and a little spooky prepper economy.

When I talk about the prepper economy, I'm not just talking about stocking up on non-perishables.

The world's wealthiest people are doing survival, but making it fashion.

Today's billionaires are building bunkers that are straight out of some

dystopian nightmare with moats of fire and water cannons and no I am not kidding.

So let's take a step back because you're probably thinking lapin what is driving this frenzy for ultra secure hideaways?

Well, it's a fun cocktail of anxieties, civil unrest, cyber threats, nuclear warfare, climate change, I mean take your pick.

Oh and let's not forget the global pandemic, which was a particularly salient reminder

of how quickly everyday life can spiral.

And then there are all the apocalyptic movies and shows that are coming out.

All of the streamers have their own version of this.

Netflix has Leave the World Behind, Max, formerly known as HBO Max, has The Last of Us, and Hulu has Handmaids towel.

I mean, a luxury safe room was even featured on an episode of keeping up with the

Kardashians and the provider of that Atlas survival shelters

now says they sell one of these luxury safe rooms every day at $200,000 a pop.

So enter bunker mania and like any mania it feeds on itself. So when it goes

public that very knowledgeable plugged in people start building doomsday

dens for themselves more people feel like they need to do that too.

For example, it made waves that Mark Zuckerberg announced he was building a shelter under his ranch in Hawaii.

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