I'd be a wizard.

Without intending to, I've collected a number of books that are your basic "how-to" for simple survival tricks and frontier fixes.

It's occurred to me that if civilization collapses my books would be some of the most valuable things around..

The lost arts. It would be the equivalent of having magic tomes, full of spells.

I mean, I'd have to have some engineer types around me, and a few military guys to guard me. People would come to me from far far away for answers.

Unless, of course, I shared them. But then, what currency would I have? Heh. I'd have to have apprentice wizards to actually go out and institute my "spells" without giving away the secrets.

There's a story there.