On Surviving A Personal Financial Crisis - And Other Personal Finance Subjects Like Loans, Credit, Debt, Debt Management, And Saving Money

If you are prepared for a recession then the you should be able to prosper during the recession. Being able to prosper during a recession is where you want to be financially. In my lifetime there have been five recessions; 1973, 1980, 1990, 2001, and 2008. Of the first four how often did you wish you had been in a position to take advantage of cheaper real estate or cheap stocks. If you were old enough to have understood the opportunities, and I guess cared, then you remember thinking about wanting to have been in a position to take advantage of the financial opportunities that a recession can bring. Most recessions in modern history have been very short only lasting a year or two. But, before the 1960s recessions usually lasted for at least five years. Can you imagine an economy so bad that it takes five years for it to recover. The longest recession in U.S. history lasted for twenty-three years. The point is that if you prepare for a recession you can prosper during a recession. many people who are wealthy today became rich because they were in the right place at the right time, and they were prepared. Read more »

Good planning is essential to prepare for a recession. Just because the recession does not seem to be affecting you know does not mean that you should not plan and prepare for the possibility that the recession will inject itself into your life. Preparing for a recession means setting aside funds to cover expenses if a layoff occurs. Preparing for a recession means creating a budget so you are able to make the necessary critical choices. Preparing for a recession means tracking your expenses so that if you have to make budget cuts you can make intelligent decisions that will not affect your financial future or your current lifestyle.

There are three things you need to do to properly prepare for a recession. Read more »

Many times when preparing for a recession people do not think of reducing debt as a strategy. But, if you have sufficient income and are able to save money to be used for surviving a recession and you have a good chunk left over you should really consider paying down your debt as a means of further protecting yourself from a recession.

Every bit of debt that you pay off increases your monthly cash flow. The better your monthly cash flow the better your chances are of surviving a recessions. Over the last thirty or forty years many people have used credit cards, home equity lines of credit, and other debt instruments as a means to live beyond their income capabilities. Read more »

Creating multiple small streams of income is probably one of the best ways to prepare for a recession. It is not just enough to increase you income as a means of surviving a recession. If you loose that single source of income the recession will affect you just the same. By, increasing your income through multiple small streams of income your are protecting that new income by spreading it over multiple sources. This means that if one stream of income dries up it will not affect your strategy for surviving a recession as much as if you had only a single source of income.

Preparing for a recession requires the implementation of two actions. Either reducing expenditures or increasing income; or both. These are the only ways to survive a recession. By creating multiple small streams of income you are hedging against the possibility that any one single income source will disappear. Read more »

When thinking about how to prepare for a recession there are drastic steps that nobody wants to take but may be necessary. If you plan ahead, have a clear realistic strategy, then you should not have to take drastic steps to take in order to survive a recession. But, just in case the worst case scenario does occur you need to think about these drastic measures that may be necessary to financially survive a recession. I would do everything possible to avoid implementing these drastic measures. If you have to use any of these measures to survive a recession you will be hurting your financial future. Read more »