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

On my way to work one morning, stuck in rush hour traffic, I looked out at the people in the other cars. I was struck by a realization, that although the people around me are all affected one way or another by the recession it was affecting them each in their own individual way. Following that line of thought, I realized that the idea of surviving a recession would probably have a different definition for each person. While some people have been directly affected by the recession, other people only know of the recession in news stories. People that know someone that has been directly affected by the recession, either themselves, friend or family, would look at surviving the recession in a completely different manner than someone that only knows of the recession from reading news articles about the recession or watching the nightly news. So that got me thinking about how surviving a recession would be defined by different people.

Obviously, surviving a recession means different things to different people. If you are middle class, with a decent income, surviving a recession is going to mean something completely different if you are wealthy or if you poor. By the same token surviving a recession will mean something different to a family that has only one person with a job. A single parent will view surviving a recession differently than someone that is the sole income producer for a family.

For instance, a wealthy family, with fully funded retirement plans, college funds for their children, good salaries and money in the bank may define surviving a recession as successfully shielding their investments from the ravages of the stock market that recessions create. For a wealthy family surviving a recession may mean protecting their child’s college fund. It is doubtful that an upper-class family would have any understanding of the desperate measures that many, less fortunate, families have to take to survive the recession. They would have no understanding what it means to have to choose between making the monthly mortgage payment or putting food on the table.

The same could be said about a two income middle class family. Obviously a family that has two incomes is much more likely to survive a recession than a family that relies on a sole bread winner. The fears and stresses would be completely different for a two income family compared to a single income family. A two income family may prepare for a recession by reducing discretionary spending like going to the movies or not taking a vacation, But, they can do that because they have two incomes and don’t have to go as far financially as a family that relies on a single earner. The family that relies on one person in the family will have many more financial fears and stresses and would not only have to consider reducing discretionary spending when preparing for a recession but would also have to consider families non discretionary spending and fixed costs as well. Spending like retirement savings, 401k plans, health insurance, car insurance, college funds, mortgage payments and the like would all be on the block. The decisions that a single earner family would have to make would be much more difficult to make and would have much more far reaching future financial repercussions than the decisions that a two income family would have to make to prepare for a recession.

For some families, that have already been affected by the recession the idea of preparing for a recession goes right out the door. They are in survival mode. To them surviving a recession may mean just keeping their house or not getting evicted from their apartment. Surviving a recession may mean cutting expenses to the bone, spending on non discretionary items like health insurance and the like are all possibilities. Their only thoughts are just about getting through these bad economic times to survive the recession until better times come along.

The definition for surviving a recession; what surviving a recession means is different for everyone. It means something completely different for different people depending on where you are on the socio economic ladder. It means something different for someone that has less of a social support system than someone that has a big family with multiple incomes and other people they can confidently depend on. Each of these groups has a different view of what it means to prepare for a recession as well. Each has different fears. So, the next time you are driving to work or going to lunch, look around you, realize that you are not alone in this recession. You are not alone in your recession fears. In these hard economic times everyone from all walks of life are making, what they perceive to be, hard decisions about preparing for a recession. Before this recession is over every person will think long and hard about the sacrifices they have to make to survive the recession. There are very few people that will not think about surviving a recession.

If you have not been affected by the recession yet, that does not mean you do not need to prepare for the recession. What it means is that you have just a bit more breathing room than the other person to prepare for the recession. You have a little more time to make those tough decisions that no likes to make, and most of us won’t make until we are confronted with reality. You need to think, now, about what you are going to do to survive the recession if it comes knocking at your door. What will preparing for a recession mean to you. What will surviving a recession mean to you.