I guess it is official, we’re in a Recession. It is official because the economists have declared it so. Apparently the recession started in December 2007, so we’ve been in a recession for about 1 year now.
The good news is that it has felt like a recession for about a year. It seem like I’ve personally been in a recession for about a year. The economic news seemed like a recession for about a year. So my radar is working. In fact, most people’s radar is working.
The bad news is that the economy will likely get worse before it gets better.
The realistic perspective is even slightly closer to home. If it feels like a recession, act like it; if the economic news is personally bad, we should behave as if we get it. The larger economy, in most cases, won’t overwhelm my own personal economy in a positive or negative way.
What I mean is that we don’t need an economist to tell us that the US economy is in recession to decide to reign in our spending. If I spend more money than I earn, even in a good economy, I will eventually fall into a personal recession and then….you guessed it, depression.
Ride out the recession with financial discipline. Spend less than earnings, increase income, reduce debt, reduce lazy assets and develop a short and long-term plan. For people that have already done this type of planning and belt tightening, then ’stick to the plan’ is the order of the day.
For everyone else, the people most likely to ride out the recession financially intact are those that get started right now on a simple plan to turn things around. That is why I started Smart Money For Life, to help people help themselves to financial health.
It is possible to thrive, even in a down economy. And it’s not just about being frugal – there are many opportunities to actually increase income and earnings. For the forward thinkers, it is not enough to ‘ride out the recession’, it’s much more intelligent to decide to not participate in the recession at all!
Look for opportunities, start that second career as a business owner, turn your hobby into a business – think outside the box! People are flocking to network marketing opportunities, spurred by the recession pressures, but also attracted to the many benefits of network marketing. Robert Kiyosaki talks about the eight hidden values of a network marketing business, not counting making money.
If we employ personal financial discipline, educated planning, and look for positive opportunities, we won’t need an economist to tell us when the economy is out of recession. In fact, there are many millionaires made in every single recession. Recessions are a huge redistribution of wealth; a great deal of wealth changes hands, it doesn’t just disappear. Most people will know the recession is over because they feel like they can loosen their belt; the rest will have created opportunities to end their personal participation in the recession long before belt loosening is popular!
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