Your 2009 Recession Survival Guide
Recession comes quite unexpectedly for some, for some they have been expecting it. There is no need to define recession, and all that there is. There is just one thing that we need for recession – survive!
A recession survival guide does not have to be a very grand thing. There are very small things that you can do to keep afloat during this time. But remember, every survival guide should be personalized. This should be molded according to your personal circumstances, and choices. Here are just simple measures you can take, and then flex it for your own use.
1. Reduce your debts. There may be some plans by the government to address the nation’s debt problems, but it can only do so much. Rough as it may sound, but survival entails every man (or family) for himself. So you should settle your debts as efficiently as possible.
2. Make extra efforts to land an extra job or to keep the one you have. Unemployment is rising, and joining the statistic does not sound very thrilling at all. So either ensure yourself that you are indispensible to your company or find an extra job to have extra money.
3. Make money out of your extra time and talents, if you do not have a fixed time for an extra job, you can try making some money out of your talents. Say, you love baking then you can try selling off pastries or cookies. You wouldn’t want all those talents go to waste.
4. Time filled means less time to go out. Sometimes, going out means swiping your card again, this could have been avoided if you just stayed at home. As mentioned earlier, if you fill your time with other worthwhile activities, you can prevent going out too much. This means, less gas or fare, less extra expenses, and more time to spare change to save.
5. Reduce your monthly fixed expenses. Think of it this way, you are eating burger, minus the extra mayo, the cheese, the extra patty, and all the other extras (it’s fatty anyway!). So you end up with a simple burger that soothes your hunger at a lower price.
6. Save up. It doesn’t matter if you just save a buck a day, it always come in handy for very hard days. You may also want to encourage your family to save a little; this will help the little ones value money from a very young age.
Remember, these are very small things, but this can go a long way for you to survive the recession.