Economy
Results found in:
Blog Posts,
News,
Websites,
Blog Posts:
If You Knew For Certain That Your Life Was About To Change
And not in a good way, what would you do to get ready?
I admit that I didn’t know for sure that the business my husband and I own and operate would eventually be hit hard by the downturn in the economy, but of course, I suspected as much.
It just makes sense, doesn’t it, that some clients are going to have to cut back on the goods and services they formerly purchased from us, until their own businesses are back on a better footing? Still, until last Friday, our corporation continued to earn as much money—-or more—-than before things started going south.
But all that’s changed now, if this past week’s news is any indication. In fact, after hearing from three separate long-term clients, we’re estimating that upwards of 40% of our income will be disappearing within the next month.
We’ll be scrambling to find new clients to replace this loss, but in the meantime, I’m happy that I’ve made some significant changes to our personal balance sheet that will serve us well going forward.
It’s useful to imagine bad scenarios in life, if only so that we can prepare ourselves to withstand hardship if and when it arrives. And honestly, is there ever a circumstance in life that can’t be mitigated more easily from a debt-free position?
Getting completely out of debt (except for a smallish mortgage) has given us a far better return-on-effort than any investment in the stock market has ever returned. Toward the end of working our Dave Ramsey-style debt snowball, I think I was sending two-thirds of our monthly income to finish off that final bill.
And guess what? No sooner did we make the last payment than the stock market crashed. We lost plenty of money, but the impact on our net worth would have been truly terrible if we’d had a pile of debt on the other side of the equation.
As it was, our net worth took a dip but not for long. Because the very next project I undertook after satisfying the debt was to start accumulating a much more generous emergency fund than we’d ever had before. Plus a car replacement fund, a home repairs fund, a Christmas fund, and well…you get the idea.
I didn’t know our car was going to start behaving really badly, causing us to realize that we needed to update with a late model used car sooner than we’d planned. But when the time came, we actually had the cash saved up in advance—-something of a miracle for us!
Last week, right after the exterior of our house got wrecked by hail and before we found out about our business problems, we closed on a refinance. We lowered our rate, shortened the remaining term to ten years, and will be saving $400 per month.
So, yeah. Our lives are changing, and our successful business is facing difficulties we couldn’t exactly predict. And yet, in a way, we could. I don’t imagine we’re going to have the easiest time getting through this period, but I do know this: If we hadn’t buckled down and prepared for an uncertain future, we’d be in much worse shape going into this than we are.
Any steps you could take now that would soften a blow, should it come? Why not get started, while the stress isn’t as great as it would be during a full-blown disaster?
Who knows? It could even turn out that your pre-emptive efforts will keep disaster from striking at all. Or, if it does, its effects won’t take as desperate a toll.
Posted by Katy on 06/26/09 in
Economy,
Personal Finance,
Debt-Free
— 4 Comment(s)
News:
The U.S. economy will enter “hyperinflation” approaching the levels in Zimbabwe because the Federal Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates, investor Marc Faber said.
Posted on 05/28/09 in
Economy,
Personal Finance
"Compared to other people that say it's going to be a doomsday, I could be considered an optimist."
Posted on 05/28/09 in
Economy,
Personal Finance
By domiciling in Florida, I will personally save $13,800 every single day. That's a pretty strong incentive.
Posted on 05/30/09 in
Economy,
Personal Finance
After last year's market meltdown wiped away huge chunks of their savings, more investors have decided to seek professional help. Just not from a financial advisor.
Posted on 06/07/09 in
Economy,
Personal Finance,
Health
Fueled by a potent mix of facts, fiction and hyperbole, these economic doomsday-ers envision a financial apocalypse that will render money worthless and normal commerce impossible.
Posted on 06/09/09 in
Economy,
Survivalism
The brute force of the recession earlier this year turned back the clock on Americans' personal wealth to 2004 as home values shrank and investments withered.
Posted on 06/12/09 in
Economy,
Personal Finance
Repairs for rural bridges, an under-highway safe crossing for turtles and efforts to protect the sage grouse population are among 100 projects a Republican senator pointed to as questionable federal stimulus spending.
Posted on 06/16/09 in
Economy,
World Events
The plan would give the government new powers to seize key companies whose failure jeopardizes the financial system.
Posted on 06/16/09 in
Economy
The largest expansion of U.S. health care since the creation of Medicare in 1965 may emerge from legislation designed to reshape the medical industry and change how Americans receive and pay for care.
Posted on 06/17/09 in
Economy,
Healthcare
An analysis of emergency room usage in the central Texas area found that in the last six years, just nine residents accounted for a whopping 2,678 visits.
Posted on 06/17/09 in
Economy,
Healthcare
Shoppers in Germany will soon be able to buy gold as easily as bars of chocolate after a firm announced plans to install vending machines selling the precious metal across the country.
Posted on 06/17/09 in
Economy,
Personal Finance,
World Events
The Treasury and the Fed have committed the American taxpayer to $13.8 trillion of debt and before the dollar goes where it is ultimately going that figure could reach $30 trillion. In modern times such fiscal and monetary irresponsibility is unparalleled. This abdication of moral responsibility has already begun the process of dollar deterioration and rising interest rates. The result will soon be hyperinflation.
Posted on 06/17/09 in
Economy
Taxation is theft, the best way to combat it is to understand every legal deduction you can take or create.
Posted on 06/19/09 in
Economy,
Personal Finance
As a resident of Marlinton told me, "When you got nothin', you got nothin' to lose. That's recession in West Virginia."
Posted on 06/20/09 in
Self-Reliance,
Economy,
Frugality
As the recession lingers, some Phoenix-area residents are shifting attention from their financial troubles, including falling home values and shrinking retirement savings, to stockpiling food and amm
Posted on 06/24/09 in
Economy,
Emergency Preparedness,
Survivalism
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put cap-and-trade legislation on a forced march through the House, and the bill may get a full vote as early as Friday. It looks as if the Democrats will have to destroy the discipline of economics to get it done.
Posted on 06/25/09 in
Economy,
Environment
Some Amish Lived It Up Until Hard Times Hit; Dinners Out and LED-Appointed Carriages
Posted on 07/02/09 in
Economy,
Personal Finance
Gerald Celente of the Trends Research Institute has been telling everyone who will listen that Obamageddon is coming. He says that by 2012 we will see food riots, tax protests, farmer rebellions, student revolts, squatter dig ins homeless uprising, mob rule and terror.
Posted on 07/04/09 in
Economy,
World Events
One of the greatest problems for the prepper is getting family and friends on board without alienating them or terrifying them into inaction.
Posted on 07/04/09 in
Economy,
Emergency Preparedness,
Survivalism
Even before the collapse of the housing and financial markets last year, Americans were woefully unprepared to pay retirement in the traditional sense of a post-career period of leisure and personal pursuits supported by a pension, well-managed nest egg and Social Security.
Posted on 07/31/09 in
Economy,
Personal Finance
Websites:
Daily web log for prepared individuals living in uncertain times. SurvivalBlog is dedicated to family preparedness, survival, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency. Since its launch in 2005, SurvivalBlog has become established as the Internet’s most popular daily blog on survival and preparedness topics.
in
Economy,
Emergency Preparedness,
Homesteading,
Survivalism,
Security,
World Events
A personal money management expert, Dave Ramsey is an extremely popular national radio personality and best-selling author of The Total Money Makeover, Financial Peace and More Than Enough. Through his proven plan, Ramsey helps people eliminate debt and credit cards, learn to budget, avoid bankruptcy, build wealth and find financial peace.
in
Economy,
Personal Finance
Site Index
Select from list to view blog posts, news, articles, websites, etc. for that topic:
