5 Ways to Protect Yourself in a Bad Economy
It can always be difficult to predict when bad times are ahead, but you should always have some kind of plan in mind when the economy makes a turn for the worse. There are many different ways in which you can prepare yourself for a rough economy, and you should never wait until the bad times are here to plan your escape. By planning ahead, you can actually make sure that nothing will go wrong for you in a recession. By becoming more aware of what is going on in the economy, you can actually better prepare yourself for any kind of economic downturn that could affect your job in the future. You should basically use your knowledge of what to do in a bad economy as insurance against going broke. Here are some ways that you can protect yourself when times are bad.
Gillard and the 4 sponge banks by Leonard John Matthews, on Flickr. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Store Assets Instead of Cash
If you look at the trends in all of the recessions in human history, you should realize that it is usually better to own hard assets instead of cash or stocks. You want to own things like real estate, gold and silver when the economy takes a turn for the worse because these assets will always have value. At the end of the day, the dollars in your bank account are nothing more than ones and zeros.
Purchase Insurance for Unemployment
Not everyone has access to government unemployment insurance, so you need to make sure that you are prepared in this kind of situation. Whether you decide to put some savings to the side or actually purchase an insurance plan, the point is that you need to have something to turn to in a scenario where you lose your job. Taking out mortgage protection will ensure that you don’t lose your home should your position be made redundant.
Stay Out of the Stock Market When It’s High
If you are thinking about investing in the stock market for your future, then you need to make sure that you are investing at the right time. You should actually wait until the economy gets bad before you invest in the stock market because that is when you will be able to get the best prices. You could end up losing a lot of money if you buy any kind of asset at an all-time high.
Understand the Value of Friends and Family
When times get tough, you need to have a support system around you that will help you get through your time without any source of income. It always makes sense to have friends and family when it comes to insuring yourself against poor economic conditions.
Learn a Skill that Never Loses Value
The state of any job market can change at any time, so it’s important to make sure that you are good at something that will always have value. Whether you are a doctor, farmer or dentist, it’s important to remember that there are certain jobs out there that will always exist.
