RECESSIONS AREN'T GREAT,

Recessions aren't great, but they can help you financially. A couple steps to insulate yourself of the damage. The last time Donald Trump was president, in the world economy also crash. I read the US budget bill, paid attention to the news, information to make my investment decisions. Into Bytedance term, I cashed out all my stocks and used that money as the down payment on this house. I had to do this myself. I was a teen mom, and it's not like I have no generational wealth, and I've never met six figures in my life. I'm not from an urban area, and I went to school in for having poor education. I just invested what I could afford and learned as I went along. I've been through hardship in my life, and I honestly believe that if I can do this, very nearly anyone can. Started with about $500, and over the course of a few months added in an additional 1500. And over his entire presidency, I was able to turn that into around 13 grand. But, doesn't seem impressive to a lot of people, but time passes anyway, and it was enough for me. I have a USDA loan, so I only had half percent down on this house. No, it's not a former drug den. People always ask. I just happened to live inland. Whenever I talk, a bunch of people from like Oregon and California saying that wouldn't work here. Probably not, but again, like I'm in the middle of the country. I live in a lower cost of living area. I bought this house in 2022. Besides travel, I'm relatively frugal. Now I'm trying to use my proceeds to build low income housing in my area. I already have the land and our investments are around 90, 100 dollars for that. I'm currently considering setting up a community development corporation, but I do more research on those. I like the idea, but I actually need details before I run head first like I usually do. Noted before that once I get to around 10 grand, I'll start to do a lot more content on that side of things. And it's nearly here. So how do you actually survive and even take advantage of a recession? First, you have to protect your income. You cannot make progress if you're unemployed and burning through all of your money. It's highly advisable to have 6 to 12 months saved up in an account just in case, especially if you're in an industry that's likely to be affected by layoffs and bankruptcies. You need to get out of debt and stay out of debt. You can't be taking out personal loans with high interest rates to go to Jamaica, no matter how appealing that sounds. Debt is like a weight around your neck and heavier the worse the economy performs. If you do lose your job, try to hold off selling your invested assets. In a tight spot, you should be spending down your emergency fund. That's what it's there for. Sellable assets. And then if you're very nearly homeless and you're gonna starve to death, then sell your retirement. Do not jump straight to that. Please don't take out hardship loans. Many people will panic as the economy starts to sour and will wind up metaphorically shooting themselves in the foot. You do need a cash buffer. Lot of people just want to go 100% in investments, so scary to many reasons. I love my car. I looked far and wide for this specific vehicle. I would sell it tomorrow if the other option was selling my retirement. It's a good time to lower your expenses. If you cannot afford a giant 12 dollar payment that gets 8 miles to the gallon when gas is seven dollars, you probably need to get rid of it before everybody else catches on and tries to sell theirs too. But if you keep your job and make ends meet, a great time to invest in the stock market and create yourself a long-term nest egg or a down payment or pay for your kids college or take a bougie month-long trip to Europe when all of this is over. It's just whatever you want to do. Assets go on sale during a recession and a depression. Historically, the S&P 500 has recovered from every recession we've reached new highs. As long as you make decent decisions in what you invest in, you're likely to come out on top. I talk about investing in infrastructure, utilities, medicine, communications because that's not going anywhere regardless of how the economy does. Things like luxury, personal beauty, that's probably not going to do super well. These can seem really chaotic. A bunch of influencers or whatever that play on your emotion for clicks without any actual care about how that could affect you or your likelihood. Avoid the people that are telling you that the world is ending, need to rack up a bunch of debt because the entire system is going to collapse. It's extremely unlikely, it did, American Express is coming for your ass. So don't quit your job, reduce your debt, sell everything before retirement investments. Don't panic, quit listening to idiots. Like this is probably gonna get really weird, with the flow and try to not take everything super seriously.