How To Survive The Great Depression

Our mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers survived a Great Depression. Can we, too?

Depending on who you believe, the Great Depression is coming, or we’re already in a Great Depression, which may indeed rival the Great Depression of 1929.

In either case, it wouldn’t hurt to know how to survive a Great Depression.

In today’s Great Depression, a few patterns are evident. For starters, housing prices have yet to stabilize in most communities. This means you might be better off staying put in the house you currently own or renting, instead of buying. Next, jobs are hard to come by. This means that you should do everything you can to keep the one you have, because quitting might mean an extended period of unemployment. Finally, banks are reticent to lend. Gone are the days of easy car loans, fat home equity lines of credit, and working capital for small businesses. You’ll need to serve as your own bank, which means saving as much money as you can, every month.

Here are some practical tips for how to survive the coming Great Depression:
•Cut back immediately on all types of non-essential spending.
•Make as much money as you can (get a part-time job, work overtime, start a small business).
•Save as much money as you can, put it in a separate savings account, and don’t touch it.
•Be careful about buying a house; you might not be able to sell it later for what you paid.
•Hold on to the job you’ve got; finding a new one could be difficult.