I know that recessions are painful – boy, do I know that! I’ve lived through decades with multiple downs to the economy. Sometimes, we would just dig ourselves out of the last downturn, only to get smacked in the face with the next one.
What changed?
The economy got better. We didn’t use that to upgrade our style of living. We did without for a long time, to pay down a considerable amount of consumer debt.
We didn’t do everything right – in fact, we still made some bonehead financial moves. However, our particular slice of the pie – science teaching – was, for several decades, a stable profession.
You can likely keep your mortgage, although if you have some cash stashed away, paying it down makes some sense, particularly if you can re-fi at a good rate, and with a low monthly payment. Anything that reduces your monthly outflow is a good thing.
For those who were planning to buy a house, now is the time. The prices will go up, AND the cost of the mortgages will also skyrocket. That happened to us in the mid-70s. It was more than 15 years before we managed to scrape up enough to buy a house for the first time. In that time, we were renters, and accumulating no net worth.
For some time, we’ve had a long run of no or little inflation. That’s been helpful for those of us on fixed incomes. It’s enabled us to keep within our budget, without slipping backward.
It sucked.
But, probably the most important thing to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t buy the most house you can afford. Keep your housing modest. You want to be able to afford rising taxes, increased cost of goods, and the cost of heating/cooling. That last is crucial – managing the utilities on a big house, however luxurious, will suck down your cash like Kamala You-Know-Who. Better to under-house than live it up.
1 comment
A former coworker, a loonie-Leftie fellow Tribe member, once sneered when I discussed the possibility of financial collapse.
BWAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!