Dealing with the Recession the Right Way: How to be Great in 2008

By Dr. Boyce Watkins
www.BoyceWatkins.com

You may have heard from the “financial experts” on TV that the recession is coming. For lack of a better phrase, many of us might be tempted to say “no duh”. Hearing a rich person on TV tell you that hard times are on the way is like being knee deep in water and getting a rain alert from the weather man.

Most Americans knew the recession was here when they started losing their homes in the subprime lending crisis. Many others learned about the recession when they could not afford heat for their homes, health care for their families, or college tuition for their children. According to a recent Gallup poll, 50% of all Americans expect their standard of living to decline. We don’t need a Suzie Orman, Larry King or some random journalist to tell us that.

As a financial researcher, I saw the recession coming 2 years ago during my fellowship with the Center for European Economic Research. The data showed, quite clearly, that Americans were managing their money like a pack of drunken sailors. We were over spending, over borrowing, under saving and under investing. That combination is never good in the long-term. Financial chickens always come home to roost.

We weren’t exactly seeing a good example from the Federal government, who has taken the word “conservative” out of the term “Conservative Republican”. Spending on a war that cost entirely too much, we were borrowing in a manner that even scared people who don’t care about politics. If our government were a college student, he would be getting an angry phone call from his mother.

It is not my belief that we should worry about the government when it comes to getting through the recession. The highly publicized “stimulus package” is only designed to stimulate you to do more of what got you in this mess in the first place. Giving Americans money back in hopes that they will spend it is like getting the drug addict high again to avoid the hangover.

“Personally responsibility” is a phrase often used by conservatives toward the poor. But it is also the key phrase here, as many have demanded that the government bail out those of us who bought homes we could not afford, stopped saving for retirement, or took extra hits from the “credit card crack pipe”. All of us make mistakes, but it is important to learn from the mistakes to move forward in prosperity.

Here are some quick lessons we can learn from the current economic downturn. The recession “out there” in the broader economy has little to do what is going on in your own home. In fact, my grandmother used to say that growing up “The Great Depression was business as usual for black folk. We didn’t know there even was a depression in the first place and we never really saw it come to an end.”

1) Budget Budget Budget – Most Americans don’t keep a budget and it leaves us in a financial mess. Spending money without a budget is like driving your car without a map. At the end of the day, you don’t really get anywhere meaningful and just end up running out of gas.

2) Use government help as a stepping stone, never as a crutch – if the government sends you a tax refund, save it. They are also making it easier for those with more expensive homes to get 3% mortgages, subsidized by tax payer money. Subsidized mortgages are a much better use of tax payer resources than blowing it on Iraq. Look into these options and learn what opportunities are available for you.

3) Take stock of your financial life – Calculate your net worth, which is the market value of all your assets, minus the debt you owe. Being in debt is not a terrible thing, but not trying to get out of debt can be a problem. If you are a professional, take account of the amount in your retirement savings and find out if your company has options for retirement investing.

4) Kill a Credit Card Today – Find a credit card and slice that son of a bitch in half. Most of us have 4 or 5 of them, so just pick one and see if you can go on a cash budget. In fact, you may want to give yourself a cash allowance in order to control your frivolous spending. Credit cards really do seem like free money, which impacts the perception of our spending.

5) Declare a One Month Spending Freeze – For four straight weeks, try to only pay necessary bills. Don’t go to the mall, don’t go out to eat, don’t buy any new clothes, shoes, hair, or fur coats for your puppy. Take the extra income you will get from the freeze (calculated in your budget) and put that money into your retirement plan or brokerage account. If you don’t have one, get one right now.
Habits are created by a series of seemingly insignificant actions, all headed in the same direction. The depths of despair serve as incubators for our greatest achievements. Let’s be wealthy and great in 2008.