I'm sure many of you have heard that the white house has said that a recession isn't inevitable, which makes me think that it is, in fact, inevitable.
I've purged unneeded subscriptions, eating out, and now I only travel by car when necessary, which is fairly often unfortunately. what else can be done to soften the blow?
gradually stockpile long lasting food like canned stuff and rice
don't buy it all in one go like a prick though, get a few things every time you go shopping
Things the capitalist class wants:
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Unemployed workers to squeeze of their savings (how dare money be sitting in worker bank accounts doing nothing! how dare they thats my thing!) so they are desperate for a job, any job
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Inflation while not raising wages, as this increases wealth inequality in their favor
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You to be renting, which can deplete your savings faster than owning a house with zero equity in your favor
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You to take out loans, liens, and so on in order to pay your bills, preferably at the highest sustainable interest rate possible
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They want to invest in basic commodities no one can escape now in order to profit the most off of inflationary prices, such as fuel and food costs.
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For union boomers to retire so that they can jiggle workers around in order to break up union bases. Recession is the prime time to do it.
Things they don't want
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For you to be flexible with your job choices and remote work. In fact, I think thats the main reason (aside from the typical once a decade crash) things are going the way they are now. If you are able to find a remote work job that requires little work and is a lot of sitting around, you could get a second job as insurance just in case one is insecure. Alternatively, if you have an in person job that has a lot of down time, consider a second remote job to work on at work. This isn't grind culture, its more of a 'oh shit I got laid off I don't want to drain all my savings and be desperate and take out loans because I have maybe 2 months of cash if I'm lucky' culture. If nothing bad happens during spooky times, you can choose between the better of the two jobs and keep it later.
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For you to live with someone in an owned and paid for home for free or cheap
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For you to grow your own food and buy and eat the least inflated foods
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For you to avoid using fuel (remote jobs and jobs close to area of living)
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For you to avoid taking loans out
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For you to reduce your energy consumption to save money
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For you to unionize the workplace you work at. If you think you're gonna lose a job, you might as well do a Hail Mary! Alternatively if you're in a union, tell members that this is the most dangerous time to retire
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For you to communally manage your funds with other people in order to get good bank accounts that have high interest returns on your savings account to avoid inflation a little.
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For you to buy in bulk dry, long lasting foods you like so that you don't spend as much later on them due to stagflation
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Growing food plants to supplement your diet is always a plus if possible, several stalks of green onions grown at home is several stalks worth of green onions saved, in addition to flavoring up your food.
Buying in bulk then portioning out is good too. An example of this could be like buying a whole pork loin or whatever then processing it at home and then plastic wrapping and freezing it for needed occasions. Might seem pricy at first, but the more meals you can get out of that one large bulk good is that many meals you'd save on if you bought the smaller sold portions at the store.
Cutting back on more individualist style meals such as burgers, sandwich wraps, pan-cooked stuff, etc. And trying make more collectivist style meals, like soups, stews, salads, dutch oven, slow cooker stuff, etc. Let's you make more food efficiently with less wastage, and let's you either enjoy multiple meals out of one cooking session -that you can also refrigerate or freeze.
That doesn't mean you gotta just stop enjoying individualistic foods and eat slop like a peasant, it just means mixing up your diet more to help stretch your dollar.
Move back in with your parents or move in with roommates to save money. It sucks but it seems inevitable
I just moved out of my dad's house 6 months ago. He said if things got too hard, I'd be welcome to come back. But then mf'er sold his dang house and is moving to Georgia. The offer's still on the table to come with him, but I don't wanna do Georgia, lmao.
He said if things got too hard, I’d be welcome to come back.
:wholesome:
But then mf’er sold his dang house and is moving to Georgia.
:agony-wholesome:
Try to be prepared for extended surprise unemployment. Some companies will downsize, and it'll be hard to get back in, as a lot more will freeze hiring. Cutting costs and saving up are good ways to do that. Setting aside some rice and beans are a good idea too, since food inflation looks to be so likely.
If you're lucky enough to have steady employment and a comfortable safety fund, a recession is actually a good time to put money into the stock market. Just put a fixed amount per week or month into an index fund and try not to think about it. You'll lose money while the market is going down, but you'll end up having bought more while it was low, so you get a good deal overall. In a few years when the market stops shitting itself, it'll turn into a nice pile of money. Obviously, if you can't afford to set aside money that you won't be able to use for years, you can't participate in this. I never said it's a good system. In fact, if it was a good system, I wouldn't be here.
Get involved in mutual aid, since we all benefit from things like communal cooking.
Most other recommendations essentially amount to poverty finance, i.e. strategies to spend less money overall. Bulk buying food, moving away from disposable items when cheap reusables are available, cooking your own food, making your own processed foods (a good blender + salted peanuts = really good peanut butter), get a bidet so you need very little TP, get a TP stockpile, stock up on vitamins and store in a cool, dark place, minimize driving, maximize active transportation, buy good health insurance if you can afford it, find a stable rent situation or buy if you have the means.
Buying gold is a good hedge for multiple scenarios, including inflation, particularly hyperinflation. But also now you're a gold weirdo and you've gotta properly secure it somewhere, so keep that in mind. In the case of hyperinflation or some other crisis, the gold is your ticket out of the country and the only wealth you'll be able to take with you to China or wherever.
If you have the money, land is also a decent hedge, particularly if it can be productive.
Is liquidizing assets a good call or not?
I'm weirdly sort of in the market for a house, as there are some markets in Canada that aren't ravaged yet, but it seems a moot point if we're being dragged down.
If you're legitimately looking to buy a house I think a recession is the time to do it no? Could be cheaper
I'm just going to buy far into the woods, and open my land/home to comrades.
The catch to this is that it either requires you to produce everything on-site or become very vulnerable to fuel prices and infrastructure integrity.
People need people, or at least they do better around a good amount of other people. I think the opportunity for communization lies in smaller urban areas, especially if you can find a place that's affordable and still has something interesting going for it. I wouldn't know where to look in Canada, though.
Yeah but the clock is ticking on my current living situation, and the rental market near me is ridiculous. My purchasing plan involves moving to the other side of the country, it's not the easiest thing to line up right now.
Ahh fuck yeah the rental situation near me is bonkers also,could you easily change jobs and move?
How long can you hold on to a loan approval for after you get it?
I was able to lock in for 3 months max, but 1 month at the best rate. Note these were variable and last year before our prime jumped. So not sure what that looks like now. I'm not too worried, I have a downpayment, and ultimately 4% to even 8% doesn't really matter as it will still be cheaper than rent.
I don't know what kind of assets you're talking about liquidizing, but if you're talking stonks, selling off while the market is already falling isn't a good idea on average.
If you can afford to wait for housing prices to start falling (a year?) then I would. Usually everything crashes at once. Don't worry about trying to get in at the bottom of the market, just once it's already on the way down is fine.
I was asking it in a roundabout way. Essentially I have no non-liquid assets, and want to make sure that the correct path is keeping it as such.
I think the western world, especially USA and Canada, is in a really weird situation where they arent building adequate housing... at all, to keep up with the population growth and landlord ownership rates. Meanwhile, landlords are buying everything up with very few limits stopping them. Many cities have seen the share of rentals go from 20-30% to 50-60% in ~5 years coupled with low new build rates. Odds are if you buy now you'll get money out of it. If not, well, at least you'll get some equity out of it.
Also, rents are soaring so high that honestly locking into a price with a mortgage is a safer bet. In a year the mortgage will be cheaper than rent.
Am Canadian baby, my retirement is funded by a turning grinder of young people replacing old people in time before it all breaks. And one party being determined to break that grinder as fast as possible.
Grow potatos. Store potatos. Eat potatos. Make friends with at least one small local farm, maybe do some work for them even. So if food really starts becoming expensive, unavailable, or the quality drops out, you have a chance to source something good and have a knowledgeable source in the matter.
Buy a can of beans or soup every time you shop
Buy a box of ammo every couple of weeks
Unironically buy gold as it's an inflation hedge. Keep in mind the value is just what wholesalers fixed it to be during the day. Will still go down because America tanks the world economy too. Silver has been recommended but I don't because it's volatile. If you have a lot of money you can figure out what part of the business cycle you are in to cash in on the cheap stocks for a rebound. Other than that might as well stock up on beans and rice since the leeches will raise the prices.
