Surviving a Bad Economy by Using Our Grandparents Example

We are not technically in a depression or recession, nor have we been recently. But for the past couple of years families and individuals alike have had to tighten their financial belt. While as a whole we don't know how our government will adequately continue to weather this financial abyss, our grandparents, through one of the greatest financial disasters in history-The Great Depression, taught us how-to do so individually.

Set Your Mind That You Will Get Through It. Most Americans have heard stories of people flinging themselves from windows due to the Stock Market crash of 1929. Despite what the true numbers of those who committed suicide actually are, the survivor's mindset is in opposite and clear-"I will survive this!" Your grandparents did, despite abnormally large increases in unemployment and bankruptcies, fall in the availability of credit, and currency fluctuation and devaluation. Sound familiar? A survivor's mindset like your grandparent's accepts what it is facing and utilizes everything at its disposal to get through it.

Expand Your Economic Horizons. Jobs were not plentiful during the Great Depression your grandparents faced and they are not plentiful now. Nonetheless, your grandparents took every opportunity afforded to them to make money, whether it was offered by someone or created by themselves. There was no in the box thinking when it came to bringing in money to put food on the table. For some of your grandparents they took what would necessarily seen as a basic skill-such as home baking, and attempted to capitalize on its economic value, great or small. The current troubled economy if looked at from a positive point of view, is an opportunity for you to do and try things you may not have before to earn additional income.

Save Where You Can. The one thing you know about your grandparents is that they were savors. They have little to no debt and a whole lot of cash socked away. This is because they cut costs, because they had to. And the habit stuck. Saving doesn't happen by just thinking about it. Saving takes place in the everyday. This allows for any "extra" no matter how small to be put aside. People are and can save in numerous ways. Coupon clipping is enjoying a resurgence, given high food prices. People are saving more money still by eating at home. Some people are opting to rent and sell their homes given devaluation of property values and the economic upkeep homeownership requires. Still others are opting for public or other types of green transportation to save on gas expenditures.Saving just takes a little extra effort and a whole lot of discipline.

Stay Married. All the obvious reasons one may believe for getting divorced, aside, it creates more economic turmoil to split. Separating couples lose the availability of two incomes. Then each person is tasked with supporting separate households with separate expenses. Your grandparents knew that wouldn't be a good deal in a Depression, so should you. More importantly, what your grandparents knew is that having one another to rely on, talk to, or just be there was worth its weight in gold. Having financial trouble together is one thing, having it alone can result in the worst kind of depression, emotional.