SAN ANTONIO — Do not wait until a recession begins to take steps to protect your money.
“Economists that we surveyed at Bankrate basically say the chances of a recession over the next 12 to 18 months are one in two,” said Mark Hamrick Bankrate's senior economic analyst. “That means essentially even odds. It’s not necessarily so much a question of whether there’s a recession, because there always will be a recession emerging at some point, but rather how severe, or how long, how impactful is that recession?”
Many are already doing this:
“The number one thing that people are doing is cutting back on discretionary purchases,” Hamrick said. “They’re focusing on necessities, eliminating some things that they would like to have but don’t need to have.”
Also, work to get rid of as much debt as you can.
“If you are carrying a lot of credit card debt, now’s a really good time to look at that debt, perhaps look at a debt payoff platform to see if you can get a plan going to pay off those highest interest rates first and then on down the line,” said Trae Bodge, a smart shopping expert. “That’s something to prioritize.”
Next, start to save. Here is how to find the money:
“Get rid of what I call little luxuries or maybe at least one,” said Bodge. "So for example if your getting your nails done once a week, if someone is mowing your lawn, if you have someone coming to clean your house. If you can do those things yourself and you take that money that you would have spent and save it, you will have a lot of money in say six months.”
Plus, consider switching to a higher-paying job.
“There are many more job openings across the United States than there are unemployed individuals,” Hamrick said. “So there remains an opportunity to leverage the strength of the job market and perhaps boost their own incomes. That could be either finding a new full-time job if they already have one or perhaps if they are gig worker, finding additional opportunities there.”
These money moves will put you in a stronger financial position no matter what type of economy we face.