A Sane Strategy For Volatile Economic Times

Volatile pattern … economy in danger of seizing up … uncertain times … inflation … and other alarming words pepper the news: fluctuation, wild swings, drop of this magnitude, recession, downturn, rocky, cyclical investing, sinking dollar, surging oil prices, plunge, plummet.

And of course with elections going on, James Carville is often quoted: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

However, Robert J. Samuelson’s commentary entitled “Here’s why it really shouldn’t be the economy, stupid,” makes some good points, among them that:

“The idea that presidents can control [the economy] lies between an exaggeration and an illusion…[Voters] should look beyond the cheery or dreary economy of the moment. They should recognize that, if president s could control the business cycle, recession would never occur, there would always be ‘full employment,’ and inflation would remain forever tame.”

If that doesn’t necessarily make you feel better, you are not alone. It is not a cheery thought that even the president cannot “control” the economy.

If all this has you worried about your financial future, short- and long-term, you are also not alone. And the point of this article is to address the issue of your economic plan and future, not to debate who can “control” the economy. Whoever can or cannot “make” recession, depression, surging economy, low unemployment rates, etc., there is much that you, yourself, can do to better your own financial situation for the future.

How do you manage your money and investments wisely during such turbulent times? Well, the same way you do in non-turbulent times. By having a long-term goal and a strategy for getting there and sticking to it. That’s what most financial gurus advise.

In fact the recent “plunges” in the stock market have emphasized the point that being emotional doesn’t work. For instance, if you own Google and were elated at Halloween when it went up to 700+, and are despondent now that it has “plunged” 200 points and is 500-ish … why all the drama. It was 500-ish last July (07); in actuality (for the long-term) it hasn’t “done” much.

However, dramatic, even tragic things, do happen to people who do not understand the basics of finances. In the front page of my local newspaper the other day was the story of a family who had borrowed to pay the property taxes on their home, only to have their home foreclosed.

Buchanan, in his column, gives a rundown historically of presidents and the economy. This sort of “history” is important to understanding cycles and the nature of things. How do you get this history and sort of understanding? The best time to have begun was 5 years ago. The next best time to begin is tomorrow.

Times like these demonstrate how crucial it is to have the right resources and tools at your disposal. Now, more than ever, it’s vital that you know how to restructure your financial affairs with a personal plan for debt relief and sustain positive cash flow, learn how to minimize taxes and increase cash flow, create emergency funds with existing assets, and how to invest like the wealthy and well-connected. And ‘history’ should tell you that relying on yourself, once educated and informed and armed with the right resources – is the best course of action.

Whatever your task – learning how to get out of debt and stay in a positive cash flow, increasing your cash flow, learning how to invest – and why – saving for kids’ college (and their future), knowing the power of compound interest and the strategies that work for investing, or simply increasing your self-awareness in your relation to your personal financial picture, it’s up to you.