Surviving the Recession

Recently while traveling, I read an article where the author related the recession to the World of Warcraft. Or as he called it, the the great zombie invasion. As I understand it from my computer geek, Sergey, in the game world, a zombie invasion is a promotional event for a new game or expanded package. "The mechanics of the zombie invasion are simple: zombies spread their infection/new game, causing other players to turn into zombies or die if they don’t buy the new game or update. The mechanism, as set up in the game, was so virulent that it effectively killed off populations of entire cities and made whole parts of the game unusable. Thus you have to upgrade or expand your game at a cost to you."
So what does this have to do with a recession? Well, this author goes on to say, "The zombie invasion also destroyed players’ access the Warcraft economy and the central free marketplace. However, instead of banks not lending, the zombie invasion simply killed off all the auctioneers and auction managers. The net effect, however, was the same as in the real world economy - players, teams, and companies were effectively denied access to the marketplace, credit, and trade."
With games and virus’s you can enter a few strokes on the computer and reprogram your future, OR you can get a virus program going and remove all the bad stuff. On many computers, you can go into the system, and choose a time in the past on your computer when it was working right, and hit SYSTEM RESTORE, and go back to that time. To a point in the "good old days" when your computer ran smoothly, started up right, and didn’t lock up and fail on you. Unfortunately, real life isn’t so lucky. Nonetheless, the strategies that help computer players endure zombie invasions are somewhat applicable to the real life recession. Here is how the game strategies work as applied to the recession.
1. Don’t hoard cash in the recession but DO cut down spending and hoard enough cash to ensure that you can meet your operating expenses without access to revenue for a short or even intermediate time.
2. Stay away from danger in the recession. Capital markets, investments, real estate, any area of the economy which is "infected" by the financial contagion, is a deathtrap. Only the strongest "players" should even consider being in those areas, and even that’s no guarantee that they’ll make it. If you’re not one of the strongest, the edge, the frontier, the fringe is where survival, if not prosperity, lies. If you’re on top of whats going on YOU should be. This is NOT a time to JUST listen to NPR, but to listen to the world news! Feel the pulse of the economy, and of society, society’s attitude is what will bring the economy back. Money value is based on faith, not gold. This era is a new frontier we are forging.
3. Make powerful friends in a recession. Strong partners can help provide additional cover. You still have to pull your own weight, but help from your friends and community can mean the difference between making it and not making it. Band together, work together, don’t eat each other up.
4. Go back to the basics in a recession, back to basics and basic financing is the name of the game. I.e., call mom and dad and ask for a loan, hit up aunt myrtle. Call in all the debts that are owed you, I am finding these old debts are more easily retired if I offer a ‘deal’, for instance, one of my clients owed me $755 for about 6 months. I was about ready to write if off, but, I tried the magic number of $500, and the next day he came with the cash. Yes, I lost $255, but I increased my cash flow $500 NOW. I might have lost the whole $755 anyway.
5. Cash is good now. Don’t extend any more credit cards. Don’t increase your equity line of credti, if you can’t pay cash or have enough cash to buy it, DON"T buy it. Cash value is just that cash value. The equity value you had when your home was at the top of market value was ‘on paper’ value, not cash value. Now that paper value is worthless.
6. There is an end to all this, if you can just make it there. There is a light at the end of the tunnel! Some once said, "yeah, I found the light at the end of the tunnel, but unfortunately it was Hoboken New Jersey". Well today the ind of the tunnel may yield new jersey, rather than utopia and the gold plot BUT, let me tell you as a former NJ resident, right now Hoboken would be not such a bad ending! They are rebuilding, and we will be too. Yup, in a recession things are bad, and can often seem like they couldn’t get any worse, but they will not always be bad. If you can outlast the recession, you’ll be fine, keep some cash in reserve and be ready to roll when the recession ends.
Remember use your brain. Use the tips at the beginning of this article, and play the game as described in the second part. Be nice to your friends cuz they may have to bail you out, and you might have to bail them out, don’t give up even if you do find Hoboken at the end of the tunnel! And what the hell, from Hoboken you can take a train anywhere!!! or the PATH to Manhatten. A good deal for $1.

©2009 Jim Gordon, Ph.D./BHCounseling.com
Psychotherapy, mft lic.12651
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Copyright 2009