Recession Proof?

I've been in the insurance business as an independent agent/broker for 38 years. Specifically in the "Property and Casualty" end of the business. In all those years my business has been pretty much recession proof. Well, with this current recession/depression that has changed. The suddeness, and severity of this down turn caught a number of my commercial busines owners by surprise, and they were unable to adjust quickly enough. As a result, they have gone out of business, and, consequently, I have lost that income. It's not serious....maybe about a 10% reduction this year. A lot of that disposable income I enjoyed disposing has evaporated.

Another consequence of the recession/depression is that a good portion of that equity on paper I had in my home.....equity I was expecting to be there in a couple of years when we retire.....is gone. We hope it's not gone forever, and that we will recover some of it as the economy and property values begin to rebound in the next 2 years, but who knows. I know our Federal Government doesn't know.....they haven't got a clue. They have flushed a couple of trillion greenbacks down the proverbial drain, and are talking about another $2, or $3 trillion to help us save money on our healthcare.

At any rate, we're being more cautious about spending and I'm working a little harder. Fortunately, my IRA has been in a straight interest bearing account for the past few years.....I decided it was time to be cautious a few years ago, and that was a good decision. When I switched it over I was a little unhappy with the guaranteed interest offered at that time, but now I am really happy I did it. Compared to what banks are paying on savings accounts right now my guaranteed rate is looking pretty good!

The good news is that we are still on track to simplify our lives dramatically in less than two years from today! We are starting to divest ourselves of a lot of "stuff", and feeling more free by the day.