I recently read a study that indicated as much as 60% of the people surveyed planned to continue a voluntary form of thrift and frugality, even after the economy improved.  That tells me that more and more people are finanally realizing that rampant consumerism does not provide real fulfillment. 

Here is your chance to share what you have learned during these tough economic times.  What lessons have you learned from this economic meltdown that can help you and other readers stay debt free?

I know this economy as made me really research what I am buying.  I want to know know that I am going to get back what I put into my purchase.  Thrift stores and craigslist are really good friends of mine now. 

I want to make sure my purchases are something I can pay for with cash because a guy named Interest has already taken too much from.  Interest still is taking money from me and I really don't want to give him anymore.

What I have learned is that the time to shut the gate to the horse pen is before all the horses have run off, not after.  When times are good we forget that things might change so we live like good times will last forever.  We spend like the money will laways flow and we forgt to save.  Then when we have our income reduced we aren't able to save for the proverbial rainy day and by then it's too late because the rain is pouring.

No Umbrella your quote is a wonderful quote.  I good quote my father would tell me is, "You don't prepare for war during war."  You prepare for war during times of peace.  Of course he was in the miltary so it might be a miltary quote I don't know. 



-- Edited by JackBlack on Monday 18th of May 2009 02:24:37 PM

One of the best things this recession taught me is that it seems like the best way to manage money is to do the opposite of what the majority does.  When real estate prices were skyrocketing everyone was buying real estate.  When real estate prices were dropping like a rock everyone seemed to be avoiding real estate.  The fact of the matter is that the worst time to buy something is when prices are high.  That's the best time to sell.  The best time to buy is when prices are low.  It's the old saying "buy low and sell high."  Unfortunately I was following the Jones' and bought close to the peak of the market and then had no money to buy the houses that are now being sold for a fraction of their original price.  This same thing happened to a lot of people 20 years ago on a smaller scale but we didn't learn from it then.  I for one intend to learn from it now and stop acting like a lemming that follows the hysterical crowd over the edge of the cliff.   

Those Jones don't you just love them.  Here is a link to a funny commercial lending tree did a while back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn5EP9StlVA.  It is funny but true in so many cases when we are using the Jones as our example.

Thanks for the post Jack Black.  I remember seeing that commercial but had forgotten about it.  It is soooo true.  It really describes the situation most people find themselves in today. 

One of the biggest lessons we can take away from this recession is that almost everything we have been taught about financial securiy is wrong.  The world has changed and we better wake up and smell the coffee if we don't want to get hammered by the next recession ( and there will be more recessions.)  Security is not found in working for a big corporation (just ask GM employees)  Investing on Wall Street is like going to Vegas because there is a huge lack of ethics and oversight.  We need to get completely out of debt, build savings, invest in ourselves, and create multiple revenue streams if we want any semblance of security in the future.  If we will do those simple things we won't have to worry about future recessions.  If we don't do those things heaven help us.

I agree with the debt-inator.  Investing on Wall Street is scary, especially if you don't know what you are doing, but it seems like all the advice is designed to confuse us...at least it does me.  Anybody got suggestions on how and where to invest besides in the stock market?

The biggest lesson I learned from this recession is that when times are good we get stupid with our money because we think the good times will last forever.  We overspend and get greedy with no thought for tomorrow.  When times are bad we all of a sudden get scared and start saving money we said we couldn't save before.  Then we live in fear because we are sure the bad times will never go away.  Think how much better life would be if we kept our heads ALL the time and didn't get so carried away and worked up.