via lifehacker:
Although fears of a serious economic recession—or worse—have eased a little, no one can agree on how healthy the U.S. economy actually is. The numbers are all over the place. The stock market is in a bear market, inflation has gone down a bit but is still painfully high, consumer spending is down; but unemployment remains surprisingly low, job growth is soaring, and overall Americans’ debt-to-savings ratio is…pretty good?
While we’re nowhere near the global economic crisis seen during the Great Depression, there’s no doubt that we’re headed into some turbulent economic times. That makes this a good moment to remember that our grandparents and great-grandparents survived that Depression—and their experience has some evergreen financial lessons we can use today to get through whatever’s coming for us. Everyone knows the basics, like avoiding debt and socking away some savings for a rainy day, but the folks who actually faced a worldwide financial collapse came away with some less common advice.
Be prepared to move, if necessary
As the economy shrank in the 1930s, a drought plagued the Midwest, resulting in what’s known as the Dust Bowl. Farmers poured into the ranks of the desperate and insolvent, prompting one of the largest population shifts in American history as desperate folks packed up and fled, seeking work wherever they could find it.
The situation’s different today, with remote work being much more common, but that doesn’t mean you should necessarily stay where you are. Moving to a place with a lower cost of living will make your income go further, and even with remote jobs growing in popularity, the fact is large metropolitan areas still offer more job opportunities and more services. Finding the right balance between city rents and economic possibilities is a challenge, but it could be well worth your time.
Watch every penny
If you had a grandparent who had a little change purse they carried around and who spent every single coin judiciously, that was probably a Great Depression lesson: Spare change adds up, and even tiny amounts of money can make a difference. And today, your spare change may be more powerful than you realize.
Using tools and services from your bank or other apps like Acorns, you can have the change from purchases automatically invested. Apps like ChangEd take your spare change and automatically apply it to your student loan debt. The change from rounding up a transaction might only be a few pennies in the moment, but when applied on a constant basis, it can make a real difference in your financial life.