How to survive hard times: 5 simple rules

What is necessary to understand first and foremost is the fact that your financial wellbeing depends not on the price for oil, global financial trends or even your boss, but only on your own efforts. Today’s economic crisis is not the first one in human history, which means we have an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past, as well as to arm ourselves with time-tested rules and principles. What are they?

1. Don't be a victim of circumstances

Do you know who people with a victim mentality are? You probably do, but try to guess what makes them angry most of all. That’s the fact that their wellbeing depends not on external factors, but on their mental attitude. Do you feel angry about this? Then stop being a victim. Even if it seems that you are at a dead end and the only thing you can do is to sink into despair, keep doing something. And if you try hard, you may find out that the situation isn’t actually dead end. After all, everything depends on your perspective.

2. Search for opportunities

Stability in your principles and goals is a very important thing, although the trait you will need to survive the times of crisis is flexibility. According to the statistics provided by Stanford University, approximately 40% of people miss thousands of opportunities just because they are afraid to change the path they have outlined. Others simply don’t trust in themselves and prefer to scrape the bottom of the barrel. At the same time, by far not all the companies suffer losses in the times of economic recession – some of them earn millions. That’s exactly why you’ll need the ability to search for new opportunities and not be afraid to take them.

3. Buy cheap, buy twice

To survive during crisis, it is vitally important to cut expenses and try to save as much as possible, although it is still necessary not to overdo it. A made-in-China screwdriver is cheaper than a German one, but there is no guarantee it won’t break down tomorrow.

P.S. Thinks twice before you buy it – maybe you can borrow your neighbor’s one? 

4. Become an investor

Just like in case with companies of different kinds, not all the market sectors are down during economic recession. Some asset classes tend to rise or at least to hold steady, and that’s actually an opportunity to earn. Gold is a classic example – it is a crisis commodity, which is why its price always rises in the times of uncertainty. It is OK if you don’t have much experience in this field as your investments should not necessarily be large. In this particular case, Forex or high frequency trading are perfect options – trades may be as cheap as $25.

5. Have fun

To master the art of saving and work hard is definitely important, although no less important thing is to allow yourself to relax and have fun from time to time. A trip to the cinema with your spouse and kids won’t cost a fortune but will still have a great mood-boosting effect.