How Americans Prepare for a Possible Recession This Year

This article is written from the perspective of a friend.

I am not an economic guru or qualified advisor I am happy to share my strategy but act at your own risk.

There are only two things I know that you can do, certainly in the short term, to prepare.

The first thing to do is be sure you have cash and don’t run out. I think it is worth giving some of my background to show you how my experience has guided my actions.

I was devastated in 2007–8. I was laid off at age 59 in 2008 and all I had was the remains of my retirement accounts; my unemployment check which fortunately kept me going for a year or more; and eventually took Social Security at 62. I went almost instantly from a net worth of half a million to a negative net worth and stayed there for about four years.

I lost all the equity in my two Arizona homes (used as rentals not generating a lot of cash but I bought them as self-financing tax savers which would appreciate over time). After holding on for years waiting for housing to recover I short sold one (sad but that was the action that finally brought me fully out of debt) and paid off the small mortgage on the other with some of the remains of my IRAs, staged withdrawals over several years to try to keep as much of it untaxed as possible.

I moved from San Francisco (did not own property there was a renter) to Arizona to save money and that helped out a lot. I moved into the other rental where I still live today.

Until Trump was reelected I felt I had achieved financial heaven since my Social Security was more than I needed to live on and my remaining investments grew very well during the Biden years.

I learned my lesson the first time. I decided not to lose my nest egg.

I have converted all my investments into Treasury MMTs and I did it the day after the election. These can be turned into actual cash in one day but are growing at the rate of just over 4% so they compensate some for inflation for the moment. They are all inside my IRA’s because I don’t want to pay tax on them if I don’t spend the money and the interest will grow tax free until I take the money.

Treasury MMTs are all consisting of and directly tied to Treasury bonds and other government debt. If they are not paid off we will find there is nothing left standing. It is possible we will see hyperinflation as well and they won’t protect against that but again nothing much will be left standing if that happens.

So conserve your cash; insulate yourself from the falling market if you think it is going to keep falling.

People will rightly tell you that it’s not guaranteed that the market will fall and if you take your money out you miss out on the gains that often happen suddenly; don’t “time” the market. And that’s usually a good strategy.

But if you are certain that the market is going to drop for a period of time and if you know you won’t have the much longer time to recoup your investments then cashing out is a viable strategy. I’m 75. It took me over a decade to substantially recover last time and I don’t have a decade. I also can’t feel secure that my Social Security which more than pays the bills for me is going to be there when I need it.

Thus I take the most secure investment possible for my money. It is not perfect there are no guarantees in life but this is the most secure investment I can find.

[update: as of Mid June 2025. Trump showed me that US Treasuries were no longer the “safest” investment in the world…I reduced my portfolio to about 30% Treasuries…moved almost half my investments into European Nations’ Treasury MMTs. With a little diversity into European stocks and some US dividend ETF’s, I’m hold on to almost 8% profit YTD. That said there is no “safe” investment only ones that ought to be safer in time…]

Next cut your spending. That’s one of the things that leads to recession unfortunately but you need to conserve your cash. Don’t buy anything you don’t really need. You need to keep your cash.

Finally I would avoid making any significant life changes that could affect your finances. Getting married, buying or selling a home (did I mention that I foresee a major collapse in the housing market coming? Florida is almost there but they have more problems than most places; still there is actually a surplus of housing and rents are falling in the markets where there were booms after the pandemic), don’t buy a car unless you absolutely must and used cars are literally always a better value. I drive a 20 year old Toyota and it costs me next to nothing to run it.

That’s my strategy. I’ll go back in the market when I see adults in the White House again.

On December 6th President Trump’s words shook the world.

So pay chose attention because this video will change your life forever for the good!