Economy

Although we haven't really felt the full brunt of the economic downturn here in Nova Scotia, at least not yet I have a few observations.....

I've never put much weight into what the analysts or so called experts say. Remember when oil dropped to $100, there was an article in the National Post predicting oil could either go to $50 or to $150.

Jonathan Chevreau then advised us that we should lock in our variable rate mortgages as fast as we could. Don't know about you but I'm paying 2.5% on mine - 5 months later. I'll likely lock in when the long term rates in Canada drop some.

What all this tells me is and what I've always known is that all of these are mere opinions and hold no more weight than anyone elses. There have been predictions of economic depression for 20 years now and every year is the year. Perhaps this is the start of one, perhaps not. I have no idea and neither does anyone else.

I spent just about every evening through last fall and through to February listing to the financial news and how bad everything is or is getting and predictions from the "experts" either on how things will turn around by the end of 2009 and get worse and stay that way for at least a couple of years. Considering that time travel hasn't been invented yet, it's pretty clear to me that no one knows. I've stopped listening to doom and gloom predictions and to the pie in the sky predictions. To avoid driving yourself crazy you have to get your feet back on the ground and make an assessment of your situation. Dale Carnegie once wrote, I believe it was in his book
"How to Stop Worrying and Start Living": Assume the worst and then try to improve upon it.
My advise, focus on the "try to improve upon it" part and less on "the worst". Don' t misunderstand me and assume that I have my head shoved so far up my ass that I don't realize how bad the economy is, all I'm saying is that you can't do a thing about it but do whatever you can to improve your own financial situation.

I live in a part of the country that has been historically considered a "have not" province. One of the advantages is that the economy here never booms or busts, I've been lucky enough to have been working through every recession since 1990 - I am hoping that my luck holds for this one.

I've stopped paying so much attention to the news and reports on job losses, distressed companies, the stock market etc. etc. It's not like I can do anything about it, so why should I worry about it. Just in case something does happen, I've started doing a little freelance work for some extra money now and a source of income in the event I lose my job.

Other than this I go into work every day, do the best job that I can and hope that it's enough. I moved my investments around last fall and took my lumps, I'm about 40% in cash, 30% in bonds (mutual fund) and 30% in a balanced fund which is weighted roughly 50/50 in bonds and stocks. Like many people, I have a little to much credit card debt. However I've been getting that under control for the last year - I've got about 6-9 months to go and they'll be paid off.

I feel for everyone out there who has lost there jobs and have been struggling to find something else. I cannot imagine what it must be like and I wish you all the best in your job search.