As a follow-up to my January 18, 2008, post on surviving the recession, I am posting some ideas from a segment from today’s edition of CBS News Sunday Morning.  The program featured Ben Stein discussing his recession survival tips.  Stein starts off by smartly pointing out that the government and political pundits can’t know whether there even is a recession because there needs to be six months of declining economic activity.  According to Stein, there has been only one month of such declines, and the official word on the exisistence of a recession won’t be known until mid-year.  However, Stein admits that, even without the official pronouncement of a recession, there is undoubtedly an economic slowdown ocurring right now.  So, he offers a few facts and practical tips for us to survive the coming months, with my take on them in bold:

• No recession has lasted more than 15 months in the post-war era.  In the bleakest of past recessions, astonishingly, more than 90% of willing workers were employed.  So, look for the light at the end of the tunnel.
• Stein points out that people still buy goods and services, even through a recession.  The economy is not coming to a screeching halt, despite what Wall Street thinks.

So, Stein advises the following:

• Keep a large chunk of cash available on hand to avoid selling your house into a declining market.  This is critical to avoiding foreclosure if you are laid off or face an unexpected significant expense.
• Be the first person to arrive at work and the last person to leave work, in case there are layoffs at your workplace.  Hard to do, but it works.  My husband’s company laid off half of its employees during the tech downturn, and many people cut either had personality issues or had put in a weaker performance.
• Defer major consumer purchases, like that 60 inch HDTV.  If you’re feeling insecure, this should be easy to do.
• Invest any spare cash you have in the major stock market indices, like the S&P 500.  Go against the crowd and pick up stock shares on the cheap.  Warren Buffet says “be fearful when others are greedy.  Be greedy when others are fearful.”
• Keep your chin up; the hard times will pass, as they always have.  Have hope, as always.

As Stein says, this too shall pass.  The key is not to panic and to be prepared to weather the bad times.  So, sock away those pennies, stop shopping for luxuries, and put your best foot forward at work.