What is the best lesson you may have learned from the 'Great Recession" (loans, expenses)

[Know Nonsense]

What do you think the main cause of the "Great Recession"(oxymoron) was also what is/are the lessons you learned from it? Have you recovered?

[Electrician4you]

What I learned is never over reach. I have watched a lot of friends lose houses, money and ultimately completely unprepared for hard times.

As for the cause? Take your pick. But ultimately greed , self absorption, ignorance, dismissive attitudes and vanity had a lot to do with it

[Escort Rider]

While the Great Recession did not affect me personally - I was already retired and it didn't affect my pension - I learned how vulnerable our society is in general.

I didn't have any sympathy for the people who over-bought on their homes, or who had used their homes as ATM's. But I continue to have enormous sympathy for people who lost their jobs and despite having a good work ethic could only find part-time work or much lower-paying work. Even worse, some people, especially those 55 and over, never did find any work at all.

[IheartWA]

Greed is one of the most destructive attributes of humans.

Live simple and humble.

There's more, but that's all I can think of right now.

[GiantRutgersfan]

I am relatively young and did not have significant investments or own property until the last few years. Never had an issue with employment either so I was fairly unscathed personally.

I think the biggest lesson learned is to not overextend yourself. Dont go overboard with recurring expenses like mortgage and loan payments.

[Niall-Florida]

I wasn't even thought of during the great depression... Unless this we are talking more recent.

Then I have to say.. There's no need to impress others, just myself. I would be just content with a nice simple life in the city.

[Jeo123]

Originally Posted by Niall-Florida

I wasn't even thought of during the great depression... Unless this we are talking more recent.

Then I have to say.. There's no need to impress others, just myself. I would be just content with a nice simple life in the city.

Great Depression - 1930's
Great Recession - 2008-14(ish)

You're the first person to use the term Great Depressions. Everyone else is obviously talking about modern times.


As for the topic, I graduated in 2007, the only effect the Great Recession had on me was it gave my company an excuse to have a salary freeze.

I fought them back by quitting and getting a new job and a 25-30% raise.

The Great Recession taught me "Screw loyalty, they only way you get a raise is by quitting."

And it's been the best career advice every.

[cb73]

The Recession taught me that the basic morality that I always believed--or at least hoped--existed in this country is gone.

People that I knew--church-going, supposedly ethical--saw no problem with buying houses they knew they couldn't pay for and then playing the victim card and living in the house without making payments for years--and then complaining at what "the bank" did to their credit rating.

Another person did a cash-out refinance 7 or 8 times and then told me she was walking away from the interest-only loan because it was "their fault for giving me the loans when they knew the value was going to drop".

No integrity. No sense of personal responsibility. Now I wonder if anybody is left with integrity.

[HTY483]

1) Don't ever let your mortgage payment exceed the amount of rent you can collect if you need to rent your house out.

2) Construction is extremely feast or famine so don't ever ever ever spend thousands of dollars majoring in Civil Engineering, Architecture or Land Surveying.

3) Companies don't give a rats a$$ about you so do your job well and be thorough but don't let your job cut into time spent enjoying hobbies or time spent with family and friends.

5) In addition to retirement, it's a good idea to have at least $10,000 grand in your bank account in case you get laid off.

[DrEarth]

These are mine, and will probably be different from some, as my lifestyle is different. The feeling of stability is gone for me, and I will never expect a job to be there for any length of time.

- Always have some money in the bank
- Don't accumulate many possessions; only the basics
- No debt ever
- Improve job skills