Actually, so far the turmoil has been good for us too. With interest rates coming down so much over here, it's allowing us at least another $500/month to pay off the debt compared to 6 months ago when everyone started foreclosing because they couldn't pay the high interest rates on their mortgage. I think we'll probably be fine too unless Dazza somehow loses all ability to create an income.

Badger and I make about the same salary, and we've always tried to live within one of our incomes. It came in real handy when he took a year and a half off to go back to school for his Master's.
We're both in the same industry, so there is some downside to that lack of diversification. Though at least we are with different employers now! We used to be in the same group, same department, same company.

Funny how actually having children changes your perspective about a lot of things in life isn't it?

Now in the Hall of Fame.

I am trying to be better at paying my rent on time and in full. My landlords are wonderfully understanding, but I know they struggle at times.

I am unfortunately going further into debt in some ways: student loan plus my overdraft is getting bigger. I just increased it to £1,500 from £1,100. But, I am really getting a handle on my other debts. The two credit card debts that went to debt collectors have been halved. Brought down from £1,100 and £1,200 to £580 and £650. It's taken me nearly three years to do it though. I was offered the choice recently of doropping the levels of my payments in line with the reduced balance, and chose not to. I'll keep paying at that rate in the hope I will eventually pay the bastards off!

I can probably economise a little more. I am not careful with money, I live day to day, but I am trying to waste less food and eat before I go to uni, instead of buying food on campus.

Other than the possibility of my landlords getting into trouble with their buy to let mortgages, I can't see the recession having that much of a direct effect on me. Indirectly, I may be affected if it hits members of my family; my brother's line of work might be affected by recession. The only potential direct effect would be if the bank called in my overdraft suddenly...in which case I am right royally screwed:P

So far, I haven't felt any bad effects.
The Yen I brought back from Japan (in cash) is worth 60% more than it was when I earned it. I expect to change it soon.
My job is teaching international, and mostly Chinese, students. A global recession could see demand in China taper off, but due to the fall in the AU$, we should pull students who might otherwise have gone to the USA.
I have no kids, no mortgage, and am saving. Except that I keep spending on stuff for my new home, but I'm just doing that to help the global economy ;) .

Right now, things are still active at work. Clients are scrutinizing bills more, but I think they are still paying them. We have reduced our number of temporary employees through attrition. Just haven't brought in any new temps as the old projects dry up. Keeping our own staff busy instead.

I've been at the same law firm for 17 years, and they have never laid anyone off during that time. I imagine that if layoffs start, I've got enough seniority that I'd be one of the last to go. However, If they decide that they want to get rid of the dead wood, as middle management, I may be one of the first to go. They might just invent a reason to fire me. That would be the worse case scenario.

If that happened, I'd try to get any job I could. If I needed to, I'd dip into my 401K to try to get by. Currently, there's enough in there to last for about 3 years.

We live frugally as it is, so not too much room for easy belt tightening for us. This year, we have dialed back Christmas considerably. We were never crazy spenders at Christmas, but we're spending even less this year.

One of the big bosses at Dazza work has started putting the word about that if anyone wants to take unpaid leave it'll be approved.

Doesn't sound too great for them really.

Edit: and also I found out this morning that they don't take overtime into account when calculating leave time owed. That really pissed me off knowing how much overtime D does on a regular basis...specially when he only gets paid overtime loading if he's working on 'billable hours'.

One head rolled at work today. I have no idea what to make of it. We got a memo last week explaining how well positioned we are and how with a little belt tightening we'd be keeping our numbers constant.

He must have been wearing his trousers much too high.

*snorts coffee all over keyboard*

Damn you ZenGum

It turns out that my plans to disrupt the economy and to plan for economic disruption are about the same.

Despite how good of an idea the commercials make it seem, I am not buying my boyfriend a Lexus this Christmas.

(I'm trying very, very hard to both pay off my remaining debt, save, and stock up on shelf-stable items to see me through the collapse.)

Today I met with some clients who I've had for years. Throughout this time I've known I had only a VERY small portion of their assets because their other advisor was some brother's/cousin's/college roommate's/exwife's neighbor. Eh, it's just part of the gig.

Anyway, we were going over their money with me which they are satisfied with. They are extremely dissatisfied with the rest of their portfolio which I again gave some suggestions for. We're talking 40% losses at this point. I made my case, they made the right sounds. This should be a slam dunk. Just pull out the pen, make some scratches and get on the path to recovery.

Then they started talking about this video "the secret". they completely lost me while they were churning through this bullshit, but by the end of it they'd convinced themselves they didn't need to change their investments - just their attitudes. WTF?!? Being smiley and cheerful won't make shitty stocks bounce folks.

People are nuts.:headshake

If by "nuts" you mean "gullible" and "stupid" then yes, people are nuts.