I hate doing this, but I need to know. I have an opportunity to upgrade my car. My current car has over 100,000 miles. We have done a lot of expensive work on the car to get it running good. It is a two door soft top. It is paid off.
I would like a four door vehicle with low miles, and a warranty. I transport kids all over the place and although I make due with a two door, a four door would be much nicer.
I was all excited to start my search when the news came on and talked about Nevada’s destiny to go through a recession. A person says they want to work as many hours as they can and not spend a dime. Others say pay off as much as they can until it happens.
So is it a bad idea to buy a new car right now? What exactly is a recession in laymens terms, and how does it affect the average middle class worker?
Please share any info you can without calling me stupid for not knowing already. Thanks bunches
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Honestly, unless you are afraid of either losing your job, or losing hours at work, then it doesn’t mean much of anything for you. You’re more likely to have a better idea of your own job security than I could guess at.
A recession is, broadly, a time when economic activity slows down. Say, businesses get too much inventory, but people aren’t buying it. Since inventory’s a cost, they have to cut other costs to make ends meet. Usually, that means someone works less or gets fired. Now, there’s even fewer people spending money, and the cycle reinforces itself.
In this case, the biggest shock is the housing market. It’s going downhill, so real estate workers, financial workers, and others are losing income. Because they aren’t spending, and because people aren’t cashing out their equity with piles of refinanced home-equity loans, that has an effect on other sales and service jobs.
Eventually, prices come down, everything settles down, people become less spooked, and things return to normal. (Side note: since people are more hesitant to buy, prices coming down means that a buyer may be able to get a better deal. Hence: not a bad time to buy, as long as your job’s secure).
If you are worried about your finances, then the best course is to have some savings, because losing your job stinks, and savings can help you ride it out until you get another job.
But the short answer is: a recession means lots of people talking and worrying (probably far more than is needed), but outside of those immediately affected, most of us wouldn’t realize it was happening until someone told us it was.
Thanks Dave,
That was very helpful. My job is only as secure as the families jobs, and the kids age. I ever only have seccurity for about a year at a time. That is how long most of the contracts are. But I have been in family transitions before, and God has always kept my head above water. I may swallow a bit more water then I want, but I’ve never drown.
By the way, the not calling me stupid part comes from when I asked questions about WWII on a site, and was asking for an easy book to answer questions on and some people got really offended because I didn’t know my history. Needless to say they weren’t the real helpful ones. But eventually I was guided to a book called WWII for Dummies. It is a pretty cool book.