How to Survive a Depression

Video Transcript

"If you don't have any debt, you can't go broke. Hi, this is Roger Groh of Groh Asset Management, and today we're talking about how to survive a depression. Well, we haven't seen one in the United States since the 1930s. And, whether we are headed to one or not, remains to be seen. Either case, the less debt that you have, the better chance you have of remaining steady in terms of your lifestyle. Because if your income drops, you won't be allocating that percentage to pay off debt, as opposed to just surviving. Now, other things that you can do to protect yourself, well, what happens during depressions usually is the price of fixed items, real estate, for instance, go down significantly in price. So it might be too late to do it here in the United States, as real estate prices have fallen significantly since their high, but, if you thought a depression was coming, then maybe a good thing to do is to limit your real estate exposure. Also, commodities tend to go up in price during periods of inflation. But usually, during depressions, we have deflation, so commodities may not be a logical place to put your money until business begins to firm up, and we begin to push the limits in terms of the number of people we have available to work, and, factory output capacity. Believe me, those are not concerns today. It would be wonderful problems to have. One other thing you can do, cash is king! Never forget that. Hope that helps. I'm Roger Groh with Groh Asset Management, and thank you very much for spending time with me."