Facing Uncertainties in 2023
Tech layoffs have been all over the news in recent months. “Recession” seems to be a common word in many news articles, even the world bank warns potential recession in 2023. With these bombarding signals all the media, one can’t help but worry about the uncertainties that one might face in 2023. How the market signals and performance would affect one’s livelihood? To what extent the impact of a recession will affect an individual and his/her family? How long would the recession be? Would the recession affect all countries or only some? Would the country that I’m living in be affected? If so, how can I prepare for it? These are real questions that one might be asking themselves. However, it’s almost not possible to provide a blanket answers for all because each of our lives are different, the impact of such major economic events would differ among individuals, organizations, industries, and countries.
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It’s much easier to discuss at an individual level where context can be shared. Generalized opinions tend to make assumptions of the context and fail miserably for edge cases (such as dealing with minority, diversity and more). That’s also the reason why it’s easier to tell story from an individual perspective rather than taking higher-order perspective (such as from a societal or economic view).
Depending on one’s responsibilities, facing uncertainties can be fearful for some. Worrying about whether they can have enough to provide for their family (especially their children) is common among parents. The balance between cost of living comfortably and income; and whether this delicate balance would fall over a tipping point during the recession may be in many’s minds. It’s always more painful to take away what we have than giving us what we don’t have. Depending on one’s societal and economic status, the impact might be greater for some than others. It could be between “eating out” and “cooking everyday” or between “having food on the table” and “having none at all”.
Moreover, seeing the such news all over the internet, it is easy for one to assume that most people would have access to these signals and can make plans to prepare for it. That’s just not true given that only approximately 60% of the population are using the internet. Whether one has access to such information is highly dependent on their geographical location and socioeconomic status (which is highly correlated to education level and income level).
Some of the common ways of preparing for a recession include:
- Increasing savings to prepare for reduced income or unexpected unemployment period.
- Reducing debt where possible to avoid paying additional interest incurred due to late payment/inability to pay during the recession.
- More diversification of investments (if any) to guard against market fluctuations in one or few specific market.
- Lower budget for expenses to reduce excesses where possible.
- Prepare for a potential job loss including updating your resume, networking with professionals in related field.
- Reviewing cash flow for businesses in view of lower consumer spending / revenue during period of recession.
- Considering new business ideas for generating revenue for businesses to diversity the scope and reduce the impact of recession in specific sectors or market.
There could also be other creative ways of preparing for a recession that’s unique to a group of community and individuals. Sometimes, these new knowledge could only be gained by talking to different individuals, understanding their concerns, whether they are preparing for an upcoming recession and how they are preparing it.
