| It is okay to make your own call on the general economic outlook and to share your reasons why. You don't have to wait for the crash to modify your behaviour. Closely tied with the general economy is how the climate is doing. We kind of know that soon there is going to be some crash in this with people having to modify many aspects of their lives. The rest of the world might still be going about spending ridiculous amount of time in aeroplanes and eating food dredged from the furthest ocean but that does not mean that you have to be enjoying these 'good times' too. We have been at 'peak planet trashing' for a long time, 'peak oil' came and went during this time, proven wrong. The economy, your decisions to borrow and the type of work that you do can be informed by your own internal thought process, there is no need to go along with the herd. From this lady's niche she sees it as a time to tone down the irrational exuberance. There are other people who may have the same thinking, for different reasons not visible to you. For instance, in the UK, if you are going to lose with whatever is decided regarding Brexit then you just might be thinking along the lines of the article. In your part of Little Britain you might not be able to sell your house, that is a very powerful indicator that something is up and no amount of stock market or unemployment figures are going to change your personal perspective based on the realities you know. That said, you might think that others should see the writing is on the wall. Others may scoff at you and point to the solid government statistics published in the newspapers as a bit more definitive than your personal hearsay. Nobody imagined a few rubbish mortgages sliced and diced into investment products could bring down the whole of global capitalism, but that was pretty much the situation in 2008. Right now, sitting by your pool in sunny LA, it could be hard to imagine that a 'bad Brexit' a continent away could mean you having to foreclose your home next year and put the shutters down at your business, with all cars in the garage having to be sold. It could happen. It probably won't but still it could be prudent to downsize to a house that is only as big as you need, put some savings by and get a more sensible vehicle. |