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Comment by kradeelav | Hacker News Reader

- aggressively trim unnecessary expenses like media subscriptions, the "extra coffee", immaterial luxury goods. you don't have to live like a monk, but all of us could easily trim our fun spending by 20-50%.

- have 6-12 months of emergency cash that can sustain you if your main source of income fails. something will always happen, whether it's an appliance or car that breaks down, or an unexpected medical expense. slush funds are good.

- 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. make stuff last the extra mile, if you can. stretching electronics and clothes .... fixing electronics (when realistic) instead of buying the new shiny thing ...

- don't sell stocks. if anything; if you're fortunate enough to truly have extra cash, buy that stock at rock-bottom prices you've been eyeballing for a while. buy low, sell high.

- if you have dependents, be extra conservative with your cash. you will need each other.

- this too, shall pass.

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I used to keep a 12 month e-fund in cash. Then it became 6. Not too long I moved it to be almost 0. Which yes, that sounds very wrong.

But the thing is, if we get to a place where my investment accounts & credit card can't cover me for several months we as a society have much bigger problems. I'd prefer to not have to eat into those, and yes if the markets crash enough I'd have fewer months buffer in there. But if the shit hits the fan enough that I can't live off of it for a while I don't believe cash will help out a whole lot either.

Granted over the last couple of months the net value of that money would have dropped less if it were cash than in my investment accounts. But that's another matter altogether.

I agree except for the part about "buy low, sell high."

Timing the market is a fool's errand, and it gets no easier during a time of recession.

I am shocked. No one has yet said 'Buy Crypto' :)

Unironically, my friends who ran up their credit cards to buy Bitcoin during the last recession are rich and secure now because of it. They thank me for turning them onto it.

Unfortunately for me, I followed conventional advice. I saved a cash emergency fund and only allocated ~20% of my investment budget to Bitcoin. The cash inflated away and I have orders of magnitude less Bitcoin than my friends.

You can do it now again if you're feeling risky...

Bitcoin hasn’t crashed at all. It’s still at similar prices it was early 2021. Let it go to under $5k then I will load up

These days we're more likely to see comments of the "HN is hostile to crypto" variety.

Diamonds hands!

imagine being able to save for 6 months

imagine owning property

Why not sell stocks? Suppose you’re already at a loss, might perhaps sell to tax loss harvest and rebuy after the wash sale period.

> buy low, sell high.

for many, it's been buy high, sell low. it's always a gamble.

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