What does the Current Recession and State of the U.S. Economy mean to Married Couples?
Turn on the news about the U.S. economy today and you will hear all this discussion and speculation as to whether or not there is a recession. Some will say no and others will say yes but a short one. But to the married couple and especially the ones with children, no news report is required to tell them the reality of the state of the U.S. economy. Prices continue to rise while their wages at work do not rise at the same rate if at all. And that is if they are lucky to have a job because a recession means that there are fewer purchasing goods and services which cause companies to cut back. The talking heads debate the details but the American couple knows that the U.S. economy will have an effect on them. Here’s how they see it:
Couples would be wise to get back to good home financial practices. The days of easy high-balance credit cards are probably over. Because of the high default rates on credit card accounts in the U.S. economy, some couples with no credit history may only qualify for the higher interest starter credit cards. Young couples should learn from this recession to not make the mistakes of those before them. The wise young couples will look at sound principles like saving, budgeting, and not using credit as a replacement for income.
The recession in the housing market might allow qualifying couples to get into a home easier. Notice the word “qualifying” was used. The days of sub-prime lending are more than likely over. You will probably see that home mortgage lenders will return to the days of religiously using debt-to-income ratios for buyers. However, getting into a home and maintaining that home are two different beasts. With retail costs rising across the board, a couple could buy a “fixer upper” and have no money left over for improvements. And, a couple selling a home will have to drop their price in order move it.
The recession in the U.S. economy will shift availability of jobs to government and universities. One of the factors that will bring about an end to the recession is an increase in demand for domestic goods. Until that happens, businesses will not be able to keep on large numbers of employees. Government, university, and to some extent law enforcement jobs are not impacted as greatly by a recession so these areas will probably have the most sought after jobs. But there are only so many jobs available so competition will probably be high and salaries low. And because many jobs are outsourced overseas to India and China, there will be an even tighter job market for young couples.
The recession in the U.S. economy will be complicated by the lack of developed new job sources. Former President Bill Clinton has made the statement that environmental policies should create a door for new higher paying jobs but this has not happened yet. It has in countries like the United Kingdom but not in the U.S. The major funding sources that would be required to get the U.S on the reduce-greenhouse-gases train are not there. When environmental issues become somewhat of a national priority, it will create jobs—much like the space race did in the 1960s.
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[1] Transcript of President Bill Clinton’s