Are you feeling the crisis?

A Pulse Asia survey released today says 70 percent of Filipinos feel they are “worse off now” than three years ago and most expect that things are going to get even worse.

Pulse Asia’s survey didn’t indicate why the respondents feel this growing pessimism: are they losing their jobs, eating less, suffering a loss of income, etc? Just that the quality of life is going downhill.

I don’t see these yet in the people that I interview. Aside from the voluntary reduction in spending to prepare for the hard times ahead, like choosing to eat at home instead of having dinners in restaurants, or going potluck when organizing parties, and reducing gift budgets for Christmas, I haven’t seen any mass layoffs yet and the malls are still packed with people carrying all sorts of purchases. At least, so far.

How about you? Are you feeling the crisis? How are you preparing your finances? Here are some suggestions:

1. Save more aggressively and shop more responsibly. If you used to save 20 percent of your salary every month, see if you can raise the notch up a little bit.
2. Postpone vacations. Make staying at home a little bit more exciting for spouse and kids with simple and creative activities.
3. Postpone big purchases.
4. Pay off credit card debt faster. Just by doing that, you let your finances breathe so much better.
5. Manage telecommunications cost. Texting and mobile phone usage can be a quiet financial termite, and so can Internet connection.

Any more tips you want to share?

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