I don't actually care about temporary changes in the stock market.

Market volatility is a normal thing and we also see market recovery.

The scary part about recession is the uncertainty and the way that economic downturn affects

all of these other aspects of our lives.

And that's what we have to pay attention to.

Hi, this is Monica Packer, and you're listening to About Progress, where we are about progress made practical.

Brad and I got married in the month of December in the year 2007, otherwise known as the first

month of the Great Recession. While we didn't yet have kids or a mortgage, this was still a scary,

insecure time for us. Brad was a peon at his job, and I was back at school training to become a teacher, which

entailed us taking on some debt. I'll never forget one afternoon returning to our apartment

after class, screaming when I saw a pair of legs hanging off the end of our bed that were clearly

a man's. Brad called out to me from our bedroom, letting me know that he was home and early because

he had just been laid off. In a span of, I don't know, half a second, all these thoughts swirled over

me. How were we going to make it? Would we be able to pay rent? What I need to quit my program?

Are we going to have to move? Those thoughts were Brad's too,

hence him laying on the bed trying to think it all through. We did make it through that time,

and we're luckier than most. Brad was able to find another job, so all the other question marks

were taken care of. But now it's almost 18 years later, and I can honestly tell you that the feelings

of insecurity never really went away. And now they are exacerbated by the facts that we do

have a mortgage and five kids, and all that comes with feeding them, clothing them, and enriching

them. Oh, and the fact that experts are saying another recession is

coming around the corner, even as we are in the middle of experiencing inflation. Between rising

...