How are you, a dev/programmer, preparing for the probable recession?

I'm probably an outlier, but I just... haven't? I grew up extraordinarily poor and spent the first few years of my adult life working low-paying jobs while teaching myself to code until I've gotten to where I am now. I feel incredibly and unbelievably blessed to have "made it" relative to where I, my family, and any of my peers would have ever previously thought possible. This, I think, has also changed how I view potential economic hardship.

If the recession does get bad, so what? I don't have a family to support. I don't have many financial obligations aside from rent and my car payment. I could survive on a retail or fast-food job if I had to.

I feel as if we've been warned of a looming recession for years now. It'll come in full force eventually, no doubt. But I don't plan on living my life in a perpetual state of fear because of it. I have enough anxiety as is. When it comes, it comes. I'll survive. I'll retain my current skill set. I'll make it out the other end. Not much else matters to me.

I'm not a dev (UX/UI designer) but I thought I'd share my perspective.

I accidentally made several decisions in latest years that (in retrospective) made me more prepared for worsening of world economy.

- A couple years ago, I decided to quit a full-time "office" job and return to free-lancing. Within a year, I had 4-5 projects running simultaneously (with clients from different countries). It helped tremendously when I had to escape Russia in March 2022. It also feels much more reliable than a single source of income.

- we've been living in various cities for 4-6 months, "trying them out", hunting for the best balance of climate and quality of life. So we prepared ourselves to change location with less effort. Currently living in Tbilisi, Georgia.

- my wife trained me to optimise our spendings ;-) And that is a great thing actually. We only have necessary belongings (because we move a lot), we cook at home often, I use Hi-End in-ear headphones (because they have great sounds but cost less and take less space when moving), etc.

I moved to a company with a ton of profit from a company in the red / a “growth company”. Started working nights and weekends on startups. Moved to all home cooked meals. Cut unnecessary spending and looking into more investments. Doubled down on being and staying in shape.

> probable recession

Not to be pedantic, but we're already in a recession, defined by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters. What's coming for the US and EU, given bad debt levels and inflation levels, is much, much worse than that.

To your question: I would say, look for roles at organizations which are likely to ride out the storm. I think you can't be overly cautious (in all financial aspects) for the next years.

Surprisingly I’m not that anxious yet. Electricity, gas and food prices are going up and I know even worse times are coming, but as a developer I make almost three times the median income. If I get into trouble financially or if I can’t find a new job, at that point literally millions of people will have been starving and homeless for months. And if that does happen, then it’s already a SHTF situation I can’t really prepare for, except maybe moving back in with my parents in the countryside.

Financially, I moved from the EU to South East Asia, decreasing cost of living by 70-80%. Additionally, just before I moved I was able to get a position with a 50% increase in pay. I'm saving a lot of money here, and locally am investing it into quite a few ventures which would continue to exist if the worlds economy would go south.

Mentally & physically, I am taking beatings, right and left, every day, doing martial arts, a lot of running and swimming. I think, when the hard times come around, I'll be conditioned enough by always being tired and sore, that its just going to be a walk in the park. Anxiety wise.... since I moved here, and started doing all these things, its the first period in my life where I feel almost completely anxiety free.

The anxiety is real. Everybody is tightening down, including my employer, who has slowed hiring and started letting go of people who aren't performing. There have been some team layoffs - five people in HR, ten people in customer service, etc. - but we are also still hiring for around a dozen positions. (This is a company with several hundred employees.) No engineers yet, but I can't say for sure I won't eventually be affected. On the other hand, my side of the org is meeting all its targets and works on core tech relied on by all our customers, so layoffs would seem hard to justify.

At the same time, people don't seem to be having much trouble finding new jobs - none of my colleagues who have left (voluntarily or not) seem have had issues in that regard. (Though I don't know everyone who's left, so, I can't speak authoritatively.) For my part, I like my employer and my job pretty well, good pay, good benefits, so I don't plan to make any big changes unless I don't have a choice or something egregious happens.

All that is to say that right now I am not doing anything in particular aside from making sure my income / savings are at the right level and that I have a backstop for any future trouble. I feel the anxiety, but I don't see that there is anything productive I ought to do about it that I am not already doing. I don't think that in an honest assessment I'd have any real trouble finding employment if I lost my job, especially if I had a couple months to look with pay.

Should I feel differently or be acting with more urgency? I'm genuinely not sure. The uncertainty is killer, even if I am in a good position in reality, which is what I suspect.

The family just started a three month period of what I've been calling 'Austerity' to tighten the belt a little bit and reign in our pretty careless spending lately. Basically it means stop buying various crap and toys off Amazon (by toys I'm including my own ridiculous accumulation of board and video games I'll likely never play, or only play once in a blue moon), cooking more, going out to eat less. It's been going...okay, we could certainly be doing better though.

Financially we do have some emergency cash in the bank, and if we had to we could liquidate some assets (although I'd rather not if at all possible, especially considering how much they've taken a beating in value this year).

I'm not sure what I'll do about my job. I'm relatively well established there, but I haven't really been making myself too visible to the rest of the company outside my immediate team lately (the team only has six people in it at the moment) so that might not be great in case layoffs end up happening, although the project we're on is a pretty strategic one for a large client and letting me improve several skills, and I've also been showing I can manage the company's offshore developers, so I'm hoping that's enough that I don't get caught up in a layoff anytime soon.

I have been tempted to possibly make another job hop before the recession and hopefully get established there before the recession kicks into full gear and I end up being kind of stuck where I'm at for a while, though, but that runs the risk of being included in a layoff much more easily as well.

Honestly if I do get laid off I will probably be relieved and take my time getting my next job, have a mini-sabbatical probably. I've been kind of teetering on the precipice of burnout land for a while now, and have been really wanting more energy to work on some pet projects, get some video games finished and put out in the world, without ever having enough energy leftover in the week to put much of a dent in those projects. I am chipping away at a game library that should help speed up that development if and when that ever happens.

I can't justify taking such a sabbatical otherwise, though, as really my wife needs it even more than I do, as she's struggling to juggle her full time job and working an extra 20-40 hours a week getting a side business going (the austerity is in part to help pad our savings to allow her shift to part-time for her day job at some point next year).

[US specific] I am of the thought process (and I could be wrong) that we'll have a normal recession or maybe a bit worse and then the US economy will do what it has for the past 100 years and eventually return to normal. I think that the kind of people that post on online forums (like this thread and places like /r/leanfire) can be economic doomers and expect things to fall apart completely at any second.

Decrease spending, increase saving. Lower expenses means your savings goes even further. Once you do that, keep it that way even in times of prosperity. You'll probably be able to weather economic downturns. Even if the US economy were to never prosper as it has, knowing how to live on less is huge to a safe financial future.

Investment properties that I'm renting out. I've been at my current employer for a while so it's my best bet to weather a big downturn. However, I'm also looking into doing some freelance work on the side to pad my earnings. Money unfortunately makes everything easier, and the more you have of it, the more options you have.

I really wish I could move to a more secluded area and country with a large amount of open space that one can disappear into if need be. But with children, family, and commitments it's not an easy option.

What does everyone think about investing in Paladium and other rare earth metals?

NOTE: via legit markets, not the catalytic converter black market.

The "recession" (if any) already started. Not much has changed for us (devs).

Been saving a good amount pre-tax as always. And maintained my emergency fund.

Didn't get a new car - spent a bit on maintenance of a 2008 Civic. New tires do a lot!

Gonna go see My Chemical Romance a few times (once overseas - work that strong dollar!)

I moved to a seed stage startup, what do the kids say - YOLO?

I have a large cash cushion that can fund the next 5 years of my life.

Other than that, I'm prepared to postpone some life goals if shit does hit the fan.

Getting my cost of living down and my debt down. Investing while the market is on sale. Not stressing about things I can't control.

A quote from a book I like:

Nothing is really serious in the tranquility of peace; only an idiot could be really disturbed by a question of salary.

Buying more gpus

Staying fit to be able to fight for food.

I work in mining, as long as the price of gold and iron stays relatively good, I'm not too phased.

by purchasing the ONLY asset with a negative beta. there is ONE asset out there with infinite upside. do your own research and maybe you will find it.