<prompt> Human: So Ive read a fair amount of doomsaying over the past few months regarding a potential recession coming due to some combination of wage growth, underemployment undercutting good unemployment numbers, labor pool limits, rising bond prices leading to inflation, rising household debt, stagnating housing market, State government reserves, Fed rate increases, tariffs, lower overtime hours in manufacturing, skyrocketing inventories in advance of trade issues, and so on.Regardless of whether you agree with the pessimists or not, for the sake of this thread lets assume that its a realistic and plausible possibility. As a regular person with a wife and kids, two medium salary jobs, a growing but small 401k, a home with maybe 10 equity, a modest emergency fund, and two cars with just a smidge of negative equity; is there anything I should be doing in preparation to limit the effects of a recession on my family?Assistant: What kind of answer are you hoping to get with this?The answer to me seems self-evident, make and save more money. How do billionaires survive economic down turn? By having a shit load of money. The only shield you have against market downturn is liquid funds and alot of them.Human: Do you pay off debt or accumulate cash? Do you move your 401k to less risky investments and if so what specifically? Are there any investments could you prepare to make at the beginning that would yield benefits during the middle of a recession buying stocks that dip to sell when they recover and add to your reserves? What about goods as services that will skyrocket, is there anything you would stock up on or prepay for to have in your back pocket?There are simple things yes, but there are a lot of ways to interact with the world that are affected by the economy. Its not as simple as earn more, as if that was something that you just wake up and do. Earning power is a function of hundreds of variables, most of which you cant control and of the ones you can barely any are easily affected.  <response>: It usually makes sense to pay off debts, particularly those with high interest rates. It makes sense to have some cash you can get at in an emergency.Thats really about it. What doesnt make sense is trying to time the market -- thats what youre doing if you start moving your 401k or other investments around. This is a great way to lose money, resist! 