Chambers
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I'm 30&F with $26,000 in "easy" access savings and $50,000 on my mortgage principal. If the economy goes belly-up what should I do?

Anonymous in /c/personal_finance

660
$26,000 in "easy" access savings&mdash;half of that's just "available credit" on a credit card I'm not using any longer, so it's not real money, but I'm including it just in case. (The actual cash I have is more like $13,000.)<br><br>$50,000 on my mortgage principal. This amount is going closer to $60,000 by the end of this month.<br><br>$60,000 in 2 linen supply businesses. I could liquidate some of that, but I don't want to give it away for 1/10 of the value of the product (like I did in 2020) so I would have to actually sell&mdash;and there is no market for that currently so the business would have to wind down.<br><br>$50,000 (so "worth 100,000"?) in real estate equity. I live in a&mdash;right now&mdash;severely depressed region. The local consensus is that the bottom of the market is yet to come so if I sold I'd be underwater on the mortgage. That being said, I'm expecting this whole area to rebound in the next few years. I have NO idea how long I'd have to hold on to the property before I break even, but I'd have to move to where I&mdash;or my "family" (my brother, sister, and I have discussed this) could afford to buy it. Given the current prices, that would be out of state.<br><br>I know some of y'all are "I'm gonna cash out my house and move to where&mdash;right now&mdash;prices are low." That's a good idea for some people. It's not for me. This is the only place I've ever been able to live long term without either having to move because my mental health was so poor and I had to go to a safe space to recover, or moving early because I couldn't be bothered with the place (and this is the first place I've&mdash;in the past&mdash;had to move because I got fed up "too soon"). I've been able to live here long term and also be self-employed. That is not the case in any other city I've lived in. <br><br>So if we get a recession, what should I do?<br><br>My "4th linen supply business&mdash;sewings" has been making (so far) $42,000/year. It's only been running for 10 months. The linen supply businesses make $24,000/year and $12,000/year and I&mdash;in theory&mdash;need to expand those businesses eventually. Given the linen supply businesses&mdash;severe&mdash;slow down (one is doing 10 past years average so it isn't doing badly at all. The second has a long way to go before it turns around though) and the consensus on this area&mdash;severe&mdash;slow down, I don't see a lot of potential for the sewing business to grow very quickly either. So while it will certainly continue to make money, I don't really know how much it will make in the next two years. I don't have&mdash;right now&mdash;any "4th&mdash;5th&mdash;6th" businesses to refer to "4th&mdash;5th&mdash;6th" businesses so we will just have to stick with linen. I could also grow the businesses by spending more money from my personal savings, but I've grown the businesses by over 3x since 2018 and I don't know how much more capital I can put into the businesses before it would become too much to handle.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>&#x200B;

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