What do you do now?

[GinaMaria]

Source: Chicago SunTimes

The defeat of the mortgage bailout drove home a point with crystal clarity: Cash is king.

If you've got it and wish to spend or invest it, opportunities abound. On a house and car, buyers who can put down a chunk of cash have everything in their favor.

If you don't have cash, it is imperative to save. People who used credit cards and home-equity loans to live beyond their means are likely to find those lifelines withdrawn.

Here's a survival guide to the credit crisis:



Read more: http://www.suntimes.com/business/currency/1192526,CST-NWS-bail30.article

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This article breaks it down into categories like 401Ks, buying a car, credit cards etc. I like the approach of being tactical and practical for the everyday Joe and you don't need a PhD in Economics to understand it. For those who know more about economics, would you make the same recommendations? What if anything are you doing different?

See also
Bailout Q and A http://www.suntimes.com/business/roeder/1190786,CST-FIN-bailQNA29.article


And
What's $700 billion worth?
• It's larger than the $608 billion slated for Social Security and $623 billion for defense.

• In Illinois, $10.5 billion goes to elementary and secondary education -- so the bailout is 67 times the state's K-12 spending.

• With about 113 million U.S. households, the bailout number represents $6,200 each. That's more than $2,000 for each man, woman and child.

• With 750,000 homes in some state of foreclosure across America, each could get $933,333 with the bailout total.

Sun-Times wires