Biggest Losers

Upon recently personally experiencing the multiple shocks of:

• Minimal amounts of people at rush hour in one of the typically busiest cities and train stations in the world,
• Open parking spaces and empty parking lots at one of the busiest train lines in the world,
• No lines at Starbucks in the typically busiest city in the world…

… I started thinking bigger-picture about who will be most deeply affected in the intermediate-term by the virus pandemic and the resulting slow-downs, shut-downs, cuts, and service eliminations. Near the top of the list of business types and job types negatively affected are (obviously),

• Restaurants and their owners
• Airlines
• Commercial real estate property owners
• Business conference managers
• …the list goes on.

BUT – among the less obviously hardest hit will be young people recently having graduated high school or college attempting to embark on their working (or interning) and earning lives. Even if the good old USA and its powerful economy rebounds slowly, or briskly, from the shock of the Coronavirus of 2019-2020 there will be areas of the economy that may never fully recover. This state of affairs will affect the least experienced members of the job market.

Here are a few thoughts to share with my readers, which include a good share of “under 25’s” and their parents and grandparents:

• Young people need to start thinking NOW about goals that will need to be set – and about how they will conduct their future job searches.
• Saving TODAY has become a “must”, not a “nice to have”.
• (Think: in order to survive, pay down college debt AND create future emergency funds.)
• Emergency funds will become absolutely necessary.
• Those who develop a deep understanding of the concept of “sacrificing the finer things today for a more financially independent future” will thrive.
• Networking, both online and in person, using the currently generous resources of colleges, community colleges, job fairs and universities will remain a critical skill.

There will always be winners and losers in our world. ANYONE can become a winner – no matter their economic level or race. Perhaps education, whether formal or within a trade, is the key factor of success. Adding the factor of financial preparedness is and will be more critical than ever for our young people. Let’s encourage and set the example of winners, not losers. And as soon as it becomes safe, let’s fill up those train stations and parking lots again!