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The news is abuzz with rumors of the next recession coming in 2023 or 2024. But for most Americans, all of that triggers a sudden panic and a desperate need to look at one's bank account. What is a recession, what does it mean, and how can you prepare yourself and your family's finances for one? This article will answer each of these questions and more. By the end, you'll know what to expect and how to prepare for a recession. What is a recession? According to economists working for the National Bureau of Economic Research, a recession is a prolonged period of economic downturn or declining economic activity. It affects a nation's or the world's entire economy and lasts for a few months or more. In some ways, the best way to understand the recession is to compare it to "regular" or positive economic activity and GDP. GDP (gross domestic product) is essentially the combined value of the goods and services made by an economy, like the American ...

Low-Skilled Workers Are An Untapped Asset If You Invest In Them Organizations around the world continue to struggle to attract the talent they need, with the shortage leading to intense competition between companies. This is prompting organizations to look wherever they can for the skills they need. A recent paper from Harvard Business School highlights how low-skilled workers are often an untapped resource, and that improving the skills of workers already on the payroll is often a more effective solution than looking externally. The report reveals, however, that low-paid workers are often criminally underinvested in by their employers, with many succumbing to the belief that there is a naturally high turnover of such staff, so there is no point in investing in them. "Most employers show little engagement in workers’ lives, provide minimal support for skill-building, give infrequent or unclear feedback, and offer almost no guidance on career pathways," the authors ...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The pandemic has transformed the way people live and businesses operate. While many industries had to adjust their processes to adapt to a new normal, some thrived thanks to their digital model. A great example of one that thrived is financial technology, or fintech, which uses technology to deliver banking and financial services. Fintech was a growth space prior to the pandemic, with growth in take-up of services from the sector jumping from 16% in 2015, to 64% in 2019. While fintech players were not immune to the impact of Covid-19, they were generally able to recover more quickly due to their agile model and their increased use of digital channels. Key factors driving growth in fintech Given the trend toward digitalization, let's accept that fintech is here to stay. With this in mind, let's talk more about the rise of this space and some of the exciting opportunities that lie ahead in this sector. 1...

Warren Buffett is arguably the best-known, most-respected investor of all time. Buffett is also known for his folksy charm and his memorable quotes about the art of investing. When you're aiming to reach the top of the mountain, it's usually wise to closely follow the footprints of those who have successfully made the climb before you. Your odds of investing success can increase exponentially if you learn and apply Buffett's best investing tips. 1. Never Lose Money One of the most popular pieces of Buffett advice is as follows: "Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1." If you're working from a loss, it's that much harder to get back to where you started, let alone to earn gains. 2. Get High Value at a Low Price In the 2008 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, Buffett shared another key principle: "Price is what you pay; value is what you get." Losing money can happen when you pay a price that doesn't...

You might have heard this billionaire's name, but who is Mark Cuban and how did he make his money? It's possible you know him as one of the sharks on the hit show "Shark Tank," but Cuban is more than just a TV personality -- he's also the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a successful investor. In fact, Cuban's companies are so successful that he made his first million in 1990 after selling his business to CompuServe and then earned a $5.9 billion paycheck after he sold his online streaming audio service to Yahoo in 1999. Cuban knows how to be rich and successful, and he isn't afraid to share his insight. Check out Mark Cuban's advice, so you can learn how to budget money and think like a billionaire. 1. Be a Little Bit of a Risk Taker Talk to any self-made millionaires or billionaires and they might preach the importance of taking calculated risks. Sometimes, risks and rewards go hand-in-hand, as Cuban pointed out in a 2017 interview with M...

We may be a country sorely lacking in financial literacy, but we all have one core principle ingrained in us: We must have an emergency savings fund. In theory, it sounds pretty simple: You make a certain amount of income, and set a certain amount of that aside in an account that you only tap into when the going gets especially tough and you need to shell out dough for something like a new car part or a surprise medical bill. But embarking on building a six-month (the recommended amount) emergency fund can be challenging. Where do you begin? With the help of finance experts, we've laid out a multi-step plan of attack. Go In With the Right Mindset "Saving is primarily a mental game that you can win," said Adam Garcia, founder of The Stock Dork. "Setting away even a tiny amount of money on a regular basis can eventually lead you to your objective, no matter how low your starting point is. Time and a little self-control are all that is required." Get a...

The fintech market size stood at USD 112.5 Billion in 2021 (GlobeNewswire).  The pace of change and innovative mindset in fintech has picked up in the recent years and the industry continues growing exponentially. The Global Fintech Market size is expected to reach USD 332.5 Billion by 2028 and is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.8% during this period. In this article, I explore how the industry has changed and what trends are shaping the future of the financial service industry. Trend No 1: New stage of maturity in the fintech market The explosion of new fintech businesses is slowing down and the market has started focusing on more mature businesses with a clear path towards profitability and strong USPs. Also, regulators have become stricter – there are new requirements that increase entry barriers for new companies that are not ready to become authorized institutions due to insufficient funds, experience, and team, etc. This explains th...

We explore four clear-cut SMB marketing strategies you should try, including local, inbound, influencer, and performance marketing. Match the right strategies to your business needs. Let’s get one thing straight before we start: Marketing is an investment. There is no investment without risk, no guaranteed results, no magical solution, that will make your business grow and generate profits without effort. There are, however, increasingly efficient marketing channels that can be addressed without a large in-house team, and without adding costly intermediaries into the equation. What you need is a clear strategy, the right tools to automate your operations, and the capability to measure the outcome of your investment. Small business marketing has a shorter horizon for generating results; business owners must be more selective in their adoption of marketing channels. Whereas large corporations are addressing all the stages of the user journey, the SMB segment of businesse...

Should you rotate out of stocks into bonds and funds? Are cryptocurrency investments worth the volatility? What are the dominant themes for investing in 2022?  Predicting the future can be a fraught exercise at any time. It can be especially so in uncertain times, and there is no shortage of uncertainty heading into 2022. But a group of panelists said exchange traded funds (ETFs) and cryptocurrency adoption will continue to grow this year, during a panel discussion on Jan. 4, 2022, convened by Investopedia and ETFTrends.com. Key Takeaways + The markets saw an unexpectedly wild ride in 2021. For 2022, experts suggest a fresh take and a move away from large-cap stocks. + A risk-on environment should ensure that cryptocurrency adoption will continue throughout global markets. + Panelists expect that exchange traded funds (ETFs) will continue to multiply in 2022. Their assessments of 2022 come at a particularly unpredictable time in the markets. At the end of 2020, asse...

+ If you're new to investing, it can be hard to know where to start. + Financial planners recommend starting with some research, then automating your investments to make things easy. + They recommend starting as soon as possible, and keeping things simple. + Read more stories from Personal Finance Insider. Over the last year and a half, the topic of investing has made headlines and capitalized conversations between friends, colleagues, and family members. During the pandemic, we watched an uptick in the economy, a rise in people caring about cryptocurrency, and more than 15% of people investing for the first time. However, one group of people, the Gen-Zers (those born between 1997 and 2012) didn't rush into investing. According to a GOBankingRates survey, 34% of Gen-Z participants have not invested their money at all and 62% of participants in the survey say their financial situation warrants advice from a professional.  So if you're new to investing, here...