How can I and other middle class wannabe Americans protect ourselves during the deteriorating economy?

Alphonso Brake: Pay off the student loans as slowly as possible. They're usually quite cheap.You should aim at saving 20% or more of what you earn until you retire. It's really not that hard once you get used to it. The best way is to learn about your spending habits. When you see where your money is going, it becomes alot easier to cut down on things that won't really affect your lifestyle much. Don't worry about the U.S. economy. In fact don't worry about anything that you don't have an ability to affect. If it makes you feel better, it's lack of savings that is sinking the U.S. economy, not lack of spending.What to do? Subtract 20% from your earning and figure out a way to live on that. If your earnings increase or decrease, the difference should go into savings or come out of savings (as long as it's temporary.)...Show more

Kate Baune: The economy will take care of itself.You just need to worry about your personal finances. Go to Barnes & Noble, and rea! d a copy of "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey.And turn off CNN. They run too many "the sky is falling" news stories. (What do you expect from them, after all, there's a Republican in the White House. They love telling bad news.)...Show more

Penelope Armond: The only way individuals can get hurt by a deteriorating economy is to lose their job. Most people don't lose jobs during a recession, but some obviously do. You need to do all that you can to remain employable. Having an outstanding student loan means you took one step, you got a good education. Hopefully you are using what you learned in school to advance your career. Make yourself indispensable at work and you most likely will survive any downturn unless your company goes out of business. If you ever see a sign of that, move out of that company before they close down. Spend less than you make. Save the rest. As a previous poster mentioned, pay off the student loan slowly as the interest rate is probab! ly low. If your company has a 401k open one up. If not, start ! an IRA. Start out investing in established mutual funds and if you get the hang of it, look at individual stocks....Show more