With 2010 around the corner, America is gliding into something that vaguely resembles a recovery. So how am I riding the crest of the economic recovery? How is my immigrant life placed in America and its post-traumatic stress disorder? Well, I am thankful to have a job and at the end of the tunnel I do see opportunities for greater responsibilities.
When I was a teenager, I remember asking my grandpa how I would know if I was in a recession and he jokingly told me, “Recession is when your neighbor loses his job and depression is when you lose your job.” 
I won’t deny that the times are tough but these recessionary times gave me several positive opportunities.
A greater sense of financial responsibility
The fear of the impending doomsday taught us so much about money. For people who get intimidated by numbers, percentages and Excel formulae, I highly recommend Mint.com. We adopted it as our Personal Finance Manager. It is a web application that pulls all money transactions- credit cards, checking/saving/investment accounts and tells your net worth at the end of the day. A single version of truth (Yes, I do work for a BI company!! 
) It lets you classify and review your transactions (As groceries, party, vacation, gifts, restaurants, rent, etc). Not only does Mint analyze your spending and earning trends but it also gives you ideas to save! It has made our life so much easier! Well for all you doubting Thomas’s out there – Read this to see how secure mint is.
Finding my feet
The recessionary circumstances around, gave me the opportunity to change my career. I got into Marketing! This was home calling. Nothing like I ever did before. I got to do all the things that I love doing – writing, blogging, being creative and meeting people. I finally got down to brass tacks. And now recently we ventured into an online marketing business and conceived buzz360. Buzz360 is our new baby. Through buzz360 we are focusing to develop solutions in Search Marketing and Social Media Marketing for businesses and people. To increase the brand awareness, traffic to the website and providing highest level of Internet visibility for our customers is our goal for buzz360. Check out the website for more details.
Ridiculously priced vacation/airline deals
With the recession, the vacations that we would have probably avoided due to sky-high prices became a reality to us! The price spectrum of restaurants, airlines, hotels (& even cruises!!) had so many specials and promos to drum up their business. And we did not leave any stone unturned. We planned everything ahead and found great deals online. Thanks to Orbitz and Expedia & a special thanks to Google!!
(Psst… I will reveal my secrets to finding great deals online in my future blog)
Become politically and financially conscious
The looming recession sparked in tons of financial advice in media that forced me to take notice. (Free Advice!! Love you Suze Orman!) I remember “Economy” being the most powerful topic even in the presidential race. Without the fear of this recession I would have taken all of this for granted.
I might sound cockeyed for saying good things can come out of a recession but if you delve deeply into dark economic clouds, it is possible you see a silver lining too.
Thanks for sharing your optimism and lots of practical things.
Good luck to you and Buzz360 – we all need to express our passions in life and reaching others who can benefit from what we do is very important. BUZZ is the way to go.