The rising cost of living and inflation have many people fearing that a future economic recession or even a depression could be on the horizon.
The Great Depression was a very difficult time in American history. It lasted from the late 1920s up until the start of World War II, and America’s GDP fell by more than 30% while unemployment skyrocketed to over 20%. It represented the single biggest economic downturn in the history of the United States.
It’s important to remember, however, that not everybody became poor and lost money during the Great Depression. On the contrary, a lot of people were able to make money and even become rich.
The point of this is to show you that even if a future Great Depression strikes, there will still be ways for you to make money, or at the very least to barter and trade.
In this article, we’ll cover how people were able to become rich during the Great Depression, and then we’ll give you a few ideas for how you could make money or trade in a potential future economic collapse.
Who Got Rich During The Depression?
There’s an old saying that the rich can always figure out ways to become richer. Believe it or not, more millionaires were made during the period of the Great Depression than any other time period in American history.
While the most commonly accepted start date of the Great Depression (according to most historians) is 1929, the truth is that the seeds leading up to the infamous Stock Market Crash were already being planted in the years prior.
Related: 10 Things Not To Do When The Next Great Depression Strikes
Long story short, too much credit was being extended to people and businesses to the point that the amount of credit given exceeded the available cash in the economy.
It was only a matter of time before companies and individuals alike could no longer afford to pay their credit bills.
This resulted in a complete collapse of the banking industry and the housing market.
Those who had liquid cash available, however, took advantage of the collapse in prices. They began buying up companies, property, and homes, and they also invested heavily in companies that were making in-demand products.
A few years later when the stock prices of these companies began to increase, and when the value of property and homes began to increase again, these people got rich… very rich.
How Can You Get Rich During a Future Depression?
So what’s the lesson to be learned here?
Simple: avoid becoming trapped in credit debt and start stashing cash away. The biggest trap you can find yourself in is to not have enough cash to help get you through an economic collapse because you’re spending too much on your monthly debt payments.
Related: 17 Forgotten Preservation Hacks that Will Save You Money
A big fall in housing prices will be the best time to buy property, because the value of the property is sure to increase again in a few years. The same goes for stocks. But you can only buy property or stocks if you have cash set aside.
Unfortunately, far too many people are trapped in the exact same predicament that many were trapped in during the Great Depression. Too many people today are drowning in debt, such as credit card debt, auto loans, personal loans and make just enough money to pay the minimum monthly payments on these bills.
What’s going to happen to these people when the next Great Depression hits and the banking industry collapses? As the old saying goes, history repeats itself.
So what should you be doing? Simple: pay down your debts as fast as you can, and set aside as much cash as you can.
How Can You Make Money During A Future Great Depression?
It’s also important to remember that even if you don’t become rich in a future economic depression, there are still ways you can make cash or trade to help yourself stay afloat.
Here are a few ideas:
Foraging And Selling Berries
Head out foraging to collect wild berries that you can sell or trade. Berries will always be in-demand because of the variety of foods and beverages that they can be included in, such as pies or juices. Just make sure you have the right knowledge about which berries are edible and which ones are not.
Chopping And Selling Firewood
Do you have a forest on your property? If so, then you can easily chop down and sell firewood. Anyone who has a wood stove in their home will be a possible customer.
House Cleaning
People will still want their homes to be clean after an economic disaster. Consider offering your house cleaning services if you have the skills and the time. You can consider using DIY cleaning products if you find the pricing of store-bought household cleaning items has gone up beyond your budget.
Selling Eggs
If you raise chickens, selling eggs will be a very viable way to make extra cash during a future economic depression.
People like their eggs because they’re a good source of protein, so the demand for them will still be high during difficult economic times.
Renting Out Rooms In Your House
An economic depression means that rental costs may skyrocket and leave many people scrambling for a place to live that they can afford the monthly rent on.
If you’re comfortable renting out rooms in your home, it will be a perfectly viable way to make money. Just make sure the people you’re renting out to can afford to pay their rent.
Hunting and Selling Meat
If you’re a skilled hunter, you could go out hunting and get meat that you can butcher and sell later.
⇒ Click Here To Learn How To Can Hamburger Meat For Long Term Preservation
Meat will always be in demand so you’ll always have people willing to buy or trade even during an economic depression. Besides the meat itself, you could also sell the fur and hides you collect as well.
Mending/Fixing Clothing
Clothing will become a more precious commodity in an economic disaster as people will focus more on repairing the existing clothes they have rather than buying new ones.
If you have any skills with mending clothing, consider turning it into a way to make extra cash.
Growing And Selling Vegetables
Growing vegetables in a garden is an excellent way to ensure you can be self-sufficient. Consider selling or trading your vegetables to other people as well, so long as you are growing enough vegetables for your family already and have enough left over that you can afford to give up.
Selling Baked Goods
Do you have good baking skills? If you can make bread, cakes, cookies, muffins, or any other kind of baked goods you’ll likely always have someone willing to buy or trade following an economic collapse.
There are many other ways to continue to make money or trade during an economic collapse beyond the ones we’ve discussed above, but hopefully this list has given you an idea of things you can do.
Finding yourself stuck in debt and not having enough cash reserves to fall back on is the worst position you can be in leading into a future recession or depression.
Start paying down your debts and setting aside money as fast as you can, and keep in mind that there will always be ways that you can trade or make money even following an economic crisis. All you have to do is get a little creative.
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Other ways to make money during a depression:
Provide caring services – child care, aged care, disability care etc.
Backyard mechanic, bikes, cars, trailers.
Backyard handyman – welding skills, glazier skills, metal working in particular/anything that is a bit beyond the average DIY
Concierge services – offering to collect people’s groceries or parcels, doing the run around on time consuming or annoying chores/jobs outside the home (standing in queues for tickets or food parcels), and being paid to be the spare set of hands.
Deliveries for small furniture – there’s a roaring trade in second hand single pieces of furniture around where I live, and people often just want a man and a ute to move it.
Second hand clothing – good stuff, not the off casts but the stuff that actually is good quality, well made, classic, good looking and still in good repair.
Repair workshops for everything from toasters and kettles to bikes and hand tools. Being someone who can fix ‘almost anything’ will mean you don’t have to keep chickens!
What, you think that money is going to help you in the future. LOL…
Don’t fall for the LIES that are being set forth.
“Hell is coming” and that’s what you better get ready for.
Better yet, better get right with JESUS… He will be your ONLY hope for Salvation…
stay sharp
PS: Sad time of the year, it’s pride month and look at all the sick and perverted people coming out, like the roaches come out at night.
All will pay dearly for what they do and have done to GODS little children. Y’ALL will pay dearly.
In time HE will come and get his children…
Then it will be to late for YOU…
What is done is done…
Yeah why do we have pride “month” but only Veterans “DAY” or Memorial “DAY”.? It’s ridiculous.
It happened because the teacher’s union has always been woke.
The phags an carpet munchers were given status by the naive people. Like the same people who gave us prohibition. They were the original cancel culture. Some people should never drink alcohol, a majority of us can, no problem.
The alternative lifestyle is part of the death culture, they don’t procreate life.
To BBBBBuba, yes it’s a shame we have these dedicated month celebration for society garbage worship. Those people are just as loony as the SD comic-con adult dress-up nut-jobs, get a real job.
Of course we have hair sniffer Joe and cackling hen vp in charge, GOD help us.
No veteran wants a veteran day or memorial day they just went you to stop with the bullshit wars
God is waiting for all who trust his wisdom. But it doesn’t hurt to keep supplies of food and cash because you’re gonna need both….and never trust the banks!
22 people disagree with this!? I will pray for you. Red ant is speaking truth to you. Repent for the time is near. God will require our lives eventually, be ready because eternity is a long time and God wants you with Him in paradise.
The one thing in Blue Sanctuary States to never do is?
Rent a room or house out, to strangers or section 8 folks. In today’s coddling of homeless some politicians say homeowners should house the homeless. While the GATED COMMUNITY politicians and activist live in their gated community homes.
Get real, with govt rent restrictions in large cities like NYC. Cali’s low income regs, you’ll never get the squatters out of your home. You will loose your home and still pay the mortgage.
In today’s world renting is a nightmare in liberal States with Marxist mindset.
It’s a bit dastardly to swoop in during a depression and buy all the houses and businesses up, to profit off them for the future.
But it IS how they all made their money.
I am not sure there’s enough ‘meat on the bones’ still for this to happen anymore – financially the world is quite a bit different. In the past many of the companies were owned by families, not conglomerates or large share holders, so you could buy them. Now it’s all on the share market (which will have it’s own bloodbath). Thus buying something like this is a risk. If you can afford to buy it outright then that’s probably better than betting on what might be a very volatile time for shares.
The other thought that I have is… what is going to be available? I don’t know about where you live… but the 80s and the 90s in Australia saw the death of the local deli (short for delicatessen … corner store). Even independent service stations here are generally owned in small chains of half a dozen or more, and would set you back $8m to buy outright… And they aren’t going to get you a seat on any table of Oil and Gas reps any day of the week.
So I’m not sure what sort of businesses people are talking about… start pondering that I guess. I’m in Australia and a lot of the businesses here are either small-small (under 15 FTE employees), or moderate-big (fleets of 50 cars plus, and 200 FTE plus). I guess there’s something to be had in second hand car market, but you’d be competing against the big players who own six or eight new and used car dealerships already sprinkled across a capital city. Or you could look at buying out a bunch of independent furniture stores but the import of cheap shit furniture is crunching into that, and you have to be able to financially fend off some national companies. Pharmacies? Small independents? Then you are stepping into a massively regulated industry that has so much control you can’t really be independent (and there’s big chains in this space backed by Very Big Companies already).
I like farming. Our farm land is in a massive price bubble right now and dramatically over priced…. If that were to fall I’d add to our farm dramatically.
Getting peoples homes after the you know what hits the fan. TAX AUCTIONS. Way cheaper. The banks will fail when it hits and there will be no money for them to pay the due taxes either. Just bide your time and watch for these auctions to start. Get in with the sheriffs office to get on the list
Bought 4 acres of land for $100 + 10% for auctioneer in N.H. Tax auction is the way to go. Paying $70 a year in taxes for the land. Praise God.
Nothing like stealing homes
I hear Max Igan, the crowhouse, left your part of the world, it got too repressive with Covid.
Most people don’t remember that cars, muscle cars back in the day. Did not have computers on board or sensor chips. Most younger people here want the living room comforts in their vehicles. What load of garbage. Mobile couch potatoes now.
The old landline home phones were used to communicate, people actually wrote letters.
The down fall of the old phones was no competition, MA Bell a monopoly.
Cars were less complicated, guys actually worked on their cars, backyard mechanics.
Electric cars are easily disabled by govt remote control. If you drive outside of the 15 minute city limits zone. Oh and keep taking the Covid shots or whatever big pharma says to take.
We don’t have to live that way. Keep watching what happens to the 2nd Amendment here. We are the last gun freedom toting nation in the United Nation’s way.
Here in NYS a few years back a land grab was handed out to the farmers from the govt. Farms here are no longer small or medium sized, most all are massive conglomerates. Frightening. They own everything and do as they please environment and neighboring house owners be damned. The is a reason the U.S. —HAD—
LAWS against monopoly’s. Now most every business you can think of is a large conglomerate—including healthcare. SO DANGEROUS! Its MUCH easier to control a few vs. many. So if China wants land here these conglomerates would sell out in a flat ass second and next thing you k ow CHINA owns all of our land. Americans today are the DUMBEST generation of ALL TIME. We allowed the vicious, evil leftist school/college systems with societal flunkies to take over and ruin GENERATIONS of childrens minds. I have taught my kids from an early age what mind control looks/sounds like. Taught them what to watch for as far as brainwashing goes. At first they thought I was nuts UNTIL they EACH watched/listened more closely—then came home and told me I was right. I told them if they politely challenged their teacher I would stand by them until the end. I do the same with the grandchildren Im allowed to teach such things (one had an extreme leftist mother). We have allowed the freaks to take over and its time to take back. Teach our kids that they do NOT have to accept all that is taught and that they have the right to question it. One of my kids did ask a teacher if her lesson was OPINION vs FACT (as she was bad mouthing Republicans)—-she didnt care for that very much BUT the great thing was the other kids in class said “ya, isnt it?” Raising their consciousness to such ideology being forced upon them. Point is all it takes is ONE kid to question status quo.
My father survived the depression by selling his very expensive sports car and buying an old large wooden fishing boat. Everyone thought he was crazy. Every day he brought fish to a vacant lot where he had filled a 55-gallon drum with cooking oil. He sold fish dinner for I think 3 cents. He bartered fish dinners for chickens and sold chicken dinner for 5 cents. This amounted to wealth back then.
God bless him. I love fish. I would have been his customer.
My mother supported her mother and nephew by working for a local mom and pop grocery store. They paid little but gave her broken bars of soap, dented canned goods, etc. Grandma raised a big garden, canned, did laundry for the family and neighbors and raised a grandson. Together they salted meats, dried vegetables, foraged for wild greens and chincapins and hazelnuts. Grandma went with a neighbor into the Appalachian Mountains and brought home small wild fruit trees, chincapin nut bushes, hazelnut bushes ect. As they matured they helped feed the family. Some were still surviving when I visited as a child in the 1940s and 50s.
I’ve done much the same thing for my family. I gathered or bought seeds and plants for many wild edibles and medicinal. I grow a large garden, can, dry, ferment, ect. I’ve added many fruit trees and berry bushes, and hazelnut. I’ve even started growing mushrooms that are raised on shredded paper, cardboard, and coffee grounds and paper filters. All you need is a spot out of direct sunlight and 55° to 80°. I learned to make extracts with alcohol, water, and glycerin.
Is it all for future? No it’s everyday living.
Evil is given its last stand before destruction
God will always and always have the last word
He is Faithful , patient, long suffering and love until death
That is why , While we all were at the bottom , sinners , no exception , he died on a lonely cross and paid for the sin
This is Choice of mankind
Who will you choose , serve , follow
All have this same chance to be saved from the sinking ship
and is will sink , fail, fall, go down with all who follow the evil leadership taking it dow
NOT money , But the Love of , NOT what you have , but where it take s place in your heart
God who is , HOLY , JUST , and Truth will always Fulfill his Promise, Words, Past prophacy
seek like you want to get the most, richest, deepest fulfilment in LIFE
YU will see , but only when your sincere
Read Romans, 1st corinthians, Hebrews
These are Great Articles for living , but will not get to eternity with out Jesus christ
MY parents, Grandparents were depression , war torn, survivors of the evil caused by mankind and the leadership
If you do your homework and dont believe the FAKE check sites, Fake News sites, and Fake web liars clubs you will find out what really happened
Wars create economy , Depressions follows
in a evil world of Self, Narciscism , Lust , Perversion of every level and kind and depravity to the worst you can think of
This is where we are
liar s , cheet, steal, kill , create false ideologies, narratives, and egos abound
Just Wait : God has a coming judgement and it is not Good
Spend the time , Do the Research , Find out the real truth
Then you will have a different mindset
JUST like today , they protect thier own , thier way , thier evil empires of lust, cults, sacrifice, trafficing, theft, murder by suicide , all for the Good of the Mother Earth , Mother Self , Mother ship of Train wrecks ,
Have people not learned previous history mistakes yet? Oh yeah the teacher’s union don’t teach history anymore, just a twisted version of 1619 project crap.
In our modern history from the 20th century we had 2 world wars, American depression, Covid BS. And several brushfire wars in between.
And the SHEEPLE still do the same stupid stuff over and over again And wonder why.
The kingdoms of the world, especially Europe was to keep the masses uneducated. It’s easier to rule tumbledown public. The old playbook is using the same tactics in modern societies. Restrict knowledge at whatever costs towards the resistance.
GOD will come from heaven, not their god from govt to help us.
Some Bible thumpers believe the modern churches will turn on their own worshipers in the end times. We see that with churches excepting those gays & lesbians. Religion is being twisted. The world is santan’s playground.
And don’t rely on the churches or whatever Bible version you read. Your belief in the Almighty is first and foremost. Remember the WWII religious church helped the Nazi’s escape Germany to South America an other places.
The article said you could easily make money cutting firewood, haha, guess they never cut fire wood. Being poor means you get to do all the really hard jobs for low pay.
Oh don’t forget the famous politician once said. Illegals are illegally crossing the Open Southern Border . To do jobs Americans won’t do. WHAT A BIG LIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Biden’s illegals are getting free stuff American citizens can’t get, go figure?
I guess whoever published the article is not aware NYS is trying to do away with wood burning stoves etc. The morons running our state apparently havent thought about loss of electric during the winter storms we get—-OR HAVE THEY !!!???!!!
Yes, those insurance companies are leaving Cali. Newscum has made it a sin for businesses to make a profit there.
While his businesses didn’t close down during Covid. And ate at a hoity-toity NAPA Valley restaurant. Mask-less, $300-600 sinners, did the taxpayers pay for that too?
Do you wonder what’s behind all those TV and radio ads about the member or donations stuff? Please give us just $19.00 UDS a month to help us.
Who or what corp or organization is behind all this?
There are exceptions to the rule like T to T and Wounded Warriors orgs.
We see these family homes being rented out here in America and other countries.
Is the game plan to get people into the mindset we don’t own anything anymore?
The elites will always keep their stuff, gated communities while the SHEEPLE are dumped on the streets.
In Cali as told by friends, Seniors are being overpriced, overtaxed out of their homes. They are displaced on the streets, old an cold.
While Americans is last and the illegals are given first class priority over retired taxpayers. Remember those politicians, activists and NGO’s never lost their jobs, we did!!!
What we have is not an exact repeat of the great depression, namely because we are not and will not be experiencing deflation. The dollar’s value is plummeting and soon will serve little except to alleviate the next toilet paper shortage. Advising people to hold cash is a profoundly bad suggestion. It will be virtually worthless. Precious metals, property, and useful stuff are much better havens for worth. A still might be a good investment for barter later.
A lot of kool-aid drinkers got on the bandwagon for Bite-Me-Coin, go digital.
But now those people realize digital currency is a surveillance tool not an investment tool.
Hard assets will the new non-fiat money system in the sub-barter system, like Mad Max.
What will homeowners use when the fiat USD fails to pay the mortgage and property taxes?
Their’s the 1930’s great depression, banks took peoples farms, homes.
Our’s will be the Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men 2.0?
Unless we can slow the process down again, maybe 2024 election or not?
What happens when we run out of stuff to barter?
What are the posters thoughts?
It is IMPERATIVE that Trump be voted in as President. HE and only HE has PROVEN he can turn us around and do it quickly. Vote in anyone else and we are done. Desantis, as much as I like him IS STILL a politician and WILL be forced by the partys to cow tow. We all already KNOW TRUMP WILL NOT. The best thing we can do for ourselves right now is get like thinking people REGISTERED to vote as the Republican party does NOT focus on this while leftys DO. We also MUST RIGHT NOW DEMAND voting reform—and KEEP DEMANDING it u til it happens. THEN we must get anyone and everyone out to vote AND we MUST find a way in advance to keep an eye on what happens with votes.
Trump isn’t saving anything
I agree with those who posted, things in a future depression won’t be the same as in the 1930’s depression, because many things are not the same as they were then. On the one hand, far more people still lived or worked on farms in those days, so many people in the city at least knew someone – parents, relatives, maybe a friend’s family – where they could go and at least hope to eat, if they couldn’t make it in the city. And on the other hand, far more people today are dependent on some form of income directly from the government: welfare, social security, military retirement, or even government employees. Whether use of the internet will be a factor remains to be seen, depending on what kind of “crash” we are talking about – strictly economic, with most government and infrastructure still functioning, or the type of disaster in which power and/or communications are largely destroyed.
Today there are far fewer individuals living on actual farms: most of the farms that are left are run by huge corporations, which pay extremely low wages for temporary workers. Many families have been forced to sell their farms in the various economic downturns of the past 100 years; not all of them were turned into new farms, many have been turned into housing developments. At the same time, far more people are living in cities or urban-like areas; even those with yards around their houses often have less than 1/4 acre, barely enough to grow a large vegetable garden behind or in front of their house. Those in apartments better hope they have a marketable skill they can barter.
But realistically, it will likely be quite a while before things settle down enough to establish a barter system. Most young people today (and many older people for that matter) have zero experience doing any kind of manual labor, as in anything that does not involve sitting at a desk or at least working in an air conditioned environment. Rather than saying to themselves, “Gee, I need to go out and find a job to help support my family”, once it becomes clear that either no more government checks are coming or that said checks are mostly worthless, most would rather turn to stealing and pillaging – and will feel “justified” because the news media have been telling them for years it is somebody else’s “fault” that they are unemployed or have less than a 3-BR suburban house with a new car in the garage. We can only HOPE the economy does a slow, downward spiral, in which new situations and food distribution systems have a chance to get established. If there is a sudden massive crash or disaster which causes government checks to stop, FEMA to be unable to set up distribution centers, etc., then we can expect to see massive rioting and people attempting to abandon cities and spread out across the countryside in search of food, weapons and anything else they can get their hands on.
On a slightly different note: I don’t remember what the % unemployment rates are for something to be declared a “recession” or a “depression”; but I remember my mom telling us when I was a child, “During the Depression, a loaf of bread only cost 10 cents, but nobody had a dime”…but ALSO saying, “25% of the people were unemployed…but that means the other 75% WERE employed.” Of course, no idea how corrupt or mis-information prone the government was back then, if it was anything like today’s government, maybe there were actually a lot more than 25% unemployed…or a lot of those who were “employed” were actually only working part time, or on alternate weeks (like many on the WPA projects.)
@ Spicelady: You are correct about not being the same situation of the 1930’s depression. It won’t be anything like it at all. People then would help anyone they could…those living on farms that had food would include anyone that came to the door, invite them to meals.. This would NEVER happen now. And indeed, it is not safe to do so even if we wanted to.
The other thing different is that people WORKED and had work ETHICS and believed in God for the most part. People weren’t afraid to do manual labor, and lots of it to eat.
They trusted that God would help them find what they couldn’t do on their own.
People were overall more self sufficient as well, having the ability to sew, preserve what they could, find medicine in the woods, and even find food there, too (foraging), fix things that broke, hunt and fish (although now, most wildlife would be gone relatively quickly as there aren’t as many deer and fish in rivers as there used to be and there are millions more people )
So much is different now as it was then that will make it almost impossible for almost all people to survive another depression. And that is NOT taking into account that our government will be trying to squelch any idea of self sufficiency and total reliance on them to make us simply slaves to their totalitarian rule.
Our ONLY hope is what we do for ourselves first (preparing as best as we can), and our TRUST in GOD, and accepting Jesus as our Savior.
Where can I find your web site? I’d like to look. Thanks.
This IS the website.