#8 Don't get too miserable!

by Jane Baker on 25 June 2009  |  0 comments
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Jane Baker explains why we shouldn't let the constant barrage of bad news get us down.

Welcome to part eight of my 'what not to do' series.

#8 Don't get too miserable!

There's so much bad news flying about right now sometimes it's hard not to feel glum. Just take at look at some of these oh-so-cheerful headlines from this week's online financial press:

'UK recession to be much worse than forecast' (Times)

'15% of children in Britain live in home where no one has a job' (Daily Mail)

'Pensions crisis to hit millions of workers' (Telegraph)

'Mortgage lending at 13-month high but one in six in negative equity' (Telegraph)

'Lenders try to reposses homes for credit card debt' (Times)

And my personal 'favourite':

'Britain to sink deeper into the red than any other major economy' (Daily Mail)

Attention-grabbing headlines like these, and many others, all paint a truly depressing picture of the UK economy.

If you repeat my headline hunting exercise, but search for upbeat articles instead, I'm afraid you'll find them very few and far between.  

But I think we should all try to keep things in perspective. There are reasons to be positive. You just have to really want to see them.

For instance, savings rates are slowly improving giving us all a better return on our cash. And there are signs that just maybe house prices are finally bottoming out. (Although the jury is still out on that one.)

But I have to admit, good news is in extremely short supply these days. And some economists would have us believe things will get an awful lot worse, before they get better.

But that's my point. Things will eventually improve. We'll just have to keep a good old British stiff upper lip until they do.