The problem is that this time there hasn't been a good time. Everything crashed in 2008, and it feels like its only now we're seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Now there's a threat of it dipping back down again? It feels kind of like seeing the end of the roaring twenties and wondering when the good times will come back. I hope our good times actually do.

In true capitalism, there is always going to be cycles and I am not arguing for capitalism, but that is just how it works. Really the only way to prepare yourself is try to save as much as you can during the good times and limit your spending in the bad times.

That's exactly what I was thinking, Frugalfran. It doesn't seem possible that things could be worse than how they were in 2008. I know that we are just starting to get back on our feet from that time. I really don't want to do it all over again and lose even more this time around. Is there anyway to protect ourselves from having this happen again?

I saw a news report the other day that said there are many signs indicating we will soon be in the same, if not worse, situation as 2008. It's really scary to think about it being any worse than that. I just don't understand how we can spiral downward so quickly when we haven't even fully recovered from the last mess.

A prediction says that one of most possible reasons is the tightening of monetary policy to slow inflation. Investment in houses may even be dangerous as the economy slows down. We can already feel it now, so I wonder if we will see the bottom in 2017.

My boss has been talking a lot about this lately. He thinks that we are in for another depression soon. I wish that there was a way out of the stock market, especially with my 401K because the last time everything went downhill I ended up losing a lot of my retirement money.

Hard to disagree with you. I even think you have to be careful with owning hard assets, such as a home and land. Prices have really rebounded in certain areas of the US. And the amount of personal/consumer debt may put housing prices at a risk.

Even with interest rates at record lows across the globe, stocks are at all time highs in most countries - certainly the US... Very deceiving in my opinion. I cannot see a way out of the debt our country has, extreme money printing, a very possible bond and stock bubble, bad employment numbers, horrible earnings for the most part, consumer spending, etc - other than a severe recession, depression or long term panic. In my opinion, owning hard assets, such as precious metals, housing, land, etc, and getting out of the stock market should be considered at this point.