Hope for the best - prepare for the worst

 Monica Walsh of Creative Network Systems led an eye-opening session on how to survive a bad economy. The lunchtime session, held in a Quebecor conference room, featured free pizza and soda, and we learned genuinely useful survival tips to help us weather stormy times.

Monica gave good, quick advice on dealing with health benefits (including COBRA), budgeting, refinancing, and other useful actions that prepare for the worst (as we hope for the best).

The discussion was organized around Monica's list of things we should do:

• See your financial planner
  
• Run your credit report
  
• Look at your 401K
  
• Go to the dentist
  
• Have a yearly physical
  
• Do a balance transfer
  
• Refinance high interest credit cards
  
• Update your resume
  
• Revise your look
  
• Reach out to your network
  
• Read Who Moved My Cheese
  

As Monica said, being prepared and having our financial lives in order is good no matter what happens.