Discriminatory Cash Flow Management for Business and Stock Portfolios

The post before this one was about conserving resources to deal with extreme adversity. The aim today is to set priorities for whatever is available. Here are some starter ideas on how to use scarce funds for financial planning in the business environment of July 2008.

1. Favor probability over profit. Put money in deposits with reputable banks run by professional executives. Check on their control systems for derivatives, outsourcing, and speculation. Avoid the ones that curry favors from discredited members of an administration in the autumn of its mis-rule. Bonds of organizations that stick to budgets are other parking slots for cash relieved from the clutches of stocks on a slide.

2. Focus on children and other compulsions. Stay invested in food, beverages, clothes, footwear, educational supplies, pharmaceuticals, and security. It may appear contradictory, at first sight, to favor beer, tobacco, and entertainment. However, we need more stress relief not less when stranded on proverbial islands and beaches in the Pacific.

3. Fear nothing. Anxiety will only cloud your vision. Even bankruptcy may not be worse than what you have heard about Guantanamo. Material losses can be made good over time, provided that spirit and integrity remain intact.

4. Fight your irrationality. Conserving the contents of a water can in the desert is tough. You keep thinking that this may not last. That is right, but it is probably premature to blow the last of your resources today. Beware of mirages. TV anchors may have reasons to proclaim stock market rallies. Are you paid for this as well?

5. Find hidden help. Put your break from day trading to good use. Take an online course. Learn Chinese, Russian, or even Spanish. Start a web log better than this one. Contrive to meet by chance with old friends. There are sure to be some bargains in your garage-sales of better days.

The next step is to hit the stock exchange running once the sun breaks through again. Let us discuss this tomorrow.