The world is freaking out about the U.S. Recession. The doomsdayers and headline creators are leveraging the mass fear to gain a few extra clicks or newspapers (The linkbait reminds me of watching CNN).

I find it humorous that the The 'Wisdom' Journal website, posted a blog posting called 5 Ways I Plan To Survive The Recession. Don't get me wrong: The advice this blog offers is sound, and mirrors what I have been saying on this blog.

Here is the difference. The Wisdom Journal (and many other personal finance blogs) are giving the message that only in the face of a recession should one be concerned with eliminating debt, spending less than one earns, diversification and building an emergency fund.

All these actions are part of the 8 steps to build wealth slowly. If you follow them always, and not just in the face of a potential recession, then any economic jitters should worry you about as much as a hibernating bear.

Ups and downs. Boom and bust. This is the reality we live in, and you need to be prepared to survive in both by having good personal financial habits that don't change with the violitility of the econonmy or the market.

The One Minute Manager is a book by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, which reveals three secrets to productive and efficient managing as told through a young man's search for the perfect managing and leading skills.

This great short read, which I recommend that everyone should read, helps people manage their managers (Manage up!), and anyone they supervise.

But what can the one minute manager teach us about investing and managing ourselves?

The first management secret in the book is One Minute Goals. This involves a meeting of the manager and the employee where goals are agreed on, written down in a brief statement, and occasionally reviewed to ensure that productivity is occurring.

Before starting to invest, it is important for you to set goals regarding what you are trying to accomplish, and then deriving actions from those goals. Take the time to actually write out your investing goals and investment strategy in a brief statement, and regularly audit yourself against your investing goals to ensure that you are adhering to them. Your actions need to be aligned to these goals.

The second secret to one minute managing is One Minute Praisings. This involves being open with people about their performance. When you catch someone doing something right, a goal of the one minute manager, you praise them immediately, telling them specifically what they did correctly.

While investing, try to catch yourself doing "something right". For example, if you execute a trade, but researched effectively and the action is in line with your goals -- then remind yourself that you did the right thing (Action based on knowledge and understanding of risk). Take a moment out of your day to give yourself a positive affirmation.

The third secret is the one minute reprimand. Being honest with those around you involves reprimanding when a wrong has occurred.

We are humans. We crave excitement. We have emotions. As such, investing mistakes occur. However, if you do make a mistake, take one minute to reflect on why the mistake occured. Inform yourself what you did wrong, what drove you to do it, and how you will update your goals to ensure it does not happen again. Furthermore, remind yourself that you are becoming a seasoned investor, and that this will only prevent you from making the same mistake in the future.

If you are in a position (I.e. you are still holdings the shares) make a action for them, based off of your goals.

As an entertaining real life example, let's say you drank one too many glasses of red wine one night and started to foolishly buy some Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on Margin (Loan). Leverage is not inline with your goals, although buying a balanced portfolio of index funds was. You reprimand yourself for the margin use, and establish a new goal that you can never trade while drinking ever again. You praise yourself for having good intentions -- after all, what you were trying to buy was in line with your one minute goals.

The washington post, has a nice comic called 'How Debt Bites Back' which demonstrates why the credit crunch exists. This is the best illustration (and even explanation) I have seen yet (It speaks in laymans terms).

When Debt Bites Back [IMAGE]