{"id":2028,"date":"2015-05-15T13:59:18","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T17:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/?p=2028"},"modified":"2025-08-24T06:38:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T10:38:41","slug":"this-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"This Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last several days, I have heard several reports on both the U.S. and the global economy and it is\/was, as always, a mixed bag of news. \u00a0Most recently&#8217; the United States GDP (Gross Domestic Product) was revised downward for the 1st quarter of this year. Things around the globe are up and down. \u00a0What can you do in this economy? \u00a0The answer is pretty simple yet difficult.<\/p>\n<p>Manage your own economy!<\/p>\n<p>None of us, you or I, have any control of the overall economy in this country or of the world&#8217;s. \u00a0We can be a victim or we can be prepared &#8211; in good times and bad.<\/p>\n<p>Things, what ever they are, happen all the time. \u00a0Your choices will prepare you. What can you do?<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Get rid of your debt<\/strong> &#8211; debt keeps you hamstrung. \u00a0Free up cash by aggressively paying down and paying off your debt! Position yourself outside of a bind!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Have an emergency fund<\/strong> &#8211; Emergencies happen. \u00a0Save cash and be prepared.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Be diverse in your investments<\/strong> &#8211; Whether you are currently investing or have some investments maybe from a previous job, make sure you are adequately diversified. \u00a0Spread out any potential risk.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Have a plan of action when things happen<\/strong> &#8211; What will you do &#8220;if?&#8221; \u00a0Define what if is and have an action plan. \u00a0Make sure you and your spouse or your accountability partner are on the same page so that you can move quickly &#8220;if&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>People and families who are successful are prepared! \u00a0Where do you stand in managing your economy?<\/p>\n<p><strong>What advise can you give others to be prepared and manage their personal economy? \u00a0Leave your comments below.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last several days, I have heard several reports on both the U.S. and the global economy and it is\/was, as always, a mixed bag of news. \u00a0Most recently&#8217; the United States GDP (Gross Domestic Product) was revised downward for the 1st quarter of this year. Things around the globe are up and down. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coaching","category-encouragement","category-planning"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>This Economy - Financial Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Your personal finances, your economy, is all you have the ability to manage! What are you doing proactively to be prepared and to be successful.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Economy - Financial Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Your personal finances, your economy, is all you have the ability to manage! What are you doing proactively to be prepared and to be successful.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Financial Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/financialfocus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-15T17:59:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-24T10:38:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Parkey Thompson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Parkey Thompson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/this-economy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/this-economy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Parkey Thompson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4\"},\"headline\":\"This Economy\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-15T17:59:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-24T10:38:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/this-economy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":282,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Coaching\",\"Encouragement\",\"Planning\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/this-economy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/this-economy\\\/\",\"name\":\"This Economy - Financial Focus\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-15T17:59:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-24T10:38:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"Your personal finances, your economy, is all you have the ability to manage! What are you doing proactively to be prepared and to be successful.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/this-economy\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/\",\"name\":\"Financial Focus\",\"description\":\"Personal Financial Coaching\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Financial Focus\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/financial-focus-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/financial-focus-logo.jpg\",\"width\":\"400\",\"height\":\"72\",\"caption\":\"Financial Focus\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/financialfocus\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/financialfocus1\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4\",\"name\":\"Parkey Thompson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Parkey Thompson\"},\"description\":\"After many years of coaching others in the workplace, Parkey Thompson decided to follow his passions and focus on providing personal financial coaching, strategic planning and direction setting to individuals, families, religious organizations and small businesses by starting Financial Focus. Throughout his personal and professional life, Parkey has experienced first-hand and overcome many of the challenges he now helps others navigate on a daily basis. For over twenty years, Parkey held various leadership positions across multiple companies, including companies such as General Electric and IBM. In 2005, he thoughtfully decided to use his leadership skills to help others significantly improve their own personal finance, career, life, and business financial situations. Parkey is a certified financial coach, compassionately helping his clients navigate through challenging financial and life decisions on a daily basis . He is a Sunday School teacher, volunteer and has served on several boards \\\/ committees. He enjoys passionately motivating and helping families, individuals, businesses, and churches envision and achieve their dreams. In addition to Financial Focus, Parkey is a contributing financial writer to local magazines and newsletters, a former frequent guest on \u201cMornings\u201d with Lorri Allen and Larry Estepa on the FamilyNet TV and radio network, and a radio contributor to Family Life Radio's Intentional Living program. More than anything, Parkey and his family live what he teaches others. Parkey and his family are debt free and live without credit cards and on a plan! Parkey and his wife, Lisa, live in Cumming, Georgia and are newly empty nesters. They three have three children \u2013 Kayla (and husband Micah), Morgan (and husband Ryan) and Micah.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/financialfocus1\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/parkey-thompson\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This Economy - Financial Focus","description":"Your personal finances, your economy, is all you have the ability to manage! What are you doing proactively to be prepared and to be successful.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This Economy - Financial Focus","og_description":"Your personal finances, your economy, is all you have the ability to manage! What are you doing proactively to be prepared and to be successful.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/","og_site_name":"Financial Focus","article_publisher":"http:\/\/financialfocus","article_published_time":"2015-05-15T17:59:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-24T10:38:41+00:00","author":"Parkey Thompson","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Parkey Thompson","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/"},"author":{"name":"Parkey Thompson","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/person\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4"},"headline":"This Economy","datePublished":"2015-05-15T17:59:18+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-24T10:38:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/"},"wordCount":282,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Coaching","Encouragement","Planning"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/","name":"This Economy - Financial Focus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-05-15T17:59:18+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-24T10:38:41+00:00","description":"Your personal finances, your economy, is all you have the ability to manage! What are you doing proactively to be prepared and to be successful.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/this-economy\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/","name":"Financial Focus","description":"Personal Financial Coaching","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization","name":"Financial Focus","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/financial-focus-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/financial-focus-logo.jpg","width":"400","height":"72","caption":"Financial Focus"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/financialfocus","https:\/\/x.com\/financialfocus1"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/person\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4","name":"Parkey Thompson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Parkey Thompson"},"description":"After many years of coaching others in the workplace, Parkey Thompson decided to follow his passions and focus on providing personal financial coaching, strategic planning and direction setting to individuals, families, religious organizations and small businesses by starting Financial Focus. Throughout his personal and professional life, Parkey has experienced first-hand and overcome many of the challenges he now helps others navigate on a daily basis. For over twenty years, Parkey held various leadership positions across multiple companies, including companies such as General Electric and IBM. In 2005, he thoughtfully decided to use his leadership skills to help others significantly improve their own personal finance, career, life, and business financial situations. Parkey is a certified financial coach, compassionately helping his clients navigate through challenging financial and life decisions on a daily basis . He is a Sunday School teacher, volunteer and has served on several boards \/ committees. He enjoys passionately motivating and helping families, individuals, businesses, and churches envision and achieve their dreams. In addition to Financial Focus, Parkey is a contributing financial writer to local magazines and newsletters, a former frequent guest on \u201cMornings\u201d with Lorri Allen and Larry Estepa on the FamilyNet TV and radio network, and a radio contributor to Family Life Radio's Intentional Living program. More than anything, Parkey and his family live what he teaches others. Parkey and his family are debt free and live without credit cards and on a plan! Parkey and his wife, Lisa, live in Cumming, Georgia and are newly empty nesters. They three have three children \u2013 Kayla (and husband Micah), Morgan (and husband Ryan) and Micah.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/","https:\/\/x.com\/financialfocus1"],"url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/author\/parkey-thompson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2028"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2035,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028\/revisions\/2035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}