Coping With Recession, Amish-Style

This week's alert is a little different from our usual tax and finance discussion. But every once in awhile, it's worth taking a broader look at how our finances affect our lives.

Pick up any newspaper or turn on the television and you'll see reports of how this economy is affecting your fellow Americans. We're coming together to help each other in all sorts of ways. And it's especially instructive to see how one particular community is working to weather the storm.

When we think of Amish Americans, we picture horses pulling black buggies and plain-dressed farmers living and farming much like their ancestors. That stereotype belies a complicated reality. There are over 233,000 Amish living in 27 states and Canada. As their population has grown, many have taken jobs in modern factories and non-Amish businesses. In fact, some experts estimate that over half of the Amish earn their main income outside of farming.

The Amish have also become more sophisticated about technology. While few of them surf the internet as we do, the computers that have become an indispensable part of our lives have affected theirs as well. Back in 2006, a group of Amish writers for "The Budget," a weekly newspaper selling 20,000 paper copies by mail, threatened to strike if their articles were posted online!

Today's recession has pushed many Amish out of their jobs "among the English." When that happens, they don't sit back and wait for their job to return. They create their own job by starting businesses. Typically, these are home-based businesses that let them stay closer to their families. (Of course, the recession is hitting Amish-owned businesses as hard as any others.)

The recession has brought other changes to the Amish as well. In one vivid example, the affluent Amish teens who used to shop at Walmart and Target have returned to buying fabric and making their own clothing.

In the end, the Amish, like many of the rest of us, are rediscovering day-to-day pleasures of home and family. Their choice reminds us that as difficult as today's economic storm may be, we can weather it until sunnier skies reappear.

Having said that, we still want to make the smartest possible choices to minimize the brunt of the recession where we can. That means smart financial choices and smart tax moves. If you're wondering what's the right move, call us. And if your friends, family, and colleagues are wondering, have them call us too!