Could 2025 Repeat 1929? What I’m Watching and How I’m Preparing My Money
When people start drawing comparisons between 2025 and the Great Depression of 1929, I pay attention. Wall Street executives, central banks, and even President Trump have all hinted at the possibility of a major downturn. With asset prices at record highs from stocks to real estate to crypto and the job market slowing sharply, the concerns aren’t coming out of nowhere. I’m watching this moment closely, and I want to share how I’m thinking about it from a practical, investor-focused perspective.
To understand whether today resembles 1929, it helps to look back at what actually happened. In the late 1920s, markets were pushed to extremes through speculation and high levels of margin debt. The economy looked like it was booming because mass production and credit expansion made everything seem affordable. But wages couldn’t keep up with rising productivity, and eventually the Federal Reserve raised rates to cool things down. That triggered loan defaults, a collapse in spending, and most infamously a wave of bank failures as people rushed to pull out their money.
Fast-forward to today, and the similarities are hard to ignore. The IMF and Bank of England have both warned of an asset bubble. U.S. job growth has fallen nearly 75% from last year, even though profits look great on paper. That’s because companies are hiring fewer people and doing more with AI. It’s created what economists call a “jobless boom”—an economy that looks strong on charts but feels weak for the average person. That disconnect is exactly the kind of imbalance that historically leads to trouble.
So what do we do with all of this? We get ready not scared. My first rule for any economic environment is the same: get your personal finances stable. That means saving at least $2,000 for emergencies and paying off high-interest credit card debt. You don’t want to enter a downturn with expensive liabilities hanging over you.
After that comes my favorite framework: POOP, Panic, Overselling, Opportunity, Profit. It sounds funny, but it’s accurate. When people panic, they oversell. When they oversell, assets become undervalued. That’s when prepared investors find opportunities. Every major wealth boom post-2000 dot-com crash, post-2008 housing crisis, even the 2020 COVID bear market rewarded people who stayed calm and bought smart.
Even if AI stocks crash the way internet stocks did in 2000, the industry isn’t going anywhere. Just like the internet didn’t actually disappear, AI won’t either. That’s why, instead of obsessing over individual stocks, I like using ETFs to diversify across entire sectors. Funds like SPY (S&P 500), QQQ (NASDAQ 100), BOTZ (robotics/AI), and CHAT (generative AI) give me broad exposure without betting everything on one company surviving the next decade.
Before investing, though, I always look at my own financial readiness. Do I understand my cash flow? My taxes? My debt? My risk tolerance? Investing without that foundation is like driving without brakes. And with the economic concerns being raised tariff uncertainties, slowing hiring, rising efficiency from AI replacing workers this is not the time to invest blindly.
Automation and AI will absolutely make life harder for people stuck in old career paths. But here’s the part I’m choosing to focus on: every technological shift in history has created new opportunities for people who move early. The next generation of millionaires will come from people who understand how the new system works not from the ones hoping the old economy comes back.
So am I worried? I’m cautious, yes. But I’m not afraid. I’m preparing: building cash reserves, staying out of bad debt, investing consistently, and treating downturns as potential wealth-building windows. If the economy hits turbulence, I want to be positioned to take advantage not scramble to survive.
Jaspreet Singh is not a licensed financial advisor. He is a licensed attorney, but he is not providing you with legal advice in this article. This article, the topics discussed, and ideas presented are Jaspreet’s opinions and presented for entertainment purposes only. The information presented should not be construed as financial or legal advice. Always do your own due diligence.
