In any crisis, there will be those who are hit badly and those who can still bail out the others. Make sure you are in the right group. To be in the right group, it takes discipline and is a long journey. It is not a one year effort but maybe 10 to 20 years or more of disciplined and prudent living, saving up and investing well.

Many people I know are in this group where they have been saving consistently, spending well within their means -- some saved as much as 75% of their income annually. They can easily afford continental cars, but they chose to buy the mass market jap car. They can afford to buy condos and landed properties, but they chose to stay in HDB waiting for opportunity to buy the condos and landed properties at greatly discounted prices in a crisis. Who do you think are buying the distressed properties in a crisis?

More importantly, these group of people could also retire early, but they chose to continue working.