One of the things that gives me great comfort about the health of the U.S. economy is our historically low household leverage. According to the Federal Reserve Board, household leverage is now at an 80-year low—a remarkable sign of financial discipline.

So let me be the first to congratulate you for not loading up on debt like so many did between 2000 and 2008, right before the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes!

Back then, people lost their jobs and massive chunks of their net worth because of too much leverage. I was one of them—I had two mortgages and ended up losing 35% to 40% of my net worth in just six months. It took a decade to rebuild.

After that experience, I promised myself: never again will I take on that much debt.

Households Can Better Withstand the Next Recession

Nobody likes a recession or stagflation. But with household leverage at an 80-year