This is a common fallacy. A crash in asset price only matters if you're required to convert those assets to cash while the asset price is deflated. If you have

This is a common fallacy. A crash in asset price only matters if you're required to convert those assets to cash while the asset price is deflated. If you have significant assets and cash you aren't required to liquidate those assets, so a relatively short term drop in value isn't actually that important. What is more important is having liquid assets, or the ability to get loans, that allow you to buy new assets while their value is deflated. You only actually lose if those assets actually fail, and if you have significant assets at the beginning of a recession you also likely have a reasonable spread of assets so are unlikely to actually have a significant proportion of your assets actually fail completely. This is something people really need to understand: those "losses" reported for the extremely wealthy are only on paper - in general they have not suffered any significant permanent loss.