Recession - yep, in fact we're probably in one already. Too much wealth is being destroyed in this mortgage crunch/housing decline. Depression, though? Not l

Recession - yep, in fact we're probably in one already. Too much wealth is being destroyed in this mortgage crunch/housing decline. Depression, though? Not likely - though I have heard very well connected folks say that we're probalby at the greatest risk of a depression since the 30's. Still, that risk is probably something less than 5%. However, it's quite possible that this will be a rather deep recession - probably the deepest since the 1980 - 1982 recession. I was in college then. It was very difficult to find work of any kind. The question on the table is should you leave your likely very safe government job to do this startup. I'll guess this is a software startup of some sort, and that your main expense is living expenses as you develop the code. That being the case, you should probably have at least 2 years worth of living expenses in the bank prior to doing this. A credit-crunch recession such as the one shaping up now means that it's going to be very difficult to borrow money. So do plan to self-fund as much as possible right now. Also, who are your target customers? Will they have trouble coming up with the money to pay you if we get a serious recession? - this is something you should think about. If you don't have enough money on hand to be able to live for a couple of years, then I'd probably caution you to wait until you do have that much saved up. In the meantime, while you continue to work and save you'll have time to find out if this is just going to be a mild recession or something much more serious.