What if the economy doesn't recover?

I think my wife and I are dropping out of the middle class this year.

Or so it seems after reading a recent Parade magazine piece about some wildly differing estimates of where middle class begins. No way our household income will hit even the bottom rungs of some of the definitions that relief efforts use.

We aren't alone, of course. Retail maven Howard Davidovitz predicts things will get worse before they get better and he sees a sea change ahead for a long range foreseeable future as we realize we can't have it all.

If he's right, anyone lucky enough to have money may find tough going too. One new challenge of financial planning may be dealing with changed relations with your less fortunate friends and acquaintances, Business Week suggests.

But there is always hope. And, according to contributors to Forbes, there are always ways to make a buck investing in downsizing too.