Rising some 70 feet above the forest floor, the red pine stood tall by the lakeshore. Many younger trees were as tall but none wore the old growth crown this pine had earned over nearly a century. Instead of shooting straight up like its younger relatives, its top was a collection of crooked turns and bends.

Its branches’ twisted crown reflected its battles with the weather over the years. Some scars might have been from wind and some from lighting, but this tree had survived an uncountable number of challenges. A few years ago, during a brutal windstorm, the old pine swayed but gave up hardly a needle to the brutal onslaught while a number of younger trees snapped.

Amazingly, what finally did this grand old tree in was not a storm. In fact, it was calm the night its crown came down to rest in a heap on the forest floor. It was a heavy snow that fell straight down and piled up on its branches. Who knows which snowflake was the proverbial “last straw” that accomplished what years of storms had been unable to do, snap off the tree’s majestic crown?

Much like the old red pine, our economy has grown to weather financial storms. Years of policy experience and regulatory safeguards have positioned it to withstand all kinds of stress, with each period of crisis hopefully leading to a stronger and more resilient economy.

But the risk is not in what we have already experienced and reinforced against, but rather in the unknown that lies ahead. The issues that can come to root are those that build up slowly and seem somewhat harmless as time passes. In fact, it may be a very obscure and unobvious happening that results in an unanticipated chain reaction.

Just as homeowners and speculators learned when the housing bubble burst, and as some European nations are experiencing now, debt is something that can slowly-but-significantly erode one’s economic resiliency. The trigger event may not always be obvious and is rarely anticipated, but once the chain reaction starts, it may be extremely difficult to rein in.

Investors must remain vigilantly aware of their personal balance sheets, keeping leverage at levels where it will not become overbearing even if the economic winds shift or intensify. Likewise, our national debt needs to be tended to lest we head in the direction of other debtor nations. While our lawmakers continue to grapple with the latter issue, your Baird financial advisor stands ready to help you assess your personal balance sheet and fortify it against both the risks that can come with personal change and the impact of events on the national and global scale.

Looking up, that old pine still has a few branches flush with needles way up high. Perhaps it’s not done battling after all – and that in itself is a lesson.