7th April 2020 is the first day of Circuit Breaker (CB) aka partial lockdown in Singapore terms.
1st June 2020 is the last day of CB.
56 days to be exact.
This 56 days affected everyone who lives in Singapore and will be in everyone memory who went through this.
1) Do not depend on single souce of income
During this period, some of us loses our job / pay cut / force leave / force unpaid leave.
It is very important to have second or more income sources in case the main income is compromise.
In Jan 2017, with the intention of finding a backup job in case I was being retrenched or tender without a job, I went to try out as Uber driver (Part 1
Link & Part 2
Link). I even went to attend course and sat for the exam in order to get my Private Hire Car Driver's Vocational Licence (PDVL) when LTA required all private hirer to have this PDVL from mid 2017. I am proud to say my PDVL is still valid as of today ;)
Although given current COVID suitation, I wont be able to survive with my PDVL as private hirer and taxi drivers are one of the worst hit industry too.
I am trying to bring out the concept of never depend on single source of income when quoting the example of PDVL.
One of my another income source, which I am putting in alot of effort for many years, is dividend.
I would like to achieve Financial Freedom so that if I were still in the workforce, that is because
I choose to work and not become I need to work.
2) Cash and Cashflow is the KING
"2 in 3 here don't have savings to last past 6 months: Survey" (
Straits Times link).
Living paycheck to paycheck is very dangerous although YOLO (You Only Live Once) sounds so damn cool.
It is a good time to review the type of loans and installments you have as this are money flowing out from your bank account monthly.
Recently, there is an image (I will insert here if I manage to find it) cracking a joke on how sleeping on bed can finally contribute to the Nation during this CB. This is only true during CB period only as the government required everyone to stay home.
So, we should sleep less unless we receive income while we sleep.
3) Reduce your wants and focus more on needs
Wants are the most attractive temptation in life.
It require a strong mindset to achieve delayed gratification.
If you have too many unused wants are home currently which you did not even use them for 6 months or more, it is time to put them up in Carousell.
I am surprise by the numbers of items I managed to sell off and earn via Carousell.
If I were to just throw it down to rubbish bins, not only I harm the environment by not giving my preloved to find a new owner, I also throwing money down the bins.
4) Gaining knowledge and skillset
The World is evolving so fast that we need to
consistently read and upgrade our own skillset to stay
relevant.
We need to be able to
Value add.
There are many good websites/blogs/articles/books out there regard to Financial Freedom such as:
5) Be Adaptable and accept Changes
COVID-19: Singapore Airlines to provide 300 'care ambassadors' to fill manpower gap at hospitals (Link)
Some house hunters buying homes after virtual viewings (Link)
Circuit Breaker: Koi To Sell Its Bubble Tea Via Online Restaurant Grain From Apr 28 (Link)
If you dont, this will happen to you
More F&B outlets close down as Covid-19 continues to pummel industry (Link)
More employees will be working from home (WFH) and companies are looking at reducing their office space as hot desking will be the upcoming trend. Do you still remember how uncomfortable and uneasy WFH when it first started and you should begin to adapt at this moment?
6) Everyone is equal in life
UK PM Johnson in good shape after COVID-19, says minister (Link)
Whether you are Prime Minister, President or Hollywood stars, you are the same and do not have the Trump card.
Some started life easier than others by borning into rich families.
Starting line do give you the advantage but how you complete the rest of the race will have to depend mostly on yourself.
Do add on to this list what you have learned / reflected during this CB period.
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