The 2nd week of us working from home is over and it has gone better than the 1st week. My wife’s pivot into a new job scope from BAU to project with her current role is gaining traction and this will remain her focus for the rest of the year. It will give her greater flexibility over work hours and work from home arrangements going forward.
More importantly, not having daily deliverables will mean less stress & pressure at work and more quality time with the family. A high risk move in times like these but my wife has to take advantage of the opportunity once she sees the window. The payoff is worth it and I just have to back her play all the way.
As my wife settles back into her work routine and rhythm, she gets more efficient and effective over time. And she was able to spend more time with the baby as a result. She strives to improve every week and I’m proud to see her go after what she wants. Given how my work situation has stablised further as I get used to working from home, I just have to support her as much as possible.
We had virtual catch-ups with our families, friends and colleagues over WhatsApp, Google Meet and Zoom during the weekend. Made for a nice change of pace since we are usually by ourselves as a family during the weekdays. It’s important for us to still have some form of social interaction with others. Keeps things fun, interesting, and it makes us feel connected. Not alone by ourselves.
Moving on to personal finance matters. Covid-19 has made the entire situation so fluid that there’s new significant developments surfacing frequently. For example, the collapse in oil prices resulting in Bank of China’s clients suffering massive losses from a product linked to US crude oil futures. Not sure how such a product could even be made available to retail investors in the first place.
The negative impact of Covid-19 on economies, businesses, employees and investors continue to grow. It’s difficult to predict how bad this can get as we grapple with the implications. I review our net worth position every week now to deal with this. Look at the cash, investment and retirement funds proportion of total assets. Relative to liabilities and the consequences on net worth. And whether we need to take any action now to mitigate any risks.
Asset allocation and net worth management has become a priority as we try to navigate financially in such uncertain times. So many questions to answer. Should we invest more? What should we invest in and how much? Should we hold more cash? Should we use more of our CPF OA for housing loan payments?
Sometimes, changing nothing is more difficult to do then changing something. We have also considered whether we should defer our mortgage payment to Dec 2020. If I look at it from a pure financial perspective, I reckon the positives outweigh the negatives.
But I just can’t bring myself to apply for the deferment. Yes, the additional cashflow for investing would be a good to have. But I don’t think that’s why this relief measure is offered in the first place. We haven’t been retrenched and our pay have not been cut yet. So why should we be reducing expenses to increase cashflow for wealth building purpose instead of it being a necessity?
If it’s not meant for us because we don’t need it, then I rather we not take advantage of it. Even if it puts us in a better financial position. It’s like tempting fate and I’m not keen to do it. I’m grateful and thankful for my family being able to go through the ongoing crisis in our current state. It could have been much worse for us in so many ways but that hasn’t happened yet.
We will make do and push forward with what we have. We want more for ourselves but we don’t want to be greedy. A bit of greed is good but too much of it can affect the way we make decisions. We know this can limit us with what we can achieve financially but we don’t think it’s a bad outcome. After all, we just want enough wealth for our family to be comfortable and happy.