I read in the news this week on the Government announcement that more employees who are currently working from home can return to the workplace from Mon 5 Apr i.e. shifting the workplace from the default work from home to a more flexible way of working. Up to 75% of staff will be able to return to the workplace at any one time and this is up from the current 50%. The current restriction that requires employees to work from home for at least half their working time will also be lifted. And split-team arrangements are no longer mandatory, though they can be maintained for business continuity purposes.
While I hope my wife and my banks continue to maintain the current flexible work from home/office arrangement, I expect us to go back to the office more often. Ideally, we go from 25% to 50% work from home in a month and stay there as a permanent flexible way of working. It would be a pity to give up the progress offices have made in terms of flexible work arrangements due to the Covid-19 crisis. I have enjoyed all the additional time I got to spend with my family and I don’t wish to lose too much of that with this change.
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Anyway, there was another recent dip in the technology stocks and cryptos. I took the opportunity to add to some of my positions to increase the exposure to these growth sectors. As I have continued to maintain & add to my Singapore and global stocks & ETFs portfolio, they have benefited from the recent upswing in the value sectors. As I invest more aggressively, I have drawn down on my cash balance significantly. I have to be careful about my cash utilisation rate. While I understand interest rates and hence my returns on cash are low, it does not mean that I should over-deploy my cash when the markets dip.
There are plenty more opportunities to come and I have to be patient in investing my cash. I add decent size positions when I have the chance to and wait for time to pass for the salary income to rebuild my cash. It’s not an exciting strategy but it is effective at achieving results. It ensures that I keep investing in the markets regularly to take advantage of economic growth while having sufficient cash to weather recessions and even invest when markets fall. A balancing act most of the time that requires a lot of juggling between waiting around and doing nothing versus taking bold action decisively.