I updated our net worth Google Sheet last night with the end of month numbers. Since we invested a significant amount of cash into the markets in the last 2 weeks, the cash balance went down by a lot. My bonus was paid on the last day of the month so it helped to top up our cash balance.

Our investments asset value went up from investing the cash and so did our retirement funds from the CPF contributions. The mortgage liability dropped from us paying the housing loan instalment. The next effect of all these movements meant that our net worth still increased from last month.

But the percentage increase is the smallest it has been for the past several years. And even the bonus payout did little to mitigate the falling markets’ impact on our net worth. Such a disappointing end to the quarter but understandable given the severe consequences of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

It looks like the situation is getting worse as the number of cases and deaths continue to climb. There is increasing pressure on employers in Singapore to allow staff to work from home. As a result, I’m finally being issued a laptop by my bank. It’s going to be a pain setting it up because bank systems and applications are so poorly equipped for work from home arrangements.

Anyway, my wife is mostly like going back to work next week from her maternity leave on a work from home arrangement. Which is good for her because she gets to spend more time with the baby at home. Once my laptop is set up properly, I can work from home as well and do the same. Productivity is going to drop with the limitations on bank systems and applications access using the laptop.

The bigger problem is that banks are starting to feel and show the negative effects of the worsening virus situation. With reduced traffic at bank branches, there’s less opportunities to sell products and services to individual customers. This is on top of a general decline in demand for such bank products and services by entity customers with their businesses suffering from the lockdowns.

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It’s a vicious cycle. Even though I still have a job, I’m already going into self-preservation mode by cutting expenses. Made easier by the fact that I can’t even go out much to spend money when I’m at work on weekdays and at home on weekends. I have just been buying groceries with our helper cooking more often for the family.

I still buy stuff online and have it delivered. But I have just kept myself busy with work and the baby. Helps me to forget what a depressing social situation we are in now with all the social distancing rules and restrictions on large group gatherings. It’s honestly just easier to stay home and be with my family.

As a result, my savings rate has gone up. But the banks have reduced the interest tiers on their high interest bank accounts. Annoying how they have all done it at the same time but it’s expected. Now the returns on holding cash are even lower than before. So I plan to invest more of the cash saved from this year.

I have set our Dollar-Cost Averaging to be weekly now since the markets are so volatile. I want to capture as much of the price action as possible. Every week from this month onwards, my automated investing amount is about S$1,250. So it comes up to S$5,000 per month. This will continue for as long as I have a job and there’s salary income inflow.

With the Government support to subsidise wages of local workers, I reckon banks can hold off from large-scale retrenchments until the end of the year. They will freeze headcount, pay and bonus. Maybe even reduce headcount by natural attrition. But stop at firing people outright in such a sensitive period of time unless it’s a last resort.

Which means surviving this year with a job while continuing to invest is crucial for us. By the end of this Covid-19 crisis, we should be holding much less cash and much more assets. This will form the foundation of our wealth for the next decade and we should take the opportunity to build it.

As the markets continued to fall these few days, I kept averaging down as long as my price levels were triggered. This time round, a bigger proportion of the S$30,000 invested went into the local markets compared to global markets. Probably because of the severe impact on Singapore of Malaysia closing its borders.

The descent of global markets has been at a slower rate so a smaller proportion of the S$30,000 invested went into them. There is a slight rebound in global markets today so I have taken the opportunity to do an investing cash balance check.

• 1st batch of S$100,000 invested last week
• S$60,000 of 2nd batch of S$100,000 invested this week
• 3rd batch of S$100,000 remaining
• 4th batch of S$100,000 as spare A
• 5th batch of S$100,000 as spare B

As you can see, I have re-designated the S$200,000 of spending cash as investing cash and allocated them as 2 spare batches – A and B. This will be in place for as long as I have a job. If I lose my job, I will change my allocation accordingly.

I have been repeatedly told over the course of these 2 weeks that I’m investing my cash too quickly. You are right, which is why I have slowed down my investing rate by opening the gaps between trigger price levels. However, I have designed this strategy using my limited investing experience because it suits my risk appetite and personal circumstances.

Besides, the market falls have been steep, hence triggering a rapid deployment of my investing cash. I did have to fine-tune my strategy because it wasn’t built for such high rates of market declines. It’s a learning experience for me as well.

I have spent the last 5 years in Singapore building up a large cash balance (50% of my asset portfolio) for this reason. I have to use this bear market or even market crash opportunity to build up the equities proportion of my asset portfolio.

Because this is my first big opportunity to build up a decent investment portfolio in the 1st decade of my career. When my wife is still working and our baby is just 4.5 months old. After this is over, we will go back to focusing on advancing in our careers and doing better in our jobs. Maybe even expand our family with another kid.

Even with ever increasing family expenses, we can re-build our cash balance as long as we have our jobs. Which is why we are staying in the banking sector for now and not taking risks elsewhere in other industries. While we take on more risk in our investments to build up the portfolio, we de-risk by doing everything we can to preserve our jobs as the main source of income.

Banks are very susceptible to recession and can cut jobs just as easily as other industries. However, when it’s not a financial crisis like the last big one in 2007/2008, banks’ nature of business as intermediaries can help them protect jobs if they want to. Because banks are plugged into almost every sector of the economy.

It’s unlikely all sectors of the economy will destabilise and do badly at the same time. Possible but it’s more likely that some parts will do better than others and some parts will do worse than others. The worsening virus situation and low oil prices do present contagion risk in that every part of the economy could be negatively affected. But it would be a global catastrophe scenario and we will not be looking at that yet.

More importantly, banks have built up reserves from the past several years of profitability after learning their lesson from the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/2008. They have the most excess capacity to cut among their staff i.e. contract staff, low-performing and unproductive staff. They also have the highest capacity to automate their processes hence lowering staff costs in general or even shift operations to countries that are low cost centres.

We have done what we can to lower our retrenchment risks by positioning ourselves in jobs that are less likely to be cut in banks. Taking less career risks means we can take on more investment risks. Which is why we are sticking to our strategy of averaging down by investing our cash balance as long as the price levels are triggered.

In time, we will know whether we made the right call. If we did, we would have built a strong foundation for our family wealth to grow in the next decade. If we did not, we will use the next decade to repair our family finances and still grow the wealth slightly. And wait for the next big opportunity to try again.

Lastly, we acknowledge that this is a global health crisis and it’s painful for so many people. However, this is a personal finance blog and I write extensively about how I manage my money at different times. Not writing about the virus does not mean that I don’t care. It’s just not the purpose of why I write on this blog and I apologise if this offends anyone.

We do our part to practise personal hygience, social distancing and no overseas travel. We follow our banks’ BCP split operations plans and listen to the advice provided by the Singapore government/authorities. And we remind our family and friends to keep safe. We empathise with the people who are suffering and we hope that the virus situation improves so that things can get better for everyone.