Another public holiday today this week but it’s on a Thurs instead of a Fri like last week. Considered taking leave tomorrow but decided there’s no point doing it. Just going to be at home doing the same things as today. Prefer to work from home just to have something else to focus on. Keeps me busy and lets me use my mind to work on stuff. Besides, the weekend will be here after that.

Speaking of which, we are planning a celebration this Sat. Ordering food and buying a cake to celebrate our baby’s 6 month milestone and Mother’s Day for my wife. All paid for by the baby because we just got his Baby Bonus Cash Gift 2nd payment of $1,500. We are also using it to buy groceries and baby stuff such as milk formula, teats, play mat, activity centre and clothes. The remainder we will use to pay for our helper’s off day allowances for staying at home and helping us out with everything. We should spend all of it by this month because we never meant to save any part of it.

Work has stabilised even further for us as we get used to our daily routine. With an accepted lower productivity bank-wide due to lower business activity, we find ourselves with more free time during the weekdays. So we have shifted grocery shopping from the weekend to the weekdays. There’s less people around and more stocked items available at the supermarket. My parents-in-law do the weekly wet market shopping for us since it’s easier for them to buy all the fresh produce items at one time for both households. Then they drop off the fresh produce at our place. It helps to have 2 cars being driven around to run errands like that.

The objective is to make the entire situation as convenient for us as possible. No matter how frustrating it is. So we can make the most out of this stay at home (can’t go out) and work from home circuit breaker period. We have to put ourselves in a position where we can last comfortably beyond June just in case it gets extended. An on-time or early end to some of the circuit breaker measures would just be a bonus. Expect the worst to manage our expectations.

We had internal briefings on our banks’ quarterly and half-year results. They are not as bad as we thought. But that’s because the growing impact of Covid-19 is still making its way through the economy. We expect the next few results announcements and internal briefings to be worse. While we support the more profitable divisions of the banks, higher profits from those areas are not enough to offset the lower profits from all of the other areas. The pain is likely to be shared across the entire bank so that everyone takes a hit on their pay (no increase) and bonus (none) this year. But we get to keep our jobs. And that’s already better than most other industries and companies.

This is why it’s important to get our base pay up. More important than having good bonuses, which can be easily cut when times are bad like now. While base pay reductions are less likely. Not to say it doesn’t happen because firms are actually cutting base pay now. A decent base pay serves as a protective shield during a recession provided the company doesn’t have to retrench staff. Too low and it can stay there for a longer period of time then you think because it becomes more difficult to raise it when you get older (can’t take as much career risk). Too high and you put a target on your back for retrenchment because your cost is too high to maintain (even if no job cuts are planned).

We like the space we are in now compared to last year. It’s a nice balance of earning enough relative to time spent at work, stress level and time for ourselves and the family. We have no plans to retire early because we enjoy having careers. Jobs have their ups and downs but we appreciate having them and the professional development that comes with it as part of our identity. Not all of our identity though since our own personal development as individuals and as a family also contributes to it. It’s so easy for the balance to be upset once you have one aspect spinning out of control. But when it comes together, even if just for a period of time, we take a leap forward and progress.

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.