Recession??? If you’ve not been reading the news, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) reported on 28 April that Singapore could be heading for the worst recession as of recent. It forecasts that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could shrink by -1% to -4%. Okay enough of these chim words and numbers, it’s not why I’m writing this post for. You can read up more here:
There are more you can find with a little bit of Google-ing. But I’m writing this post to discuss what we as individuals can do. So let’s discuss!
First and foremost, before we plan what we can do, we need to understand what are the implications of a recessions. Theoretically, here are some things that can happen due to a recession:
There can be more happening, but why did I list these? Well, if you’re like me who’s just serving NS, it might not affect you but your immediate family members. This in turn affects you as well! You can read up some articles below of what is already happening:
Spending money without knowing how much you have spent can be dangerous. When you track your expenses, you can look back and reflect to see if you are spending more than you can. What I’m doing is that I’m tracking my family’s household expenses such as groceries, utilities, telco, etc. You can easily do so with a simple spreadsheet and keying in what you have spent on!
With the expenses you tracked, you can analyse the “data” and categorise what you’re spending into things “You Need” vs “You Want”. There are things like KFC, bubble tea, a new bag, which you don’t really need. Well, if you’re saying KFC is a need cos of food, maybe you could eat something that is relatively cheaper! But the point is, cut down on these unnecessary things that you could save instead. What I’m doing is that we’re going to cut down on eating fast food to maybe once a month, and the groceries money will be spent weekly instead of monthly. This would help in reducing the things we might buy when buying groceries, could be random snacks that accumulate.
With the money that we save from cutting down on spending, the excess money will be put into our emergency fund to increase it as much as possible. We are going into a recession with so much uncertainty and having a big emergency fund would make us feel less anxious. We would be more prepared of anything that will come our way. If you would like to read more on how to build your emergency fund, read my article here!
On top of helping my family save money for our household, I personally save my own money as well from the allowance I’m receiving from NS. With the money I’m saving, I’m looking into investing in the stock market with it. Now before I continue, I must say it is important that you research a lot before you start as the stock market is incredibly high risk. But the reason why I want to invest in a recession is simply because historically people make a lot of money investing during this time. I would be buying stocks that I usually would have bought but at a discount! You can read more by Google-ing, but here’s a good article to read.
I’m reading books and watching YouTube videos. Whatever it takes to learn something new, just do it! This is because once this whole recession shit ends, there will be companies looking to hire people. And if you have additional skills, you can make yourself more attractive for them to hire you. Personally, I’m learning about computing. This is because I’m a business student and I will be going for a Computing Degree. So learning some things before starting uni will help me a little bit. Oh and writing these posts is also my way of building my writing skills, so do what ever you want!
There will always be people that needs something more than us. Helping others can help you feel grateful for the things you have. It doesn’t have to be much, even a $5 can help a lot. Personally for me, I have always made monthly donations and I’m going to continue to do so.
If you have built an emergency fund, the next thing to do is to pay down any debt you have. If you don’t have any, great! But if you do, prolonging paying your debt can eat into your money in the long run due to its interests. Imagine having no debt coming out of this recession, wouldn’t that be great?!
Money don’t come easy during a recession. If you are able to, having a side income will be great. This does not mean you can spend more, it means you can save more! Find something that you can do in your free time. Maybe selling handmade items, or teaching someone tuition. I’m not having a side income because I’m in NS and making money on the side can be a little iffy, but also I’m usually too tired to do much on my off days. So I spend the time reading or watching educational videos!
Eating out (or takeaways I guess due to the Circuit Breaker now) can be an expensive lifestyle. If you or your parents can cook, it will be best to eat at home. Groceries don’t cost as much as eating out. Hey, it can also be healthier! Watch videos on how to cook, there’s literally thousands of people showing off how they cook.
Recession can be a scary thing. If you’re my age, this will be the second recession we are going through but the first that we are fully aware of what’s happening. People are going to lose their money, their jobs and some may even lose their minds. Let’s look out for one another and help each other out! Stay safe and stay healthy.
“You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.” – Timber Hawkeye
