"Where Do You See Yourself In 5, 10 or 20 Years Down The Road?" 

This is a favourite question that is often posed to a candidate during an interview process.

But do you ask that about your own personal life?

Frankly, not many people have thought of it deep enough to make a serious call on a decision they make today.

Looking at the situation today, COVID-19 has inflicted incalculable social, economic, and structural damage to the country and its citizens.

With most segments of the society struggling with the impact on the economy resulting in job losses, pay cuts, and retrenchment, COVID-19 has clearly exacerbated the situation for the lower-income group with the government requiring to step in to provide income and job support.

According to the study, almost half of the low-income earners (those earning $2,999 & below) experienced a drop in salary during the pandemic. Out of this population, another half of the group saw their income decline by more than 50%.

Take a look at appendix 3 appended below, for instance, 42% of the population who has experienced a decline in their income has less than one month of personal savings while another 22% has only between one to three months of cash flow to tide them through.

This is clearly well below the recommended 6 months of emergency funds that most financial planners would advise.

What lessons can we learn from COVID-19 that can enable us to make better informed financial decisions in the future? How do we impose a back-up plan to prepare ourselves sufficiently for future recessions? These are some hard yet realistic questions that we have to ask ourselves.

Thankfully, with the enhancement of digital innovation such as the NAV Planner, an individual can now project their finances simply and effectively.

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Scenario 1

Scenario 2