Losing your job in Singapore

SG Wealth Builder has always encouraged readers to build up 3-6 months of income as emergency fund. This will help to cushion the impact of the sudden loss of job. Besides this fund, below are several ideas that may help:

1) Cut down all unncessary spending by deciding what are the “needs” and “wants”. Be prepared to adjust your lifestyle and reduce the frequent fine dinings.

2)  If you anticipated that it could be a long time before you can secure a new job, do consider making more drastic changes, such as selling your car.  However, if the proceeds from selling your car are likely to be insufficient to cover your car loan, check with the bank what are the available options.

3) Re-prioritise your financial goals. If you are the sole breadwinner and is saving up for your children educaton or building up your retirement nest, you may want to consider applying student loans for your kids and putting your monthly savings plan on hold.

4) Consider to liquidate your investments, especially those which can be easily liquidated without incurring penalty costs or capital losses. It is always good to have money in your pocket during rainy days rather than lose them all during market downturn.

5) Curb the use of credit facilities which incur high interest charges. If you have difficult keeping up with debt repayments, you may need to approach your lenders to restructure some of your debts. Credit Counselling Singapore can assist you in debt management if you require more help.

6) Last but not least, if you have whole-life insurance policies, you may want to check with your agent whether you can take a premium holiday or take a loan against your policy’s cash value (if any). Note that interest will still be charged and these are only short term measures. If you stop paying your premiums, your insurance coverage could be terminated. If you apply for coverage later, you might need to fork out more, or worse still, you might not even be eligible for coverage depending on your health status. So normally, I would not encourage readers to touch their insurance premiums unless the financial situation is really dire.

Magically yours,

SG Wealth Builder