How Covid-19 changed Ms. Hotcup life

After university and moving on to working life, my first job was an auditor. It was tough due to the career nature as I always have to work overtime to meet respective stringent deadlines. Definitely every Friday was my favourite day of the week (same to all working adults I presume?), as I always look forward to weekend for a break. During weekend, I enjoy cafe hopping to sip my favourite latte, to gobble up my big breakfast, and to capture some nice foody photos to post on my Instagram. Further like other distressed employees, I enjoy watching movies or dramas to indulge in escapism from my stressful audit work life.

I enjoy travelling as well. In 2018, I broke my personal record to visit 4 countries in a year (usually I opt to visit 2 countries a year). It was tiring yet fulfilling, and travelling always helps me to recharge my soul before audit peak period. After these trips, I will be back to my workplace unwillingly and to deal with annoying clients and deadlines again. This yearly routine continued for the next couple of years, and I did not have the habit to establish or execute a saving plan. Despite that, I was able to save approximately 30% of my annual salary (some in FD and some in savings account). I certainly thought it was sufficient enough, until one day I became unemployed.

Back in February 2020, I was offered a position in Australia. I tendered my resignation, printed my flight ticket and couldn't wait to start a new life in Australia. However, one week prior to my flight, yes, travel ban has been suddenly imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I immediately tried to arrange with the company for alternative onboarding solution and was hopeful that they could send over the laptop so that I’m able to start work in my home country first.

After consistent following up with the company, HR finally called up and told me that the management had decided to terminate the employment contract. I was disappointed, truly disappointed. Not only because I had to give up my dream to work in Australia, but also the fact that it would be extremely difficult to find a job at this critical moment.

Thanks to family support, I have put away my mood and started to look for a job in my home country. Meanwhile, I decided to clear off some of my backlogs and do things which I always wanted to do long long time ago. I had always complained to my peers that I didn’t have enough time or energy to do these while working as a full-time auditor.

“Thanks” to the pandemic, now I’m able to sit down and audit my own financial position. First thing I did was to research on investment. I read books, blogs, articles, news etc. By applying my financial acumen and accounting knowledge (thanks to audit career), I was able to study respective company’s financial statements, calculate their financial ratios and also to analyse their past performance incorporating any future growth element. I realized there are various methods to perform valuation on a stock's intrinsic value. As a defensive investor, I learnt concept on margin of safety and methodology to evaluate whether a stock is selling at a bargain price.

On the macro-environment and economic aspect, I learnt how the US-China trade war is affecting the world’s economy; I understood how emergence of Covid-19 is affecting the REITs; I learnt how to evaluate bank stocks and realized some of the larger banks’ financial performances are not as appealing as I thought, despite the high stock price.

Throughout these 3 months, I summarized my current total net worth by having my own personal balance sheet and income statement. After spending a lot of time researching some of the companies, I decided to use a portion of my cash in my saving accounts to invest in some stocks in Malaysia, Singapore and US market. During these 2 months, the market has entered a recovery phase, whilst my stock capital appreciated for more than 15%. The gain in the stock market is almost equivalent to my 2 months’ salary, and definitely more than enough to cover my expenses during unemployment!

Besides, I have established my retirement plan for the first time in my life. I was shocked that there were people retiring as early as 35. I have to admit, when I first heard about this, I was astounded and thinking that perhaps it was absurd. If I ever tell my peers that I would want to retire at 35, they would probably react the same or toxic ones would even mock me. Most people deem this to be impossible and do not wish to sacrifice their YOLO lifestyle for a thrifty one. And I know this will likely happen because most people are busy complaining about how it cannot be achieved, rather than figuring how to work it out.

This is the time I realized that I could achieve financial freedom and retire early if I focus on changing some habits, such as paying myself first (aka. Saving) upon receiving monthly salary, next to cut various non-essential spending, and lastly to invest regularly. The fact is anyone can do this. After all, it is all about your mindset and attitude.

I decided to write this blog to share with you some little secrets that can make your life better than ever. Keep reading and you will know financial independence can be accomplished with discipline by ANYONE.

Financial independence: When you are able to live, without having to be employed or dependent on others.