2020 has been an exciting year. Words like “WFH”, “Zoom”, “COVID19”, “Essential workers” that made no sense in 2019 has became buzz words. Everyone has been affected. I believe it will be good to look at this year and see what we can learn from this (this is what I have learnt in 2019). I have invited the best financial bloggers in Singapore to share about what kind of impact 2020 has on them. Let us know in the comments if this resonates with you.

#1: Wealthdojo says… “Life Goes On”

On 7 April 2020, the Singapore Government announced the implementation of the circuit breaker. It wasn’t pretty. It caused a huge uproar in my company. The financial services industry is one that we need to meet people face to face. My colleagues were worried that our consultancy business will be affected. Almost all of us are anxious to know how we can conduct our business when we cannot meet our clients or prospects. How can we help our clients claim for their critical illness bills if we cannot go out to get their original receipts? Will this be the end of financial services?

In one week, all these questions were resolved. Though, it felt like ages.

In one week, I changed my business processes. I have conducted business meeting with my clients and prospects over zoom. I quickly adjusted to the new norm while learning new skills. I have also helped my clients transit into the new norm with a special message for them.

Life Goes On.

Those that didn’t adapt into the new norm were left irrelevant quickly. We shouldn’t be complacent thinking that things will remain the same. Business trips fell almost 100%, there is huge transition into E-Commerce, we are primarily working from home. I believe many things will change over the years. 2020 just accelerated many changes.

Keep Relevant. Life Goes On. 

For those of you who are new, check me out at 6 Levels Wealth Karate.

#2: Frugal Youth Invest says… “Slow down pace of life”

If not the circuit breaker, we would have continued to focus on our work or self and overlooked our closed ones. Circuit Breaker has forced us to slow down our pace of life, spend quality time while fighting the pandemic together. 2020 has taught me the importance of work life balance and how we can fall back on our closed one for support, something that we have always overlooked because of our busy schedule.

Check Weiming out at Frugal Youth Invest.

#3 Life Finance says… “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose“

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The year started on a high note – stocks kept soaring to new heights, brushing aside the snippets of bad news which popped up every now and then. And then everything went belly-up – markets crashed, economies faltered, and oil prices slumped. In response, interest rates were cut to zero, but still nothing could stop the bleeding. In the chaos, financial pundits opined that the world had changed irreversibly, and buy-and-hold was a fool’s mantra. Instead, they proclaimed, now was the time for selling first to buy back lower when the true crash came, buying alternative investments instead of stocks, day-trade and be nimble. Sell options. Anything but staid and boring buy-and-hold, or even buy-on-the-dips. Fast forward almost a year later, stocks, markets and economies are emerging from the rubble, and the old school buy-and-hold and buy-on-the-dip investors have seen their investments recover, and maybe come out a little ahead, while half the pundits have vanished.

Sounds familiar? But that’s not about 2020. That’s the story of 2008.

Check Life Finance out at LifeFinance.

#4: Rachel says… “Struggles happen in your life for a reason”

2020 taught me that I can get through anything. Whenever you’re struggling, it can seem like the struggle will never end. But struggles happen in your life for a reason. They teach you how to be resilient and maintain faith in yourself to get through it. I’m grateful for the tough times that 2020 has brought into my life because I’ve learned a lot about myself in the process.

Check Rachel out at heyitsrachel.

#5: Jocelyn says… “Regain some work life balance”

2020 will probably go down in memory as the year of upheavals and change. I count myself among the lucky ones to have been able to keep my job and health during this trying year. I picked up a new craft during circuit breaker out of interest and a desire to fill my time. That has grown into an online business selling handmade crochet items! It is not easy to juggle a full time job with a side business selling time-intensive handmade items but it has been incredibly fulfilling 🙂
On the investing side of things, I made a good call to pivot away from our local shores in search of better growth opportunities. Cloudflare, Alibaba and Tencent are some of my frontrunners of the year. Looking ahead to 2021, I hope to regain some work life balance and continue growing my portfolio!

Check Jocelyn out at Financial Freedom by 40

#6 Marc says… “Focus & Prioritising”

For many, 2020 has been the age of information overload & massive overwhelm. While it’s great that many of us have been making full use of the time in lockdown to learn, upgrade and upskill ourselves, many of us have been caught up with watching too many programs, participating in too many workshops and learning from too many online courses. Because of that, lots of us are stuck, paralysed, and have not progressed as much as we would like. And so, I realised that instead of just absorbing new information into our lives, taking action, aka “implementation”, plays a huge part if we want to grow too. As our time and attention is limited, this also means Focus & Prioritising is extremely important too – and if not, we will just be trying to sign up for every webinar or Facebook Live and just hopping from 1 topic to another (potentially wasting thousands of dollars & countless hours of our precious time & money in the process.

Check Marc out at Master Implementers.

#7 The Moss Piglet says… “Reflect and to identify the mistakes you have made”

2020 is the year I learnt to appreciate everything I have.

This has been a long year. I am convinced that 2020 had more than 12 months. The first quarter was going great for me. Projects were moving smoothly, stocks that I bought were going up. Those months are now a distant memory and it sure feels like they happened in a different year.

Then Covid-19 hit and it all became a blur. First off, I hope that everyone that was directly affected by the virus is doing okay. I found myself having more time to spend with my wife and 1 year old kid, this I truly appreciate. I also found out that it was near impossible to work at home while taking care of your restless child. Others were not so fortunate, my poor workers were locked up in their dormitory rooms for 4 months. Each of them were so afraid of getting tested positive of the virus. From them I learnt to appreciate what I have and the importance of extending your care and concern for others’ well-being.

It is an important time to reflect and to identify the mistakes you have made. After every storm comes a rainbow. I am sure that there will be a lot of opportunities post Covid-19 and we must prepare ourselves to capitalise on that.

On a final note, I would like to wish all Wealthdojo readers a brand new 2021 with happiness and good health. Cheers.

Check YeeSiang out at The Moss Piglet.

Final Thoughts By Wealthdojo

Wishing you guys the best! It is less than 30 days before 2021. It is a time to reflect on what happened in the previous months and see what we can learn from this year. Don’t let it go to waste!

Write down your reflection in the comments below! I look forward to see your comments.

Special thanks to Weiming, LF, Rachel, Jocelyn, Marc and Yeesiang for your contributions and wishing you a great 2021 ahead!

Chengkok is a licensed Financial Services Consultant since 2012. He is an Investment and Critical Illness Specialist. Wealthdojo was created in 2019 to educate and debunk “free financial advice” that was given without context.  

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The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organisation, employer or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.