Finding your second wind

When a retrench­ment hits, it can be a tough time for an indi­vid­ual but it does not spell an end to a career. The next step is to bounce back – re-​assess your life and find new oppor­tu­ni­ties that you can be a part of.

BY: Cheok Mei-​ing & Brian Goh

Whilst there are now some pos­i­tive signs that the econ­omy is start­ing to pick up, the past year has been bru­tal in terms of num­ber job losses. Since the sec­ond quar­ter last year, over 30,000 jobs in Sin­ga­pore have been axed. In times like these, a sim­ple “How are you?” can weigh very heav­ily on a friendly con­ver­sa­tion. With a con­stant stream of news announc­ing job cuts and restruc­tur­ing prac­tices, it can be quite awk­ward when real­ity hits closer to home, find­ing out that your friend or neigh­bour is sud­denly out of a job – or receiv­ing an announce­ment that your com­pany is review­ing the pos­si­bil­ity of restructuring.

For the major­ity of baby boomers who have worked for the same employer most of their lives, being asked to leave sud­denly can be a huge shock. Apart from boomers’ trade­mark employee loy­alty, fac­tors such as finan­cial com­mit­ments have kept them at the same com­pany, some for many, many years. The tran­si­tion from a rou­tine pro­fes­sion to forced retiree can be a jar­ring dis­place­ment, per­haps because of the fear of the unknown, espe­cially for those who do not have a plan in place yet.

The first – and prob­a­bly most impor­tant – step is to think hard about what the next chap­ter of your life should look like. For those who have been for­tu­nate enough to be pro­vided out­place­ment ser­vices by their com­pa­nies, make the most of the career coach­ing ser­vices to ensure that you are not mak­ing impul­sive or highly emo­tional decisions. 

Some may view a forced early retire­ment as a com­plete dis­as­ter, while oth­ers may embrace this oppor­tu­nity to finally get off the tread­mill and do some­thing dif­fer­ent. What bet­ter time to reflect, refresh and re-​engineer your life? This is an oppor­tune moment to bring back to the fore your aspi­ra­tions – start­ing your own busi­ness, immers­ing your­self in vol­un­teer work, or even going back to work.

Money mat­ters

A fresh start also requires a frame­work; you also need to look at imme­di­ate and long-​term money issues in the interim. The fact that you will be with­out income and cer­tain ben­e­fits, either tem­porar­ily or per­ma­nently, means that you need to take stock of what you have and also ensure that your cash flow is suf­fi­cient to see you through dur­ing this career tran­si­tion. It is crit­i­cal at this stage to address imme­di­ate finan­cial issues. The check­list below is a sim­ple guide to help you take stock of your cur­rent situation:

Next, no mat­ter what your aspi­ra­tion is, you need to deter­mine if you can afford that deci­sion. For instance, if you decide to go back to school, can you afford to go with­out income and pay the school fees for the course of your study? These con­sid­er­a­tions are illus­trated in the fol­low­ing table:

If cash flow poses a poten­tial prob­lem, look at ways that you can sup­ple­ment your income. Keep in mind that retire­ment fund­ing and health­care are top pri­or­i­ties as you grow older. You also have your retire­ment fund to build up too.

Address­ing imme­di­ate finan­cial issues dur­ing tran­si­tion plays a key role in get­ting you to the next stage in your life and career. Hav­ing a finan­cial plan that addresses your long-​term goals will pro­vide you the con­fi­dence and focus to work towards that next leg in your life journey.

Year of opportunity

For some peo­ple who have been retrenched, this year may be a dif­fi­cult time, but with the right approach and atti­tude, you can change for out­look and make the year a year of oppor­tu­nity than one of despair.

Cheok Mei-​ing is head of cor­po­rate con­sult­ing ser­vices and Brian Goh is senior vice-​president and a licensed finan­cial adviser rep­re­sen­ta­tive with ipac finan­cial plan­ning Sin­ga­pore. For more infor­ma­tion, send your com­ments and ques­tions to Mei-​ing atmeiing.​cheok@​ipac.​com.​sg or visit www​.ipaca​sia​.com.

NOTE: In prepar­ing this infor­ma­tion, we did not take into account the invest­ment objec­tives, finan­cial sit­u­a­tion or par­tic­u­lar needs of any per­son. Before mak­ing an invest­ment deci­sion, you should speak to a finan­cial adviser to con­sider whether this infor­ma­tion is appro­pri­ate to your needs, objec­tives and circumstances.

(PHOTO CREDIT: SERI­OUS BUSI­NESS © Lisa F. Young | Dream​stime​.com)