Losing your job during this period

I came across this article by Mr and Mrs Budget recently about what is important right now is job preservation.

And I couldn't agree more to this because judging from the current situation, losing your job right now would mean it will be tough finding another.

Of course, in the article, there were some tips given that can help you keep your job but there are certain industries where headcount had to be cut no matter what due to the industry being hit.


For my cousin, he works in the hospitality line and they have been hit really hard! He now takes a 80% pay cut and works only 1 day per week. As a sideline, he applied to be a temperature screener to earn some extra cash on other days.

He has a housing loan and both his parents are not working at the moment so if this continues long term, he might find it tough.

My uncle, who owns a small cafe, mentioned that so far he has received 10% rental rebate from his landlord, he is waiting for the Monday's budget to see if he will be getting any extra relief. He will have to turn to takeout style to accommodate the circuit breaker measures introduced on 3 April 2020. 

As a contract staff myself, I know that our jobs are at a higher risk of being gone because at the end of the contract period, if the situation is still bad, they can choose not to renew. My contract will end year end and to be honest I do think that if this situation continues till year end which is very likely  as other countries are still struggling and it will take awhile before people really start going out like we used to do every weekend, my contract will not be renewed and I will lose my job too. 

At work, there are a number of us on contract and we do worry if we can keep our jobs, my boss hasn't mentioned about cutting headcount and I guess what we can do now is to work as per normal from home.


With the circuit breaker measures introduced by the Singapore government on Friday, schools will be closed from Wed, 9 April 2020 onwards and everyone is to work from home unless they are under the essential services from Tues, 8 April 2020 onwards till 4 May 2020.

This period will be crucial as contact tracing for the unlinked cases will be done and more cases will likely surface. We saw more panic buying also on Friday way before the announcements were made.

My mum was pretty confused with what was going to be closed and she asked me," Will Uniqlo also be closed?" I told her, " Yes" not that she wants to go shopping but she was shocked. I guess she didn't expect shops to really close, we will also be packing back much more as no dine-in will be allowed in food establishments.

Ending this article with something by PM Lee on Friday, "But if any country can see this through, it is Singapore. We have the resources. We have the determination. We are united. By helping one another through this, we will prevail, and emerge stronger."

More changes for DBS Multiplier on 1 May 2020

There have been many revisions to interest rates by the banks recently. For me, I opened the DBS multiplier account when it first came out and most recently the Standard Chartered Jumpstart Account. I also have another POSB account and a UOB One account.

The accounts which I put most of my money into are mainly DBS Multiplier and Jumpstart. After changes in Feb 2020, another round of changes has arrived for Multiplier come 1 May 2020.

Read more: DBS Multiplier changes and what might be my next action




Everyone can really easily qualify for DBS Multiplier's criteria and I guess that is why they had to combine the categories in Feb and now with lower interest. As per below, effective 1 May 2020 the interest rates would have some adjustments with total eligible transactions of $2500 to $5000 having the biggest cut of 0.25%.

For me, I still think it is a good account that pays above average interest rates. So, I will still keep a portion of my money there. Also because, I am under 29 years old, there is no fall-below fee required which is really great. So not much changes on my end and also because my savings are not so robust that the changes will have a significant effect.