My Time in Lockdown

A lot of stories have been shared. A lot of them have been published. Some of them are happy stories, but most of them are sad. There’s so much uncertainty surrounding the current situation the global population finds itself in. If there’s one buzz word in 2020, its ‘Unprecedented’.

I have been doing a lot of digging around, watching news about the virus decimating the world economy into tatters. While no one knows how long we will take to come out of this, I do know for a fact that there is definitely going to be the ‘other side’. So, I’m getting ready for it.

Being in the finance industry, I have seen people panicking in front of my eyes, making life decisions based on short term events caused due to Covid-19. Sure, whatever’s happened so far this year is beyond imagination; no one would have guessed that the entire world economy would come to a complete halt and countries would close their borders and globalisation would never be the same. However, with every recession, there’s good news and bad news. If you’re prepared for it, this could be a best time to invest your money when the markets are still lower than pre Covid level, provided you invest for the long- term. No one can predict the markets in short term but in the long term, markets always recover.

There’s always cleaning up of old and inflexible businesses during every recession which close in the hundreds only to give way to new and technologically driven business powerhouses. So here’s what I’m doing:

• Studying about the stock market to look for potential opportunities to invest for the long term
• Listening to finance and economic podcasts to get expert opinions on what they think about the present situation
• Reading daily for 20–30 minutes; one book a month is enough to learn something new and get things going

Remember, this time is ours to grab with both hands. We are saving so much time not commuting to work (an average person spends approximately 1 hour each day commuting back and fro), utilise this time learning something new.

Whatever you do, be kind, respectful and charitable to others. This is the time we need each other the most. Remember, together we can!