Money talks:
Julia Newbould
As I write this, Victoria is experiencing lockdown once again. It’s a sobering reminder of how Covid-19 continues to control so much of our lives – and the Australian economy is bracing for the repercussions.
This takes me back to when the whole country was in lockdown in March and I decided I’d keep a diary, to remember what we did and how we felt. It can be tricky to remember exactly how you felt about a past event. It was an interesting exercise.
In the early days of lockdown, I was stressed, in particular about the prospect of losing a large percentage of my super and the many years of work it would take to make it up, if at all. I also started making big plans: working on a budget; decluttering my house; selling things I no longer needed; writing another book; and keeping in touch with all my friends.
After a month or so, super had recovered a little and things were becoming more routine. But I never did write another book, declutter or keep in touch with friends as much as I’d planned.
Learning how the government stimulus worked and what was happening on the share, property and job markets stopped me spending too much time worrying about the things I couldn’t control.
And now that we’re back in the office and life is heading to some sort of normal, in many parts of the country at least, I have learned that many others shared my early lockdown experience: the heightened stress, making big plans and then acceptance of the “new normal”.
More change is in the air as we anticipate stimulus measures coming to an end. JobKeeper is due to expire at the end of September and how this will play out is still largely unknown. While it’s uncertainty that causes volatility in the sharemarkets, the impact hasn’t been as great as expected in the past month.
In early July, banks announced they will offer an extension of the deferral period for those unable to restart loan payments; there were already around 770,000 loans on deferral.
We’ve been fortunate to have a better than expected economic outlook, with manufacturing data showing Australian manufacturing returned to growth, job numbers stronger than anticipated, and our tech stocks performing strongly.
Meanwhile, I’ve been closely following social media, particularly money groups, listening to webinars, podcasts and the like, to gauge sentiment. Many people seem ready to resurrect their pre-lockdown plans: buying and selling property and shares, retiring, perhaps with less than expected.
Then there are FIRE (financial independence, retire early) devotees who focus on disciplined investing and have no intention of being swayed from their path.
For all of us, it’s a time to think deeply about the lives we live now. What can we do that will benefit us most in the long term? With the recent developments in Victoria, Covid-19 has reminded us that while certainty is rare, we have to manage with the knowledge we have to hand.
What I do know is that now is the time to focus on what we can control, and investing in our long-term financial freedom is a good place to start.
Many people seem ready to resurrect their plans: investing in property and shares or retiring