If you've been following the news, you would know of stories of workers losing their jobs. Those in the manufacturing and Oil & gas sectors are worst hit. If you're an overpaid company manager with huge salaries but low productivity, you may also lose your job. Middle managers may be redundant. Those working in banks are also getting retrenched especially if they are not productive and cost too much. Technology can replace their jobs.

If you are jobless and has a family to feed, what do you do? Finding a new job may not be easy. If you really cannot find a new job after many months, then it is time you take control of your life. Discard all pride and prejudices. Be humble. You can become a private car driver such as Uber or Grab driver. You become your own boss and run your business as a driver.

If you lost a high paying job that was paying for your condo and now you're unable to get a new high paying job, then you have no choice but to swallow your pride and downgrade to a small 3 room HDB flat. You can sell your condo, pay off the mortgage and use the net proceeds to pay for a HDB flat. Let's say your condo is worth $1.35m and your mortgage is $1m. Your net proceeds of $350k can buy you a 3 room HDB flat and you can pay in full. So now you don't have to worry about a roof over your head. Next, you need to worry about the basic necessities such as food and utilities. If you and wife can earn a combined income of $4k pm, you should be ok since you're debt free. Just make sure you do not overspend on food and luxury goods. Also you don't need to own a car since you already drive a rented Uber or Grab car.

If you are 55 and above and you got retrenched, for example if you're a retrenched engineer, and you don't have any dependents, then you can retire if you don't want to be a Uber or Grab driver. You can rent out your whole 4 room HDB flat for S$2,000 pm and use this to retire in lower cost countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. If you retire in Malaysia, you will get RM6,200 pm after currency conversion ($S1 = RM3.10). This would be enough for a retired couple. You can rent a new 2 bedroom condo in JB, KL or Penang for only RM1,200 pm. You don't have to buy a property in Malaysia as there is a big oversupply of empty properties there. You can also rent a newer condo after every few years. You then have RM5,000 pm to spend on food, utilities and transport. A lot of money by Malaysian standards. If you want to retire more comfortably, you can retire in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia or Indonesia. S$2,000 pm is a lot of money in these countries.