Anyone jobless for a long time before?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I'm also at a similar position.
40 years old. Quitting my new job after joining for 6 months by the end of this month due to mental stress.
I'm married with no kids. Wife earns enough to spend herself
We live in HDB with existing loan of $240k and no car. We don't spend alot other occassional holidays and food.
I have $170k cash savings and a further $20k in investments
Taking a year or two off but am worried about finding a new job.
Worse comes to worse will resort self employed jobs like property agent or financial consultant

Your backup plan is flawed. Property agent is an extremely difficult line to stay in. Roughly 80% of the sales/deals are done by 20% of the agents. Saw the data a few years back. Property agents easily spent $8000 on ads every month to chase down leads and deals. Financial consultant needs a lot of networking and legwork. This is not a line you jump in as a "retirement job".

170K in Cash? Er...., no hard feelings but I don't think you are suitable as a financial consultant.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Staying in my current job is causing me mental and physical health issues. Already my blood pressure is 150/95, chest tightness at times, anxiety issues and sleepless night. Go on for a few more months i scared I'll die of heart attack. I don't think its worth dying for the company even though it pays ok.

According to what you had written. words like "worried" , "scared" are quite negative words. Frankly, your mindset needs to change to positive first. I had also gone through a national crisis and concurrently, I was also the sole care giver at home for a period of 5 years. I did not have personal time to talk about. During the national crisis, I still needed to work like mad "no day no night" for almost a year when I was already age 48. Theoretically no weekends and public holidays for me. I also had chest tightness then.

You have to learn how to handle stressful situations and be positive always. I believe you can choose to take long leave or discuss with your HR/bosses to take sabbatical leave before deciding to resign as you do not have confidence to find another job in the future. Take the time to recharge and change the ways how you work and your mindset. My view is no positive mindset you will not go far.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

According to what you had written. words like "worried" , "scared" are quite negative words. Frankly, your mindset needs to change to positive first. I had also gone through a national crisis and concurrently, I was also the sole care giver at home for a period of 5 years. I did not have personal time to talk about. During the national crisis, I still needed to work like mad "no day no night" for almost a year when I was already age 48. Theoretically no weekends and public holidays for me. I also had chest tightness then.

You have to learn how to handle stressful situations and be positive always. I believe you can choose to take long leave or discuss with your HR/bosses to take sabbatical leave before deciding to resign as you do not have confidence to find another job in the future. Take the time to recharge and change the ways how you work and your mindset. My view is no positive mindset you will not go far.

Thank you for the advice
Yes, this break will enable me to recharge and regain my confidence and positivity
That, i am sure. You are right. Having the right mindset is paramount foundation to sucess.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I'm also at a similar position.
40 years old. Quitting my new job after joining for 6 months by the end of this month due to mental stress.
I'm married with no kids. Wife earns enough to spend herself
We live in HDB with existing loan of $240k and no car. We don't spend alot other occassional holidays and food.
I have $170k cash savings and a further $20k in investments
Taking a year or two off but am worried about finding a new job.
Worse comes to worse will resort self employed jobs like property agent or financial consultant

Get yourself a legit normal job that pays you monthly salary. 'Self employed' jobs are not for everyone. You think being property agent/ financial consultation will make you earn big bucks ? The reality will give you cardiac arrest fast.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Get yourself a legit normal job that pays you monthly salary. 'Self employed' jobs are not for everyone. You think being property agent/ financial consultation will make you earn big bucks ? The reality will give you cardiac arrest fast.

Can you share your experience?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Can you share your experience?

It is like a person start own business to be 'self employed' only to close the shop after 6 mths. From your post, yes, I agree with another poster. With cash $170k and you said you want to be Financial Consultant. Sorry, the way you handle your own financial shows that you are both naive and think too highly of your capability.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It is like a person start own business to be 'self employed' only to close the shop after 6 mths. From your post, yes, I agree with another poster. With cash $170k and you said you want to be Financial Consultant. Sorry, the way you handle your own financial shows that you are both naive and think too highly of your capability.

I'm not OP but what's wrong with holding cash? Esp when he/she is jobless?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I'm not OP but what's wrong with holding cash? Esp when he/she is jobless?

Having cash as an asset is not a problem. However, having too much cash as an asset potentially is.

Currently, given the high interest rate environment, there are a lot more safe assets that a person can invest in.

Cash is good if you are putting in certain bank accounts like UOB ONE or OCBC 360 which offer relatively high interest provided you meet their criteria. However, there are also higher yielding instruments like T-Bills and money market funds/short-term bonds (even those short-term insurance products) which may give a higher return.

There are also equities, REITs, and other riskier assets which may perform better once the interest rate environment normalises which is just a matter of time.

So, if in current environment, one is putting most of his/her assets in cash (especially if it is all in one bank which SDIC only covers up to 75k per bank), then he/she may not be particularly interested in his/her own personal finance which makes it even harder to be interested in others' financial situation.

So ... should he focus on upgrading his skillsets? how should he help himself?

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

So ... should he focus on upgrading his skillsets? how should he help himself?

from my experience, upskilling definitely the way to go. i took up a couple of courses in my spare time to learn new skills then after i got some additional certifications, i got more interview calls, so maybe can try that. i would recommend FirstCom academy, got alot of courses that quite relevant today.

if any of you guys are interested,
https://www.fca.edu.sg

hope it helps!