Navigating the Storm: Lessons in Financial Resilience from the Pandemic

When Covid-19 hit the country about four years, a lot of people were greatly affected not only physically and mentally, but also financially. It had made such a huge impact on people’s lives that everyone had kept hoping and praying it would all be over soon. It took about two years before things started to slowly normalize, and soon people were trying to find their own ways to recover.

In those hard times during the pandemic, my family had to adapt to a new setup in our household. Rather than live in fear and panic, we tried to be as calm as possible but at the same time, vigilant. We would go out only when necessary like doing the groceries or gassing up our car. But other than that, I was glad that other things remained as usual. I’m a stay at home mom and my husband is the sole breadwinner for our family of four. Thankfully, my husband’s company was not that much affected by the lockdowns as they still had regular work and my husband would often work online when they were not required to report onsite. Nonetheless, we made sure that we had sufficient funds for our daily needs, or for running errands or in case of emergencies. We also set aside money for our children’s schooling, especially since their school offered online or distant learning at that time. We had to be prudent with spending since a lot of establishments were closing down and people would find themselves jobless for the time being. We also had to take care of our health and made sure we had resources in case we got sick. Thankfully, my husband’s company had that covered via their HMO or group medical insurance.

As everything started going back to normal, we still remained cautious and continued to live just within our means since we know that life can be quite unpredictable. Financial planning was very important. We were constantly managing our weekly and monthly expenses. Safe to say, our efforts had really helped us get through the pandemic period. We even taught our eldest daughter how to be responsible on her finances especially as she is now on her last year of college and will be having her immersion in a few months.

A lifelong lesson I also learned from my late father, which I passed it on to my children, was to keep their savings for the rainy days. It is important that they only spend their savings for emergencies. Life has a lot of twists and turns and we will never know what lies ahead so it is best to be always prepared.