Resources versus resourceful

"What is your outlook for this year and the next?". Well, that is one of the more common questions I get whenever I reveal that I work in the financial industry. My answer? "Things are just gonna get more difficult and you simply have to work harder and smarter".

Although it may sound like a brush-off retort, I actually mean it. I sincerely believe that things are going to get more difficult in the next few year, unless if you are in the oil and gas industry which is going through its period of boom (or bubble as some might say).

For the rest of us, the reality is as the following.

Income

I don't expect that the average annual income from salary for the average Joe to increase significantly, or by much. Apart from the Oil and Gas sectors, there is nothing spectacular that is seem to be happening in any other major industries.

Whether we like it or not, manufacturing is still the backbone of this country. O&G is making money recently, but the mass are actually living off the manufacturing sector, including the SME. The benefits of O&G boom seem to be a bit more exclusive, at they have always been. Anyways, manufacturing,  as one of the major provider of employment in this country, is not going to grow exponentially overnight; hence the salary of its employees, on average, is not expected to increase by much compared to before.

Our average per capita income as a nation might increase, but it also appears that our income gap has also widen so much that the plenty of citizens at work will not reap this benefit.

In a nutshell, stop hoping that our salary will make a significant improvement to our livelihood

Expenditure

In a nutshell, almost all of our expenditures will increase increase in price. It will almost certainly cost us more to get the same goods and services next year and the year after. The GST will be the major direct and indirect causes of price increases in to our goods and services. Regardless of all the talk that the GST replacing the existing service tax and other taxes, it WILL cause us to pay more for our goods that we would want to buy (in general) otherwise how else could the government get the extra revenue through the GST.

Apart from GST induced problems, we are also going to face higher petrol prices due to the removal of subsidies, higher cost of education (due to GST so called exempt-status, amongst others), new gadgets on offer etc. 

And it is about to get worse as NO AMOUNT of whining and complaining are about to change this situation. Remaining status quo is not going to cut it anymore. Our resources are not going to be enough; we gotta to be resourcefull moving forward.

What are our normal resources? Well that would be our salary and to those who gets them, includes handouts like BRIM.

Well, are those all of it? To most, yeah. But that is not going to be enough.

If  we want to avoid  the status quo, then we need to change our perception of our resources. We must not limit our definition of resources to just what they hand to us. We must look at our other assets and avenues. That is being resourceful.

Many people, when offering opinions on how to improve one's financial situation will focus on just budgeting for a lower expenditure. I don't like that. Personally I am a person who loves to be able to enjoy more of life and that includes buying more things and at the same time having more assets. Of course over the years I have learned to separate between what I need and what I want but rather than totally disregard my wants, I try to have a disciplined approach on spending on my luxuries. While I do agree, I personally do not like to hear that I need to cut this and cut that etc.

In my opinion, while we need to improve how we spend, it is also very (more) important to improve our resources.

This would include getting additional income through part time jobs, enterprises and  passive investment. There is no shame in this game, there is no shame in having to work more and harder to get more. Part time jobs include after hours serving at restaurants. Enterprises could include weekend businesses or online shops. Passive investments' income would include the dividends from our ASB, Unit Trust, Shares or private business ventures.

On top of it all, the harder we work, the more we will value our money and that would automatically make us look at your expenditures more carefully.