It’s not easy, and it’s going to be painful, but it’s possible to survive financially. Here’s how.
I had two interesting grandfathers. On my mother side, I had Florencio who used to be a janitor at the Oceanic store in Escolta Manila in the 1940s. He came from far away Legaspi, Albay, moved to Manila to try his luck, did blue collar work but had his sights on a brighter future. He was a part- time student, studying to be a doctor at the University of Santo Tomas.
One day, the owner of Oceanic called out to him and showed him the newspaper. On the front page was the list of those who passed the medical board exam. He was pointing out the name of the board topnotcher, “Are you this Florencio de Vera written about in this newspaper?”
My grandfather confirmed that he was indeed the same fellow. His employer quickly told him to let go of the mop and broom and from that day forward—he was to become the company’s official physician.
On the Northern side of Luzon island in San Fabian, Pangasinan, my other grandfather on my father’s side was born. He was christened Calixto “Atong” Morales Ferreria. His father was part of the landed gentry in Pangasinan thus could afford to send his only son to Manila to finish his collegiate studies. Finish school he did, and eventually landed a job as a writer in one of the local magazines.
War broke out and consequently brought untold suffering to the residents of Manila. The city was demolished by the daily bombardment. Businesses closed down, food and other basic necessities for survival disappeared, forcing people to abandon the city.
When Manila was eventually declared an open city, Lolo Florencio decided to go back to Bicol. Public transport was out, so people travelled by foot to go back to their hometown. Initially starting out as a large group of people, the crowd eventually thinned out as the remaining trekkers are those who are from the far south. Lolo Florencio eventually walked by his lonesome and survived by foraging for food he found along the way. It took two weeks for him to eventually get home. He set up his medical practice quickly and secretly began supporting the guerrillas as their doctor. People did not have much in the province so his daily wage would consist of chickens, fish, and vegetables given to him by his patients.
My Lolo Atong decided to brave it out in Manila. He left his writing job and eventually joined my grandmother Lola Beheng, selling goods in Divisoria. It was backbreaking work and they took on anything that would produce an income to support their very young family. They supplied rice to the Japanese commissary and portioned it out to the soldiers at the back of their truck. My grandparents would secretly save a ganta or two of rice in the sack, and when they got back to the store, they would collect the leftover rice to be given to the guerrillas.
My two grandfathers not only survived the war but they also thrived.
I have been narrating this story to a lot of people of late because we are faced with the same kind of problem today. Instead of bombs destroying business establishments, we have a silent killer forcing lockdowns. It not only is destroying the economy, it likewise is killing a lot of people.
While we worry about what will become of us because of the pandemic, the lives of my two grandfathers provide a perspective that should inspire us to soldier on and find solutions to our day to day survival problems.
Stop the denial and do something.
Bombs whistling in the air as they come down cannot be ignored, that’s plain fact. In our case, we have to accept that this virus is a very destructive one. My grandfathers accepted their situation and did not sit and worry. They took action. They knew that if they didn't do anything, they would surely die of hunger or from the bombs. If you have a job, love it and work hard to make sure your company survives the pandemic. If you lose your job, find an opportunity either in the job market or as an entrepreneur. Most successful business people did not have to go to school to learn the ropes of an enterprise. They responded to the situation and by sheer grit overcame the challenges and succeeded. The lives of tycoons in the early days were driven by a strong desire to just survive. We should take that to heart, get up, and go.
Bring your spending down to a minimum.
You have three types of spending. Survival, Lifestyle, and Work-related expenses. Survival expenses are non-decision expenses. Its basic food, shelter, clothing, medicine, and the like. While you may want to economize as much as you can, you have to balance it out, lest your family starve to death.
Lifestyle expenses are decision-based expenses. Eating out, vacationing with the children, higher speed internet, support for the extended family. These are items that if not spent on will not kill you. If you never watch a movie the rest of your life, am sure, it won’t damage you.
Target cutting back by 50 percent from where you were before the pandemic. The more severe the cut, the greater the chance that whatever remaining money or reduced income you have will go a long way.
Pay off all your debts.
When money is scarce paying regular amortizations are like nails being driven into your skull. Not everyone however would have the luxury of having enough to pay off loans so consider selling what you are amortizing. Let go of that shiny car, you were a pedestrian before you bought the car and it won’t mortally wound you if you go back to being a pedestrian. Most of the time, people work from home anyway so that shiny metal object you are amortizing in the garage is of very little use daily. You have to give up something to clean up your financial life. If you can’t pay off debt, talk to your creditors and ask a restructuring of the terms of your loan. Moving to a loan with a longer paying period will reduce your amortization to a level that is easy to sustain.
Don’t rely on only one source of income.
Aside from selling, rice, corn and other foodstuff in Divisoria, my grandparents continued looking for ways to expand income. One of the opportunities they saw after the war was the lack of trucks that ferried goods to different parts of the country. The entire country was devastated and imported goods were the only way by which people survived. My father drove around burned-out Manila in search for military vehicles which could still be used. They built two trucks from surplus parts and that started their trucking business. It grew to a fleet of 45 trucks, driven 24 hours from the port of Manila to anywhere in Luzon. If you look for opportunities, you will find it. Combined with elbow grease, you will be surprised with what you can do.
There are a lot more strategies you can think of to survive the pandemic. I would run out of pages to write them all. Just remember some of the essentials I outlined above, live simply, and keep your head above the water. Fight back by making sure the income does not stop. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and never consider the possibility of defeat. There is a long line of naysayers who will say you will fail. Ignore them for they are just mouthing what the future holds for them. Move forward undeterred and it would help to say a little prayer for yourself and your family. Having faith in a supreme being is the light that beckons to you at the end of this dark tunnel.
Take comfort in the thought that like my grandfathers—you too will survive and thrive.