The Big Read: For youths, will pragmatism or passion rule as COVID-19 gives pause to rethink life’s priorities? – CNA

While Ms Loh has taken a leap of faith career-wise, 29-year-old Anthea (not her real name) prefers to play it safe even though she is not happy with her work situation.

Anthea had largely enjoyed her work in the marketing department of a public relations firm, until it began to take on more projects amid the raging pandemic last year. While she normally ended work at about 8pm pre-COVID-19, she found herself staying up to the wee hours working to meet project deadlines, as working from home had blurred the lines between office and rest hours.

After a while of working overnight, I just felt burnt out and that it was no longer worth it, said Anthea.

However, she stuck it out for more than a year before leaving the company in July this year for very pragmatic reasons: She needed the money to pay her bills and did not want to dip into her savings.

Anthea is presently working in a contract marketing role at another firm that pays about the same salary but has better working hours. But she no longer enjoys working in the industry, and feels stuck in her current role.

After a while, I feel no purpose in what I am doing, she said.

For yet another millennial, 25-year-old Terence, the pandemic has led him to embrace the Fire movement, whose mantra is financial independence, retire early. Proponents believe that this can be achieved by saving hard, investing well and living frugally from young.

Having graduated from university last year, the bleak economic outlook at that time as COVID-19 decimated one key industry after another in Singapore and elsewhere nudged Terence into subscribing to the movement seriously, starting with saving his money.

There wasnt a major impetus to spend on anything we couldnt travel, and any plans I had such as graduation trips were out of the window, said Terence, who wanted to be known only by his first name.

His difficult job search after graduation made him more determined to be frugal with his spending, even after he finally landed a position with a consultancy firm in August last year.For instance, he would hold off upgrades, such as getting a new laptop, preferring to use his current model.

When the stock market bottomed out at the height of the pandemic last year, Terence, in line with a key Fire tenet, took the opportunity to invest, and has made healthy gains as the economy recovered.

I think even before COVIDI always knew I would try my best to climb the corporate ladder, he said. While the motivation is still there, a big part of it is now to achieve Fire as soon as possible.

While Ms Loh, Anthea and Terence have responded differently to the pandemic on the career front, they do have something in common: This once-in-a-generation crisis has forced them to re-evaluate or reshuffle their priorities in life, perhaps much earlier than people of their age were wont to do had COVID-19 not changed the world, literally, as we knew it.

And their respective choices take a risk to pursue ones passion; stick to a job even if you dont like it for the sake of financial stability; or find ways to enhance ones wealth quickly to make early retirement possible largely mirror that of other young adults, aged between 20 and 30 years old, interviewed by TODAY recently.

Indeed, based on findings of the inaugural annual TODAY Youth Survey, youths have a different take on what success in life means. No longer is it defined by the 5Cs cash, car, credit card, condominium and country club membership that were once deemed as the ultimate Singapore dream by an earlier generation.

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The Big Read: For youths, will pragmatism or passion rule as COVID-19 gives pause to rethink life's priorities? - CNA