First, I want to say that my wife and I hope the coronavirus pandemic can be resolved soon. As many of you know, there are many effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, both good and bad.
Over two years have passed since the pandemic started, but our lives are still affected by it now.
In this article, I will share some positive and negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The effects I’ll review significantly impact our work environment, economy, investing opportunities, and more.
This post may contain affiliate links; please see our disclaimer for details.
Table of Contents
The Good effects of Covid-19
- Remote work opportunity
- Investing opportunities (stock market and real estate)
- Student loan interest pause
- Better habits, less sickness
The Bad effects of Covid-19
- Inventory and staffing shortages
- Inflation
- International shipping and flights
Positive Effects of Covid-19
Work Remote opportunity: Work-Life Balance
Here are some interesting work-from-home statistics according to Pew Research Center.
- Around 20% of American employees regularly worked remotely BEFORE the COVID-19 outbreaks.
- Around 71% of Americans work remotely or most of the time AFTER the COVID-19 outbreaks.
- Around 54% of American employees want to keep working remotely after COVID-19.
Both my wife and I started to work from home after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. My wife works from home, and I am on a hybrid schedule where I work in the office Monday-Friday but can work from home on Thursday and Friday.
Being able to work remotely has benefited us in many ways. It has given us an excellent work-life balance and made our life happier and more enjoyable.
During COVID-19 breakout, my wife was pregnant with our first son. Many changes and uncomfortable times accompany pregnant women (hats off to all the to-be mothers out there).
One big change was how my wife became hungry almost all the time. Working remotely allowed her to be in a more comfortable environment where she had easier access to food. 🙂
Our baby boy was born during the pandemic and working from home allowed us greater flexibility when caring for his needs. I could also help more around the home while my wife was recovering.
Other benefits include saving resources such as time and money. We didn’t need much time driving to work and getting stuck in traffic. Because of that, we can enjoy a nice breakfast together and help cook a yummy dinner.
We have saved a lot of money that would have otherwise been used on filling up gas. We also spend less money on buying professional clothes, don’t you feel nice wearing your pajamas when you work from home? LOL
Investing opportunity (stock market and real estate )
1. Stock Market
“Fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
Warren Buffett
Related content: Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a crazy 2020 stock market dip. The S&P 500 dropped to 66% from its peak by March 2020 and has rebounded 76% since its lowest point in the pandemic crash one year later.
Many people were scared about the crazy Covid-19 dip in the stock market, but my wife and I thought it was an excellent investment opportunity. See the chart above to see how our choice was a good one.
Regarding funds, we love the Total Stock Market Fund and S&P 500. If you don’t know what to invest in, they both can be a good starting point!
M1 Finance is a great investment opportunity with its robust yet simple app. There are ZERO commissions or account management fees.
Deposits $1,000 or more into your M1 Invest account within two weeks of signing up and get a cash bonus of $30-$500 to that account.
It is not just a trading stock brokerage account but also offers an IRA option that allows you to invest in your retirement.
We highly recommend using M1 Finance to open a brokerage or retirement account! M1 Finance can undoubtedly help you on your financial independence journey.
Gambling can become a scary addiction. We recently know how cryptocurrency, Game Stop stock, and other things have been high rewards but extremely high risks.
For us, this type of investing is more like gambling. Someone with extra money could invest in these things but must be willing to lose it all.
90% of our stock market investments are in a regular mutual fund, index fund, or ETF. 9% of our investments are in single stocks. Less than 1% is in cryptocurrency.
2. Real Estate
When COVID-19 happened, the interest rates for home mortgages dropped significantly. Many people started to purchase real estate or refinance their homes. We noticed these amazing interest rates and decided to refinance our 2nd property!
We were also fortunate to be able to buy and build our 3rd property during this low-interest rate time period.
First, let’s talk about our refinance experience. We felt so blessed after finishing the refinancing process, knowing it would be worth it in the long run.
Our interest rate dropped from around 5% to 3%, down two percent! Our monthly mortgage payment used to be approximately $1200 but went down to around $1000 (with HOA fees), saving us around $200 a month!
We paid nothing at closing. The refinance closing costs were added to our loan, and our total loan amount became about $161,000. Below is a chart to put sum things up.
| Before Refinance | After Refinance | |
| PMI | $100 | $0 |
| Interest Rate | 5% | 3% |
| Total Monthly Payment (with HOA) | $1,200 | $1,000 |
Now I’ll summarize our 3rd property building and buying experiences.
We decided to build a brand-new house nearby my parents’ place in July 2020. The building process was very interesting and took about ten months to finish.
We officially closed on the house in May 2021!
Initially, we were not planning to buy our 3rd property anytime soon in Utah. The plan was to wait until I graduated with my MBA first.
We started looking around for fun at different builders, and one builder’s sales agent wrote down our contact information. Within one week, he told us new lots were being released soon.
Since the location was close to my parents’ house, only a 3-minute drive away, we decided to go and look but still just for fun.
Two days later the agent told us their builder decided to increase all new homes by $5,000 (which will happen shortly). Any contract signed before that will keep the price and not be increased.
This news made us go under contract because we knew if we kept following our original plans, the house would become more and more expensive.
It turned out we were right, and our house increased in value by about $100,000 within a year, no kidding! That’s why real estate is impressive, and anyone can start now.
A great way to start investing in real estate without a lot of money is with Fundrise, a crowdsourcing real estate investing platform.
With investment minimums of ONLY $10, you can start making PASSIVE INCOME with your real estate investment portfolio!
Student loan interest pause
In my previous post, “How I Graduated Debt Free with one kid,” I explained how we saved up and paid for my MBA tuition. I still needed to pay off the student loans left from my bachelor’s degree.
We used the debt snow method to do this. We listed out all the outstanding balances and then paid them off from small to big, ignoring the interest rate.
Using this method gave us much motivation and a positive feeling whenever we paid off a loan balance!
Also, during that time frame, the COVID student loan relief plan was put in place where the interest rate was zero during a specific period.
The relief plan allowed us to save a lot of money that would have been spent on interest.
Better habits, less sickness
We both feel like we have better habits due to COIVD-19, like washing our hands more often.
For example, using hand sanitizer after going to the store or other public places. I think it is good and protects our kids and us from not just covid but also other sicknesses.
Negative Effects of Covid-19
Inventory and staffing shortage
Shortages seemed to be happening everywhere in stores. Many grocery stores started limiting how many items you could buy, especially for items like paper towels, water bottles, oil, rice, and more! Even now, the inventory shortage still hasn’t been fully resolved but it is getting better.
The inventory shortage is super-inconvenient, especially when we need something.
A phenomenon that happened recently is the staffing shortage. After COVID-19, many people lost their jobs, but right now, most everywhere is hiring but still are having difficulty finding employees.
This staffing shortage causes us to wait longer to get food, and employees are overworked and exhausted. We even saw some restaurants sign saying, “please be patient with our employees; they chose to work today and serve you.” One of our favorite authentic Chinese restaurants closed because of these issues.
We hope both the inventory and employee shortage problems can be resolved soon. No matter what, we should be understanding and patient with workers. They are trying their best to help us out.
Inflation
So what is Inflation?
Simply put, Inflation is a consistent increase in the price of goods and services in our economy.
How does inflation affect our daily lives?
Your standard of living is mainly based on two factors: your income and expenses. Inflation will reduce the purchasing power of income while increasing daily expenses, harming your living standard.
Because your income does not increase or only increases a little and your expenses suddenly increase. This creates a significant negative impact on life.
Our family expenses increased by at least $100 monthly for our cost of living. I currently have a little Toyota corolla, and this car model has incredible gas mileage. In the past, the cost to fill up the entire tank was $25, but now it’s $45!!
I am still shocked to see how much it costs me each time I fill up. Not just gas, but when you go to a grocery store, you can tell the price of food and many other items have increased significantly.
Although many factors go into inflation, two leading causes of this surge are the sudden increase in spending/demand and low-interest rates FORBES.
International shipping and flights
My wife is from China, so sometimes she will buy something from China or my parents-in-law will ship some gifts to us. Whenever we want to ship something from China, the international shipping costs are more expensive each time.
The international shipping cost has increased, and the timeliness has also become slower, especially for shipping by boat.
here are more than a hundred loaded freighters anchored off the coast. Recently President Joe Biden announced a deal to have the Los Angles Port Open 24/7 to help solve the logjam of ships waiting to unload.
Another problem is with international flights! It is so hard to fly internationally, and flight tickets are so expensive to go to China or some other countries due to the COVID-19 restrictions.
My parents-in-law are located in China and planned to come to the USA to help us with our first baby. My wife is their only child, so our son is their first and only grandkid. It is so sad they still have not been able to come over and see their daughter and grandson.
My wife is pregnant now, and our daughter’s due date will be around February 2022. Looks like they won’t be able to come too. My wife misses her parents a lot, and it is very hard when parents are not there when something big and new happens in your life.
I hope one day everything will be back to more normal circumstances, and my wife can see her family, and my parents-in-law can meet their grandkids.
Best wishes to those individuals and families who have a similar situation to us. I hope you can also see your family as soon as possible!
Disclaimer:
We hope the information in this article provides valuable insights to every reader but we, the Biesingers, are not financial advisors. When making your personal finance decisions, research multiple sources and/or receive advice from a licensed professional. As always, we wish you the best in your pursuit of financial independence!
Disclaimer:
We hope the information in this article provides valuable insights to every reader but we, the Biesingers, are not financial advisors. When making your personal finance decisions, research multiple sources and/or receive advice from a licensed professional. As always, we wish you the best in your pursuit of financial independence!
