Corona seen with opportunity glasses

For many years, people around me have been making jokes about my compulsive need for having a strong financial buffer for rainy days. To sleep well, that means that I need to have accessible funds for at least 6 months of living, which to some sounds totally crazy. To me those funds are untouchable, reserved for “if shit hits the fan”. 

This started way before I had a “career” and well paid job btw, it started as a result of having to be able to pay my own bills from the age of 16.

Now, I know that many are not in the position to save a lot, so this is in no way meant as pointing a finger in any way; more as an encouragement for all couples/families to use the current situation as an opportunity to talk openly about family economy, how the current situation may affect yours, and how to reduce pressure/risk, by involving the entire family as a team. 

And even more importantly - to prevent the potential of parents/providers (perhaps mostly men..?) feeling so much pressure that it feels unbearable, when something so unexpected as Corona happens, challenging our society. In all recessions and downturns, we know that suicide rates rise.

When I bought my first apartment back in 2006, I had 4 backup plan scenarios in place (in case interest rate increase of 8%, if I lost my job, etc..). Family and friends have been laughing about this OCD-approach for years. But I believe many in my own generation live way above what’s responsible/sustainable, seen from a financial perspective. Maximizing loans, big spending, and expecting forever financial growth, cause that’s what everyone learnt at university.

In today’s society, we over consume like crazy, yet it seems we have been less focused on making sure to ensure a safety buffer. Maybe because many didn’t need one - ever. Except for the oldest generation, who save, use resources responsibly and still remember Europe post WWII.

While I’m not particularly (or at all..) neurotic about other things, having a robust economy has been extremely critical to me. Because I saw the consequences from lacking robustness very early.

That mindset and buffer later enabled me to make choices that was important and right for me; leaving a bad relationship, changing jobs, setting up my own company. Financial independence = empowerment and equality.

With that perspective, The Ocean Opportunity Lab has a good financial buffer in place, both for running costs and the team. Which means we can now utilize the Corona lockdown to readjust our focus, and get important work done which we didn’t yet have capacity for. So we’re fine for a good while, even with a number of key prestigious events being postponed (and with it, major income stopping for a while). We don’t have an economy based on day to day, nor month to month. When I established TOOL, I sold off listed and unlisted stocks to build an extra buffer. This priority is no coincidence, and I’ll share a very personal story about why;

Back in 2003, when I was 21 and had just finished secretary studies, my father was suffering from the consequences of a long manic period combined with going into a heavy depression. He was bipolar, but we had never seen the manic period, so we didn’t recognize it. That period had been used for some pretty stupid choices from his side.

He had invested in a number of real estate projects, including a golf park in Krager?, and vacation apartments in Norefjell, but with “golden handshake agreements”, which means basically no specific terms, interest rates nor security. A cowboy approach to business..

He had spent all his money from a big sales to Orkla, and then gone on to lend money. He set up and maxed a house loan, without my mothers knowledge. He borrowed huge sums from friends and family. Expecting an inheritance from the passing of my grandparents. Then things didn’t happen as planned, money didn’t flow into his accounts, and he lost control. 

When I first got involved, the consequences of this had thrown my father from manic to heavily depressed. He asked me for help to go through the family budgets, and while setting it up, I remember a cold feeling all through my chest. The numbers didn’t add up. My father lay crying on the floor of his office as I gave him the calculations.

My mother was a stay at home mum, and my 3 siblings from 14-19 lived at home, with no income of their own. I lived by myself and was financially independent since 16, but my father was the sole provider for the family. And even if we sold the house, the markets were low after the IT bubble, and the sales sum wouldn’t cover the debt.

Three days after spending a Saturday working on the financial scenarios in his office, my father tried to commit suicide. He was very sick, and felt like everything fell apart, that he had failed as a father, and that everyone would be better of without him. He had so much of his male self esteem linked to his “value” as breadwinner and succeeding on the outside, that he didn’t consider his value for us, as a dad and regardless of materialistic things.

Luckily, he was found in time, and upon exiting the hospital, we managed to get him placed into a psychiatric hospital. ( = I sat outside his doctors office until he promised to help). 

I had no idea what to do, and I didn’t exactly have a bachelor in finance.. I only knew that we had loans more than the family home was worth, lots of expenses, and no real income. So I had to think creatively. I started meeting with the investors he’d placed money with, to try and secure some of the investments. I met with the bank and other creditors to get postponement and agreements in place. We cut family operating costs by 70%. My mom got a minimal household budget, and my siblings were told that no further costs would be covered for them the next year. That was also the year we cut all Christmas gifts for the first time.. And I put my own savings in to get through the first year.

At the time when we started, it seemed impossible to keep the house. The responsibility felt way to heavy, and I had no idea how to find a good solution. I was also quite new in a full time job, where I needed to deliver. But from my perspective, I also thought very differently than my dad. I thought more about the “family” collectively than about the material status. I wasn’t as attached to the physical resources as my dad was. So a more pragmatic approach; how much space does a family of 5 really need...

And fast forward to Corona and 2020; while our government now need to prioritize finding solutions for the people in our society who are most vulnerable, who don’t have the opportunity to utilize creative solutions or scale down; and for securing businesses and organizations vital to the long term economy; I think that this is the time for “middle class” - people with generally good income but suffering from over spending - to think outside the box. This is a time for utilizing resources, embedding true sharing economy mindsets, and readjust our perspectives on our consumer habits. It’s a time to sit down together to ensure that one part (mostly women) aren’t left in the dark when it comes to financials. And it’s a time to teach our kids responsibility and some good tools to bring with them into the future. To reassess your family’s own values, and do this with a flock perspective rather than just as individuals. 

For our family, our 2003 crisis brought us closer together. We all learnt a lot, my siblings became more responsible. My mother took on full time job and rebuilt her own identity & independence, and my father never again experienced a serious depression. It was an awakening, and a formative experience that years later proved to do us more good than we realized at the time... It gave us a closer relationship that has lasted through the past decades, and which enables us to sort out conflicts or different opinions in a different way, as we have an invisible strong band that was created through 2003-2005.

This too shall pass, but we can choose to learn and grow from it, and change for the better??

Warm hugs from home quarantine??