The Covid epidemic has taken all my successes

I am 21 years old, living and studying in Saigon, a third year student of a university. I was born and raised in a basic family. Right from my high school days, my parents’ business was low, I was aware of that, so I went to work washing dishes at a restaurant, sometimes cooking with friends, selling online via social networks to earn income. enter to take care of themselves. The money I earn is partly used to pay for school and for investment.

When I was in high school, I started to learn how to invest in stocks methodically for a year and put money down to invest. I took my mother’s identity card to create a securities account because I was underage at that time. While my friends of the same age innocently play, study, have a worried family, I earn nearly 20 million VND per month to take care of my children going to school. I am very stressed and pressured thinking about having a better life in the future. I work two or three jobs at a time, but I feel very secure when my brothers and sisters are trying their best to study, no one has dropped out of school because of their circumstances and can help their parents.

>> My wife and children suffer because I have a loss in business

Then the difficult high school days passed, I passed the entrance exam to a famous university in the city. With the capital earned from my high school days and the number of customers available from the days of selling food online, me and two friends gathered money to start a business with a restaurant model, with a meager capital of more than 200 million dong. We sell snail shop with fresh seafood. Your family in the sea fishing every day sends fresh seafood to us to sell. With such advantages, we quickly recovered our capital in six months, expanding our business by two more shops.

At the age of 19, while my friends still receive support from my family, I am very proud of myself when I bought my parents a two-story house in the suburbs of Saigon for more than 800 million VND. Even though it is an installment purchase, my family has a spacious living space, the children have their own room to study, and their parents are less burdened with work. The comfortable life didn’t last long when the Covid epidemic hit, the city was separated by four months, the restaurants had to close, I had to close all three stores. At first, I was able to maintain sales through online channels, after the translation became more complicated, I could no longer maintain it, had to remove the online sales channel. Employees stuck in Saigon can’t go back to their hometown, I still pay 70% of salary and support them to stay at the shop, still have to pay for those four months in cash. I suffered a loss for more than four months, and my savings gradually decreased when I had to pay for business expenses and bank interest.

After the social distance, I reopened three shops but the business situation was not as good as before the epidemic, the number of customers was only 20-30% while the cost increased many times. I was exhausted after a period of hard work, my friends and I had to shut down two shops, keeping only one shop and an online sales channel. I broke down because of the enthusiasm I spent, trying to maintain and develop the rest of the restaurant to take care of my family and pay the meeting fees.

>> I know to stop after losing 1.2 billion dong

Recently, the stock market has not been good, I also lost a lot of money, plus the loss of business makes me tired and pressured. Below me, there is a younger brother who is studying medicine, majoring in odontology, the tuition is very expensive, about 80 million VND a year, excluding other expenses. My brother knows that his family is in trouble, intends to drop out of medical school to go to work to help pay off the debt. I have convinced her many times that her studies are important and that she can be taken care of. On the outside, I was very happy, pretending to be fine, but on the inside, I was full of worries. I didn’t want my brother to drop out of school, but I didn’t know if I could support the family.

Business was not good, I took on other jobs such as running social media ads, designing ads… Staying up late many nights made my hair fall out a lot, I went bald on one side, my face was listless and tired. Every time I go out, the spirit is always insecure and worried. I was fortunate to have early success but did not keep it, very tired of facing a difficult life. Then I thought about my siblings and my parents, so I tried again. I’m young, but I don’t have time to take care of my face and sleep a lot, so my body is tired, many acnes, and I gradually lose confidence compared to my peers. I’m writing this to ease my mind, thank you for listening.

Letters

Readers call 024 7300 8899 (ext 4529) during office hours for support and questions.