By Lorna Tan

We all know it's getting ugly out there. Jobs are going, share prices have plummeted, year-end bonuses look shaky and anxiety levels are sky-high. Time, then, to batten down the hatches.

For many people, that means keeping their finances on track until the economy turns the corner.

Experts have various tips on how to do this, but they mostly boil down to belt-tightening and taking a hard look at expenses and liabilities.

Ms Anne Tay, OCBC Bank's vice-president of group wealth management, encourages people to go back to basics and revisit some principles of managing wealth.

'I agree that we are entering turbulent times now and cash is king. But bear markets or financial crises come and go and things will recover,' she notes.

'The real test is how long it will take and can we hold out that long. This is an opportunity to rethink our wealth-building strategy.'

Here are 10 tips to ride out the recession.

1 Take stock of your cash position

It is vital to get a handle on your cash flow - income versus expenses - so that you know how vulnerable you are if, say, you get retrenched.

Ms Janice Poon, Standard Chartered Bank's general manager of wealth management, believes that managing cash flow is the first step towards planning for a rainy day and it could mean having enough cash for emergencies.

'It's something you should be doing all the time but it's even more critical during a downturn,' she says.

The chief executive of financial advisory firm New Independent, Mr Joseph Chong, says people must ensure they have enough emergency funds.

'This should be in the region of six to 12 months of your monthly expenses. The downturn in the global and Singapore economies will see more layoffs and fewer hirings,' he says.

2 Home loans

In this high-inflation, low-interest-rate environment, one of the best things you can do is to review your debts and refinance wherever possible.

It is crucial to prioritise your debts and manage them.

Your home loan should rank high in this scheme of things simply because it is a big-ticket item. This means it could provide the single biggest cost-saving option.

Consider moving to a variable rate mortgage pegged to the three-month Sibor or Singapore interbank offered rate. This rate fell to a near five-year low of 0.89 per cent on Tuesday and was 0.95 per cent on Friday.

Mr Chong notes that central banks around the world are slashing interest rates to head off a steep recession, so short-term rates are expected to stay low next year.

This means big savings for those on variable packages.

Alpha Financial Advisers' chief executive, Mr Arthur Lim, suggests that home owners look for refinancing savings by checking out the different mortgage rates - but take into consideration any penalty charges.