Happy New Year!

Photo by Carson Arias on Unsplash

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

2022 Year-End Summary

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

If I look back at 2022 a few years later, I suppose it would be significant to me. As we approach the end of 2022, I would like to write a quick summary for it.

2022 started with an excitement(1) for me, but that excitement quickly turned into a long, hard and miserable struggle(2), which caused me self-doubt(3) but also pushed me to rethink about a lot of things(4) in life. Just when all that misery peaked and I started wondering how I could ever get out of it(5), I was extremely lucky to land on my feet(6) in the last month of 2022, which granted me a new start(7) in 2023.

Photo by Riley McCullough on Unsplash

1.Excitement 

I got the opportunity in late 2021 and I was more than ready to shine coming into 2022. 

The opportunity seemed perfect to me in every way possible. I emphasized to myself repeatedly how perfect it was and I was ready to stay for life. 

I still remember optimistically predicting that we would have a good chance hitting our 40/40 target in 2022 at the beginning of the year. 

I was excited and confident coming into 2022.

Photo by Radu Florin on Unsplash

2.Struggle

I started to struggle in February when I got on a new project. 

I really wanted to make it and gave my best. This also caused me to take everything on myself. 

After working for like 20 hours a day for almost 2 months, the result was that people thought I had a skill gap and I started to doubt myself. 

I was given another chance, but again same struggle. 

I pushed and pushed, refusing to give up or give in, relying almost solely on willpower. But the more I insisted, the bigger the resistance seemed.

Photo by Naassom Azevedo on Unsplash

3.Self-doubt

The situation seemed hopeless and I was in deep self-doubt and despair. 

I started to lose myself. 

On one hand, I accepted people’s comments about me, no matter whether they were appropriate or justified. I just did not have the stamina or courage to argue. 

On the other hand, I could not help doubting people’s intention. I had always been a guy who assumed best intention of others. But I could no longer keep myself on the “best intention” path at that time. 

What’s worse, I also lost all judgement. I could not tell what comments were good for me or for my sake and what comments were not…

I was a mess by July and decided it was best to walk away.

Photo by Jill Heyer on Unsplash

4.Rethinking about a lot of things

After I walked away, I started to look for a new path and at the same time, I got the break I needed. 

I did not actively or deliberately think over what happened, I just waited to let things sink in. Gradually, different perspectives came to me, some of which were completely opposite to what I had believed in. 

I started to re-think about the real meaning of life and re-evaluate the importance of money and how much I really needed. I thought about social dynamics, being smart vs dump, hard work vs smart work etc etc.

This lasted for 4.5 months. I experienced countless rounds of emotional roller coaster. But I needed this recovery period.

Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash

5.Wondering how I could ever get out of it

By Oct, I started to panic and wonder whether I would ever find my new path. 

After a few seemingly-sure-win opportunities did not work out, that panic and self-doubt got worse. Even though my wife was so understanding and only comforted me, not adding a single bit of pressure, the pressure inevitably built up. 

I started to reset my expectations and was ready to compromise more. Nevertheless, there was not much I could do. That feeling was not good at all!

Photo by Matt Duncan on Unsplash

6.Landing on my feet

The opportunity finally came. 

It was not perfect in a lot of ways, compared to the previous one which I could not grasp. But it gave me the chance to start over. 

I compromised for it, prepared for it and pushed for it. The most important thing was that I got it. 

And believe it or not, I had more opportunities knocking afterwards. I guess that was the irony of life. 

But I felt extremely lucky!

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash

7.A new start

After a few weeks, the opportunity seemed good. I again have a new start for next year. I can even say that I am again excited for next year. 

But I will be more prepared this time, speeding up my learning and growth, and at the same time, anticipating signs of danger so that I do not walk into the same struggle.

Photo by Angèle Kamp on Unsplash

2022, to me, was everything but meaningless. Like all my frustrations before, I am sure I will feel fortunate having experienced 2022, if I look back a few years later.

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk51 2022

 

Photo by Andre Taissin on Unsplash

 

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Below are the transactions for last week.

Capital injection: 115KSGD

1.T-Bill - 115k SGD

The cut-off yield was 4.28% and the bill is for 6 months. It looks ok. 2k+ gain for 6 months.

I have not got the refund. So I guess my money is in.

Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash

Capital outflow: 0

 

Till next time!

Merry X-Mas!

Photo by Mourad Saadi on Unsplash

 

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

Monthly Net-Worth Update — Dec 2022

Photo by micheile dot com on Unsplash

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Welcome to the last month of 2022! 

Here is the snapshot of our Total Net-Worth for Dec 2022.

Net-Worth increase from last month: 29K SGD, +0.10KG Gold

The increase was again mostly due to the stock portfolio rebound. It seems that the stock market is warming up. 

Maybe it has warmed up too much for us to pick up any cheap opportunities. But I want to wait a little longer.

Just feelings. Please be cautious in following me. After all, you have seen how good I am in this.

And we had a little increase in Gold weight despite the modest increase in Gold price.

Photo by 金 运 on Unsplash

Investment: -11.87% annualized return, incl. dividend

Again, positive change from last month. Hope this will continue.

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk50 2022

 

Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash

 

 

 

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil

 

Again, I am warming up. But it seems that the warm up will continue. I am just not sure about the market now.

Have a great week!!!

Mystery in energy management

Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here! 

Yesterday, I felt very energetic and was very efficient.

Today, I felt so tired.

Yesterday, I had done two meetings by 9am.

Today, even with a strong coffee, I am still half-awake at 9:08am.

What changed?

Well, a lot! But none can logically explain what it is happening to me.

The mystery of ourselves!

Photo by Federico Beccari on Unsplash

Till next time!

Bad system — annoying

Photo by Chris Ried on Unsplash

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here! 

The Marriott redemption system is so annoying…

I mean it has been my favorite reward system since day 1. I accumulated status and points on the platform.

However, when I tried to redeem the points, the system was driving me crazy.

First of all, trying to log in was a pain. I was asked to update my password which I did. I received and put in the online verification code and, to my surprise, I was directed back to the password update screen again. This time, I would just be looping on the same screen forever. In the end, I had to reset my password to log-in, even though I knew exactly what my password was.

Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash

Secondly, they had “.com”, “.cn”, “.uk” sites and I was directed randomly among them with no logic that made sense to me. And I had to log in again every time I was directed to one of these sites and these sites did not seem to accept the same login. One time, I was even directed to the “.uk” site after I selected the merchandize and clicked “check-out” on the “.com” site. I was asked to log in, the login did not work and I had to start all over again.

Thirdly, the redemption screen was anything but intuitive. They apparently had preferred brands that they wanted their members to redeem points with. As a result, I only saw those 4 brands when I was at the redemption site, which made me think only those 4 brands were available. Only after I clicked in and explored the sites, did I realize many more brands were available. Isn’t this misleading? At least put a “More” or “See all” button beside those brands…

Photo by Arnold Francisca on Unsplash

Lastly, the system reflected the updates really slowly. I updated my personal particulars, closed and re-opened the merchandize site and browsed for another 5 minutes before I tried to check-out again. And I still saw my old address reflected on the order. [Follow-up: it still showed old address when I tried again after 3 hours!!!]

As a result, I spent 1 hour plus in the early morning fighting the system but was not able to redeem 1 single point. So all my points are still left there risking expiration.

Come on, Marriott. Fix this and stay as the favorite option for travelers. Do not neglect this only because this does not directly generate membership or revenue/profit.

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk49 2022

Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash

 

 

 

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil

 

Again, I am warming up. But it seems that the warm up will continue. I am just not sure about the market now.

Have a great week!!!

Stress —Feelings vs Logic

Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here! 

Going back to work after a long time and facing tight deadlines is giving me stress.

It is probably normal. But come to think about it, what is there to stress about?

Deadlines are tight, but there is a rough plan to tackle it.

What is left is just to sit down and do it.

And stress affects my rest and keeps me tense, which will not help at all.

Photo by Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash

This is the distinction between feelings and logic.

Feelings tells me to stress out, because there is tight timeline and I have not been in this kind of environment for a long time.

Logic asks me to analyze what there is to stress about and the result is actually not much.

If we follow feelings, it is natural and intuitive, but it is not going to be helpful.

If we follow logic, it is difficult, but we will start taking actions to solve problems at hand.

Therefore, feelings make us human and logic makes us all we can be.

Till next time!

This unbelievable HR opened my eyes! — Continued

Photo by Michal Matlon on Unsplash

Dear Readers, 

Thank you for coming here!

I decided that enough was enough. I did not have the time to keep calling her and listening to her excuses.

So I shot an email to her, asking when the issue can be resolved, ccing her manager and the managing director.

She did not reply my email. No one did.

But the issue got solved the same day.

Photo by Torsten Dederichs on Unsplash

The take-away for me is to defend what is rightfully ours.

1. Know what is rightfully ours: your leave, pay etc etc
2. Defend rigorously when these are offended, preferably with proof, i.e. with emails, not calls.
3. If not, the other party might see this as something to take advantage of. And the result is wasted time and frustration for us. 
4. It might be even bad for the other party. For example, if I insisted and she just solved the issue, I would not have shot the email to her manager and the manager director.

Being friendly is good generally; but being firm sometimes could be the best action for both parties.

To us all!

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk48 2022 - Yes, Got!

 

Photo by Andre Taissin on Unsplash

 

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Below are the transactions for last week.

Capital injection: ~14KSGD

1.SSB - 14k SGD

I did plan to buy some T-bill as well, but I was stupid enough to miss the application date. What to say???!!!

Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash

Capital outflow: 0

 

Till next time!

This unbelievable HR opened my eyes!

Photo by R. du Plessis on Unsplash

 

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

 

It is not the first time I heard or encountered HRs who tried to make employees’ lives difficult.

But this one really opened my eyes.

She would try to undercut people by “mistakenly” miscalculating their annual leave balances, delaying their payment, pushing people to fill in forms that are not needed etc etc.

It happened to me and, from what I heard, many other colleagues.

Things would get rectified eventually, but not without repeated calls. One round of communication will never solve the problem. There would always be something else “unexpected” that would require you to call her again and again. 

It almost seems to me that all she wants is for people to call her and acknowledge her importance.

Photo by Namroud Gorguis on Unsplash

This really opened my eyes.

The other HRs I encountered who tried to make things difficult were at least based on some company policies or contract clauses. And once agreement was reached, execution would normally go as expected.

But this one, she based on repeated mistakes. And no one is too stupid to see the “intentional-ness” behind those mistakes.

Photo by Michal Matlon on Unsplash

I seriously could not understand why she would do that. 

She would not save money for the company because people will not simply let go the money they are entitled to by contract. 

All she does is annoy people and ruin the goodwill of the company.

And to her, I am sure some people would not mind filing some complaints. Worse still, she burns bridges with whoever she deals with. And when those people rise up, they probably will rule out hiring her.

She is digging her own grave career-wise.

Or am I missing something? If so, please do leave a comment to enlighten me.

I kind of want to take some actions to fix this problem.

 

Till next time!

Much better schools for the kids

Photo by Vasily Koloda on Unsplash

 

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

 

I visited the primary school my son was attending for the first time yesterday. 

And I could not help appreciating the fact that the schools nowadays are so much better!

Take sports facilitates for example:

• 3 basket ball courts, two outdoors and one indoors
• 1 football court, with real grass!
• 6–8 indoor badminton/valley ball courts
• Buckets of sports instruments: balls, rackets, protection gears etc etc
• …

And all in one Primary school!

Photo by Constantin Shimonenko on Unsplash

It is probably normal nowadays in Singapore because the school is just a neighborhood school. 

But the “luxury” would be so apparent if compared to my school life.

When I was in Primary school, all I had was some bare ground, muddy when raining and dusty when dry. The ground were full of pits and small pieces of rocks/bricks some of which were very sharp. So it was very common that students got injured while playing.

The sports instruments were limited to a few balls, one or two each of basketballs/footballs etc and they were locked up usually. Even PE teachers did not have access to bring them to PE classes, if the PE lessons were not eaten up by other subjects already. 

I still recall the PE teacher was also the guard of the school and the operator of the only small shop on campus.

I was a big fun of football growing up. But I did not get to see a proper football field until I got to university and that was “false” grass. 

Having a “real” grass football field was not imaginable in any primary school.

Let alone all those facilities and instruments all together!

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

I was happy! 

Because my son is receiving much better education.

Because the world is a better place.

We should defend all this and work to make it even better!

 

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk47 2022

Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash

 

 

 

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil

 

Again, I am warming up. But it seems that the warm up will continue. I am just not sure about the market now.

Have a great week!!!

I am a slow reader and it is ok!

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

 

I read very slowly. 

Despite several trainings, I still read every word (pronounce it silently) and I still keep going back to re-read the paragraph I just finished.

It used to bother me a lot.

Time is scarce and there are too much to read. Why cannot I read more effectively?

But when I consciously increased my reading speed, I felt tired and I did not feel that I had read and understood the book.

After a few tries, I gave up and settled with my current speed.

But from time to time, I am still angry with myself for not being able to read faster.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Recently I got to know that a senior who I admire a lot also reads slowly.

That gives me much comfort, not only because he shares the same problem, but also because of his 3 attitudes towards reading.

1. Reading should not cause anxiety. If we read slowly, so be it. Do not feel the anxiety or need to read faster. We should feel peace while reading.
2. Reading should be continuous. The key is to keep reading. We need to get into a habit of reading — find good books, read at our own paces and keep at it. Even if we only read a few pages per day, we will experience the benefits.
3. Reading should involve thinking. This is not only about extracting the content of the book, e.g. by making a mind map. We have to connect the content of the book to our reality. Only when the book deals a blow to our perspectives and beliefs, do we get connected with the book and author. This is how we learn and improve.

This applies not only to books, but also to blogs, magazines, research papers etc.

To us all readers!

 

Till next time!

Monthly Net-Worth Update — Nov 2022

Photo by micheile dot com on Unsplash

 

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

 

So 2nd last month in the year!

Here is the snapshot of our Total Net-Worth for Nov 2022.

 

Net-Worth increase from last month: 10K SGD, -0.41KG Gold

The increase was totally due to the stock portfolio rebound. This has not happened for a long time!

Gold price increased enough to eat up the small increment in monetary value and give us a negative increase in Gold weight.

Photo by 金 运 on Unsplash

Investment: -13.89% annualized return, incl. dividend

This is pretty big improvement compared to last month. Hope this will continue.

 

Till next time!

My Market Transactions — Wk46 2022

 

Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash

 

 

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

Transaction for past week: Nil

 

Again, I am warming up. But it seems that the warm up will continue. I am just not sure about the market now.

Have a great week!!!

Lessons from Shattered Door

 

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here!

 

The wind was so strong that it shattered my glass kitchen door in the middle of the night.

It woke us up for sure and took us more than 2 hours to clean it up, vacuuming the floor over and over again, worrying that the small pieces will hurt our sons who would always run around bare-footed.

But on the other hand, luckily it was in the middle of the night. If it were during the day, probably someone would have gotten hurt. The shattered glass spread everywhere!

Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash

I remember that we discussed other options during renovation, but decided on the frameless glass door for two reasons:

1. It looks nicer
2. Our old flat had the same door and never caused any problem

And I think our decision process outlines two common pitfalls for renovation and many other things.

1. Prioritize looks over usefulness or durability — a lot of times, due to not fully realizing what that thing we pick needs to go through over time
2. Borrow from experiences, without considering the difference in circumstances

Photo by Tony Marinescu on Unsplash

The world is a cold place as it will teach us lessons if we make wrong decisions.

For us, it is waking up in the middle of the night, spending more than 2 hours cleaning up, searching and paying for a replacement, and waiting for it to be installed while suffering from strong smells from the kitchen while cooking.

Of course, this time, we picked a door with strong frames and we are also more mindful of closing the balcony window before going to bed.

See? We learn from our mistakes!

 

Till next time!

Attitude towards life is a choice

 

Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash

Dear readers,

Thank you for coming here!

 

My wife has a much more positive attitude towards life.

She would cook, water the plants, exercise during the weekend, feeling happy and refreshed, while I sleep, read, play games, feeling angry, disappointed, unfair, bored etc etc.

She views things more positively as well.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

I used to think that she can do that because

1. She does not bear as much responsibility and pressure as I do.
2. She has not experienced as many frustrations and powerless moments as I do

But she made me realize that it is actually a choice.

And one fact convinced me about it: I know people who bear bigger responsibilities and have suffered bigger setbacks and still have much better attitude towards life.

So all in all, we decide how worth living our lives are. 

And bear in mind, life only happens once to us and it is worth living.

 

Till next time!