Reflections for year 2021

It's the routine year end reflection time again. This post turned out to be longer than I intended.

Investment and Trading

Mr market has once again sank into lackluster mode since news of the Omicron spread. I think it's still too early to buy the dips as threats that Omicron poses to countries' economy re-opening remains to be seen. Although we see some glimmers of hope with the new COVID-19 treatment pills in pipeline. 

With FED's bond purchase tapering, "hot money" flow will decrease which might deflate a bit of the Mandrake's tent and rising interest rates might lessen indiscriminate spending. But will inflation of staples due to supply chain disruptions get readily resolved with less money printing? Hmm...

Crypto

I began to read up and learn crypto stuff seriously only this year - a late awakening. I started on crypto platforms like Gemini, Crypto.com, FTX and Celsius, finally ventured out to the once-elusive Defi world and dipped my toes into tokens other than BTC and ETH. Crypto (stablecoins included) formed about 20% of my investment portfolio. You can read more on my crypto adventures here. 

My gut feel is that the crypto market is "crabbing" or "wintering" currently in tune with the broad market sentiment. The value of crypto still has much room for growth in terms of dApp developments and real-world utility, but for those investing as "project punters", the risk/reward is no longer as favorably skewed after the mega price run up from the start of this year. It's also a spectacular uprising year for "Ethereum killers" - new blockchains and ledger-keeping technologies popping up like it's easy business. dApps are also liberally forked everywhere. I can't help wondering what's the point of having so many DEXes on a particular chain when they are all "copy-pasta" with nothing interesting to offer. Defi 2.0, on the other hand, is much more interesting.

Anyway, I will continue to stay vested in the space as it matures. To sum up my crypto investment, I have made about the same capital gain as I did in 10 years of stocks investing.

Tradfi

I have signed up for Endowus and Autowealth this year as planned. Have been investing on Endowus since March, but my Autowealth account is still empty. I did DCA into a pure US equity fund quite late into the year, which is expectedly at negative return. On the other hand, the global funds portfolio which I started in April did well. So overall it's a net gain, thankfully. Cash smart enhanced inched up, whereas Cash smart ultra inched down.

I have also signed up for a Futu Moomoo trading account to reap the sign up bonus of free Apple share. Hey who doesn't like some free cash? In terms of commission, it is really more competitive than SAXO. Its platform also provides a power suite of data analytics. A small flip side is that it has packed so many features into its tiny mobile interface it may seem a little intimidating to use at first, but you will get used to it eventually. There's also message boards, paper trading and quiz features which made the platform pretty fun to use. Do check out my referral right at the bottom if you are interested to sign up.

My SG stocks portfolio was basking in green - until last week and is currently slightly in the red. Time to patiently wait to buy in some dividend stocks on dip.

My trading of US stocks didn't do well this year. 水能载舟也能覆舟 - that is totally apt in describing Options which I forayed into this year. The 老鼠屎 in my porridge is Twitter - a Put option sold got exercised and failure to stop loss has cratered my account. As some of you might have followed, Twitter's share price has halved from its ATH this year. Position not properly hedged.

Mistake made, lesson learnt.

Networth

My net worth is nothing to shout about. It's up in spite of the change in my work and dropped in earned income. I could have done better if I have been more prudent in my investment and trading decisions. (Hind-sight wisdom beckoning its hand at me again.)

Compared to the years before, I have cut down a lot on my expenses this year. It's done through shaving away the non-necessities and making adjustments in my 衣食住行.

I am well aware that having more of my net worth in volatile and risky assets such as equities and crypto would subject it to major draw-down in a market downturn. Income streams from such investment vehicles are also not predictable eg. many corporations revised their dividends downward in line with earnings drop. So I would likely not add on to these investments now, unless met with a compelling market meltdown situation where everything goes on sale. *Touch wood*

Personal updates

I cannot describe my current state of life as happy nor blissful, but I am getting on fine. When not at work, half the time I will be home - chilling. The other half half of the time is fulfilling my caregiving duties. Outsiders would advise me to go back to full-time work and hire a maid instead to care for the two debilitated. However, I chose not to. Not having to work full-time's long hours also cleared up my complexion and gave me less white hair.

Like everything else, I see it as a life phase that would come to pass. Everybody with parents will have to go through it someday. Just that some chose to shirk their responsibility / escape - throw to siblings, throw to maid, throw to spouse and wherever else possible. As a counter argument, they don't want their life held back by this responsibility, or perhaps bringing back the bacon to remunerate the caregiver makes better sense when there are other equally important liabilities to consider. Again, outsiders might not see the full picture.

For personal development wise, I have been thinking to pick up a commercially useful skill via proper certification. I have considered programming, so that maybe I can do some API thingy for trading or understand blockchain better but my reservations are my lack of computing background and whether it would be practical to try and understand a fast-evolving technology at such level. Furthermore, programming is very broad and for real application I would probably need to focus on one aspect in-depth. I have also considered some finance-related courses like accounting or risk management.

A small personal achievement that I am proud of this year is my blog rebranding. It's something I didn't plan for but panned out well. With the layout refurbishing, I have tidied up my Labels (under Topics in the sidebar) and RSS feeds. The Google Adsense's sensors seemed to have reset after my domain change and revenue took a dip before rebounding. To my dearest readers, really appreciate your valuable support here by giving comments, clicking the ads and using my referrals.

I recalled writing about improving my cooking skills in 2019 but laziness got the better of me. Most of the time I just stuck with cooking stuff I already know and am good at, because it saves time (usually ready in less than 30 minutes and I wasn't cooking instant noodles hor). Experimenting often requires much time spent in the kitchen, even for something seemingly simple. Just yesterday, I was inspired by this video and decided to try the luncheon meat dish which seemed simple enough. Much as I wanted to get the meat out of its can in the cool Youtube style (there's one video which the cook shook it out in 1 second), but no matter how hard I pressed the can it just refused to budge. Eventually it landed on my chopping board in ugly broken pieces and my dish didn't turn out looking anything like what's shown on the video. That's a fine example of how social media contents disconnect with reality.

Next, not a personal development but a disciplinary improvement - I have cut down much time spent on social media (eg. Facebook and Twitter) this year. Because I don't find the contents conferring much value to my life; in the case of Twitter CT, my investment decisions. They are still good for keeping up with news and promotions, so I do browse occasionally. Anything beyond that are just noises. (Just like people won't care what I cooked or ate, nor care where I have been to, why should I care?) Similarly for blogs and vlogs, only those that gives idea which can better my life will be followed.

With regards to relationships, I have been dating but not in a serious relationship (yes still~). The problem with modern blind dating remains largely the same, regardless of going for events or using app - superficial interactions as such are hard to progress into meaningful relationships. Not to mention, ghosting in communication is also very common. Encounters, as fleeting as they are, often involve much judging and red flags catching.

I also come to realize that as we grow older, seen more good / bad of people, experienced life's ups / down, seen marriages of people fell about, we tend to be more on guard (hiding our vulnerabilities, better at catching red flags) and more picky on our choices when it comes to settling. Ironically, there are also lesser single ladies / guys for us to choose from as we grow older. Yet, we do not wish to compromise.

For someone to be a suitable life-long companion, he/she got to have the same communication wavelength, shares similar life outlook, morals, values, no irksome habits, has decent character and look... The list could go to the moon. We can perhaps construct something like the Ikigai venn diagram with these criteria and rename it "The Perfect Spouse" venn diagram. Tell me what's the chances of ever hitting the bull's eye on it?

Actually, if we have a bigger network of friends or get to work with more people it would increase our chances of getting close to "the bull's eye". (Hitting the bull's eyes here is a fantasy [Youtube: Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person^], just like getting to "ikigai" is.) It is through putting genuine effort in getting to know a person and working with a person that we can discover his/ her strengths and weaknesses, the commonalities shared, whether he/ she is someone who can handle problems amicably together with and not too prickly. Unfortunately, I do not have that luxury. Pandemic has just made things worse and now I am at home more than ever.

Take consolation that if I can't meet someone suitable, it's better to have a happy unburdened single life than compromise for an unhappy burdened marriage life.

^ Quoting from the video - "compromise is a noble achievement in love life". We love therefore we compromise makes more sense than we compromise therefore love.

Moving forward

In 2022, I shall continue to improve me and my family's life, hone my cooking and trading skills, pick up a course (use my Skillsfuture credits) and continue finding my lost soul mate.

That pretty much summed up my plans for the coming year. Need efforts to meet with luck.

I am not planning too long ahead. 既来之，则安之。

"It's not about the awareness nor the intention that makes us a better person, it's the doing." 

- Xandria Ooi (motivational author / speaker)

 

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