Hello 2025, Goodbye 2024

 Wow, what a year 2024 has been.

All things considered, it’s been a relatively good year. Not overly superb, but still quite good nonetheless.

Definitely a year fraught with uncertainties, so a lot of expectations that there was disappointments to come which never really materialized. And like I like to say these days, the more you expect to be disappointed, the less disappointed you’ll end up. So maybe the slightly more positive outlook for the year that’s gone by.

That said, we go into 2025 with reserved optimism. Seems like the year is going to be good, but kinda prepared for some less positive things to happen that might taper the over optimism.

Here’s a quick look back at 2024.

Off the back of one of the best family trips ever to Niseko, Japan for snowboarding, I kicked off January with two nights of Coldplay concert, which was awesome. I even cried during Fix You. Twice.

In February we had a quieter CNY, which seems to be the way from here on out since the relatives are all getting a lot older.

By early March is. Was two nights of Taylor Swift, possibly  the best concert I’ve ever been to. I went one night with the daughter and one with the wifey. Then we went to Ipoh for a nostalgic cousins’ trip and to see some old places I remember when visiting my grandparents in Malaysia.

April was Bruno Mars concert with my son, he was pretty good too but imho not Taylor Swift or Coldplay level. Then the kids and I had a short staycation at the W Hotel where we had a room with a terrace pool!

Nothing much in May but in June I had my boys trip with Jinde and Yp to Hanoi, Vietnam. Not too bad but it’s gonna be our last boys trip for a long time to come. Sigh. Then it was a father and son trip to Labuan Bajo, Indonesia. We went to see the Komodo dragons. It was such an awesome bonding trip with the boy.

Nothing much in July but we had a lot of birthdays as always. In August was another boys trip with David and Keng Leong for golf to Vung Tau, Vietnam. It was nice and good bonding with these bros as always. Hopefully another one this year. Also I captained the Saxo futsal team to the semifinals in a Capitaland tournament which was a really fun run. We also had another staycation at the W Hotel again to celebrate the wifey’s birthday.

In September we had a change in CEO and I lost Adam, possibly the best CEO I’ve ever worked for. Quite sad but it is what it is, as he’d have said. In October I got to meet up with Jim Rogers in our annual macro event, also ran a PB at the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay this year. Then Eugene and I went to Copenhagen, Denmark, together which was such an awesome trip. Even had a round of golf together.

November was my father daughter trip to Taipei, Taiwan. It was awesome and we went to Shifen to release the sky lantern to ask for good results for my girl’s PSLE, which she did! Also really good bonding time together all round. We walked so much and talked so much.

Finally in December we went on our annual family holiday to Seoul, Korea which was super fun.

Health was relatively good all year. I should try to lose more weight and drink less though.

Family relationships were generally positive. Need to spend more time with my aging parents though.

Personal finances could’ve been better. Had a few berserker rages which I ought to have cut out completely by now. Was quite painful if you think about it.

Work was not the best with more changes over the course of the year, and even more expected in the new year. Hopefully I’ll still have a job by end of this year.

So as with tradition, here’s last year’s review as a good reminder.

And here were my 2024 resolutions.

And below are my 2024 resolutions review.

1) Pick Up A New Skill PASS

I will mark this as a pass since I got myself accredited with digital video editing and also learned to ski properly this year, among other things I guess.

2) Exercise At Least An Hour, Twice A Week FAIL

Ok this one will be chalked off as a failure since I didn’t convincingly surpass this target even though I did try to exercise as regularly as I could.

3) Go Somewhere New PASS

This was easy, whether it was Labuan Bajo, Vung Tau, Hanoi, Pyeongchang, I had a lot of new experiences clocked this year.

4) Increase My Investing Portfolio Significantly FAIL

Another fail year for me on this front. I need to stop gambling, I need to focus on sound investments or just hold cash rather than keep risking on high risk gambles that do not pay off.

5) Lose 3kg FAIL

Surprisingly, I came back from my Korea trip clocking weight at between 83-84kg! So I lost weight but not to the 82kg that I was targeting. Will try again this year and eat and drink healthier.

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Ok so 2/5 passes which isn’t a very good showing.

Will have to try harder in 2025.

Let’s hope 2025 will be an even better year for us all!

HUAT AH!