After a stressful last week, it was nice to settle into a nice quiet one. I had a catch up with good friends mid-week and reconnected with a few that I have not seen for years.
As one gets older, it seems that we humans tend to want to get in touch with friends from our younger days. I am living proof of this. Besides having fun organizing school reunions, it felt good to meet people I have not seen from a long time ago and also to see others being able to do the same. I had probably organized about 4 or 5 of them in the last 6 years, all thanks to FaceBook. My generation is now more receptive to it as a social media tool and its advantages. The millennials and kids seem to have moved on from FB into Instagram and Snap, calling FB an old person network!
Looking at the banking sector which I have been a part of for the last 27 years, my resolve is hardening that I should pivot into another industry and try to leverage on my past work experiences in banking. With Blockchain coming and the effect of “juniorization” (a term to describe the current banking mindset – fire MDs and hire young people (VP and below) to replace them, lower costs and damn the experience required for the job), my chances of re-entering the industry are getting slimmer by the day.
I need to forge ahead and reinvent myself. With the Myanmar Treasury consultancy job in place, it is one more step for me towards realizing this objective. I believe that my current evening classes on Business Analytics will also be my pro-active investment to help future proof my career going forward.
Another interesting meeting I had with an ex-college also reaffirmed my belief that there is much more to work life outside of banking. We had a very interesting conversation about what we want to do next. He is well connected and actively sourcing for interesting one-off deals, some bordering on the James Bond 007 types! There seem to be pockets of deals with good payoffs that we can pursue. They are by no means easy but given our stable financial foundation now, we are able to spend time chasing them, as they energize us to “solve” them. I will have a follow up discussion with him next week.
Yesterday, I had also met an ex-colleague that was older than me. Being a grandfather now, his focus is towards his grandkids. Financially stable, he wanted to do something that enables him to give back to society. We discussed the opportunity in Myanmar as a Risk advisor and at this stage of his career, this role interests him. I had organized a follow-up call with the CEO next week. I could see myself being like him in 10 years time. He is very into Tai Chi and I hope to learn a few moves from him in the future.
Cryptos… serious diahorrea of prices going on. Not helped by the latest hacking incident in Japan. There is a lot of Asian government crackdowns on the euphoric rise in easy money trading cryptos in the last 2 weeks that is taking its toll on prices. The Korean premium is now gone. My 500% is now down to 200% gains. Have started to take some money off the table, at least to recoup some of the initial capital and starting to realize some of my gains in XRP. I still think that the over bearishness is overdone, compounded by a risk-off mindset as Dow drops (FANG super stocks overpromising results unfulfilled) and bond yields creep up (30 years US Treasuries above 3% for the first time in many years). Need to continue to trim my portfolio to increase cash holdings, to get ready for any buy opportunities during the big corrections.
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