Planning 2020 New Year Resolutions

Yes, it is that time of the year to make more daring and YAHOO (“Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle”) new year resolutions and see how long they last…

I did a list last Dec and pasted a hardcopy on my PC to remind me every day on what I had promised to do and where I am now. Below is a recap and progress report:

1. Do videos – Fail. Suppose to catch up and do my MTVs of the family videos up to the present year. Was too lazy and the latest Muvee software wasn’t as easy to use as the ones I had been using for the past 10+ years. Have to do better in 2020. Grade: F
2. Fly drone – Not good too. Had a spurt of enthusiasm in mid-2019 to play with my DJI drone to try to capture better aerial photos and videos which lasted all of 3 weeks. Not as user-friendly as I thought (another excuse)and the 21 minutes battery life was a downer. Grade: D 
3.  Do 10 MOOC online courses. Managed to do 6 : (1) Drone and photography – Udemy, (2) Intro into Fintech – HKU, (3) Intro to AI, Data Science, Big Data, Deep Learning – Microsoft Fevaworks, (4) AI in Finance – NYP, (5) Industry 4.0 – TP, (6) Digital Transformation – Boston U. Grade: C
4. Be more aggressive in Investment. I explored new asset classes like ICO and Angel Investing and finally did invest in them. At the same time, I was quite concerned that the stock markets were getting a bit too bubbly for my liking and so I increased my cash position by liquidating some of my portfolio holdings. Amazingly, the equity market continued to rise, right into the year-end. Biggest regret is on my Apple shares, with a current opportunity cost of $85 each for the 500 shares I sold…  Grade: B
5.  Learn new skills. It was an interesting year as the company I was working as a bank consultant embarked on a Digital Transformation strategy. We are going into Fintech to enable us to have a quantum leap into client acquisition and risk management. Dynamic credit scoring, chatbot and epayments are some of the new learning I am going into. At the same time, I started work at Deloitte as a bank consultant to advise a Fintech client on the digital bank application process in S’pore. It was a great experience for me to work with the biggest South East Asia unicorn company for a few months, to feel their dynamism and energy as they constantly seek to change the norm. Their CVP (Client Value Proposition) strategy to disrupt the SME sector will really rock the incumbent banks here. Grade: A
6. Give back to society. I had a relatively successful conclusion to my first year as a mentor in the NUSS mentorship program. Managed to get an internship for my mentee and met monthly to discuss his goals. I have just started my 2nd year in this program with new mentees. My Myanmar microfinance involvement continues into its 24th month and I am proud of their achievement as well as the Treasury person which we had hired in Apr this year. Her contributions are much better than we could have expected and I hope that my guidance would benefit her career growth. Grade: A  
7. Read 10 books. I managed to complete only 8 books. Still spending most of my time reading newspapers, online news and magazines (my weekly BusinessWeek). My friend introduced me to the app OverDrive earlier this year which really blew my mind – he managed to read 40 books last year and does a short summary of each one after reading them. I have since shared the power of this app with many people. It links me to my National Library account which allows one to borrow up to 16 ebooks at a time. The ebook is automatically returned to the library when it is due. NLB has all the latest books available for lending. No more excuse for not reading more. I have to do better in 2020. Grade: B 

So what new year resolutions should I set for myself for 2020? More of the same and higher goals? I still have a few more days to 01 Jan, so below will be my preliminary ones for the moment before I locked them in on 31 Dec:

1.  Read 15 books and have short summary for each one that I have finished reading
2.  Get up to date with my personal MTV video editing from the outstanding raw video/photo data collected so far
3.  Do 10 MOOC courses that could include at least 3 Skillsfuture related classroom ones
4.  Use DJI drone to produce awesome aerial photos and videos
5.  Get more consultancy jobs – aiming for a long term career pivot
6.  Have 1 new hobby
7. Look to restructure my portfolio?
8.  Continue to try to stay happy and healthy

I still have a few more days to chew over my more ambitious 2020 resolutions. Like I said before on one of my purposes for writing a blog – no more NATO (No Action, Talk Only), put to do things down for the world to see and then your ego will not allow you to slack…   hahaha  😉