Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Expectations for my 44th year.

Image result for goals

Ok, with my birthday celebrations with my family over and the presents all opened, the next step would be to start thinking about what I hope to achieve next year. There are some complications with goal setting this time round, but these might be good problems to have :

a) Learning Goals.

My learning goals are complicated by the fact that next resolutions were met before 2018 ended. Flush with some earned income, I was able to attend one Improv class and a 2 hour primer on looking after my voice.

The Improv class was fun and possibly more useful for my D&D game sessions but it does not really have synergies with my new training career. I told some friends who were interested that I would join them for subsequent classes but only for social reasons.

Voice acting probably made much more sense for me right now given that I make money with my voice so much. The investment is non-trivial though and I've narrowed down my choices to two instructors.

Becoming more persuasive is likely to play a major role in 2019. I have started reading Robert Cialdini's Pre-suation seriously with a view of directly refining my sales message.

b) Investing Goals

Investing will not play a major role at least in the first half of 2019. I expect to go on heavily on the defensive and expect my portfolio losses to be 30% of the losses faced by the DOW. Beyond the bespoke portfolio built in my ERM Masterclass, I expect to go heavy on investments like Netlink Trust, Keppel Infrastructure Trust and, very possibly a very much diminished APTV Trust.

Maybe in 2H 2019, things will start to turnaround.

At this stage everything turns on having a successful career and earned income to do some bottom fishing in the next 6 months.

c) Career Goals

The price to pay for being a trainer is that I no longer have a predictable income. I will need to continually improve my materials to reach the highest earned income ever in 2019. This is going to be one of the hardest goals I ever set in my life because I can't even foresee how I am able to meet it even tough I can somehow smell this coming into 2019.

Another difficult objective i need to meet is to find another course to teach, likely legal in nature so that it can complement my financial courses. This makes it imperative that I find a smaller law firm to hang my coat and possibly do some legal practice on a locum basis. Right now, I don't even know where to start, if you are a lawyer friend reading this and know of a law firm that can accept a legal professional who can practice on a locum basis let me know - I do expect that my pipeline of contacts who need legal support should expand significantly so that I can do some rain-making work and bring revenue to a law firm. What I cannot do, however,  is to be stuck in a legal office and do work on-demand by my firm.

d) No easy way

As a collective I am definitely more confident of meeting my learning and investing goals than my career goals. I am entering this strange territory of having a portfolio-based career, finding the most efficient use of my time based on who needs the work the most.

One major positive complication is that at the back of my head, I believe that I have a financial course targetted at Milllenials that contain material not covered by anyone before. This is something I will build into a short 30 minute presentation that will be launched with Seedly in March 2019. A lot depends thereafter on whether Milllenials are willing to give me enough feedback to turn it into a compelling course for folks in their 20s and 30s.

Powering all this is, of course, my passive income that generates a level of predictability for my family. This allows me to go on long periods of time without pay allowing me to work long lengths of time for a satisfying pay-off.








7 comments:

  1. Hi Chris,

    It's a well-detailed expectation. You may want to consider not to be too hard on yourself in the event if the expectations are not met. It's better to give some allowance so that there is no additional pressure in trying to achieve the expectation.

    My two cents worth of views.

    Ben

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  2. I would not say that I'm hard on myself at all.

    Anyone with my kind of free-time would be looking for a full time job but I have chosen not to do so at this moment.



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  3. Hi Chris,

    You are not alone. It has been about two months since I left the full-time employment.
    I am with you.

    I left the full-time employment because I feel that I need to do things of my interest. Currently, my interest has yet to generate any income. However, I am happy working on such interest.

    My expense is covered by passive income from my investment portfolio. I think that life is not always about work. We only live once. It makes sense to focus on the things of our interest.

    My two cents worth of views.

    Ben

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  4. Cool, that makes you financially independent too !

    Congrats !

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    Replies
    1. Hi Chris,

      My stating of FIRE is not about boasting my status. I believe you know what I mean.I believe that the reason of you quitting the full time employment a few years back is also because you want to do things as per your interest. Taking a law degree should be your interest. If not,you won't be spending a significant of 3 to 4 years to complete the course.

      FI gives us the options. To me, such options are indeed priceless and precious. Money is a tool to aid us in our journey.

      To me, time is of essence and upmost importance to me. I wanted to achieve FI because I want to use the time made available from the full-time employment to do the things of my interest and passion.

      I believe that you are doing things of your interest.

      All the best in your adventure and I hope that you derive happiness and fulfillment in your exploits.

      Best Regards,

      Ben

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  5. Ben,

    Do come more often to share your latest initiatives.

    I'm always curious to know what happens to other folks when they go FI.

    Regards

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  6. Hi Chris,

    Noted on your invitation. I am much appreciated for your humble invitations.

    I will come more often to share some of the side hustles which I am currently embarking on and also those in the pipelines.

    Some of these hustle could be boring to some but interesting to me (if not, I won't be embarking on such activities). Hope you don't mind these activities which might not be of interest to you.

    Novethless, the purpose of my sharing is to broaden views and hope all of us will gain insights through exchange of such initiatives. I also look forward to your sharing of your activities on this blog. We learn from one another.

    Keep in touch.

    Ben

    ReplyDelete