It's time for another personal update.
Last month ended bitterly as a classmate from my secondary school just passed away suddenly from pneumonia. I come to the realisation that I've probably expended two-thirds of my life by now, and if I do not make some changes to the way I lead my life, a lot of the effort I've put in so far would come to waste.
It is with these thoughts on my mortality that I slowly enter into my birthday month in December.
At the work level, I suspect things are stagnant and in long-term decline. I have three very small priorities: continuing my training with Dr Wealth, teaching law at Temasek Polytechnic, and a new role with SIAS, which I hope will launch in January 2026. I will do everything possible to maintain this level of work engagement, but I expect 2026 to generate negligible revenues. It is very tempting to pursue a mid-career skills diploma to earn some extra income, but I'm not pursuing it as I believe that in my 50s, my life priorities have shifted.
Of course, this pivot cannot happen without the solid market performance of 2025. Beyond the millionaire per capita status of the family, I've probably had enough capital gains to send my kids to university by now; however, our expenses remain relatively low. I've also used the polytechnic break well to recycle tenants to my family property and even start a monetised YouTube channel.
This peak financial stability opens up new avenues to redesign my life.
My most significant personal breakthrough may be what I suspect is my most foolish personal move of 2025. To exhaust my Skills Future credits, I signed up for the ACLP, a trainer's certification. It was initially defensive as I feared someone might create a WSQ Dividends Investing programme and render my courses unmarketable at its price point. But weeks into the program, ACLP holders had their rug pulled as the government now wishes to tie employment outcomes to SkillsFuture funding. Although my risks disappeared overnight, along with my prospects of monetising the certificate later on.
I really did not enjoy studying the ACLP. The materials do not reflect the current high-tech disruption from AI, and I disagree with most of the material taught, feeling that I was merely parroting instructions to pass my modules.
However, what ultimately won the day was not the certificate, but my classmates. As the environment is not curve-driven, everyone just wanted everyone to make it through, and I've made good friends.
One of my classmates owned a music school, so I made it a point to support her course previews. It was an eye-opener on how tricky the business is once you leave the investing domain. I signed up for 10 private singing lessons, making this the most phenomenal change I've made in my life, targeting Golden Age Talentime as my personal goal in my 50s.
At age 51, my social life has been completely overhauled - I'm now too old to tolerate negativity in my life, and I've tuned out a lot of the noise on my Facebook feed as well. And my hobbies got overturned as well, with my YouTube channel overtaking my gaming and singing, to constantly bring change into my life.
The remaining time I have is to focus on my mum, who had a stroke early this year, and find more avenues to travel with my wife and kids once the opportunity arises.
More updates will arrive in December.
For my YouTube channel, my latest video is on Sabana REIT :
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