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Review and Reflection of 2016

2016 is coming to an end soon in just slightly more than two weeks' time! How has the year been for you?

I have started this blog back in September last year, with the intention of leading my CEO life, where I take charge of my business (my life), by focusing for six key departments:
- health
- personal finance
- family
- current business
- new businesses
- personal development

As I have not set specific goals to be achieved in each of the department explicitly, in this review, I can only look at what each of my department has done. No specific goals set, no yardstick, hence it's going to be very hard to evaluate performance.

But well, this is my attempt in some form of evaluation.

Review of the performance of each department

Review of Health Department

I have done a medical checkup recently, and the results aren't great. Cholesterol (LDL) and fat levels are way above the tolerable amount, and the report indicated to do a checkup in a few months time to followup on this.

This actually gave me a scare. Medical checkup used to be of no issues with me, until this time round. The doctor recommend being conscious of my diet as well as exercising more.

In an attempt to improve my health, (and also to make full use of my company benefit), I have signed up for a gym membership. Signing up for gym membership is useless if you don't use it. And yes, I have done a relatively good job in this case (pat on my back), by going to the gym three times per week. I go for the lessons (e.g. cycling, yoga, pilates, dance, aerobics, etc.), and since signing up last month, I have gone for more than 10 lessons each lasting about an hour. A good way to force myself to exercise.

In terms of performance for this department, I must say that signing up for the gym is actually a reactive action towards a poor performance, and there are many areas for improvement in time to come.

Review of Personal Finance Department

I really wanted to learn investing, investing well. I believe in having a good knowledge. As such,  I have read many books. Of these, those that I find good are the following:

- The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley Thomas and Danko Williams

Read this book to understand how the lifestyle, and what behaviors millionaire exhibits.

Building Wealth Through Reits by Bobby Jayaraman

The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing by Pat Dorsey

Giraffe Value's comprehensive guide on REIT
(very good resource to understand REITs, particularly from a Singapore context, and it's FREE!)

In terms of investment, I have bought some bonds (CMA 3.8% and FCL 3.65%). In terms of stocks, I made my stock investment journey less like gambling by finding out about the company, doing some research before buying.

In terms of performance, I am not able to say whether the investments made are good or not, until in the long run, where I materialize more returns/ losses. One thing for sure, there is a lot of room for improvement.

Review of Family Department

Bonding with family, spending time with family and so on are important items in my life. It's like brushing my teeth every morning and night. 

While this is an important aspect of my life, I feel that putting, time, effort and money for family stuff is an unconscious habit to me. As such, going forward, I will not be tracking this department anymore. 

Review of Current Business Department

This year has been a quiet and smooth year in terms of career. I did not do anything that score points, but work has been peaceful. In terms of promotion, it is unlikely that I will be promoted anytime soon. In other words, to a certain extent, I have sort of stagnated.

In terms of educating myself (a.k.a skillsfuture), I have also passed a exam leading to a certificate that I am eyeing for. Though, at the current stage, this certificate will not be useful for my current position/ job.

Performance wise, I would say that I just did what I need to stay in my job. Nothing exciting, nothing more than the norm, but thankfully, peaceful. 

Review of New Business Department

This is one of the areas that I would really like to work on. But the procrastination devil in me is putting it off. I have previously talked about creating passion from impulse, and see how it will bring about new businesses in the long term. I have even created a page on my impulses, but honestly, I have thought a lot on this area, but have not had much action for this department.

External parties deserve the achievements that I have made for this department. I am really grateful for, is being accepted by Derek, so that my blogpost gets featured in thefinance.sg , a prestige. This blog's stats come mainly from thefinance.sg .

With traffic, I have started to put in Adsense advertisements to this blog. Together with another blog that I have, my adsense revenue per month is in the low 2- digits, and to date, I have yet to receive any payment from Adsense, due to a minimum threshold to be reached before you can start getting payments from Adsense. Well, I'm happy for that though, because I have been trying to get approved by Adsense (for another blog which I set up on 2011), for years, and finally did.

Performance wise, I would say that this department deserves credit from the external party that have helped. Although actual payout (revenue) wise is $0, there's some firsts, which will motivate me further.

Review of Personal Development Department

I previously defined this department as one in charge of continuous improvement of myself. This is likely to conflict with the other departments. For example, sitting for an examination towards getting a certificate can be considered personal development. But if it is related to my current day job, is it considered current business?

Most likely that improvements that I will be making will be related to the departments that I focus on - health, current business and new businesses. As such, going forward, this department will be disbanded, and improvements will be classified according to whether they are health, day job or new business related.

Reflection

2016 has been peaceful to date. That I am very grateful for. In terms of achievement made, it is mainly status quo with a bit of improvements. 

Going forward, Ms CEO's company will only have four departments : health, finance, current business and new business. The smaller number of department is likely to make efforts more consolidated.

In addition, like all corporations, there will be goal settings made not for the long term (which we already have), but just for 2017. When appraisal time comes, at the end of 2017 easier, it's easier to measure performance. 

Towards greater accomplishment in 2017. 

https://pixabay.com/en/new-year-s-eve-new-year-s-day-2017-1877889/

Comments

  1. Hi Rena,

    Sounds like a good year 2016 for you :) Onwards to 2017!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi LP. Thanks for the comment. Honestly, 2016 could be better if I have put in more effort. But well, it is going to end.

      I read that you are going to have a new family member next year! Congrats and have a great 2017!

      Delete

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