Investment
The bad sentiment for the local market has led to poor performance by the index as well as my own portfolio. In a hurry to liquidate or establish better ratios from the heavy Singtel / Jumbo / DS I had bought into MLT FLT and added position in UMS.
I felt that I was kind of in a forced situation, wait out the bad tide or do something. In the end I tried to do something that is out of my usual habit and thus it reflected poorly in my portfolio performance.
Work
Work wise, it was a rather disappointing year. My team went through several manpower changes and with each shuffle and reappointment I seem to get the bulk of the duties with no recognition. There is also a culture of sweeping past mistakes under the carpet as long as we can point all mistakes to the last person who quit. I have just completed my annual review and this time round I sense its not going to be positive. It was to be expected, as I was literally set up to failed.
I was loaded with my almost two persons portfolio and all they could comment was minor inconsequential errors. with the resignation of my section head, I was taking over majority of her portfolio plus my own and a previously transferred manager's work. on the other side of the room I have people leaving at 5pm daily. One can only be "positive" for so long before he snaps. The last two years I came to understand and experience for myself how true top performers would eventually leave a poorly managed organisation
Burnt weekends, midnight reports and political badmouthing by people within the same team. It makes me wonder if all was worth that illusionary jump in grade, the difference is probably $1,000 while the workload is unjustly high (unless you are one of those who jiak liao bee). R passed away last Wednesday and it struck me how meaningless to feel upset over an organisation that sees us as numbers, and focus on selected few … truly 3rd tier and substandard. The biggest joke that happened that day was our office was busy verifying the staff survey completion percentage.... when someone had passed away !!!
I have decided to take a step back and just do the bare minimum. My renewed focus and drive should be on external income for early FIRE. I shall work hard for myself. I shall OT and work on weekends for myself. I shall upgrade myself and achieve my personal goals
Life
I also advanced to the next stage in life, having met someone wonderful. We have decided to purchase our home. This marks the next big responsibility and I wonder if it has to do with my recent urgency / stress at work. Maybe I wouldn't care so much if I wasn't taking a bank loan?
Its a cosy place with everything I wished for as a kid.
