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Let’s start with the facts. Singapore has recently been identified as a Blue Zone country, boasting an average life expectancy of 84.9 years—one of the highest in the world. Singaporeans rank number one in healthy life expectancy, have the world’s lowest rate of cardiovascular mortality, and enjoy one of the best healthcare systems globally.

In 2007, the average life expectancy here was 77 years. Eighteen years later, it has risen by 8 years. By the time I reach 85, the average life expectancy could well be 100. Medical advancements, especially in the era of AI (Artificial Intelligence), are likely to bring breakthroughs in addressing age-related issues such as cancer and dementia.

These days, we talk not just about lifespan but also health span—the number of quality years one lives without serious health issues impacting daily life. Staying healthy and happy is my personal motto.

This naturally leads to the question of financial ability: how can we sustain ourselves and last longer into our “second halftime,” especially as my generation tends to retire younger? Today’s blog addresses financial strategies for retirement planning and shares my personal thoughts on how we can prepare, both within the government’s framework and through other means of enhancement.

As my cohort of Generation Xers (born 1965–1980) begins retiring, we must consider the tools available to us to ensure longevity while maintaining a good quality of life with zero employment income. I am 59 this year. The question is: do we still need to work part-time to stay active and engaged in lifelong learning while earning some income, or do we already have sufficient passive income to last another 30–40 years?

I like to think of my strategy as a layering of various revenue streams, each capable of producing passive income. This blog is simply a sharing of my personal thoughts and actions—it is not financial advice. Everyone must do their own homework to make well-calculated decisions.

I have been planning my retirement for years and consider myself fortunate to have been born in Singapore, where we have the excellent CPF (Central Provident Fund) system that helps us build a pension plan. My plan begins with CPF, adds on the SRS (Supplementary Retirement Scheme), and then extends into local dividend stocks, investment property, a US stock portfolio, and finally, cryptocurrencies. I will also conclude with a note on insurance while constantly looking to finetune my overall portfolio.

CPF as a foundation
CPF is a powerful long-term planning tool. A Singaporean can open an account from birth and enjoy its benefits immediately. We discovered this when our children were teenagers—we funded their accounts early, allowing them to enjoy the compounding power of interest in building nest eggs.

Some CPF gurus on YouTube encourage aiming for a million dollars in your CPF accounts as soon as possible, suggesting multiple jobs to maximize contributions. Given that CPF is government-backed, it is as good as a AAA-rated asset (Singapore itself is rated AAA), providing a consistent 2.5–4% interest.

I have opted for the maximum in my RA (Retirement Account)—currently $426,000—as I want the highest possible payout when I turn 65. My SA (Special Account) was closed after I crossed 55, but I still retain a decent sum in my OA (Ordinary Account), even after accounting for a small outstanding housing loan on an investment property.

SRS contributions
For SRS, I have been diligently contributing the maximum of $15.3k every year, both for tax savings and as a disciplined retirement plan. As I was working in a bank’s front office, I was restricted to investing in products like mutual funds and ETFs with this SRS allocation since the scheme started in 2001.

In recent years, I’ve used Endowus, an online platform that enables me to invest my SRS funds more efficiently in targeted strategies. I particularly like China, so I’ve directed funds there in recent years. Lately, I’ve also invested in the PIMCO Global Bond Fund in anticipation of interest rate cuts.

My retirement layering plan
Here’s how I see my plan unfolding:

• At 60: I can tap on my OA if needed, and use these funds to top up my CPF MA (MediSave Account) to the maximum of $75.5k for future medical needs.
• At 63: I can withdraw from my SRS, transferring all mutual fund holdings to my personal account with minimal tax penalties. This provides a second layer of income to supplement my OA.
• At 65: CPF Life payouts will begin, giving me at least $3.3k monthly for life.

From age 59 to 65, I rely on my existing financial resources and investments to bridge the gap and ensure at least $5k per month.

Beyond CPF and SRS
CPF and SRS provide my baseline—my “Business as Usual” passive income. Beyond this, I’ve layered in other revenue streams to extend my financial runway and match an extended health span.

A large portion of my net worth is in property: one fully paid home where my family lives, and another investment property generating rental income with a small loan for tax purposes. Both have appreciated substantially over the years, providing unrealized capital gains to be tapped in our twilight years.

For young adults, I cannot stress enough: property is the best long-term investment. It provides leverage (with just a 5 to 25% down payment and the rest financed through a housing loan), acts as collateral, and is essentially an enforced savings plan that allows you to upgrade as your career progresses.

In line with this property theme, I’ve also allocated up to 30% of my SGD into REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). Singapore has over 40 REITs, among the most in the region. As trusts, they must distribute at least 90% of their income as dividends and cannot leverage more than 50% of their assets.

REITs provide me with quarterly or semi-annual cash flows. Their stock prices are relatively stable, allowing patient entry at attractive levels. I usually evaluate them based on P/B (Price-to-Book), dividend yields, and portfolio composition. I prefer REITs with Singapore-based assets to reduce forex risk, as they typically provide 4–7% yields with good-quality names worth holding long term.

My US stock portfolio
My main focus—and what keeps me most engaged—is my US stock portfolio. As I’ve shared before, it revolves around three key themes: AI (Artificial Intelligence), QC (Quantum Computing), and Nuclear. I’ve been fully invested in the “Magnificent Seven” stocks for several years, while adding others aligned with long-term mega-trends. I believe these themes are the main drivers of a new human renaissance, the likes of which we’ve never seen—almost like the movie Wall-E (laughs). We just need to ride out the Trump-era volatility and identify the next big winners.

Cryptocurrencies
The final layer of my portfolio is cryptocurrencies, which I began investing in around 2017. Results have been mixed. My rules:

• Do not invest more than 5% of your portfolio.
• Avoid leverage.
• Only invest what you can afford to lose entirely.

Given America’s current political climate, crypto also serves as a hedge. Stick with core holdings like BTC, ETH, and SOL, while allocating a small portion for active trading. Spread your risk across multiple exchanges—I use Kraken, Gemini, Coinbase, Binance, and Bitfinex. (FTX was a painful lesson I’d rather forget.) Learn how to transfer assets between exchanges. Blockchain and cryptography are the underlying technologies here—even our CDC vouchers run on a private blockchain!

Insurance
Finally, a word on insurance: life policies generally aren’t great. I cashed out one of mine. If you must, stick to term insurance and layer them with different maturity dates. Avoid investment-linked insurance policies—they’re riddled with fees that destroy performance. For example, I bought a Prudential plan in 1997 and only recently cashed it out. Despite the stock market tripling over that period, my ROI was a mere 1% per annum!

Closing thoughts
As a retiree, my motto is simple: stay happy and healthy. Smell the roses and cherish daily blessings. Long-term retirement planning is essential to support a lifelong learning journey into the second half of life. Staying mentally sharp, socially active, and financially secure is the key to true peace of mind.

Markets are indeed reaching all-time highs (ATHs) everywhere amidst greater volatility with the election of an unpredictable person to the most powerful role, again. It was especially a super rocky ride in Apr when the US tariff war was announced to the world.

Thankfully, I was on vacation and therefore did not panic sell as the fundamentals of the stocks I owned seem robust. My major themes for the year were and still are AI (Artificial Intelligence), QC (Quantum Computing) and Nuclear energy.

Central banks have begun to cut rates after the rapid rise in 2022, post- Covid where a surge in demand after a global shutdown caused massive inflationary upwards pressure. All except America as Powell is cautiously mindful of the tariff war that could turn inflationary and is highly unpredictable, thanks to one man.

We have had the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts continuing even as new hotspots arise. But the market is forward looking towards the tremendous potential of AI being unleashed once the energy requirement is solved with cheaper renewable energy. The stars seem to be aligned that AI will be taking humanity to greater heights.

While LLM effectiveness potential looked as if it had peaked in late 2024, China’s DeepSeek moment in Jan stunned everyone. The new paradigm shift to open source that leverages existing LLMs with automating prompting to develop better responses was a revelation. “If OpenAI, Google and Microsoft have already won the AI race as we know it, then China’s best move would not be to compete – it would be to make winning meaningless.”

The sky is the limit for AI again. Everything is being turbocharged. The race to build the next biggest and best data center with renewable energy continues.

I have a layman’s theory of how DeepSeek works and why it was so revolutionary. It is thanks to the think-out-of-the-box situation that China was pushed into a corner to develop. They had restricted access to the newer Nvidia chips and were falling behind America in the AI race. Necessity is the mother of invention, and when faced with a difficult situation or strong need, one is more likely to come up with a creative and innovative solution.

Before this moment, there was a lot of talk about how a person can earn a good salary if they can master prompting. It is but a means to create better prompts to generate superior LLM responses. One can manually expand on the original prompt to fine-tune and obtain a better result. Some ingenious dudes figured: “What if one can automate this process to squeeze more juice out of the LLM?” DeepSeek called it DeepThink – a button that you click to turn on auto prompting.

By expanding on the first prompt and creating a series of follow-up “questions” on a loop until certain criteria are met, the collective answers from various LLMs can be summarised and aggregated to provide a final superior result – mimicking the thought process of a human.

Previously, companies were racing to produce the most powerful LLM with the largest number of input parameters/variables in the billions. The world was running out of raw data to use, even as humans were producing a lot of new data every day. DeepSeek questions: “Why don’t we leverage on all existing LLMs?” The sum total of all LLMs working together would be much greater than the individual parts.

With this new exponential push for AI, the next 2 steps will naturally fall into focus to help accelerate this trend. I am talking about a huge need for more energy to power the data centers. The best bet on renewable energy is nuclear. It is the cleanest and most viable. By using a widely available material like Thorium in a safer reactor that uses liquid sodium instead of water, it will provide a safer process that can auto-shutdown if things go wrong. A SMR (Small Modular Reactor) using these principles can generate up to 300 MW and not require refuelling for up to 7 years, and will be stackable to adjust to power requirements.

By solving the energy bottleneck, this will unleash the push to greater tech breakthroughs in Quantum Computing to turbocharge AI development. We are in for exciting times where we will see breakthroughs in science, medicine and many other spheres of influence that will begin a renaissance of human development.

Moving to another topic of discussion: what is next on the global political stage? Trump is upending everything that is status quo. Is there a method to the madness? What is the ultimate objective and have we seen this being played out before? Is Steve Bannon correct to say that the strategy of “Flooding the zones” will confuse his enemies with too many distractions to focus on?

There seems to be a master grand plan to stop the ever-rising American deficit before it goes out of control and the rest of the world starts to walk away from American assets. The crazy and ever-changing tariff wars with every country sometimes do not make sense. It can hurt America more than it impacts the rest of the world. Is he trying to curb American spending as the main objective? This looks like an “ownself screw ownself” strategy though LOL…

The other obvious move is the embracing of crypto in a big way. Would the feeding of this bubble be a solution to negate the deficit? Create a new asset class that technically can pay down the loans. One BTC to USD 1 million eventually?

Is the TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) tactic a win? Aim high for the first shot and have more room to compromise later? How can I read the tea leaves and be proactive, to stay ahead of the game and be opportunistic for money-making possibilities?

I am currently rejigging my portfolio to focus on the main themes (AI, QC and Nuclear) while taking money off the table for the non-core old and deadbeat stocks. It is a non-sentimental cutting of money-losing stocks or not in line with the major macro themes I believe in.

About 5-8% is still into cryptos, just the top ones like BTC, ETH and SOL. My cash holding is increasing in case there is a correction and pullback as an opportunity to buy the dips. I continue to see new opportunities to dip my toes into potential long-term winners that were recently listed eg. Figma, Circle, Coinbase.

Wish me luck as we navigate into the final leg of 2025. History says that Sep is a pullback month. We shall see if this year is an exception and if the most powerful man will blow us all up first. Buckle up!

My wife and I decided in late 2024 that it was time to officially retire from our careers as our younger son had obtained his university degree and graduated in Apr 2025. We moved excitedly into the next part of our life journey as we crossed into the second part of our Halftime (Moving from Success to Significance), in search of our Ikigai (The Japanese secret to a long and happy life) as we started our retirement.

We strategized to fill 2025 will a lot of projects to keep us busy as we settle down to a new and slower phase of life. Overseas long vacations plus short trips to nearby countries with friends in between the longer dates were planned. Our son’s graduation trip to Portugal for 14 days in April was completed. A 23-day South Korea trip in Jun was made and we returned home last week. A 15-day China trip with friends has been planned for Oct.

A the same time, we embarked on a major home renovation project. We moved into our current home in Dec 2007 and 18 years passed in a flash and the kids have grown up to be young adults now. It was time to upgrade to a more mature adult theme as our boys are young men embarking on their work careers now. We also attended a seminar on how to give back to society and it introduced us to various NGOs that we could contribute our efforts to. That will be food for thought into the rest of the year.

Our Portugal vacation was a pleasant surprise for first timers like us. We enjoyed the laid back charm of the country that had a high quality of life blessed with an abundance of natural resources and lots of wine. The cost of living is low compared to S’pore (of course!). The island of Madeira was also a great experience. Bigger than S’pore but one can encounter the 4 seasons within one day! We had quality family time discovering new places and finishing a bottle of vino for every meal as it was so good and affordable.

Then it was back home to start packing to move out from our home of 18+ years to begin renovation work. This was after more than 4 months of interviewing Interior Designers (10) to narrow down to the final 2 to award to the winning ID firm. Given that the kids were very young when we moved into this house in 2007, we decided to revamp the previous kiddish, functional style into a more chic and modern look.

We moved into my in-laws’ place as our temporary accommodation for a few months, This was to allow the hackers to tear down our place in order to rebuild most of the interior again. Meanwhile, my wife also bought a couples gym package with a motivational trainer to push us to strengthen our core muscles for our ageing bodies in preparation for the next few decades.

Then we were off to South Korea for a long 23-day trip. The original premise for going there was for my wife to see her fav band BTS as its final members were finishing up their national army stints in Jun. We attended 2 K-Pop concerts which was an eye opener for me to see hardcore fans from all over the world converging in Seoul. I must have been one of the few uncles wondering why I was there, in a sea of screaming and adoring female fans. We split our stay into Seoul, Sokcho, Busan and Gyeongju, staying in a total of 7 hotels and apartments.

I think I managed to eat all types of Korean food they have to offer, from KBBQ to Jokbal to the many types of hangover soup concoctions (kimchi, pork and beef rib etc). The Korean people there were genuinely nice and honest. There is zero crime and we feel very safe walking the streets any time of the night. I never even saw a car accident in our 23 days there even though most of the cars are EVs now with powerful acceleration speeds. Some k-pop songs even went into my head as ear worms as I keep hearing and humming them LOL…

South Korea has so much going for it as a country, especially in the entertainment sector. Think K-Dramas, Squid Game 3, Culinary Wars and Physical 100. Its manufacturing sector is actually not doing so well though, as it had to compete with its giant neighbour. The China factory jargonuant is overwhelming everyone in the world with its EVs, any kind of factory manufactured goods and high tech.

Now that we are back home, it is time to continue with the renovation process. We need to conceptualize the interior fittings in the next 2 months as only one third of the work is done. The hacking of the old stuff, laying of new tiles, waterproofing work and false ceiling rebuild have been completed. Next comes the building of new covered shelters for a gym and the wet kitchen, toilet/kitchen items and cupboards are next before the major internal and external repainting works.

Time seems to pass by slowly, day by day when you are in retirement mode. More time to stop and smell the roses and delve into things of interest. Better quality family and friends time get togethers without the nagging worry of what is outstanding at work tomorrow. But too much chilling makes the mind go numb and inactive. I will need to accelerate and deep dive into my interests and perhaps new ones soon to keep the adrenaline pumping.

Reviewing and refining my investment portfolio becomes a full time hobby now. Thank goodness I was on holiday when the US tariff tantrums took off in early Apr. No panic selling and just sitting at the sidelines watching the panicking markets with a glass of vino in hand…

So many more things and activities to do for the rest of 2025 as we crossed the year’s half way mark into Jul. More uncertainty in the markets as stock markets hit all time highs. Time to take some profit and keep some dry powder for dip buying or to stay and ride with the trend?

Rates seems to be softening or is tariff induced inflation around the corner soon? Will the Middle East become a more peaceful area with Israel/Iran tensions calming or awaiting for a new fuse to light things off?

One thing I am sure of. The advancement of AI will continue. I cannot even keep track of the daily advancement and progress anymore. Processes and jobs can become redundant overnight at the speed we are heading, thanks to AI agents. New discoveries and breakthroughs will accelerate in the area of science and medicine.

AI is hungry for more energy generation. The sky is the limit once the energy generation breakthroughs happen. It could be renewable energy (Solar, wind) or unlimited nuclear (Thorium). Quantum computing seems ready for a quantum leap soon (100+ Qubits and counting) and AGI might happen sooner than later.

We live in exciting times where anything is possible. The trend is clear and getting stronger. Humanity is on the brink of a new and golden renaissance uptrend.

Time flies, and it has been almost three months since I officially retired from my old job at the end of February after working full-time for 1.5 years. This was to coincide with my wife’s retirement in April.

Since then, we have been busy planning for overseas vacations, having one with our younger son (his grad trip) to Portugal and Madrid in early Apr while concurrently finalising our major home renovation works after moving in almost 18 years ago. There is also a 23-day South Korea trip coming up in Jun, plus a central China vacation in October.

The initial retirement schedule is so firmly packed with activities for now, through to the end of the year. Looking forward to no stress, not thinking about work and only deciding on what to have for breakfast every morning.

There is also more time to review and fine-tune my portfolio now, as Trump-induced volatility rocks the markets every few days as he pumps it non-stop with shocks and surprises. The recent movie “The Apprentice” provides some clues to his behaviour. His mentor, the notorious Roy Cohn, taught him 3 rules that he has taken to heart. Roy Cohn shares three key rules with Donald Trump: always attack, never admit wrongdoing, and always claim victory, even if defeated. This partially explains his modus operandi.

Steve Bannon’s 2018 mention of “flooding the zone” with actions to keep everyone off balance also figures prominently in his first 100 days in office, with multiple Executive Orders, one after another. He is like a bully at the playground and likes to play bluff and escalate issues before the other side can recover. But he will eventually blink if confronted by a bigger bully (see tariff fight with China).

While claiming actions for the good of the citizens, all his motives eventually led to enriching and lining his family’s pockets. He is now unleashed and pushes all guard rails into the abyss. Creating volatility and confusion is a game to him, with little coherence to a grand strategy. He is not into details and, with a soft ear, listens to anyone who can easily influence him while citing that he has good instincts LOL.

The only saving grace for investors is that he is transparent. He often tells in advance what he plans to do and cannot keep secrets for long. When he crashes the markets and then tells you to buy, he means that he will be announcing bullish news soon…

We will continue to see such behaviours, and we have to be nimble to trade the volatility, looking to take profit once in a while. I was glad that I was on holiday in early Apr and had decided to sit pat and do nothing. My portfolio value has since recovered to just below end-Jan levels.

I continue to fine-tune my portfolio into the rest of 2025, and my investment themes will be in AI, Quantum Computing (QC) and Nuclear energy. Possible breakthroughs in nuclear energy efficiency, like Thorium and SMR reactors, could provide unlimited energy to power Quantum Computing and AI to create big leaps in advancement.

The race is on between the US and China to solve the issues of limited energy, while the potential of QC and AI is starting to be very good, the sky is the limit. That will be my medium to long term focus.

For cryptos, currencies and gold, there will be range trading opportunities within these volatile times. Trump will continue to create noise and move the markets, but the bigger trends remain intact.

We are in for even more exciting times as his remaining 3.5-year term runs out. America will be changed forever, for the better or worse, while the rest of the world watches to see where the lunacy will bring us. Sit tight and buckle up!

We have been planning this two-week vacation for quite some time. Our younger son had finally completed his five-year medical school. This will be his graduation trip present from us.

It was our first time travelling to Portugal as we have never visited the country. We decided to spend 3 nights each in Lisbon, Madeira and Porto, followed by a final 4 nights in Madrid (Spain). Taking S’pore Airlines to Rome, we had booked interconnecting European flights to these separate locations. It required a lot of planning as we had to book multiple activities and accommodations.

We set off on 02 Apr for a 12-hour flight to FCO (Rome), followed by a 2-hour connecting flight to Lisbon with a 3-hour stopover. Finally, we settled into a nice apartment near the central area by mid-afternoon after more than 19 hours of travel. We walked around the coastal area of Lisbon and decided to head to the Time Out market for drinks and finger food, which turned out to be dinner. Being jet lagged, we called it a night early.

Day 2 – Lisbon. On the next morning, we started our first GuruWalk free walking tour. It was to get an introduction to Lisbon via a 3-hour walk to see the highlights and sights. It was interesting to learn about the history of the city, and we had a good recommendation for lunch at a Portuguese restaurant serving authentic local food. We also witnessed a crime where a lady was robbed of her handphone, followed by a chase.

Day 3. For the next day, it was a full day tour to Sintra and Colares by coach bus. We arrived on a rainy morning to visit the Sintra Cascais National Park, which had beautiful and scenic sights. Then it was a quick buffet lunch to escape the rain before heading to the coast of Colare,s which was on a high cliff surrounded by huge waves for more photo taking.

Back in Lisbon, we decided to have a seafood dinner at the famous and often mentioned Cervejaria Ramiro restaurant. It was much cheaper here than back home. We chose a spider crab plus other stuff like the exotic barnacles. Very reasonable value given the high prices of seafood we are so used to.

Day 1 – Madeira. We set off on a 2-hour flight to the island of Madeira, where Cristiano Ronaldo was from. The airport was named after him. The island was about 800 square km and bigger than Singapore where you can experience the 4 seasons in one day!

We reached the very nice and modern Next Savoy hotel and dropped our luggage to walk around Funchal town. There was the CR7 museum and a small town area. We saw a convenience store that we could purchase suppies for our hikes in the next 2 days. Dinner was at a highly recommended seafood restaurant, Villa do Peixe, located in a smaller fishing village. They provided 2-way transport and we had a nice sunset (8 pm) dinner with a freshly grilled local fish, lovely fish soup and a wonderful seafood rice set for 2 with a local green/white wine.

Day 2. We went for the PR 6 and 6.1 hike, which was a total of 15 km. It was quite a long walk, and there was a common cafe resting point between the 2 routes where we refuelled and had a bite. The waterfalls were scenic, and the second one was huge with a lot of photo opportunities. After freshening up at the hotel in the late afternoon, we went searching for a dinner place and settled on a Portuguese BBQ meat place which had a good rating before calling it a night.

Day 3. The sunrise hike. We had to wake up early for a 630 am pick up, but luck was not with us. We were disappointed that we could not see the sunrise as the fog and winds were too heavy to see anything. Subsequently, they brought us to the 7 km Larano trail hike where our group of 12 followed the coastal route, which was relatively flat.

We were done by noon and went back to the hotel to chill at the pool. It had a fantastic view of the sea and the crashing waves, and we ordered lunch at the poolside. We headed to town again to experience the cable car ride to the top of Funchal in the late afternoon before heading for dinner to meet my wife’s relative for a relaxing dinner. Madeira was much better than we thought with its quality of life and vast nature offerings.

Day 1 – Porto. Had a nice walk in the morning and then a leisurely lunch by the poolside in Madeira before our 2-hour flight to Porto. Checked into our modern apartment before going for a stroll around Porto for the first time. Chanced upon a popular place with locals and tourists alike and we managed to get a table to try the famous Porto sandwich – Francesinha, a gravy-drenched bread with many types of meats (beef, ham and sausage) with a sunny-side egg on top. Also managed to narrowly miss being run over by a car at the pedestrian crossing… LOL

Day 2. Another free walking tour where we learnt about Porto’s unique history, what the rulers and kings did. Roam around town the rest of the afternoon, and visit a food market before we head to the seaside town of Matosinhos. The beach walk was refreshing, and we headed for a seafood restaurant where we ordered too much and had to pack the stuffed crab back for breakfast the next day.

Day 3. A full day Duoro Valley tour to see the famous wineries and experience what they have on offer for Port and local wines. We saw very scenic scenes of endless wine valleys followed by a short river cruise and visiting 2 wineries in between. Then we did a final walk around Porto to witness live bands performing at an open garden high above the city. Decided to try a highly rated KBBQ for dinner, which turned out to be substandard.

Day 1 – Madrid. Our 3rd time here within the last 15 years but it was our son’s first time. Our last trip here was with a group of good friends in Dec 2021 amid Covid (3.5 years ago). Visited familiar sights and went to Mercado de San Miguel for local delicacies and drinks to soak up the atmosphere. On the way back, stopover for another small bite in a nice looking corner cafe before calling it a night.

Day 2. This was the most taxing day of the trip, which I felt a bit of a hangover the morning after. We had so much food and drinks till late. Started with a morning walking tour and then a 1 pm booking at Botin, the oldest restaurant in the world (300 years anniversary in 2025). Took a rest at our apartment to watch another episode of KDrama When Life Gives You Tangerines. Then headed for the 3-hour Tapas tour at 6 pm. We met a group of French ladies in our group. After multiple drinks and tapas, we all got friendly and chatty with them and the guide. Stumbled home and knocked off like a rock.

Day 3. We had to leave at 645 am to meet for the day trip to Toledo and Segovia. It was a bit of a hangover as we had mixed drinks at the tapas tour last evening. My last drink was a whisky cocktail, bad idea… Toledo is majestic and it was the old capital of Spain before the king moved it to Madrid. It sits on a mountain top, and we now have escalators to bring us to the top before walking through it. Segovia was a pleasant surprise. The Roman aqueducts were amazing, and we walked to the castle to view the city. Came back to Madrid and had dinner at Boom Boom Ciao, a funky and colourful restaurant.

Day 4. Our final day in Madrid and a relaxing shopping day. I went for a walk in the morning to explore the area. We then had a few hours of shopping at the mall district and bought a new luggage plus a lot of clothes at Primark. We then had a popular local Spanish soup for lunch at the Teberna de la Daniela. Watched the last episode of the KDrama before heading to a place known for its paella rice sets for dinner.

The next day, we flew to FCO for an overnight stay before our 12-hour flight back home. We last stopover at FCO in 2018 and liked the place for its beach and restaurants, which was a nice stop before the long flight home. But it has changed a lot, perhaps due to COVID-19. The place looks run down now. We managed to have a nice meal under the sun with drinks before walking back – a total of about 6 km. We had our final dinner much later at 9. It was at the meat place recommended by the host, called Contro Corrente to end our vacation.

It was a pretty adventurous trip and taxing as we took a total of 7 connecting flights and spent just a few nights in so many new cities we had not been to before. We had accomplished a lot and spent quality family time with our son who will be embarking on his work career soon. It is a memorable trip that also kicks off my wife and my retirement as we move on to our next halftime journey.

Much has happened since China’s DeepSeek revelation was unleashed to the world in January and shocked everyone. The Sputnik moment invigorated the industry and a new AI quantum leap is now possible.

This recent article from FT (Financial Times) author June Yoon caught my eye. It perfectly explains China’s overall AI strategy as the US and the West try to contain it by restricting computer chip access and other non-competitive means to cripple its advancement.

China is strategizing via 4D (4-dimensional) real-time chess while her opponents are simply playing checkers… The masterful stroke of moving towards open source is summed up very well in the last paragraph of the article: “If OpenAI, Google and Microsoft have already won the AI race as we know it, then China’s best move would not be to compete – it would be to make winning meaningless.”

The link to the article is here and I reproduced it below for your reading pleasure: (all acknowledgements to FT and the author for such an insightful and thought-provoking writeup)

“The pace of Beijing’s push for open-source artificial intelligence has been relentless, says June Yoon for the Financial Times.

Retaliation seemed certain. When the United States tightened its grip on advanced artificial intelligence technologies in January – blocking China’s access to advanced AI chips and locking proprietary models behind trade barriers – the response appeared predictable. China would build its own walls, guard its breakthroughs and double down on secrecy. 

Instead, China is doing something unexpected: It is giving away its most advanced AI models.

In recent weeks, Chinese tech groups including Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent have been flooding the market with powerful AI models. But in an industry where secrecy is the norm, the real shock is their openness – these models are free to download, modify and integrate. 

The pace of China’s open-source AI push has been relentless. Since the debut in January of DeepSeek R1 – China’s answer to OpenAI’s o1 series – a wave of increasingly capable models has followed.

Alibaba claims its latest AI reasoning model QwQ-32B rivals DeepSeek’s R1 and has performed well in official benchmark tests. Every few weeks, another arrives, pushing the boundaries of what open-source AI can do. 

At first glance, this surge might seem like a statement that AI should be open to the world, not just a handful of companies. But in business and geopolitics, generosity is rarely without a strategy. The real question is not why China is open-sourcing its AI, it is why the world assumed it would not.

For now, most US tech groups treat AI like an exclusive resource, restricting access to their most powerful models behind paywalls. OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic limit full access to their most advanced AI models, offering them through plans such as paid subscriptions and enterprise deals.

Meanwhile, the US government views open-source AI as a security risk, fearing that unregulated models could be fine-tuned into cyberweapons. US lawmakers are already pushing to ban DeepSeek AI software from government devices, citing national security concerns.

But Chinese tech groups are taking a very different approach. By open-sourcing AI, they not only sidestep US sanctions but also decentralise development and tap into global talent to refine their models. Even restrictions on Nvidia’s high-end chips become less of an obstacle when the rest of the world can train and improve China’s models on alternative hardware.

AI advances through iteration. Every new release builds upon the last, refining weaknesses, expanding capabilities and improving efficiency. By open-sourcing AI models, Chinese tech groups create an ecosystem where global developers continuously improve their models – without shouldering all the development costs. 

The scale of this approach could fundamentally reshape AI’s economic structure. If open-source AI becomes just as powerful as proprietary US models, the ability to monetise AI as an exclusive product collapses. Why pay for closed models if a free, equally capable alternative exists?

For Beijing, this strategy could be a powerful weapon in the US-China tech war. US AI companies, built on monetisation through enterprise licensing and premium services could find themselves in a race to the bottom – where AI is abundant, but profits elusive.

Of course, this comes with trade-offs. If AI is freely available, nothing will stop foreign companies from taking China’s models, refining them and outcompeting Chinese companies.

Over time, companies such as Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent may face the same pressures as their US counterparts – forcing them to restrict access to protect intellectual property and generate revenue. 

Beyond market dynamics, Beijing may have its own reasons to rethink this approach. The Chinese government, which prioritises control over key technologies, may also push for stricter AI regulations to manage misinformation, maintain oversight and ensure compliance with state policies. 

But for now, open-source AI remains China’s best bet – a way to compete without access to the best chips or the advantage of an early lead.

The timing of the open-source rush is no coincidence. It is a response to a closing window. With US chips and AI technology restrictions set to tighten under President Donald Trump and proprietary AI models becoming entrenched, China’s most effective strategy is speed and scale. To flood the market, to shift the balance before AI monopolies emerge.

If OpenAI, Google and Microsoft have already won the AI race as we know it, then China’s best move would not be to compete – it would be to make winning meaningless.”

Finally, my wife and I are moving towards the next phase of our half-time journey, looking to settle into our retirement mode. It will open up a new world of possibilities as we acquire new experiences.

Previously, I had stopped working full-time for almost 6+ years after leaving my last banking role in 2017. During that period, I became a student again and did various part-time consultancy projects. For the last 18 months, I have been working full-time in the ESG renewable energy space linked to the financial markets. I am now officially retired as of 01 Mar.

My wife is also retiring at the same time, and it coincides with our younger son graduating from his university studies soon. My dad had also retired in 1990, shortly after his youngest child (me) completed his university degree. I guess we feel comfortable that our job as parents to support our 2 sons financially is over, and we can cross the finish line into retirement mode.

As I told our sons, we will be the last sandwich generation that will have to take care of our parents and kids to provide financial support. We have provided for them till graduation, and they need not worry about having to worry about paying for our expenses into our twilight years. Although a token monthly allowance from them when they start their work career as a show of appreciation would be a nice gesture.

We have been planning our retirements for months and have packed our schedule with activities and trips for the next 8 months into October. Having moved into our existing home in December 2007, almost 17+ years ago, it is time to do a major renovation of our home soon. This will require us to move out for 2 to 3 months during the renovation and to work closely with the Interior Designer for the 3D mockups and choosing of materials. This will be our first major project undertaking.

3 major overseas vacations have also been planned, totalling about 50 days. The first one is to Portugal and Madrid in early Apr (15 days) as a graduation trip to celebrate our younger son’s completion of his 5 years of med school where he will embark on his career thereafter. The 2nd vacation will be in South Korea for 23 days in Seoul, Busan and some smaller towns to explore in June. Also, to see BTS band members getting out of the army LOL.

The 3rd trip will be in October with some close friends in China – Chengdu and Chongqing to see some beautiful natural scenery and feed pandas (13 days). Nothing is planned yet for the year-end family vacation, and there could be more short trips in between to Malaysia (JB) and Asean countries as we will have time on our hands.

It is our belief that now is a good time to travel, at least for the next 10+ years before we hit 70 years old, as the spirit is strong and willing while the body is able for overseas adventures. Our generation is more aware of health and exercise benefits and of the importance of ageing gracefully. The mortality rate in S’pore, a newly declared blue zone, is now 84 and will probably extend into the 90s when we reach our 80s in 2 decades time.

Being a student again and using my Skillsfuture credits is a goal for my lifelong learning journey. It is also another of my half-time goals. Technology like AI is evolving so fast by the week that it is hard to catch up. There is so much I do not know and much to learn to keep my mind active. I will have the time to dive deep into topics I am interested in.

2025 will be an interesting year of new experiences as we chart the next path of our lives and explore the world while we slow down to smell the roses. We are indeed blessed with the rewards of our 30+ years of our career and 2 wonderful boys. Time to recalibrate and review what we want to do next and follow our Ikigai.

I have been thinking about the likely strong investment signals for 2025 as events shape the volatility of the markets. Putting my thoughts to paper will give me further clarity on where to put my limited resources. Identifying clear megatrends would be the first step in this top-down approach to drill down into stocks and instruments to invest in.

I see three strong themes emerging: 1. Artificial Intelligence (AI), 2. Quantum Computing (QC), and 3. Rapid Nuclear Energy adoption. I will elaborate on each point below as I lay out my thought process.

AI has been a fascinating topic since I decided to learn more about it after watching the AlphaGo documentary. Subsequently, I took a six-month full-time AI course from IBM in 2021, which opened my eyes to the possibilities where the sky was the limit. Then ChatGPT happened in November 2022 and the AI dam was breached. With the recent launch of DeepSeek, we will likely see another quantum leap in AI in terms of what can be done.

I have been reading about the DeepSeek breakthrough to determine how it happened. Other than the dubious lowball cost estimates, their think-out-of-the-box solution with restricted access to Nvidia chips has amazed everyone. Perhaps America’s groupthink had confined them to only using Nvidia’s CUDA parallel process even as they became worried about running out of raw data to train their LLMs.

The term “distillation” is also a keynote to highlight. Deepseek seems to have leveraged other established LLMs to formulate better answers. By using the DeepThink mode, it was able to deconstruct the initial prompt into many more parts to query other LLMs for a more in-depth answer. The process took longer but provided superior results at a lower cost.

No matter what happens, the AI race has just accelerated to a higher level as all countries are prioritizing the new methods of re-enforced learning and smaller specialised LLMs as the number one goal to stay ahead of the global tech competition. Nvidia chips will remain in high demand as we still need the best supercar to drive these innovations.

Quantum Computing advances have also recently picked up. There have been breakthroughs to ensure that QC can be developed much quicker than expected. QC speed is measured in Qubits and current unstable models are around 100+ with a target of 1,000 within the next few years. But Microsoft just announced their new Majorana 1 QC chip and talking about 1 million Qubits soon!!

Can you imagine how QC will turbocharge computing and lead to even greater AI development? Moore’s law of doubling transistors in chips every 2 years has come true for many years and it was starting to hit a plateau. But QC is likely to speed up computing advancement to new levels.

The final trend I see is rapid Nuclear Energy adoption. Although Climate Change is a real threat to the planet, recent political moves have sidelined the global initiative towards carbon neutrality. However, a huge increase in energy demand is still very likely because of the expected continued demand from AI, cryptos and data centres. So how can the world solve this dilemma?

The Nuclear Renewable energy solution fits the needs perfectly. It provides a win-win end game that encourages a greater adoption of nuclear energy. It is one of the cleanest renewable energy sources and has a high-efficiency rate of 89%. 4th generation reactors like the SMR (Small Modular Reactors) are now much safer and do not require refuelling for at least 7 years. They are small and can produce up to 300 MW each while being stackable to provide economies of scale. Without other viable options, the resistance to nuclear energy will be lessened. People will be educated about recent breakthroughs in safe nuclear energy production.

AI, QC and Nuclear will be strong investment themes to follow this year. I have reconstructed my investment portfolio towards the success of these trends. Stocks that benefit the most from the success of these 3 megatrends are my target for investment.