It’s the beginning of a new year, and that time of the season to evaluate my previous year’s KPIs and rate them accordingly before I set out my 2026 new year resolutions.
My 2025 KPIs were the following:
1. Read 20 books – They can be non-fiction or fiction books, short stories or novels. I will read anything that interests me, at a rate of 1 to 2 books a month. I will borrow the ebooks from the National Library to read on my PC or iPad. As usual, I will write a summary of every book I finish as a matter of record.
Rating: C
Only managed to read 8 books in total – a summary of each book read is listed below. Travelled overseas a lot because my wife and I retired earlier this year. I have to read more into 2026 and make it a bedtime habit.
2. Do 5 courses – Either physical classes or online MOOC, I will utilise the new Skillsfuture funds ($4k) to educate myself on topics I want to learn more about, with more than 25,000+ courses listed on the Skillsfuture website for me to explore.
Rating: C
I only managed to do 2 physical courses:
ACI food and wine – 23-24 Aug with my wife and some relatives to utilise the Skillsfuture funds before they expire in end of 2025
Frank’s NextPlay one-day course – 20 Nov 2025. An interesting course that was therapeutic, which he invited me to share life experiences with like-minded participants and try to map out the next phase of our life journey.
3. Deep dive into at least 2 more new or existing interests, to continue on my life-long learning journey. With the Internet and AI tools available to help us, it should be easier. But we get an overload of information around us, and the main problem is to sieve between the BS and discover the truth. That is getting harder to do nowadays.
Rating: B
Read up more on Quantum Computing and Nuclear Energy as 2 areas that are becoming more relevant to AI development and could become the next big thing.
We embarked on a home renovation project after staying in the same place since Dec 2007 (18 Years). Given that the kids are now young adults, we thought it was time to upgrade the house and modernise it. After 6 months and more than 300k spent, it was finally ready. We had to move to my in-laws’ place for five months while the house was being completely renovated internally.
I was more active in writing articles on LinkedIn to share my thoughts and experiences, especially about being retrenched. I am positioning myself based on my views on retirement, technology and investment themes.
4. Travel more – My wife and I have already planned for one major long trip every quarter to Portugal/Spain (Lisbon, Madeira, Porto, Madrid), South Korea (Busan, Seoul) and China (Chengdu, Chongqing). There will also be short trips between these trips to neighbouring places like Johor Bahru and cities in South East Asia. Given that we have more time on our hands now, as we retired earlier last year, we do not need to rush during our vacations and can slowly enjoy and absorb the local culture and vibe.
Rating: A
Travelled a lot in 2025 and am planning more for 2026. I did a total of 7 trips to Portugal/Spain, South Korea, Penang (with the guys), China (Chengdu and Chongqing), Desaru, HK/Shenzhen and JB.
5. Be happy and healthy – to enjoy our 2nd halftime period. Life is short. We will take time to smell the roses. Have a regular exercise regime, and aim to constantly seek small feelings of happiness while exploring new experiences. We need to also count our blessings daily as we enjoy our retirement years.
Rating: B+
Retirement and a lot of travelling in 2025, while focusing on health issues in the second half of the year.
More mindful of health due to a few highlights in my latest annual medical checkup, plus my in-laws’ prostate and hip issues. I did a colonoscopy in Dec and saw various specialists for ECG and prostate examinations.
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Books read and summarised (8):
(1) The Nvidia Way – Tae Kim. A few highlights of its success. Time GPU product launches to be aligned to the twice-a-year PC releases, with 3 teams to ship 3 chips per design cycle. Don’t waste rejected top-line GPUs, just dumb it down slower and sell as cheaper versions to reduce waste cost. Transforming GPU to simulations and AI. The evolution and development of CUDA and backward compatibility. How GPU parallel computing worked well with deep learning and AI – Nvidia discovery and bet all-in in that direction. CUDA complemented the process. The Nvidia Way and culture, Jensen’s quotes, hire the best, lose together, focused – “The mission is the boss”.
(2) Source Code, my beginnings – Bill Gates. The first of 3 books which Gates will write. About his childhood till around 1980, when Microsoft started with Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer. Good insight into his geeky past and how his values and principles were formed, of course, from his point of view. About his close childhood friend Kent, who passed away young at 13. How his journey created Basic and the start of the evolution of personal microcomputers from mini computers. His later years might be a problem soon with Epstein. Overall, an easy read on how he decided to pivot to software via microcomputers, hence the name Micro Soft. His journey there as a software programmer began. The book ends with Microsoft relocating to Seattle.
(3) The Gate to China – Michael Sheridan. Rereading the book again about HK history. Wanted a better understanding of HK history, especially leading into the 2019 riots and what happened next as COVID hit. A complicated read of twists and turns, which made HK into what it is. Will it fade now that China has full control, or will it remain as a financial hub to continue to challenge Shanghai and Shenzhen? Only time will tell.
(4) The Dark Forest – Cixin Liu. Next book after The 3 Body Problem novel, which was made into a Netflix series. A few twists and turns. Bottom line, if you announce your location to the universe, some alien nation will come to destroy you. Long 1,000 pages talking about some tech stuff written in 2008, which seems likely today.
(5) Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World – Parmy Olson (Sep 2024). About Sam Altman and Demis Hassabis, who eventually aligned themselves with Microsoft and Google, respectively. Trying to do good with AI, but the commercial aspect is so strong. Altruism and helping humanity always give way to profit and revenue motives in the end. Too much talk on ethics and AI doomsayers makes it a less technical book.
(6) The LLM Stack – A practical guide to understanding AI by Uli Hitzel – 89 pages. My trainer from the NUS Fintech course. Brief overview of LLM internal workings in layman’s terms, but some technical stuff is still hard to comprehend, as I have no programming or API cloud experience. Just good to know.
(7) The Split: Finding the Opportunities in China’s Economy in the New World Order – Shaun Rein. Pretty enlightening read of the various themes of China’s rise and its issues from a foreigner’s perspective who has lived there for 20 years. Some good points made and challenges, as it is China has an upper hand now to succeed in the global arena.
(8) The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel. Humility, respect the power of luck and risk. Less ego, more wealth. Manage money to sleep well at night. Increase your time horizon. Be ok that a lot of things can go wrong. Use money to gain control over your time. Be nice and less flashy. Save all the time. Define the cost of success and be ready to pay it. Have room for error. Avoid extreme ends of financial decisions. Take risks over time, but avoid ruinous risk. Define the game you are playing, and don’t be influenced by others playing a different game. Respect the mess and differences that may not work for you. Some common-sense approaches to money.
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