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2022 Year in Review – Health, Relationships, and Meaning

Calvin Lo

Following up on my previous post reviewing Wealth and Portfolio goals, I’ve also been reflecting about other aspects of life (after all, life is not all about money, right?).

Read also: 2022 Year In Review – Wealth And Portfolio

In no particular order, here are the 4 main areas of my life I’m reflecting on this year:

  • Wealth
  • Health
  • Relationships
  • Meaning

In this post, I’ll share about the other 3 areas – Health, Relationships, and Meaning.

Health

Exercise. I’ve been running a lot more in H2, around 2-3 times a week, 4-6 km runs. Tried 4 times some weeks but that took a toll on my body so my max is 3 times a week now. Since I’m still WFH for now, I can run during lunchtime, which for some reason also reduces my appetite for lunch so I eat less for lunch those days. Not sure if I can continue this pace once I start returning to office. My 2023 goal is to maintain 2-3 times weekly runs but try to increase to 8-10km runs.

Diet. I’ve been trying 12:12 intermittent fasting also in H2. That means I’m supposed to keep only a 12 hour window to eat all my meals, eg 7am-7pm. That’s like only level one, pretty easy. Started off promising, but I’ve not been able to maintain discipline. My 2023 goal is to consistently do 12:12 and stretch goal is 16:8 (8 hours to eat of course).

Sleep. I’ve been getting slightly more uninterrupted sleep with my younger son waking up only once or twice a night now (on good nights). I’m averaging 7-8 hours of sleep but with interruptions I still don’t feel fully rested. Hopefully my son’s sleep gets better so we can get better quality sleep ourselves. My 2023 goal is for 8 hours of sleep (ok if broken sleep).

Relationships

Immediate family. As my kids grow up I find time moves fast and slow simultaneously. Extended weekends and nights might feel long and tiring especially after a busy working week. But when I look back at photos of my kids and see how fast they’ve grown, I feel that time has just flown by too quickly.

I feel that it’s so important for me to spend more time with my young kids while they’re developing and growing up fast, and to be fully present while I’m with them. Not easy with so many competing priorities. My wife and I have made the conscious effort to put away our phones during playtime (although sometimes we still regress).

As I’ve mentioned, we will also be travelling more with our kids before P1, including back to my hometown in Sabah, Malaysia where my parents, sister’s family, and extended family are.

Relatives. With borders reopened and cross-border travel returning to normal, I’ll be aiming to go back to my hometown in Sabah, Malaysia more often, as well as find opportunities to visit relatives both in and out of Singapore. Fortunately, I have a few cousins in Singapore so there’s also no excuse not to meet up occasionally. The pandemic lockdowns has taught me not to take physical meetups and family connections for granted.

Friends. Same for friends. After having kids, especially while they’re young, it has become increasingly difficult to meet up with friends. Not impossible, but kids definitely sap a lot of energy and time. Not that I’m complaining. I’m keenly aware that when they grow up, they probably won’t want to spend much time with me anyway. But I feel it’s important to try to keep in touch with friends, even if it’s only meeting up once a year.

Meaning

Work. I’ve slowed down quite a bit at work after the arrival of my kids. Not so much in the daytime which is fine since we send the kids to pre-school and my in-laws take care of them for a few hours after, but more so in the evenings (when I have weekly calls with colleagues in the U.S.). Hopefully as my younger son’s sleep stabilises as he gets older, I’ll be able to take on more responsibilities and/or upgrade my skills/knowledge this year.

Blog. This blog has been a great outlet for my thoughts and a platform for engagement with the wider personal financial and investing community. In 2022, I earned My First Google AdSense Payout – Kopi Money, which I was pretty excited about although the amount is small. To a certain extent, I do try to write posts that get good viewership (indicates to me that people find the content valuable). My aim in sharing is to hopefully help others make better financial decisions. But also the great thing about having my own blog is that I can write whatever I want, since I don’t depend on the income anyway.

Spirituality. Last but most importantly, I want to keep my life focused spiritually and not be affected too much by worldly concerns and events. I want to be able to serve my community, while taking care of my family financially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. In 2023, my goal is to strike and maintain this balance and not let wordy aspects of life take up too much of my energy, time, and mental space.

Closing thoughts

As we close out 2022, the hope is always that the next year will be better. However, we need to recognise that we need to better ourselves first. Improve our mentality, skills, and knowledge to position ourselves to capitalise when the opportunity next presents itself. The world is moving so fast these days that if we’re standing still, we’re actually moving backwards.

2022 might have been a painful year in the financial markets (and maybe in personal life for some) but instead of trying to forget the pain, I want to remember it and use it as a lesson for the future if we encounter similar circumstances. The market moves in cycles and its just a matter of time before we recover from this bust and go into boom times again. Next time it happens, I hope to be better prepared.

Without ending on too much of a pessimistic note, if you haven’t had a great 2022 know that you’re not alone. If you did, congrats! Let’s all look ahead to continually improve ourselves in 2023 and beyond. Here’s wishing you a fantastic year 2022 ahead in your investing/finances, health, family/relationships, career/work/side hustles/passions. Happy New Year!!

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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. I am not professional financial advisor nor do I work in the finance industry. Anything I write here is purely my personal opinion. Please do your own research and due diligence before investing into anything. All investments come with associated risks. Best to consult a financial advisor if you’re still unsure.

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