Since I’ve started investing in both shares and crypto I’ve started to realise I am looking at the world a little differently.

When I first started in January, I wrote down several goals that I wanted to achieve in the first few months of 2021. After being caught an hour away from Wuhan at the start of Chinese New Year the year before, the rest of 2020 was a bit of a right off. So, I decided that 2021 was the year I wanted to achieve new things.

I think perhaps I should explain a little more about my 2020 experience. At the start of Chinese New Year, we travelled back to Huangshi, my wife’s hometown where we have an apartment with my mother and the rest of the children to celebrate the New Year. A couple of days later the city was in full lockdown  and we were concentrating on getting my mother (over 70) and son (needed to do his A’levels) back to the UK on the repatriation flight organised by the UK government. A nightmare journey with being told at 10:00 pm they needed to get to the meetup point near Wuhan airport by 12:00 am, whilst we were living in Huangshi which is a little under 2 hours away from the airport. We managed to get through all the check points and get them to the coach we had luckily been waiting for them and some others. It was then a 6-hour journey around Wuhan trying to get back to Huangshi, with roads closed both by the government and locals. I had been offered a flight back to the UK too but as we were told my wife and daughters couldn’t come because they were Chinese citizens I decided to stay.

Luckily we have beautiful views in our apartment complex and it was great to watch them create the new park and water environment together.

The rest of the next few months until May was taken up with recruiting new teachers for the following school year and preparing the school for reopening. We managed to get back to Shanghai at the end of March and all but 3 of my teachers also returned to China before the border was closed shut. We were allowed to reopen in May and both the children and staff were glad to be back to some kind of normal. If Covid has taught us anything it is the futility of planning too far in advance and the importance of schools and the day to day to interaction of pupils and teachers.

Recruitment and ensuring pupil and staff safety carried on all the way through the July holiday with August then bringing in the new school year, organising training for the new teachers and reopening the school. The next few months passed by in the normal blur and so I got to January 2021 and the need to consider what I needed to do. I know I am going to be retiring in 2035, it’s only 14 years away and although I have some pension provision I want to be comfortable rather than worry about money all the time. For more about what I have started to put in place please see my blog post 50 year old crypto virgin no more!

I also started a website and YouTube Channel- linking everything together about something I know and am passionate about- the need for mental wellness. This can be achieved through rest, relaxation and meditation. I’m not expecting this blog or the website or YouTube channel to make me any money- it’s to help me get sorted and organised and they help other people too then great.

I have now found I look at the world differently. I’m not so focused on the worth of Bitcoin or my shares for example. It’s more about the amount of the asset I have. If I am about to buy something, I think of it as in how much Bitcoin or Ethereum would it help me get? Do I really need it? Or am I better off putting it to one side and then adding it to my crypto wallet instead later on once I have managed to transfer it out of China (I will explain about the joys of the Chinese Banking system in another post). And this year we celebrated Chinese New Year in Shanghai- just in case it started all up again.

I don’t intend to sell any of my crypto or shares. I just want to add to them. My question is- has this change of world viewpoint happened to anyone else? I think it is likely to certainly help me save more and that is a good thing anyway.

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