In 2018 I'll be starting at Duval Union Consulting as a management consultant, which is a new challenge for me. I haven't done this type of consulting in the past, I'm excited to learn a trick or two and help companies with their digital transformation.

Finances

Financially, 2017 was my best year to date. I'm especially proud of seeing the results of my own company improve by 9%, despite spending less time working. As I'm interested in financial independence, it's superb to see these numbers improve year by year.

I retained a high savings & investment rate. All by all, I managed to funnel about 17% of my total net-income to non-secure investments, which is exactly the same as 2016. Similarly, I did improve my cash buffer for none-foreseen expenses.

My stock portfolio had a yield of 15%. To compare this to the BEL20: 8% and the S&P500: 20%. As I invested more in European stocks over the year, I'm pleased with the final result.

My total yield since I started investing is currently at about 28%, which is a significant number.

Health

2016 was a shitty year health-wise, I'm really happy that 2017 was about as flawless as it can be. I didn't get sick, I got much more exercise than the year before and in general I felt healthier.

Part of this is by using the car much less and walking around. To give an indication:

2015: Average of 5521 steps per day

2016: Average of 7684 steps per day

2017: Average of 7942 steps per day

Sleep on the other hand remains problematic (well, I've written most of this post at 3am, which seems to be a more productive hour of mine).

2016: On average of 6:00 hours of sleep per night, with a sleep quality of 60%

2017: On average of 6:20 hours of sleep per night, with a sleep quality of 65%

(Compare this to the Belgium average, which is 7:27 and 76%)

It's also the first year I've tracked my wellbeing using Moodscope. With few lows, quite a few highs and an average well-being percentage of 72%, it was a good year mentally.

If you are a bit sceptical of how you can translate your wellbeing to a percentage, check out how it works on their website. There's actually quite some research behind it.

Education

The biggest news here is that I started to learn how to play the piano. It's something I've always wanted to do and I finally made the move to get myself a piano, find a teacher and just do it.

It's been a very rewarding experience, albeit difficult (I didn't expect otherwise).

In comparison to last year, I read much less and much more fragmented. All by all, I finished two books, but started reading a whole number of them. I like this aspect though, just picking up something and finding the interesting bits and pieces. There shouldn't be any pressure to finish a book.