Welcome to another blogiversary post for Elementum Money, number 4 to be specific. Funnily enough, my blogiversary tradition seems to be a look at dropping blog post numbers laced with a healthy dose of guilt. Then, why should this be any different?

In case you are interested, hop over to the first, second and third blogiversary posts to see the Elementum Money journey unravel.

If anything, I have been dreading this one for some time. With a grand total of 19 posts, the frequency of little over than 1.5 posts has been a little difficult to make eye contact with. But, then it’s been a funny sort of year. I self published a work of fiction, a full-length novel last October – Second Serve. Apart from that, there have been ups and downs which have made it easier for me to make excuses to push back the writing.

But, come October, I am back to making promises. For I am trying to imbibe some hope and self-compassion. So, I patted my back telling myself that atleast the blog has survived, if not thrived. Now, I am hoping that with the announcement of two new experiments on this dear digital corner of mine, I shall be back to getting into a groovy momentum.

Top 5 posts of Year 4

But first, a look back at the 5 most popular posts of the 19 that managed to see the light of day. Mind you, there were many other older posts that remained popular (often much more than recent ones thanks to good SEO) but I picked the ones that were published in the fourth year.

1. Retirement bucket strategy

For a long time, I have seen Systematic Withdrawal Plan as the Hail Mary for senior citizens post retirement. I still think it works well as a invest it, put in the SWP request and forget it mechanism. But, one size doesn’t fit all. Especially for people who are more finicky with mental accounting and also more action-prone where regular rebalancing is rejuvenating and not a pain, the Retirement Bucket Strategy works wonderfully well which showed in the popularity of this post.

2. 5 Impactful Brand Campaigns this womens’ day

A lot of readers on the blog may not know that my first love in business was marketing. I spent my first 8.5 years post MBA, working as a marketer and marrying one as well. Within the realm, advertisements have been something that have caught my fancy since I was a kid and they remain a topic which is discussed threadbare with my husband. Hence, this women’s day I chose to write about five (Indian) ad campaigns that made a valid enough statement through their communication.

3. My year in Books – 2020

This is hands down my favourite post type every year where I list down all the books consumed. 2020 saw me enumerate 55 books in a mere 6,500 words! The reader in you will find something to bookmark considering the fairly wide range I try to dabble in. 

4. 33 books for 33 years

This unabashed public announcement of my age started more as a fun idea on my 30th birthday which happened to be within the first month of the blog. Although I missed it out on my 31st, for the 32nd (with movie dialogues that I agree with) and the 33rd years this post has been fairly popular. Last  year I wrote about the 33 books that have been memorable for me. If there is a reader in you, then this is a must-read post.

5. Shecession 2020

This pandemic has been rough on almost everyone. Livelihoods have been disrupted. Life has seemed uncertain.  Health, mental and physical, has gone for a toss. Amidst all this, there is actual data to show that women have yet again been the frontrunners of being most adversely impacted. Be it the balance of house work with the blurred boundaries of work, or the unfortunate fact of being more prominent in contact based industries. No wonder, this recession has been termed Shecession in certain circles, which is what this post explored in an attempt to increase awareness and hopefully get more people to work towards balancing out it’s impact.

What does Year 5 look like?

What started out as a 3x/week exercise has now dwindled to less than 1/2x-week. So, although I have two new sections in mind, I intend to take baby steps and increase intensity on those as we go on.

Top Reads of the Week

I have always seen Internet as a double-edged sword. Although we have all possible information at our fingertips now, that creates problems of it’s own. In this backdrop, I have often found value in some blogs that list down links of reads that they found useful. Since, I firmly believe you are as good as the content you consume, I thought of closing the loop on this circle and list down some of the content I found interesting in the week.

Mutual Fund Portfolio Corner

To me, mutual funds remain the most important financial products one can invest in. Currently, one of the most talked-about and also the most convenient routes to choosing or remaining invested in a fund remains performance. However, performance is an outcome while portfolio is really the bulk of what contributes to it.

Today, SEBI has made it very convenient for lay people like you and me to access those portfolios. However, most of us can really not spend that time to keep tracking them each month. So, starting this month I intend to spend some time on a short summarising of the portfolios of the top 10 funds in few selected categories. As I do it for a few months, the posts intend to capture the changes made by the fund management so that as an aware investor you are able to take a better informed call if that fund is still for you and maybe even increase your conviction in the fund despite short-term bad performance.

So, that’s how it is looking for Elementum Money, as we go trotting into Year 5. Is there anything you would like to see on the blog? Let me know in the comments below.