Last evening, just after the start of 2018, my husband turns to me and asks – “I don’t get it! What is the big deal about New Years anyway? Why do we need it and who came up with it anyway?”
I surprised even myself with the answer I gave (without any help from Google) saying – “We need the idea of an year to serve as a marker of time. If not a year, then what catalogues or differentiates the huge block of time that we humans have since millennia?”
This answer made me think further to realize that if an year is a marker of time, it is only fair to review the one gone by and plan and work for the upcoming one. Every year now, I will start with a post which lists down the most popular posts as a way of looking back and also enumerates my plans for the coming year.
Why should it matter to you? It will matter because I will try and limit myself to the part of my life which I share with you all J
So, let’s get started. For me 2017 has been a downright exciting year. I have tried quite a few things and I think a lot of them have contributed to making this year-end give me a sense of achievement and a feeling of the year having been fairly productive.
The 5 most-read posts of 2017 were:
This post, published little over 2 weeks back has been surprising in its’ success. I guess the word saving and a personal story around it really resonates with you guys.
Personally, this remains my favourite post. Getting women to start investing is a topic I am intensely passionate about and this was a highly researched post.
Another December post, this serves as another reminder as to anecdotal posts being really relatable with you guys. This post charted out the mistakes I have made and the lessons learnt in the almost 3 years of investing.
Inspired by the motivation of some of the personal finance bloggers towards achieving FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) and my personal dislike for the conventional sense of the word retirement, this post enumerated my reasons for not being a part of this band.
Another personal favourite and another post which took some time in the making. I do not see myself as a preachy person yet I was able to pen down 30 things I have learnt and wanted myself to remember, on the occasion of my 30th birthday.
2018 GOALS
Listing down my goals on Elementum Money for 2018
I read a few articles and saw one figure being flaunted about in most of them. I thought it was only fair I do so too :). Only 8{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886} of the people who make New Year resolutions manage to keep them and achieve it through the year.
Considering I would want to be in the minor 8{76b947d7ef5b3424fa3b69da76ad2c33c34408872c6cc7893e56cc055d3cd886}, I am not going to go with batshit crazy fantasies. I am also not going to talk about final results which may or may not be my controllable. However, I will make it easier and more fool-proof for myself by giving simple dictats that I can follow and which will in effect progress my bigger goal.
Resolution #1: Have a structure as to how I can help people untangle their financial lives
Since the time I have become a Certified Financial Planner (link to that post) I have been researching to understand what would be a good digital model to use this knowledge and help my readers. In 2018, within the first quarter, I will have an announcement on the lines of how I can work with people.
Resolution #2: More excitement into the writing
While I believe I have the basics of blogging covered well I am sure the blog can do with some more excitement in terms of content. 2018 will see some round-up posts and also some guest posts to bring more variety into the writing.
Resolution #3: Work on stage 2 for blog marketing
For more than 2 months, I did not take WordPress business which meant no Google Analytics, no SEO support and a lot of other useful benefits. However, now that most of the infrastructure is in place, 2018 has to be the year of making it bigger – be it through better social media marketing or better networking with fellow bloggers.
Is there anything that I have missed out? Anything that you, dear readers might want to suggest to me to add on to my to-do list for 2018? Do let me know with a comment below or email me at aparna@elementummoney.com
Oh and wish you a very happy, successful, productive and financially fantastic New Year! May 2018 bring your goals to life.
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