Here is part 2 of my 2018 in review..hop on back to part 1 if you’ve not read it first then jump back to part 2!
July
The heatwave continued in the UK and the fun activities carried on. There were lots of Christmas in July events to attend. The Amazon and Aldi events were amazing and totally my favourite thing to do on a hot July day. Drinking champagne and eating Christmas food, why not! And the goodie bags are amazing.
I attended a very amazing creative writing course and it inspired me to write a complete outline for a book, a book that is going to be written during 2019. It was such a fun day where we talked about out creative passions, made mood boards and wrote letters to remind our creative selves what we committed to doing.
July ended with a weekend at Standon Calling. I love this festival and have been as part of the press team for the past three years. This year we saw Paloma Faith and George Ezra perform who were both incredible. And we got to interview Hollie Cook back stage. We camped. Not the best of ideas as this weekend saw the end of the 60-day draught. Our tent just about survived the rain but not the wind.
August
We did a big TV appearance in August as a family and appeared on Good Morning Britain booking a last-minute holiday with Simon Calder. We wanted a package holiday somewhere hot, including food and entertainment for the boys for £2000. Simon tried hard, but it was a challenge. We ended up with a week in a beautiful French Center Parcs, which the boys loved. They had the best swimming pool leisure park that they spent around three hours in every day. The holiday cost us around £2500 in total including the food whilst there, Simon did well with his suggestion. And going on TV was so much fun, the boys loved it.
I started to realise the power of social media in August and the potential for paid work. 2018 saw me work on a several social media only campaigns. This really proves that you do not need hundreds of thousands to earn from social media. I have 4k on Insta, 6k of Facebook and 7k on Instagram and they have earned me several thousand pounds.
August was of course the summer holidays. And it was a quiet time for cash flow, and actually being paid for work. Lots was being agreed but in terms of real invoices being paid it was quiet. Of course, I hadn’t put aside any of the money I had been earning earlier in the year. It was a tough time and I had to rely on overdrafts to cover some of the household bills and business expenses. A big lesson for 2019 is to have plenty of money set aside to cover the lower earnings during the summer months.
September
The cash flow crisis continued into September, but I knew it was going to be fine. The money I was due from work in August and September was soon to paid and I had one record breaking week where I agreed two big projects worth 5k.
September saw me go live on my radio show. Until September I had been pre-recording the show, but I was now ready to go live. I prefer the show live. I still get the guest on who are mostly live as well, and if there are any mistakes, so be it. The show goes out live every Tuesday 11am to 12 noon and I then pop it onto Mixcloud and my website as a podcast afterwards.
One of my live show guests during September was Pete Matthew, an uber popular podcaster and friend from my home town of Penzance. He had just released his book Meaningful Money and my testimonial was on the back cover of the book! It is a brilliant guide that tells you everything you need to know about money, from the basics of budgeting and debt all the way through to investment pensions and protection.
October
I got to experience something very scary in October. I did a Go-Ape tree top rope course. It was one of the scariest things I have ever done! I just about managed the medium level course with the help of my wonderful team mates. But I totally chickened out of the hard level course. I got four stages in and had to give up and go back to the start! This was an event in collaboration with NatWest about facing your fears. I really did that day!
I hosted an event in Covent Garden in the Epson pop-up shop. I talked money saving tips on household finances. It was a great event where a lovely group of people came together to talk about day to day finances as well as planning for the future. I was totally scared that no one would come but they did, and it was a wonderful event.
I celebrated my friends 40th birthday with a beautiful afternoon tea from the Grosvenor Park Lane hotel. It was a bottomless bubbles afternoon tea and we took full advantage of the bubbles, it was lovely!
November
Another month another public speaking event. This month saw me appear on a panel at an investors event. I was talking about my experience with investing and what mistakes and sensible decisions I had made. It was a great event with a large audience and I was much less scared that the September event.
A new bank launched during November, Zopa were granted their banking license. I was part of the launch with blog posts, social media and radio interviews. There will be much more to come with Zopa during 2019 as this is one of my longer-term partnerships.
I continued with my regular BBC Five Live appearances and was a guest on the Nehal show. I pop on that radio station every few weeks when they need a personal finance expert. Other appearances include BBC Radio Kent, Scotland, Birmingham. I have done the rounds with the BBC radio shows! Also I did a sneaky Channel 5 news interview talking about smart meters this month.
December
And we then reach the final month of the year. I am very pleased to say that I have agreed lots of work for 2019 ahead of time. The on-going partnerships are working really well. And I even have one partnership that went live in December that was two years in the making. Sometimes it takes a long time to agree work and progress on a project together.
Q4 has been the best quarter ever for income, those overdrafts from just three months ago are a distant memory and I am now in the position where I have lots of money saved! Money is saved for emergency funds, holidays, pensions and large credit card payments have been made. I am so excited for what is going to happen in 2019. Its going to be fab-u-lous.
Happy New Year to everyone reading this post, I wish you all the success and happiness in wealth, body and mind.
