It is December 31st, and like many people, I am reflecting on what I was able to accomplish this year and even more so on the areas I have fallen flat. But, I am happy to report that 2017 was a great year for Focused Spender and honestly, I am not quite sure how it happened. I think the catalyst was starting an Instagram page, which I did in January. I started it with this post.

Home office makeover sneak preview. Bookshelf was $160. Shopped my home for everything else. #billybookcase #billybookshelf #ikea #homedecor #homeoffice #bookshelfdecor #designonadime #deskdecor #homemakeover #homemaking #office #officedecor

A post shared by Kamilah (@focusedspender) on Jan 4, 2017 at 7:44pm PST

I honestly had NO idea what I was doing, or even the real point of starting an Instagram page. But I thought, Focused Spender should have one since everyone else does. Thankfully around the same time, my friend Nicaila Matthews over at www.sidehustlepro.co taught a master class on Instagram and I was able to get my life together!

In April of this year, I was able to host two financial workshops at Kingsborough Community College. This opportunity came from a friend of mine just asking me if I wanted to host a workshop for the women’s center at her job. Though I immediately said yes, I can honestly say that I was terrified to do it. I spent two to three weeks prepping for the workshop and it definitely paid off. The students were very receptive to everything that I said and what really surprised me was the financial misconceptions that I kept hearing from the students AND the staff. It definitely made me realize that I needed to go on preaching the financial gospel.

About today! I held two financial literacy workshops at Kingsborough Community College today and to say I was nervous is an understatement. I had to talk myself down so much leading up until today. Once I got there, I only had two students and a few staff but they were all highly engaged. By the end of the second I had about 15 people. I got amazing survey results and was asked to come back a few more times in the fall. It’s a reminder to me that if you are passionate about something, you will put your all into it and people will recognize your hard work effort. Thank you Jesus being with me through out the entire event. And now back to my regularly scheduled life, lol!

A post shared by Kamilah (@focusedspender) on Apr 24, 2017 at 11:20am PDT

At some point later in the year, I realized my website needed a complete refresh. My old site, which I completed while on medical leave years ago was just not cutting it. In typical fashion, I decided to redo it myself.

I think I have trust issues.

I found a few WordPress templates, looked at other people’s sites and had my friend who is a graphic designer give me some tips. I put the whole thing together and realized I still did not know what I was doing. So I finally bit the bullet, and went on Upwork.com and found someone to do all the technically things that I could not. I think my investment paid off!

In case you missed it, the all new focusedspender.com is now live! The link above will take you there. #focusedspender

A post shared by Kamilah (@focusedspender) on Dec 5, 2017 at 4:38pm PST

There so many more things I want to do in 2018, like fully build out my website, expand my YouTube audience to 10,000 and create two more streams of passive income. Considering I did not start out 2017 with concrete goals for Focused Spender, I did pretty okay. This coming year though, with real SMART goals in place, should be even better!

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash