So here we are, at the tail end of 2016. A lot has happened this year, but we’re still standing at the end of it, so that’s saying something! It just goes on to show that no matter what happens around us, if we stick to our principles and focus on our goals, we can still succeed. And to help you on this journey of setting and achieving goals in the New Year, a planner works perfectly!

There are many absolutely gorgeous planners out there, and worth every penny! However, if you’re a little short on cash this time of the year and are on the lookout for freebies, you’re probably hesitating to spend on those pretty planners. That’s okay too – a planner’s price isn’t an indication of its effectiveness; how you use it is! So for those of you who’d enjoy some free gifts this season, here are 10 free planners for 2017. Whether your goal is to get fit, control expenses, grow your blog or just stay organized – you’re sure to find something here!

1. Krafty Owl 2017 Planner

Love owls? Then you’ll absolutely love this planner from Krafty Owl! It’s a simple, basic planner, but quite practically designed. There are dated monthly spreads and undated weekly spreads with lots of writing space. The monthly sheets also have white space you can doodle in with your colored markers.

2. Handmade Home 2017 Planner

This is the planner I used in 2016, and might just use it again for next year! The design is very feminine – pastel colors and lots of white space. The best part is that there are many options to choose from – you can mix and match patterns to make your own customized planner. You can also choose from A4 or A5 sizes. There are quotes, dividers, to-do lists and so much more!

3. The Organized Dream Planner

This is another pretty planner, with lots of florals and cursive font. It’s got of useful pages too – month at a glance, monthly sheets, daily planners, contacts, passwords, budgets and more! Think of it and you’ll find it here! They also have a blog planner and calendar printables in the same theme, so you’ll have a matching set!

4. Shining Mom 2017 Planner

Shining Mom’s 2017 planner is an awesome combination of three planners in one – life planner, home binder and even a kid binder! It is an absolute winner in terms of the amount of information it includes. There are goal setting pages for the year and month, daily and weekly planning sheets, activity and homework sheets for kids and a full set of home organization sheets that include chores, meal plans and so much more!

5. Living for Naptime Blog Planner

If one of your 2017 goals is to grow your blog then this planner is for you! With 34 pages, you can keep track of every tiny bit of information pertaining to your blog. Along with calendar pages for the year, month and week, there are post planning pages, post schedule, trackers for guests posts, expenses, sponsored posts and more. The planner is colorful without going overboard with lots of space for notes.

6. What Mommy Does Blog Planner

Here is another blog planner that’s a little more comprehensive, with a whopping 80 pages! From post ideas to stats tracker, from affiliate listing to password keepers, you’ll find here every single thing your blog needs. The pattern and color scheme is kind of Parisienne, with black, pink and gold – I like it!

7. Make your Own Zone Printable Planner

This planner is a simple, neat one, and gives you lots of scope for personalization. There are weekly and daily formats, a holiday list and month-at-a glance sheets – all available in a vertical and horizontal format, as well as in a number of colors to choose from. If you like to keep things no-fuss 

and basic, you’re sure to like this one!

8. Frugal Fanatic Budget Binder

For most of us, financial planning is a little scary, especially for women! But a proper budget planner can help you stay on top of your finances in the New Year, like this planner from Frugal Fanatic. Set financial goals on a monthly and yearly basis, track your bills and make a monthly budget. The planner is effective without being overwhelming. For more financial help, do check my post on financial resources for women.

9. Beautyholics Anonymous 2017 Planner

This planner from Beautyholics Anonymous is, like its name suggests, very girly! It has monthly and weekly planners in a floral theme and in a makeup theme. The weekly planner has space for days, goals, priorities and new ideas; so even if the number of pages is not much, they can pack in a lot of stuff!

10. Sparkles of Sunshine Calendar and Planner

This is another pretty planner that is pretty basic, with monthly calendar pages and weekly organizer pages. It’s got some lovely roses printed on the corners, with a beautiful cursive font. Lots of white space around, but it’s so neat, you might want to leave it like that. The site has many more printables too – do check them out!

Have a look at all the planners and pick the one you like the most, based on your needs and your aesthetics. Many of the blogs have other free printable pages, so you can mix and match to create your own custom planner. Do add blank sheets too, so you have some space to jot down anything extra that you’d like.  You can also add some coloring pages too! Most of these work well with a spiral binding format, and don’t forget to use stickers and colored markers to add your own personal stamp! And after you’re done with it, set a schedule to use it! Check it every night before bed or every morning as you drink your cuppa, so you can get a grip of the day before it begins. Spend time with it at the end of every week, every month and every quarter so that you’re always in touch with your goals. Combined with consistent effort, your planner should help you achieve all your goals for 2017. All the best and wish you a very Happy New Year!

Have you got your planner already? If not, which one of these would you choose?

I am back, as promised, with some stuff on personal finance for women!! In my previous post, we looked at how women were being impacted by the current demonetization drive and how little control the average Indian woman had over her finances. But we’re not going to just sit there and let this continue, are we? We’re going to get educated!

If you’re already a personal finance whiz, then congratulations!! I sure am jealous of you!! However the fact is, most Indian women, even urban, educated ones, are clueless about managing their finances and many women don’t have the freedom to do so. Here are some numbers that prove this important point.

Videos on Personal Finance

1. The Money Talks with Hansi video series on YouTube is an absolute must watch for anyone who’s serious about personal finance. Hansi and Mr. Sikka tackle a different finance topic in each video and you have to admit – they make a hilarious pair! Check out this video about how smart women manage their money.

2. Manisha Thakor is a personal finance expert who is pretty popular around the globe. Her video on Women & Money drives home some important points on why financial literacy is so important for women.

3. DSP Black Rock is a mutual fund company, but the website also has a bunch of information to help you understand investing. Their videos are simple to understand and are perfect for newbies to investing.

4. Monika Halan is the editor of Mint Money and she addresses all kinds of financial queries on the Smart Money show on Bloomberg TV. Monika is friendly and speaks in a simple manner. Getting to see how different people manage their money based on their particular financial goals can be quite interesting!

Articles on Personal Finance

1. This article from Women’s Web focuses on personal finance for single Indian women – women who absolutely need to handle their finances on their own.

2. Jago Investor is probably the most popular personal finance website in India right now, and for good reason! The site contains a wealth of information on pretty much every financial topic. However, it may seem a little overwhelming for an absolute newbie.

3. The Big Decisions website has all kinds of articles about various aspects of personal finance, from simple ones like how a joint account can be risky to more large scale ones like how demonetization affects real estate.

4. Money View is a financial app, but their blog has quite a bit of useful information on all matters pertaining to personal finance. Their articles are quite applicable to the average Indian who’d like money tips when getting married, going on a holiday or planning for retirement.

5. The Balance is not a site specifically for the Indian market, but it has a lot of simple, informational articles that apply to general personal finance for everyone. Check out their top ten tips on money management for women for lots of links to related topics.

6. Tired of financial jargon? Simplify matters with this dictionary of sorts, aptly titled “The Glossary of Incomprehensible Banking Jargon”. So if you’ve always wondered what Risk Management or Financial Restructuring mean, this is where you should go!

Books on Personal Finance

1. Personal Finance for Women in India

This is probably the first book to have such a specific target audience – Indian women who want to take charge of their finances! Written by Ankush Thakur and Priya Florence Shah, the book covers all basic financial topics like saving and investing and how to go about it.

2. Money Smart: The Indian Woman’s Guide to Managing Wealth

This book is written with me in mind – yes, someone who’s scared of financial jargon but still wants to know what it means! Reenita Malhotra Hora & Divya Vij have written a book that tackles everything – opening an account, buying a home, investing and saving taxes. Perfect!

3. How to Be your Own Financial Planner in Ten Steps

If you want to take control of your finances, you need to be your own financial planner! This book by Manish Chauhan focuses on most people’s main financial goals like insurance and debt repayment and outlines some important tips for each.

4. A Family’s Guide to the Seven Steps to Financial Freedom

Remember Monika Halan who we mentioned earlier? This is her book and is a simple guide for anyone who’d like to secure their family’s finances. Besides tips and helpful hints, the book also has worksheets to list your goals and create a plan for them.

5. I Can Do Financial Planning

This book is part of the RBI’s campaign to improve financial literacy among the general public. Swapna Mirashi has written it with finance newbies in mind, people who are staring at the finance world at a distance, wondering how to dive in!

6. Lucky Bitch: A Guide for Exceptional Women to Create Outrageous Success

Lucky Bitch by Denise Duffield isn’t exactly a book on personal finance. It’s more about how women can create a healthy relationship with money, and actually get what they want and deserve. Many women have ‘money blocks’, possibly due to familial and societal constraints on women dealing with money. This book helps to get rid of those blocks and open yourself up for abundance.

Now you have quite a bit of information on your hands, don’t you? But remember, all the information in the world can’t help if you don’t take action! Follow these tips to get started on your journey of 100% financial independence.

5 Tips for Financial Planning for Women

1. Track your spending – Jot down where every rupee is going, even if it’s just for an autorikshaw ride! So when you look at it at the end of the month, you’ll have the answer to ‘Where’s all my money going?’.

2. Set financial goals – Sit and think about what you want in life, for yourself and your family. For most people financial goals include an emergency fund, a home, health and life insurance, children’s education and retirement.

3. Budget, budget, budget! Decide on fixed percentages of your income to be spent on utilities, 

extras, savings, debt repayment and charity. Fix an amount for each category and stick to it!

4. Invest smartly – This is where most women start hemming and hawing. Women are good savers but not good investors. Building your wealth is very important – not just to land up on the Forbes list, but to beat inflation and maintain your standard of living.

5. Grow your income – If you have a job, learn new skills so you can work your way up. If you’re an entrepreneur, think of new ways to expand your business. If you’re a homemaker, think of how you can generate an income in your spare time.

For proper financial management, you’ll need to regularly review everything – your goals, your budgets and your investments. Many banks have special schemes for women when it comes to insurance and loans, so make the most of them.

Take the time to educate yourself – maybe spend 15 minutes a day reading an article or watching a video. Educating yourself not just improves your financial prospects, it helps others too. You’ll be in a better position to educate your house help, for example, and she’ll be able to pass on this information to the women around her. So go ahead and take control of your money – you’ll be glad you did!!

There’s this quote by Will Smith that goes “Money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what’s already there.” I think this quote has gained new meaning during the demonetization drive that’s currently going on. At the stroke of midnight of November 8, 2016, our carriages turned to pumpkins and our horses turned to mice, leaving hordes of people running to ATMs, never mind a glass slipper or two being left behind in the rush!

Okay, so you’ve already read all about the serpentine queues and lack of cash in the ATMs. There’s enough trash talking going on everywhere too, with people either being vehemently against or passionately for the entire drive. Seems like there’s no middle ground these days, especially on social media! Anyway, amidst all the noise, it’s been quite interesting to look at how this has affected women, especially the ones who aren’t that educated.

My journeys to the money machines these past few weeks have revealed a few things about Indian women and money. Many of them are unable to fill out a basic deposit slip at a bank. It’s not that they’re illiterate (hello, 100% literate state?). It’s just that the entire process seems too complicated and they’re basically just scared. Women were asking me if I could accompany them to the ATM and help them withdraw cash. And this is in Kerala, a state where 91.98% women are literate, compared to the national average of 65.46%. I can only imagine the troubles borne by women who aren’t literate.

Source

However, turns out that the general understanding of literacy does not mean financial literacy. For most Indian women, saving bits of money here and there and putting them in rice and flour jars has been a common practice in the old days. You would think that most women have operational bank accounts in their name these days, but facts show otherwise. According to a UNDP report, 80% of women in India don’t have a bank account.

I have to admit, sitting in my apartment with a computer and an internet connection, I didn’t imagine that the number of unbanked women would be so high. I guess the patriarchal notion of financial planning being a man’s job still persists. There have been some sexist jokes going about since the demonetization started, like the one where husbands say that they’ll at least get to know how much money their wives have been ‘stealing’ from them. Seriously? Your wife works the whole day, all week and she budgets and saves money, and you call that stealing? Why don’t you just help her open a bank account? Why, are you scared she’ll become independent and won’t be as easy to control? Ugh!!

Before people start attacking me – I’m no financial expert myself! Any talk about equities, derivatives and endowments are enough to send me running. I know many other urban women are in the same boat, and the jargon makes the field of personal finance look intimidating. Yet, providing proper financial literacy for Indian women is something that has been way overdue, and I wish the centre and state governments focused more on this. Gender inequalities like these seriously hamper the development of the nation as a whole, as several studies have pointed out.

Well, well, well, look who's back - it's me!! Has been a long time, hasn't it? Did you miss me? (Please say you did) Anyway, I plan to be more regular from now on, and I begin my comeback with a movie review - The Secret Life of Pets!

You don't really need me to explain this, do you? The movie features the adventures of a group of pets - that happen when their humans' backs are turned. Yes, I know what you're thinking - kind of like Toy Story's pet version.

Max is a cute (and mature-sounding) terrier from New York, who adores his human, Katie. His friends live in apartments near his and are quite a set of characters. (One of them is obsessed with soap operas) Every morning till evening, Max patiently waits for Katie and is delighted to see her. Till one evening when Katie brings home a huuge stray dog. Suddenly Max is supposed to share everything, including Katie's affections. In the midst of outdoing each other, the dogs land up in trouble with some stray animals, after which they go missing. It's up to Max's friends to find him and bring him safely home. Will they succeed? Or will they lose one of them in the process?

Okay, now that you know the plot, it might seem familiar to pretty much every other animated movie out there, but this one doesn't really give you the deja vu feeling. For one thing, the animals are all incredibly cute! Secondly, the characterization is interesting - you get to see a few different characters that aren't usually seen in animated movies. Watch out for Snowball - he's a gem!

The humor in the movie is a little low-key but still enough to bring out the chuckles. The humans don't feature much, as is the way it should be, keeping all the focus on the animals and their various idiosyncrasies. The voice-overs are excellent, particularly Jenny Slate as Gidget. Louis C.K. is perfect as Max and Eric Stonestreet was very good as Duke - he didn't sound anything like Cam from Modern Family!

I don't think people are going to quote stuff from this movie as much as they did from, say, Finding Nemo, but I think there are quite a few subtle lessons hidden among the various scenes. There's a lovely message about putting aside your differences and coming together for a common cause (Max and Snowball). The fact that people can get over ideas they've been fed since childhood and can accept others as their friends (rather than food - Tiberius). I also liked the fact that Max's rescue team is led by a girl - one who loves her TV soaps but is badass enough to fling people about in rage! (Gidget) It also stresses on how appearances can be exceedingly deceptive (Lennard, Snowball). More than anything the movie's about friendships - and how they can be formed even among the unlikeliest pairs!

The movie is a lovely watch and kids are sure to love it! If you're a fan of animated movies and love animals, then this is a must watch. The humor isn't very sophisticated, and the plot isn't ground breaking, but it's still a cute little movie that leaves you feeling good and wishing humans could get along the way the animals did.

Cub enjoyed the movie and was laughing throughout. Right after we finished the movie, he said he was hungry, a request which ended up in getting a Happy Meal from McDonald's. The meal is pretty measly - a burger and a drink and no fries - but the real reason we got the meal was to get this:

Yes, we got Gidget, who's currently missing her friends and feeling lost in Lego City:

If you'd like to check out the trailer, you can watch it here:

So what do you think, will you be watching The Secret Life of Pets? If you've already watched it, how did you like it? Let me know!

“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Moms everywhere are always on the move, constantly juggling several things at once. Many people think that stay at home Moms have it easy; after all, how difficult is simply ‘staying’ at home? Well, we know life’s not like that, so here is a list of 10 things only stay at home Moms or someone who’s ever been a stay at home Mom, can understand.

To read the full post, go here.