2024 review in 8 forms of capital

For the past 9 years since 2016, the 8 forms of capital framework by Ethan Roland & Gregory Landua is my go-to tool for setting intentions for the year.

I love how this framework talks about how capital isn’t just financial capital but comes in 8 different forms:

💵 Financial capital: money, financial instruments, investments

⚒️ Material capital: possessions, natural resources, tools, infrastructure

🌲 Living capital: nature, land, ecosystems, animals, health (my own addition)

💡 Intellectual capital: ideas, knowledge, words, images, intellectual property

💪 Experiential capital: action, embodied experienced, worldly wisdom

👥 Social capital: connections, relationships, influence

🎨 Cultural capital: song, story, ritual, art, theatre, community customs

⛩️ Spiritual capital: prayer, faith, beliefs, spiritual attainment

This annual review framework is not commonly used, but I love that it captures how everything—resources, capital, skills, assets—in life are interdependent and connected. Money is necessary, but not sufficient. This framework forces me think holistically about how I approach success and achievement. Imagine it as 8 different lenses to view reality and life. Each offers a different but useful viewpoint. Together it forms a good picture.

Back in Jan, I set these simple intentions for 2024. It’s been one hell of a year. Some reflections:

💵 Financial: Escape my financial rut. For good.

• I made it! I made it! I made it! Fking f.i.n.a.l.l.y. I wrote this a few times in the past few days already but I will still shout about it from the mountain. I MADE IT PAST SURVIVAL!!! After five long years… I was so tired, I almost didn’t make it.

⚒️ Material: Spend money on tools that help me make more money.

• Big tech refresh this year! Invested in a M2 Pro Macbook Pro. Best ROI piece of tech money can buy. It’s amazing how much money it helped me make. That few thousand on installments is so worth it.
• Another material capital investment is buying Claude Sonnet 3.5 from Anthropic. Without it, I would never have ramped up as fast for my freelance frontend dev gig. I can say Ai single-handedly pushed me into that career pivot. Couldn’t be happier paying Anthropic!

🌡 Living: Rest. Heal.

• I fell sick in first half of Dec, and got off Twitter and most socials. Probably my first real break from the social media hamster wheel in 3-4 years. I also finally travelled overseas, and to Bali! Back before the pandemic when we got to travel freely, I used to say, “Kyoto for inspiration, Bali for restoration.” Perfect timing, perfect place.
• I continued to amp up my daily workouts. From struggling to even go for a 10min morning walk, to now needing to go for that walk, plus doing my sets of pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, to 3 rounds per week day. It’s a pleasant embodied feeling, to slowly feel stronger and healthier.

💡 Intellectual: Learn more ‘passive’ sorts of marketing.

• Picking up bits and pieces of SEO (ProfilePicture.app), discount marketing (Lists Kit, Carrd plugins), affiliate marketing (Lists Kit). Not totally dived into it, but enough to know that I need to learn more!
• Next year, I’m diving deeper into discounts. Already started actually, for Christmas/New Year. Excited!

💪 Experiential: Launch more.

• And I did. I launched 19 new projects this year. All thanks to my #commit365 challenge! Main learning point: When pre-PMF, be consistent in experiments. When post-PMF, be consistent at the grind. Explore, then exploit. I was super consistent. There was right effort. But not so right product-market fit. So gotta be more consistent in trying and launching new stuff.

👥 Social: Build in public.

• Definitely connected a lot more socially this year. Hit 13k following. Started a Telegram group called Commit365, and now we’re about 80 strong, and everyone’s lovely in there. Great bunch of indie mates. Twitter had gone sour a bit, but some bright spots of friends remain, and they are the only ones keeping me there.

🎨 Cultural: Travel with my toddler pre-schooler.

• I had to drop this dream last year because of money. So am so glad this year to finally get to travel with the kiddo, and not just once but thrice! Melaka, Johor Bahru, and Bali.
• That stretch goal of living in Bali for 2-4 weeks during school holidays? My wife and I are finally talking about it! And maybe Japan/Taiwan too at the end of the year.

⛩️ Spiritual: Sitting meditation.

• Zero effort in this. But I still sit every morning, without fail. It’s my anchor. My me time. I’ll never stop.

After years of poor annual reviews, it feels great to finally have the chance to write something more hopeful. So grateful, thankful, contentful.

Thank you Universe.
Thank you Javascript (and Rails).
Thank you, wife, kid, parents and family.
Thank you everyone who gave me a chance.

Aaaand that’s my 2024 in eight forms of capital.

How was your 2024?