Hi guys I’m an aspiring financial writer. Is there any tips for what content are best to write about and what thinking framework I should adopt?

Hi Anonymous,

It's great that you've decided to start writing!

Everybody has to start somewhere.

If you have a particular niche in personal finance that you're well-versed in or have strong interest (maybe you're from that particular industry and have subject matter expertise), I'd suggest creating content with regard to that.

For example, if you've always been fascinated with owning property or have an insight as to how the average Singaporean can work towards owning multiple properties. Then maybe you'll want to focus on property and helping your readers attain their home ownership goals.

If you're a parent who's done it all, then maybe you'd like to chronicle your experiences and the costs involved in raising children. Heck, kids always do the most amusing (and unexpected) things and that would make for pretty interesting content - especially since Singapore is notoriously expensive to live in, much less raise a child.

I guess where I'm going with this is:
1) know what you're good at, and
2) know your target audience

Start there, keep tweaking, and see where it goes.

But most importantly, think about bringing value to your readers.

This could come in the form of your personal opinion on a contentious subject, a personal anecdote to help people relate better to a certain situation you're talking about and etc.

Anybody can rattle off the pros and cons of doing a voluntary top-up to your CPF special account. Just do a search on Google.

But if you can value add by illustrating how doing so (with numbers and figures) helps you to better plan your retirement wish to travel the world, for example. Then you would have helped someone who has ambitious plans to see the world in their retirement. It's not just generic advice that you know you should do but aren't really sure why you should follow in the first place.

This is known as:
1) context (or creating relevance for your readers)

If your readers find relevance in what you write about, and can appreciate your knowledge... you'll have a winning formula there.

All the best!

Hello! I think the best strategy is to write what you're really interested in writing. This gives you an authentic voice. And because the topic you're writing on is something you're interested in, you (1) likely have unique views and know more about the subject than the average person, which makes your content interesting to the public, and (2) can sustain your writing activities for a very long period of time.

I will also suggest for you to actively read the articles of writers you admire. How do they structure their articles? How do they structure their sentences? I personally learnt a lot about finance-writing this way.