Wow, what a year it’s been both for me and the blog. Every year in January I like to do an anniversary post, celebrating another year. It’s crazy to think that 6 years ago, January 2013, I sat down and wrote a post in which I announced to the world that I was setting out on a mission to bring quality financial articles to young professionals. 6 years later that mission remains the same!

A couple of highlights from YoungMoneyFinance this year to share:

Winning Awards

It’s always nice to get a little recognition and I am proud to have won two awards this year: being named a Top 10 Personal Finance Blog for 20 somthings and a being included in the Top 15 Millennial Money Blogs.

Getting a facelift

In the past year, I updated the blog to have a new theme and a new logo. My old look was good, but I felt that cleaning it up and making it look more professional would be helpful. I spent a little money (gasp) and bought a theme and logo. I’m very pleased with how it turned out and feel much better about the look. Coach always said “if you look good, you play good” so hopefully I keep playing good!

Remaining true to my mission

Although the mission has remained the same all 6 years here, I updated the verbiage and formally came up with a mission statement: “we strive to provide modern, relevant and easy to understand financial knowledge to our readers.” I feel like I’ve remained true to this mission and despite changes in my life and updates to the blog, my articles are still helping young professionals! I continue getting great feedback from readers and friends and that keeps me motivated!

Launching the store

In an effort to continue that mission, I was excited to launch the YMF Store, containing comprehensive guides. What I found was that it can be quite difficult to find quality, easy to understand insight into common financial tasks young professionals are faced with. To date I’ve got 5 guides up: Personal Finance 101 – in which I cover the basics that all young professionals should know. The Personal Finance Checklist– a step by step list that walks you through the things you should be thinking about at each stage of being a young professional (yes there are stages). Saving for Retirement in which I break down the alphabet soup of 401(k), IRA, Roth and help you figure out how to put a little aside to make sure you have enough when you want/need to stop working. Buying a House, in which I discuss how to buy a house and more importantly, when you should consider doing so. My latest addition is Employee Benefits, where I go through common benefits offered by an employer through work. Benefits are so important to take advantage of yet are quite confusing and hard to understand. Rather than throwing you hands up in despair or blindly choosing a plan to go with, make an educated decision and choose the benefits you need.

I’m very proud of these guides and believe that they can be of real assistance as you navigate those difficult financial tasks! Be sure to use code “ymfguides” as the first 50 guides sold get 50% off. Please take a look and maybe if you’re all set send to a friend that could use it!

Surviving 3 super big personal changes

At the end of 2018, Mrs. Money and I underwent a few life changes, seemingly all at once. They’re all good changes but were quite stressful all the same. I’ll be doing a post later this spring on it but here they are: we bought a new house (and became landlords with the old one), I changed jobs and we announced that we’re expecting Baby Money Finance. We joked that we wanted to go ahead and get a bunch of major changes knocked out all at once. Big shout-out to Mrs. Money for being supportive and such a team player. We make a great team!

Greatest hits

I had a ton of fun writing these articles over the past year. I was able to branch out and get a little creative with them. In case you missed them, here are the top 5 articles from the past year and a little commentary on them:

Preparing for the worst – a good friend of mine experienced a great loss in his life and shared with me how it impacted him and what he wished to share with others to help them prepare.

Is Crossfit worth it – haha I’d say “yes” but to convince you, or at least share my thoughts, I explained why I consider it a valuable investment.

My experience with Costco – it may have been a shock, but I only recently got a Costco membership. I held out despite basically all my friends swearing by shopping there. I received a membership as a gift and after a few months, shared my experience with it. Spoiler alert – I am planning to renew in the coming month when my membership is due, but Baby Pack on the way may have something to do with that as Costco has a ton of baby stuff (ahem diapers).

My experience with Prosper – My friend Tom wrote this post in which he shared his experience with Prosper. I personally have invested with Lending Club, so it was a great compare/contrast to review.

New Tax Laws – Here in the US, we had a fairly large change in the tax law and it was a little confusing to say the least. I tried to break it down and help readers understand what is in store. I guess we’ll see how it really works out for us as we all in the US will be filing our taxes over the next few months!

Shout-outs

Finally, I wanted to give a few shout-outs to those in my life that encourage me and keep me motivated with the site. First of all, a quick thanks to Mrs. Money Finance. She lets me answer emails, tweet, write articles and track stats on a weekly basis. She always encourages me to keep at it! Secondly, a shout-out to Mama Money Finance, my Mom. Of course you can count on your Mom to be supportive, which she totally is! In addition to being supportive, she helps out with proofreading. She’s a teacher so she perhaps enjoys it a bit but I’m thankful for it! I also want to thank my siblings and siblings in laws – whether it’s my brother proofreading my guides, my sister who wrote me a sweet letter one time (that I still have), or my brother-in-law reviewing blog strategy and sharing tips with me. Really appreciate it!

Finally finally, a big thank you to the readers. I would have stopped this long ago if this was just an outlet for me to share my financial ramblings. I love my readers, whether you’re a first timer or a long-time fan of the blog. Your comments, your emails, your words of encouragement mean so much to me! Thank you thank you!

Happy 6 year anniversary!