9 Year Anniversary

9 Year Anniversary

9 years ago in January of 2013, I decided to publish give this ‘blogging’ thing a try. I’d been told that I was a good writer and I enjoyed putting pen to paper sharing some of my thoughts and ideas. I was pretty into personal finance at the time and noticed that I spent and saved my money quite differently from my peers. I decided to write a blog on personal finance related topics and starting putting out posts twice weekly.

Fast-forward 9 years and the blog is still going strong! I keep thinking I’ll reach a point where I either run out of things to write about or get bored of it, but that day has not come yet! Personal finance is a journey and I continue to learn and have new experiences and I love sharing them with you!

As I look back on the 9th year of blogging here are a few high level reflections/thank you notes:

Thank You

First and foremost, a big thank you to my readers. You continue to inspire me, motivate me, and I love hearing from you! Secondly, a big thanks to Mrs. Money Finance for even with 2 kids and all the busyness in our world for allowing me to keep writing this blog and supporting me while doing it. Also a big thanks to friends of the blog like JCT, DC, JP, DM, JW, EPO and of course my Mom, Dad and NanaMoneyFinance. The questions, comments, sounding board, words of encouragement and the ‘hey have you thought of this’ are always so appreciated and help keep me motivated and excited about writing the blog!

Photo by Kevin Butz on Unsplash

Top Hits and Favorite Articles

I always enjoy looking back at which articles were the most popular vs the ones that weren’t. It can be tough to predict and sometimes it’s the simpler or goofier articles that land the most eyeballs. Top hits for the year were: Why I now buy a $5 latte (which was so fun to low key make fun of myself in), Losing to a bully – why we sold our house (and I loved all the jokes that came in for ways I could have taken care of the dog), Our Experience doing FSBO (prompted by the dog), Getting a $695 credit card (I still feel my stomach drop each time I write that number out) and So many subscriptions in life (and why I pay $9.99/month for AppleTV).

So of my favorite posts that didn’t attract as much attention were: What Young Professionals get wrong about personal finance, Why my Investments are Boring, Why I changed my mind on bitcoin, Stories from Post-COVID investing and Why I’m fixated on 8%. Some good reads there if you missed them!

Side Hustle

When I started this blog in 2013, I had big aspirations of this turning into the next Mr. Money Mustache and me quitting my job, doing the blog full time while running a co-working space and riding my bike to work (wow, I guess I had a blogger crush). A few years in I hadn’t hit it big and wasn’t making any money from it. I do have a few ‘keep the lights on expenses’ but reached a point in which I decided I really enjoyed it and would do it essentially for free, which I was. Of course around that time I established my true goals of the blog is when I started earning money.

Fast forward to today, for the past 3 years I’ve earned a nice little bit of side hustle money from the blog. I work with advertisers who sponsor different articles. At first it felt a little weird but I decided as long as the links and articles were in the spirit and brand of YoungMoneyFinance that I’d be ok with it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not earning life changing money but I am earning, as a friend put it, “pizza money”. I’ve enjoyed having a little extra ‘mad money’ in the budget each month to help treat us to takeout, do a little fun investing or buy a tiny bit more Bitcoin (I’m low key obsessed). If you did care to learn more about how I run/started this blog be sure to check out the YMF story.

Learning

As mentioned, I love this blog for the excuse it gives me to continue learning about personal finance. This past year I did a lot: sold our rental house, maxed out my 401(k), got into crypto and started down the path of staking/earning interest. I even became a cryptocurrency miner to give that a whirl (hint: not as profitable or as fun as it sounds). Mrs. Money and I welcomed a 2nd child, Mrs. Money changed jobs and we saved for two college funds.

This coming year I’m excited to learn and dive more into things like: US Treasury Bonds that are supposedly paying 7% interest, maybe dipping my toe into options and figuring out “After-Tax” retirement contributions that allow you to go above the $20,500 limit for retirement savings. We’re also going to try to get back into the real estate game by purchasing one, maybe two rental houses.

All in all thanks for an incredible 9th year and I look forward to continuing to bring you personal finance articles that hopefully have a positive impact on you and your finances!

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