Lessons Learned From 5 Years Of Blog Writing

Well it’s been five years – five years since I started my journey to financial independence and five years since I started writing this blog (though I only took it public last July). Today I want to focus on what those five years of writing have taught me (thoughts on what it’s like to be half a decade into a financial journey will come in a January post).

This is by far the longest time I have consistently done any hobby. My writing was sporadic the first few years vacillating from daily updates to months of silence, but in 2017 I dedicated myself to writing at least once a week and have kept that cadence since.

This blog has honestly been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done not just because it’s a record of what’s happening in my heart and mind, but also because of the new community this blog and striving for financial independence has brought me.

So let’s get into what I’ve learned, what’s changed and answer a few reader questions about my process and journey with this blog.

What I’ve Learned

Write When You’re Inspired

This is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned and I suspect it is the main reason my blog has gotten the recognition it has. I don’t try to force anything. I write when I have something to say and feel it bursting out of my chest, which at times has led me to jump out of bed in the middle of the night to quickly type a few paragraphs on my computer if it’s not something I can write quickly on my phone. When I did this recently during a trip to Portland, my partner rolled over after I got back into bed and said “Look at you writer.” I guess I’m a writer 🙂 .

I’ve never felt that kind of enthusiasm for any other hobby short of pursuing financial independence – my spreadsheets and I have a good time and I have been known to awaken in the middle of the night to update them after my bonus paycheck of an unknown amount hits my bank at midnight, but outside of seeing my time working dwindling this is the most rewarding hobby because I just go with the flow.

So I only write when I’m inspired to do so, but that doesn’t mean that I can sit at my computer when inspired and bang out a whole post – far from it. Ideas or phrases flit through my mind at random times and I make sure to jot them down. I’ve been using the free website Asana to gather all of those thoughts visually. I also use that site as a checklist of what I need to do before each post goes public. That helps me stay focused on what matters: the ideas.

Write What You Want To Read

I know that every blogging experience is unique and what works for one person may not work for others, but one of the reasons I am still here writing after 5 years is because the original goal of this blog was to write for myself. I started this blog to catalog this journey for myself and to keep me motivated and accountable.

As a result of having 1 reader by design (my Mom), I only wrote about what I wanted to read. I still do this. I don’t follow what people say I ‘should’ do and maybe that’s a mistake in that I’m not giving you what you came for (if that’s the case feel free to let me know in the comments), but if I’m honest, that’s not my main concern.

I’m going to keep writing about what I want to read. In fact, I’ve found myself re-reading my old posts and thinking “Who is this woman?” I have changed so much and I find it really interesting 🙂 . This is also why I haven’t written any of the standard “How To Finance” posts. I don’t personally find those interesting so you won’t be seeing those here. I really think this approach has greatly contributed to my longevity. I don’t do anything I don’t enjoy.

Punch Self Doubt In The Face

The esteemed editor of this blog is also my Mom. I email her my drafts to catch any errors I’ve made and ask her to tell me if something doesn’t make sense. She usually has a 24 hour SLA and her prices can’t be beat (Hint: It’s free ninety nine 😉 ). Looking back at the emails I sent her, almost every one asks if X is weird to say or if I’m rambling or if I should just throw this post into a volcano of fire and never let it see the light of day.

At times her job was more ‘coach’ than proofreader – she has always encouraged me to post what I wrote and every time she has been right. I luckily haven’t experienced any crickets or anyone commenting “WTF are you talking about?” She has helped me realize that a large part of writing a blog is just being willing to punch self doubt in the face and just do it. To not second guess yourself and just put your words out there.

Just Keep Going

Looking at my oldest posts I am truly embarrassed to read them, but I keep them up because they are not only an honest portrayal of what I felt at the time, but also how I wrote. This blog is a catalog of my thoughts and the lessons I learned on the road to financial independence just as much as it’s a catalog of how I’ve grown as a writer and I don’t want to mask that despite how cringe inducing my early writing is to me. I’ve gotten much better – I’ve grown in countless ways and that is fun to see.

I just kept going – even though I didn’t think my writing was very good in the beginning. Even though I had no idea what I was doing – and I got better. With every post I seem to be honing my skills. I was recently hit with this revelation when a blogger friend who I admire, said she couldn’t figure out a post she had been writing and it received negative feedback from the two people she had asked to look over it. I took a look and in a few minutes sent her ways to improve the focus and content.

She made those changes and posted it the next day. And I sat back and realized: I never would have been able to do that a few years ago – look at something, see what wasn’t flowing and make suggestions for improvement in WRITING. Never. I’ve grown so much and I can’t only thank consistency and continued effort for it.

“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”<-Lie

I accepted a freelance writing assignment from a friend a few weeks ago – my first. I’ve been offered two before – one I turned down despite it being a lot of money because I was too lazy and one said never mind after I told them they can’t run my real name or face in a major news publication.

I’ve been in a bit of a blogging funk ever since I accepted this and finally realized why. Even though this assignment is for a friend, is quite generous in its terms and involves something I intended to do anyway: researching the world around me, it wasn’t the fun time I thought it would be and when I calculate all the time I spent actively working on it (not including the countless hours I worried over or thought about it) my hourly rate comes out to less than minimum wage. I imagine that’s not too bad for a first time freelance writer, but looking back at the experience I didn’t enjoy it. And enjoyment is my new barometer of how I want to live my life.

Putting all that writing energy into another project, even one that I knew would help a friend, was really challenging for me and it made me realize that the classic advice of “do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” is even more flawed that I had originally thought.

Not only are there things associated with “what you love” that feel like work, for example the paperwork associated with being a freelance photographer or the video editing inherent in being a YouTube personality, but even the act of doing something you love (in my case writing) can be unfulfilling if it’s not how you choose to approach it. I took this freelance assignment to help a friend and to see if I would enjoy it.

I write this blog for basically the opposite reason: I write it for me, to remember what I was thinking and feeling through my journey to financial independence and secondly since taking it public I write it for you – in case I can help any of you avoid my mistakes and pitfalls. It seems that the reason behind doing an activity might be as important, if not more important, than the activity itself when it comes to following your passions. So this will be my first and last freelancing assignment. It was a nice experiment, but after reflecting on it – despite my love of writing – it’s not for me.

Questions From The Community

Now it’s time to answer questions from some of you! This is comprised of questions I received on Twitter and in my post comments. Let’s get into it!

“What is your writing process?”

This question came from Shin at One Too Many Tabs. I’ve heard that staring at a blank page when you start writing is intimidating and I completely agree. That’s one of the reasons I’ve literally never starting writing from a blank page. As I mentioned, when I think of an idea I write a few notes about it – just a jumble of words really, not full sentences. Then if I think of something else later I go back and add it. I do the same if I think of a possible blog topic: I write it down and fill it in with little notes later.

The other effect is that I’m never starting from scratch. At the very least I have a few stunted sentences written out when I feel inspired enough to write. Then I look through my catalog of ideas to determine which one speaks to me the most at that moment (wow I sound more ‘creative’ than I thought when talking about this stuff 😉 ).

So I usually have a starting point, not a full outline or anything really sexy, but something so that the blank page can’t intimidate me. And then I write a post, but often not in one sitting. I leave for a bit and come back when I feel like it. Only two posts in my memory have been written in one sitting: my post about death and the one about monetizing this blog. I had something to say and it showed in how quickly those ideas went onto the page.

“What was your most memorable positive reader comment/story? Most memorable hater? Lessons or thoughts on each?”

These questions came from The College Investor and they’re a doozy. The positive feedback I’ve received on this blog has filled my heart more than I ever thought possible and it’s hard to pinpoint one comment or story, but I think my favorite is when Modest Millionaires emailed me about a year ago asking for advice on moving to remote work.

That email led me to create a post with the advice I gave her and a pen pal relationship between the two of us. That pen pal relationship blossomed into a real life friendship. I met her in person for the first time at the DC airport before FinCon where we were roommates. I flew across the country to room with someone I met through this blog. That’s so wild and I’m so grateful she reached out a year ago and as I’ve mentioned before, the community that I have found because of this blog is absolutely the best part.

My most memorable hater was actually the first – it was so ridiculous that Military Dollar was kind enough to make t-shirts out of the comment (at cost) that I then gave to a few blogger friends. Overall Carl from 1500 Days gave me some great advice about trolls – their nasty comments are more about them than they are about you. I came into this Internet game expecting vitriol and have been pleasantly surprised with the lack of it. I would say 99% of the comments and notes I receive are positive, which makes it easier to swat away someone being nasty (or unintentionally hilarious as seen below).

It's taken almost a year, but I just got my first troll comment ever on my "Why I'm Never Getting Married" post. Comment: "Feminism is everywhere and these women are the cause." I guess I'm a real #blogger now? Also his words actually sound like a compliment #TrollFail

— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) June 1, 2019

“What’s your favorite post out of all you wrote on your blog?”

This question is from Daniella at I Like To Dabble. This is currently my favorite: Why Retire Early? Because Death Is Coming (yep I’m morbid like that).

“Since you’ve changed your mind about not making money on the blog, what approaches have you tried? Anything you’d like to try moving forward?”

This comes from Dollar Revolution. Since deciding to monetize, I’ve added a few affiliate links here and there and recently put a few ads on my site. That’s the extent of it and I don’t have any plans to do anything new moving forward. Given my revelations about freelancing writing above and general skepticism, sponsored posts aren’t for me. So for now – this is it! I think I’ve found a good balance of seeing if I can recoup my costs and staying true to who I am and avoiding what annoys me on some other blogs.

“What are 5-10 ways you enjoy life well along the journey to FI?”

This comes from Nicole of Beyond Belief Barriers and I feel like writing a list so here we go:

1. Incorporate in person time with loved ones now – I do this with my remote work situation by working from elsewhere with my friends and family for 2 months out of the year
2. Start new hobbies now – I had a long list of activities I wanted to do in retirement, but instead started trying them now instead of waiting. These currently include watercolor and calligraphy
3. Leave a job you don’t enjoy – I’ve job hopped a lot, which has resulted in a great income boost but also finding a job I don’t mind doing with a great boss, work that isn’t boring and a flexible environment that I thrive in
4. Don’t wait to travel – Despite knowing that soon I will be able to take months to enjoy a city instead of a week I haven’t put the brakes on exploring our world and taking full advantage of the three weeks off I do get even though the ROI will be better in retirement given the cost of the flights compared the time I have there
5. Figure out what you want and do it – When I started this journey, I realized I didn’t want to stay in Manhattan. It drained me, so my partner and I picked up and moved across the country to Seattle and my happiness skyrocketed along with my bank account

“What are your most read posts?”

This is from Modest Millionaires. Hilariously, on this semi-finance focused lifestyle blog my most read posts are almost anything but and include, in order:

1. Why I’m Never Getting Married
2. Why Retire Early? Because Death Is Coming
3. It’s Official: I’m Quitting My Job In 10 Months. Here’s The Plan!

“Where is the blog headed?”

This was asked by both Modest Millionaires and Millennial Boss. I have promised a few friends that I will continue to write weekly in retirement for at least a year. We’ll see if I can keep that promise, but I really want to add to the conversation of blogs that talk about not just the journey to, but through early retirement. There are (understandably) few of them. So no matter how unrelatable I become, I’ll be here every Tuesday for the foreseeable future!

Other than keeping up my posting schedule though, I will be pulling back the amount of time I spend on extra blog stuff, such as podcasts, and social media (I’ll miss y’all but hopefully will have a lot more IRL time with you) so I can be as present as possible while exploring the world.

“What are some newer FIRE blogs you follow that we might not know?”

A lot of awesome blogs have been popping up lately. A few of my recent favorites are below. I hope they help you find a new favorite!

• Savvy History
• All Options Considered
• Frugalwheels
• Ditch The Cave

Conclusion

And that’s it! This is by far the longest I’ve ever stuck to a hobby and the benefits of it just keep mounting. I’ve found a new community, new friends and a new passion. It’s been an amazing ride. Thank you all for being here.

Have you kept up a hobby for five years or more? What have you learned along the way?