Earlier this month, while you weren’t looking, Lazy Man and Money celebrated it’s two year birthday.
The Good and The Bad
The other day, I looked at some of my first posts and I laughed and cried about the roller coaster of good and bad ideas I’ve had when starting out. Two years ago, I was seriously considering buying a condo hotel in Las Vegas. Good thing I didn’t because a year later the W in Las Vegas was canceled. I rationalized my decision this way:
In the end, I feel that it’s probably pure speculation. Something that you buy to flip in the first year or so. I believe it would work out to be a gain, but giving the size of the risk (10% down would be around 1/3 of my net worth), it’s not something that I can get into.
When I read that recently, I wanted to set my nose-hairs on fire for even considering it. Looking back on it, the condo hotel example is precisely why I started this blog. I wanted to share ideas to sort out which are good and and which are not so good. I hoped that people would help me by keeping me grounded from bad ideas. Along the same lines, I wanted to help others where I can as well.
Every single night the same arrangement, I go out and write and write
Recently, I’ve been feeling that Lazy Man and Money has run it’s course. The battle’s done and we kind of won. What started out as cookie dough had indeed become cookies… and much more cooking would have made them ashes. Three thoughts are leading down this path:
- Can I really write about personal finance indefinitely and keep it interesting? I never want to write a post about 72t distributions and I’m hoping to you don’t to Lazy Man and Money to read about them.
- Are we still learning on Lazy Man and Money? I can only speak for myself on this one, and I have to say that I’m learning less and less. This isn’t unexpected. Everyone always learns more in the beginning and, as they become more proficient, learning slows.
- Am I really needed? – When I started Lazy Man and Money, I thought it was only me and three or four other sites writing about personal finance… I didn’t even know that the term “personal finance” existed. For the first 3-6 months, I was convinced that I was dispensing knowledge that couldn’t be gained elsewhere. Then I stumbled on the personal finance community and found out that many other people were writing about the same thing. Now when ING Direct changes it’s rates, you have 25 bloggers writing articles about it. Is there really a loss if it goes to 24?
I Will Walk Through The Fire
Given the above, you might be surprised by my decision to move forward and continue writing. I almost convinced myself there… In the end, I’ve come up with a couple of very good reasons to continue writing:
- I am unique… as is every personal finance blogger. We each bring our own thoughts and experiences into the mix. The hope is that you find someone you can identify with. It seems that for some subset of you, I’m that person. It would hurt me if you stopped reading about personal finance all together because I stopped writing.
- Perhaps I am needed – I’ve noticed that my article about the MonaVie scam is something that some Google search come across. Now I don’t know if MonaVie really is a scam or not (and the comments from both sides were really vocal), but hopefully someone looking into it will find my article and, if they decide it’s right for them, proceed with caution.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Personal finance education has never been more important. Between gas and food prices soaring and the sub-prime mess making credit more costly for the average individual, your wallet is facing one hell of a demon to slay. It’s time to make the tough financial choices… change our destiny. Are you ready to be strong?
Behind this post: Much of this post has been inspired by Buffy Musical – an hour of television so powerful that it’s been running seven years later in movie theaters and sell out across the nation at $10 a pop. It is my favorite piece of writing in any format (book, web, movie, or television) and, quite honestly, nothing else comes close. Other parts of this post were inspired by other episodes of Buffy.
Congrats on hitting the big 2 year mark! Keep on chugging Lazy, you have 2500+ subscribers for a reason.
THIS is why you need to keep going, Lazy – who else (besides me) will sneak Buffy references into their posts? It’s fuzzy-minded liberal thinking like that that gets you eaten.
Happy Two Years!
lol buffy really? I think you can keep it fresh for many years to come. Just keep trying new things/ invest in real estate start a business and as always tell us about it and we will make sure you don’t do something really dumb like invest in a Las vegas hotel.
no please stop the agony, don’t blog anymore
:)
Happy birthday! Two years in blog years is probably more like twenty five in real life.
I don’t think it’s a loss if one less person writes about ING rates, but there’s lots of unique ideas floating around, especially when they’re presented by a good, engaging writer like yourself. I look at the guy from Thicken My Wallet (who completely bafflingly doesn’t get much linkage) and he has brilliant posts and never writes the same stuff as the other bloggers.
I’m not really an active participant in the comment field here, but…. Your blog is one of two PF blogs that I read, you bring a lot more to the table than most of the other PF blogs, believe me, I’ve read a lot. Your thoughts and insights are much more organized in my opinion, and it is interesting to hear what you come up with. Anyways, I’ll stop rambling, but keep it up!
Ditto on what the others have said.
Plus,
“Alternative Income Current Goal To Go
$1,442 $4,166 $2,724
Net Worth Current Goal
$218,825 $2.25M”
Seems you still have work to do to reach your goals. Why not keep us around so we can see how you get there? :)
Signed, happily subscribed :)
Happy Second Birthday!
Don’t forget that even though you’re not learning as fast any more, there are plenty of people just discovering personal finance who benefit from a reliable source of information – even if it’s old hat to you. Considering the amount of debt most Americans carry and the number of ill-advised expenditures made *every day* I’d say we need all the personal finance information we can get!
Even if you can’t always bring brand new ideas to the table, you do bring a different perspective. I for one am glad you’re sticking around, and hope you make it to your third, fourth, and fifth Lazyman.com birthdays.
Glad to hear your sticking around! Your blog is one of the 1st I started reading and have enjoyed your perspective very much.
This is my first time visiting this blog. I like the post and will read more and subscribe to the rss feed.
I haven’t been reading your blog very long but I like how you add your own personality to the posts. (At least I’m assuming it’s your personality) :)
Mike
Buffy Musical? You do realize they did that as a joke, right? No deeper philosophical reason?!??
Oh well, inspiration comes from the strangest places. That’s what makes your writing unique. Keep it up until it turns into a ‘job’ then find something more fun to do.
Happy Birthday!
If you want, stop writing about when ING drops the rates. I really don’t mind… but keep telling your story. That’s the part I like to read!
Congrats on your 2 year anniversary! Who cares about ING interest rates anyway? They are always going to be near the top of the mainstream online banks… With ING, you pretty much know what you’re going to get.
But you are not ING… My favorite aspects of your site are your alternative income articles, and the fact that you never quite know what you will get as a reader. And that’s a good thing! ;)
Congrats on two years and I look forward to reading more great posts.
CONGRATULATIONS LAZY MAN, for lasting all this time… I’m glad you decided not to set your nose hairs on fire! LOL. I can’t imagine that.
Anyway, I’m glad you’ll be writing indefinitely. I can’t wait to read more of your escapades online and off.