Today is the second anniversary of the launch of this blog, and boy, have we both come a long way, baby. Two years ago, I did not have the love of my life (Puppy, of course), I was very unhappy, over $120,000 in debt and clueless as to what to do. After lurking around a multitude of personal finance blogs, I decided to start one myself. I have heard many times that ignorance is bliss, but I did not know the exact extent until earnestly blogging for the past few years. I laugh now at my ignorance, nay, arrogance then.
This blog started out as the little engine that could with the Money Monk being my first real commenter. She’s just published a book and I encourage you to support her. There were others that started blogs about the same time that I did. Two of the most notable were Dave Ozment at You Dave Ramsey and Mr. Plasectomy at My Plasectomy. We all used to swap comments to swing readers to each others’ sites but Dave hasn’t posted anything since May and My Plasectomy is no longer registered. I often wonder what happened to people that stopped blogging, but I know that I had hit my own wall some time this year when my laptop died, and it was only through the encouragement of a few people wondering where I was that brought me back.
I’ve also evolved a lot since blogging. I did what many people do when they realize that they have been walking around with their eyes wide shut, and suddenly open them up to debt – I went to extremes. Every single penny was an opportunity to buy down the debt and I focused too much on that and not on the other things in life that are, like Mastercard says, priceless. This blog started out offering deals and freebies and then I’d occasionally share some information about my debt, but there was no real focus on finance until I got serious.
I realize that many of us are at a disadvantage because we don’t learn about money. Sure we can add and subtract and even juggle money from one account to the next, but we don’t know how to make it work for us. Worse yet, some get into the debt quicksand and try to dig themselves out with a spoon. I’ve come to realize that I want to help myself, but I want to help those people too. I feel as if it’s what I’ve been reborn to do. I have mentioned to a few fellow bloggers that I have always felt that I was destined for greatness, and I thought that it was within the business world, but I know now that it is in the business of people: people like you and me that are diligently working their jobs, trying to raise their families, want the best for each other, and at the end of the day, go home feeling financially safe and secure. I live for that dream and I am still fighting the good fight towards reaching that goal. It’s what we all deserve.
All that I said to thank you for riding along this rollercoaster. Our little baby is growing up these days toddling around the internet, making friends and having play dates. Soon it’ll be potty trained and running along fine without me. Gosh these days just roll by so fast and here I am with no pictures to share with you. Thank you for staying and playing, and here’s to year three.
So Who’s Buying The China?
These days China is what Ms. Manners says is THE gift for the second anniversary. I’ve evolved to where I don’t covet too many things, so you can have the China. No, no, I insist. I’ll pay. It’s the last day that to enter my giveaway for $25 in cash. You can go to the original post to read the rules and enter there. When you win, go to the clearance section on the Mikasa website and then choose a nice bowl on me.