Blog Review: A Purple Life

In 2019 I signed up to attend FinCon around February or March; that’s also the time I joined their email list and began expanding my list of bloggers I read. At one point there was a newsletter that mentioned an interesting phrase, one that immediately drew me in. “Hmm,” I thought to myself, rereading the paragraph in my inbox. “What exactly would a purple life look like?”

I’ve heard of a sweet life before. And a charmed life. Or, if we’re going negative, a dog’s life. But “a purple life” wasn’t any idiom I’ve encountered before. I wasn’t even sure how to describe a life as just one color – or, at least, not that color. Green could mean environmentally friendly, blue could mean sad, and golden speaks for itself. So what is this one about?

Little did I know this blog would become one of my favorites… and bring to life one of my happiest friendships ever.

Finding Out What the Blog Name Means

So “Purple,” as she’s known, easily answers my question about what that sort of life means.

To me, “A Purple Life” means a slightly different life, a life that involves constant questioning instead of going with what you’re given (such as brown hair in my case). It’s doing what makes you happy even if that makes you stand out or seem weird to people. It’s following what’s in your heart even if that makes someone you love not talk to you for a month because of some deeply held propriety.

In that same post she discusses her particular affinity for the color purple throughout her life, which first caused my eyebrows to raise. Not because I thought it was weird; it was the opposite: I had always had that same affinity for a color, but for green instead of purple. Unlike Purple I’ve never dyed my hair to match my favorite color, but since I’ve got green eyes I’m happy enough.

I kept reading her pieces, diving all the way back to her earliest posts. Those 2014 and 2015 pieces were celebrating her beginning money milestones of $50,000 and $100,000.

At that time my own six-figure milestone was still elusive; it was also hard to find many folks in the community discussing that “small” of a milestone. I guess being a millionaire is much more enticing than a hundred-thousand-ionaire, hence the lack of interest. And because not many folks start blogging about finance until they’ve amassed a pretty hefty amount. But I was thrilled to find someone else’s thoughts on reaching the milestone I was about to hit, right at the time they hit it. So I kept reading her stuff and liking her story more and more.

How A Purple Life Drew Me In

There is a startingly high number of finance blogs and content creators out there. All of them put out loads of free resources for freeloaders learners like myself to earn that ever-elusive financial literacy. I am so grateful for the folks out there that explain their budget tips, tax advantage tips, and product tips; all of them helped me figure out my own financial life. But when it comes to that life, I’ve found I learn best via example.

It’s how I approached learning to write well and how to cook well too. You can type out a lengthy author’s guide or recipe all you like, but it only clicks for me after seeing how the great writers did it or how a chef on YouTube cooks it. I wanted to see more of how one money-savvy individual does it; personal finance is personal, after all. There’s just as much philosophy and emotion with money as there is strategy and logic.

And boy, does A Purple Life deliver.

She clearly writes from the heart about how intertwined her ideal life is with her impending financial independence. Her goals and dreams come with a much lower price tag than mine, as she “only” needs $500,000 to be set for life. That number assumes she’ll spend $20,000 or less per year, which by itself blows my mind. Even I don’t feel comfortable at that amount, Yes, me. The same lady with a passion for secondhand stuff and who once reigned as the Free Food Queen. So seeing someone living so richly on roughly $1,600 a month piqued my interest. You really don’t see that often.

That’s what made me love A Purple Life blog: she’s truly made personal finance personal, and you can feel through the screen how happy it’s made her. She doesn’t care that she’s not reaching the fabled million-dollar status; she doesn’t need to. All Purple needs is to live life on her own terms, and the blog pushes off being preachy in exchange for being real.

She made me feel like I was talking to a friend who was telling me about how her week went, with at times vulnerable honesty and calm cadence. It also helped that we had quite a few things in common. Namely, we both chose to be anomalies in the finance world and embarked on high-paying marketing careers. I saw some of the best parts of myself reflected in Purple’s words, and I excitedly checked her blog every Tuesday for her latest updates.

And Then, WE MET IN REAL LIFE

Fast forward to September 2019. In between first finding A Purple Life and attending my FIRST EVER finance conference, I’ve been pretty busy myself; one of those things I was busy with was, of course, reading the rest of the articles on A Purple Life.

What I had yet to do was start my own finance blog, which I’ve wanted to do to get my financial musings out there in the world. There were a few bloggers that advised folks to go to FinCon before they make their blog; it was good reasoning to take advantage from the get-go of all the knowledge and connections you gain from it. So, shaking with excitement, I hopped on a plane to DC before becoming Darcy or the author behind We Want Guac.

Later on, I was delightedly wandering around the FinCon exhibit hall and grabbing up goodies as I went. As I rounded a corner booth to reach the next row, I suddenly spotted curly purple hair a short distance away.

Curly purple hair that I was pretty sure I’d seen before.

My stomach actually tightened like I was about to meet a celebrity, which is hilarious to think of now (as I am not friends with celebrities). I remember walking up to her and asking if she was A Purple Life, which she (and her badge) quickly confirmed. To my surprise, she actually hung around and talked with me as we walked through the hall together. She even introduced me to other friends she ran into! Baby Darcy was not expecting so much kindness and near-automatic acceptance, especially from someone I’d been admiring for months.

Someone who I knew for a fact had a packed schedule in DC.

Purple had tons of friends to see, podcasts to record, awards to win, and scholarships to enjoy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2HAelsnucN/

And really, I’d have been pleased as punch with just that time chatting with her in the exhibit hall. I was a nobody in the finance world (at that time) so I wasn’t expecting much attention. But Purple actually wanted to spend more time with me too! Really!! We ended up taking a break from FinCon on the second or third day and just walked around DC together. It was hot and hilly and I kept expecting myself to trip up on my wording, but our conversation flowed so unexpectedly naturally.

We talked finance (duh) but also about our marketing careers, and our takes on intermittent fasting, and the books we like to read and restaurants we like to visit. She is just as welcoming, clever, and cool as she is on her blog and we met up once or twice after that before flying back to our opposite ends of the country. But by then, she had already become my first finance-blogger friend, and helped lead the way to my own start in the community.

A Purple Life and the Climb to Wealth

We’ve been in regular contact via email and social media ever since. While I’m sad our travel meetups were postponed we still find ways to keep in touch about the news in our lives.

This post is about her most latest news. Almost exactly a year later, I’m over the moon to see Purple LAST DAYS EVER in corporate America come to a close. Yes, she’s reached that $500,000 goal and is going on permanent sabbatical at 30 years old. CAN WE SAY GOALS OR WHAT?

Best of all, TODAY, October 1^st, is her FINAL DAY at work. She’s officially quitting and going full steam on her purple life adventures. All because she decided in her 20s to use her finances to reach her goals and dreams. Go give her a follow on her social media channels and congratulate her – I’m a fan of her Twitter and Instagram feeds, both of which give you behind-the-scenes Purple updates as well.

Understanding finances in your 20s brings you options that would have been impossible to reach otherwise. Look no further than A Purple Life to see that unfold in real time… and to watch someone’s ideal life now truly beginning.

Cover image: Daria Nepriakhina via Unsplash