We Want Guac Turns 1!

I was going to write this in the first week of January. Plans changed when the Capitol was stormed by insurrectionists. Didn’t feel it appropriate to go “anyway! How ‘bout that anniversary?!”

So instead I’m celebrating my baby blog turning one year old by moving the birthday celebrations to a later date. One year olds don’t know what’s going on anyways. It’s fine.

Onto the cool stuff!

## of posts in 2020…

…was 126. That’s one post every three days (!!) You can tell the pandemic pumped the brakes on my enthusiasm to write about finance when everything was on fire. There was only one post I wrote that I felt didn’t fit with the current times, but which I hear did help a couple of folks along the way. Everything else was reworked as I tried to respond to the new realities around COVID-19.

God. I had no idea my writing would mention a disease so much, especially one I haven’t personally suffered from (and hope to never suffer from; it’s terrifying). I am glad that I started this when I did just for the sheer amount of joy it’s generated during one hell of a year. And there were a lot of reasons to feel joy, with some of the biggest ones here like…

Bringing the FIRE Song to Life

It’s no secret the FIRE movement watered my crops, soothed my fears, cleared my skin and cleaned my room. Besides adding my voice to the blogosphere, I wanted to give something back to the movement that’s transformed my life for the better. Something that would help the movement reach more audiences. Something that is a key component of most movements, but that the FIRE one didn’t yet have.

Enter: the financial independence song, vocals courtesy of Bizzy Savant. Bizzy turned out to be the perfect person to partner with on this project; I took on the role of music producer as Bizzy did most of the work bringing this to life. Did I mention he did all of this right before we first went into quarantine? He is the freaking best.

I really, really hoped I could’ve shoved in the completion of the music video with this section as well. Alas, the pandemic gods decreed it was not to be in 2020. Maybe I’ll step back into the role of music producer later this year to do this, when we’re all vaccinated and reentering society once more.

Filming a Mini-Documentary

I did a writeup on this previously so I’ll make sure not to regurgitate: this was wild. I’ve had several months to get used to the fact I’m the subject of an online documentary and it still seems bananas. Even now I’ll see the thumbnail of my dorky self and gleefully think “that’s me!!!”

My ChooseFI Podcast Interview

In case you’re not following me on my social media channels you can check out the interview here:

I STILL look back at THIS ONE going “… ?!!????!” because who knew they’d want to interview me! If you’re unaware, ChooseFI is the TOP podcast about financial independence; they’ve got hundreds of episodes and the best introduction to the concept I’ve ever seen. Plus, the hosts Brad and Jonathan are phenomenal at what they do. I’m a much better writer than I am a talker, but during my interview with them it was suddenly so easy to chat up a storm. And be coherent and succinct while doing so! Can they start offering a service where they hype you up for a few minutes before a job interview or presentation? Their interviewing skills are utterly brilliant.

As if that wasn’t enough they’re just so soothing to listen to. They could read the driest academic journal from the 1930s and I’d still follow along and get interested in the material. If you’re not currently listening to them, I highly recommend you try out a few episodes. They make the information so accessible and easy to digest; there’s also an episode out there for everyone no matter your life stage, including high school and college students.

Named a Plutus Awards finalist

I wrote about this one too!! I was nominated for Best New Personal Finance Blog, as were several others I admire. While I didn’t win this year, I did notice something interesting about the person who did: her blog was founded exactly one year before mine was so, theoretically, I am STILL eligible for the same category in 2021. Who’s in for rooting me on?!

FANTASTIC group of new friends!!

Purple. Josh. Gov. Ali and Alison. Kristy. Scott. EVERYONE!!!! My friend circle has freaking doubled thanks to the finance community! If I think about it too long it gets overwhelming, especially when you consider how hard it is to make new friends nowadays. I absolutely cannot wait until we can all meet each other in person, whether that’s with one of us visiting the other or meeting up somewhere like FinCon.

And the personal finance community overall? I have never been part of a more welcoming, accepting, and encouraging group of people before. I didn’t even think a group of people could be so inclusive and openhearted until this crowd came along. They continue to give me so much love and support on the interwebs that it makes me want to cry happy tears 🥲

GUEST POSTS!!

I guest-posted on two other blogs, one for Moriah Chace and the other for Government Worker FI! They both reached out to me about writing for them and I was immediately on board. Both of them were so much fun to do for different reasons; the article for Moriah was focused on my personal experiences in my career, while the article for Gov was comparing pay between government and corporate jobs. Both opportunities meant I could write about what I wouldn’t have normally thought to put on my own blog so I’m hoping to get more opportunities like these in 2021.

And now the not-so-cool stuff:

The pandemic derailed most of my topic ideas

Guys, I had so much in January and February I was excited to discuss. I had several articles where I’d discuss traveling hacks throughout different cities. What free events in the city are like. What free college lectures are like. How to hack in-person networking events. The list goes on.

But, well, you know. The best laid plans of mice and men, and all that jazz.

Then I had to take a step back from my frantic one-post-a-day shebang and have new stuff to say. I very much did not want to be another broken-record blogger, the likes of whom I kept seeing cross my email and feeds. The broken-record bloggers are all of those who keep posting tone-deaf articles about “here’s how to find cheap air travel to your vacation destinations” and “hey, bartenders make a lot of money and here’s why that’s a great side hustle”.

Y’all. We’re in a panny. Don’t do this.

Spam comments. My god, the spam comments.

There were over a thousand comments that I had to chuck into the “Spam” folder. I don’t think I got them all, either. Why were so many spam bots targeting my site? ☹

I do not know how to monetize

In my marketing career I’ve written dozens of blog posts, done loads of blog maintenance, and promoted said blog content on many a social media channel. Issue is, I had never run a blog with the only product being the blog itself. The business blogs were there to promote the main business of real estate or high-end furniture.

This was never a priority either so I never put much effort into monetizing. I hate most ads so the only ones I could stomach on the bar were ones in the sidebar and the footer. Neither of these places are prime revenue-generating placements, which is what it is. I halfheartedly added some Amazon affiliate links to blog posts here and there as well, but mostly only books you can get free at the library anyway.

I am getting requests for coaching so maybe that’s my way of earning money? We shall see how that ends up.

All in the first year. Here’s to more to come 🙂

Cover image credit: Frédéric Paulussen via Unsplash