Friday, June 15, 2007

100th Post Anniversary

Money and Such has been in existence for just over three months. My first post was published on February 27, and explained why stock picking is a bad idea. Since then I have written posts on everything from credit cards, to real estate, to my favorite financial topic, retirement planning.

I am taking this opportunity to pause for a minute and to give myself a self congratulatory pat on the back. When I started this project, I did it as an experiment. I published a few websites in the past, but none had a regular posting schedule, and none required daily attention. I didn't know whether I could write a blog, and I wanted to find out.

At this point I have proven to myself that Money and Such is a project I can sustain and enjoy for the long term. I post about six times a week, unless I am traveling on business, in which case my posting schedule is a bit more erratic.

I have developed a small but loyal group of readers - about 30 in all - of which I am very proud, and recently I noticed that about 30% of my blog visitors get here through Google, when searching for financial information. I guess it's true - if you build it they will come. One of the ways I measure the success of Money and Such is by the number of the people that subscribe to my RSS feed, and by the end of the year I hope to reach the 100 subscriber mark. Help me out and subscribe, hint, hint.

So, what's in store for the future? I am going to strive to do even better. I will try to maintain a high standard of original and thoughtful content. Occasionally, I will try my hand at humor (hopefully the pain will be minimal). I will continue to write in favor of free trade; against most government intervention in the free markets; against stock picking; and very much in favor of long term financial planning. Most of all I will continue to really enjoy getting on my own personal soap box every day.

Starting next week, I will also periodically run theme weeks - an entire week of posts dedicated to a single theme. I noticed that many of my readers get to this blog looking for information about how to deal with financial challenges in their 20's, so that will be the theme for all my posts for next week, starting on Monday. Although I am now in my mid-thirties, my posts next week will discuss some of the financial decisions and mistakes that I made in my 20's. I will publish posts about:

1. Asset allocation in your 20's
2. Insurance in your 20's
3. Developing your career in your 20's
4. Buying vs. renting a house in your 20's; and finally
5. Planning for retirement in your 20's

I think it's going to be an interesting series.

Thank you for sticking with me for the first 100 posts. Hopefully, you'll continue to come back for more.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on reaching a milestone. You've got a really enjoyable blog.

I hope that you continue to post lots of things I semi-disagree with from my position more than slightly to your left on economics.

Unknown said...

A good argument is always fun. Bring it on!

Thanks for the good wishes, plonkee.

Tom said...

Congratulations! I really like what you've written so far and the level of thoughtfulness in your posts. It helps I happen to agree with you on a lot of things.

How's the 401k provider search?

Unknown said...

Search going well - we are having yet another meeting with the folks over at Morgan Stanley later this week. Two choices remain: Fidelity and ADP. Those are the two companies that gave us the best offers to date.