When I started writing this blog a year and half ago, I was in a much different place from today: My oldest daughter had just turned one year old, I just finished Rich Dad, Poor Dad (which I wholeheartedly DO NOT recommend as a personal finance learning resource), and I discovered the Personal Finance blogosphere. I was dissatisfied with my job and I wanted to pursue other potential careers. So I started writing.
Over the last 18 months, I’ve written about various subjects, from “Adventures in Frugality” to vermicomposting, and my wife was kind enough to chime in a few times along the way. But as I said before, things are much different today.
I’m now the happy father of two beautiful daughters, my finances are in better shape than they have been in the past, and I’m busy searching for my next job. I tried keeping a 5-a-week writing schedule, but I found myself getting burned out often and increasingly unhappy with the quality of my writing. And, on top of that, the hours I spent preparing articles could be spent on more profitable adventures as well as increased family time. So I’ve decided to change things.
My journey is far from over, but the path has changed a bit. I’m not going to abandon this blog, nor will I abandon the friends I’ve made over these past months – I’m just going to write when I have something worth saying and not stick to some arbitrary schedule. Some of my best work are articles I wrote over the course of a few weeks – tweaking, editing, and rewriting until I had a solid product.
I hope that you’ll stick around now that the game has changed, but I understand if you’d rather read new content every day. If you need something consistent to read, please stroll through my blogroll and read what some of my friends have to say. And if you do choose to stay with me, thank you. I hope that with this change I’ll be able to provide you with a better product.
Thank you for helping me arrive where I am today and I look forward to sharing this new leg of my journey with you!
Photo by: npslibrarian
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I will definitely be sticking around! I enjoy your content and would rather read quality stuff more than “filler”. I have been starting to do this as well. I am only posting articles about 2-3 times a week and I can tell that they are better quality. I think this system works and your readers will respond better to it than before!
I applaud you for thinking for yourself and making the decision that will work best for you and your family. I don’t think posting daily is as important as some think it is. I’ve cut back some and it hasn’t hurt my blog readership a bit. For most of us, our RSS readers are so full anyway that we don’t really have time to read everything that’s written. Focusing on quality content and writing from the heart is much more important than putting something up every day. Kudos to you!
Of course I’ll stick around.
What’s funny is that some of MY best articles were what I considered “throwaways” and not really edited at all. Those that I agonized over and tweaked, re-wrote, edited, and wrote again didn’t even register.
Readers never stop surprising me.
Ahh the wonders of RSS. I will know exactly when you post your next article! I feel you when it comes to writing taking a lot of time. I have made my posts smaller so I can concentrate on starting the small business I have been thinking of. Go figure that was the whole purpose of writing to track my progress. Good luck, keep us informed and make time to spend with those children!
I appreciate the change! In fact, I’m looking to weed out from my RSS reader blogs that are frequently clogging it with “filler” material.
Best wishes to the Cave family for an enjoyable summer.
Good luck and best wishes! Hope things go well for you. If the blog is stressing you out, no sense following that path. It is your blog and you should to with it what makes you happy.
I can relate to the writers block/distractions thing…my writing has become much less frequent as well…we all have to decide what works best with work/family obligations.
Sounds good – I’ll be around! I think it’s great that you can and are able to spend more time on each post as you want. I’ve been doing that more too, out of necessity. I can easily spend a full day just on one post, and then with polishing it up, it can stretch another two days. A daily posting schedule doesn’t seem very viable, but sometimes I do it. You’ve got a great-looking blog here so it makes sense to keep the quality up! Good luck on the new job, too!