Wow, time flies when you are writing a blog. This past Friday marked 4 years of the Full Time Finance blog. Today I want to take a look back and also look forward to where we go from here.
A Look Back at 4 Years of Stats
In that 4 years I’ve written and posted 406 articles. I’ve seen over 3300 comments, with more then half coming from our readers. And boy have their been a lot of readers. According to Google there have been more then 80,000 users over those 4 years.
One Man Show
Through those 4 years there has really only ever been one person behind the Full Time Finance moniker. Sure early on my wife proofread the posts, but even that has long since disappeared. For better or worse the grammatical errors and concepts on this site are my own, save a handful of guest posts over the years.
Changes Over the Last 4 Years
Life has changed over those 4 years in ways I never could have predicted. When this site came into being we were a 2 full time corporate employee working family with 2 young children under 5. I had also just taken a new corporate job in marketing. These days we are down to 1 full time employee and one part time self employed. I’m in a different job now in M&A. In addition instead of 2 kids we now have a 3rd via foster care. None of this could I have predicted when I started this site.
Finance Over the Last 4 Years
Income across those 4 years has ramped up by maybe 10% during this time. Not bad when you consider over the same period my wife went from working a 40 hour a week job to working less then 10 hours a week.
Expenses meanwhile reduced dramatically. From paying off our mortgage, optimizing our usage of employee benefits, and adjustments to our tax management approaches; the amount I’ve learned and benefited from what I have written over the years is significant.
It’s the Community Stupid!
All those benefits from writing a little blog. And that again ignores the whole reason I started this site. To find an outlet for my interest in money and economics that would not annoy my wife. The people I’ve met in this pursuit and the fantastic community I have joined brings me great joy. Mission accomplished.
And on the community, before I leave the topic. I’ve enjoyed getting to know each and every person I’ve interacted with over the years. Many of those people have come and since moved on from the community. But many more have joined in the interim. If anything I can recommend joining the personal finance community as a wonderful outlet for discussion and ideas.
Money Has Never Been the Goal
Anyway, you’ll note I never stated a goal was money. Thankfully it never was, or I would have quit long ago. For the big reveal, over the course of Full Time Finance’s 4 years my net profit is exactly $100. Now I will note that is after expenses to run the site plus ~$400 for Fincon 2019 expenses. So if we assume that I’ve spent at least 3 hours an article on this site I’ve put in at least 1200 hours on this site for $100 In pay. That’s one small hourly rate if the other benefits I wrote about above didn’t exist. I admit I could have easily made more, but honestly that wasn’t the point.
But now your probably wondering why this sounds a bit like a post-mortem. Well in some ways it is, but not fully. If you read our post on are you trapped a few weeks ago you might have seen this coming.. The reality is my life is really busy as of late with managing Covid schooling, work, the power of attorney situation, 3 kids, potential location independence, and life in general. Posts have been slipping, at least 2 in the last month.
I’ve come to realize I cannot continue to post every week with life the way it is. In addition if I try to keep up that pace I won’t be writing on this site for the reason I started anymore, my personal enjoyment. I will have become trapped into believing I need to write this site weekly just because. When I started this site I had ~30 posts in backlog, today I have 0. So to post I have to write. So posting weekly is out from here on.
This Is Not Goodbye, Just Less Often
But that doesn’t mean I am going away. I still enjoy knocking out the occasional post. I will also continue on our twitter account. Especially when something significant happens in my life or the economy. To be honest I have our hosting paid for 2 more years at least so this site is not going anywhere. Because of these and other reasons I will continue to periodically post, so feel free to check back from time to time. Just don’t be surprised if there are 2-3 weeks between posts from here on out.
For all those that have supported our site and journey over the years, thanks so much. For new readers, feel free to browse through our backlog while you wait for the next article to be posted. Thanks again everyone.
Dennis
FTF
Full Time Finance
Congrats on 4 years. That’s a huge achievement.
Totally get your decision to post less frequently because it is a lot of work to put out regular content, especially if you want to maintain quality.
Thanks Xrayvsn. It feels odd to think about how long it really has been. A lot of other sites, some way more successful, have come and gone.
Congratulations on making 4 years, a huge achievement that few can match.
Blogging is supposed to be fun (it would want to be at $100/1200 hours!), so adjusting to a “write when you have something to say” cadence makes a lot of sense.
I look forward to vicariously following your journey for the next two year and beyond, thanks for all you do to promote and share amongst the PF community.
Always glad to share a well written piece and really enjoy your content. Thanks
Congratulations from me as well. It’s good to cut back a bit when life gets too busy.
Maybe you can get back posting more often at some point.
Best wishes. – Joe
Thanks Joe. Who knows. I’m finding the current environment makes it very hard to predict things even one year our. As such I’m doing what I always do, prepping options.
Makes sense to take it down a notch. These are tough times, especially if you have to raise kids and work at home.
For me; I decided to amp up my writing and updating bc im stuck at home more and don’t have a job.
Sam
Oh, and if you are interested in becoming a staff writer and making more than 1 cent an hour, maybe I got something for you! 🙂
Thanks for the offer. Who knows, sometime in the future you may hear from me. For now I’ll be clearing up some of the other items in our lives. Almost done untangling some of the things with POA and Foster care.
As you know, I just slowed down my schedule as well. Totally understandable what you’re doing and I dropped back only after a year. You’ve done it for four! Haha.
Congrats on four years and it’s been fun to read in my short time.
Keep up the good of work best of luck w/ all of those kiddos! I’m jealous of that trailer that will be coming soon.
Thanks Q-Fi. We’re getting close on the trailer. It gets built in early December.
Time makes its own adjustments and that’s okay. 4 years is a long time. Your mission is complete and it sounds awesome! Good luck!
Thanks Chris. Always another hill on the horizon, the mission continues to evolve.
Post at your leisure, man. You’ve got enough on your plate. No need to make the hobby blog a job!
Congrats on lasting 4 years with the schedule you’ve kept. And it was good to connect with you at FinCon19.
Cheers!
-PoF
Definitely great to meet you at Fincon 19. I am writing some stuff slowly in the background that will see the light of day soon. So the hobby continues, but your right I don’t want another job.
I totally agree with you. Like yours, my blog is just turning 4. I haven’t managed as many posts as you, in fact I consciously eased off in the last year, to recover the fun of blogging! So now I blog when I want, it might be 6 times in a month, or once in 2 months. It’s is when I want to, and I feel I have something to say.
Enjoy making your blog work for you rather than the other way around.
Best wishes
Sounds like we are on similar paths. One day a time.
Congratulations on four years. Most bloggers don’t last that long. I’ve always enjoyed your writing
A little late to the party, but congrats on 4 years! The blog will be here for you when you need it – being in the real world is very important!
Thanks Erik. Certainly not completely gone, a new post is on the horizon. Just at a new frequncy.
Thanks Erik. Hope all is well.
Congratulation on what you have achieved and for having a clear mind to be able to stop for a moment and thinking about what to do next. Just a thought, just read from another person I follow backlinko that the year of 2021 will be the year of YouTube and movies. Maybe this can be something for you? Maybe you can say your message in shorter time (if you have done it many times) and reach more people. Have just learned that if you have 1000 subscribers and more than 4000 hours of online viewing time, one can become YouTube premium partner and one gets ads income. Read about that you blog has more than 80 000 visitors in 4 hours, so maybe many will follow you to YouTube too? Just a thought. Stay safe and good look with life. Kind regards, Yvette
Honestly I’m not much for video editing and recording. It probably is the way to make money going forward but it is just not my thing. Also would be very hard to do with 3 kids running around the house.
Hi again, meant 80 000 visitors in 4 years and not hours:)