I started this blog at the end of 2011. Over the past couple of years, I have had a couple false starts and very poor success at gaining a solid readership. I can’t really blame anyone. I did a very bad job at writing consistently and doing things that other bloggers do to promote their blogs. I cared about the success of Budget For Wealth for a while, I really did. But then suddenly, I stopped caring.
Why? Because I got sick and tired of trying to keep up with everyone else. Fighting for a readership and ranking in search engine results, while trying to build links to my site was really boring. Yeah, it was boring and it made writing a chore. Plus, life was happening and I just didn’t feel all that motivated to keep up with my writing.
Well, some time has passed and I’ve changed my priorities. I decided to keep this blog going. But, like I said in my last post, I’m just going to do what I want with the blog and write for me. If people find the blog and learn something, great.
Updates
This blog was the first website I ever built. At the time, I didn’t know anything about creating a website, so I learned a lot about the process along the way. A lot has changed in web design since 2011 and I planned on moving to a responsive design for a long time, but I never got around to it. I finally decided to stay up late one night and got it done. The blog is now more mobile friendly and is easier to read and navigate on a small screen.
The next thing I did was set things up so that I can start with a clean slate. I didn’t want to just wipe out everything I have written in the past, so I pulled all of the categories and tags from the old posts. All of the old posts show up in the “Uncategorized” category, and will be eventually taken off from regular viewing on the blog. I also removed all the comments, pictures, outgoing links, and affiliate advertising from the old posts. I plan on continuing to keep the blog image free, as I still feel that random images add zero value for readers who are seriously looking to improve their finances.
For two years, I posted monthly updates on my Monthly vs. Annual IRA Contribution Experiment. I felt the data I was collecting was quite valuable and an important part of the message I was trying to convey. I still plan on continuing the contribution timing experiment, but I will be starting it all over. The primary reason is that I realized having three funds in each account is still too complicated for most people. Balancing the funds to match an arbitrary allocation is not that intuitive when you have to do it manually.
A reader also pointed out in the past that Vanguard has a $3,000 minimum for their mutual funds. I knew that from the start, and the experiment was always meant to be hypothetical. However, when I restart the experiment, I will take the fund minimum into account. To keep things simple, I will also use one of Vanguard’s all-in-one retirement funds. In our financial lives, there is already a lot to worry about. Most people don’t have the time, knowledge, or effort to put forth into investing. Vanguard target-date retirement funds are what I usually suggest to people I know, unless they have needs that require a little more customization.
So for now, I’ll be writing about whatever I feel like writing about. I just want to have some fun and document things that I’m doing.
Until next time…
Talk to me, Goose.