4 years ago we stepped off the employment treadmill and stopped into a life focused on travel and family.
Originally this little blog was simply intended to be a way for friends and family to see what we were up to. When people starting asking how we could be so financially secure at such a young age, I started writing a bit about money. Then we got some press, and the number of friends and family following along exploded.
The results have been life changing. So much so, I think everyone should blog.
The benefits of blogging are many and the costs are few. The benefits include:
Entertainment
Blogging is loads of fun. I suppose I could just sit on the sofa and watch television, but creation is a lot more rewarding than consumption.
Community
No matter the subject, there are people interested in the same things as you and me. There are blogs about every possible topic. There are even blogs about curry and crackers, and sometimes both at once.
I happen to be interested in travel and money, and because I started writing about those topics I’ve met thousands of other people who are too!
I had the pleasure of hanging out with many of them at the Chautauqua and FinCon. I’ve had coffee, gone for bike rides, and met up for beers with hundreds of people in many different countries. I’ve met lifelong friends, and been hosted by several in their homes.
Had I never started to write this blog, how many really cool financially savvy people would I know? My guess is three.
Learning
Most of the content on this blog is an expression of my learning and growth. 4 years ago I didn’t know jack about taxes, Obamacare, traveling with children, or starting a blog.
Sure, I had some vague notion of how these things worked, but when I started writing it became clear how little I actually knew. The most heavily trafficked posts on this site are the result of realizing I was completely wrong, dumping hours or days of work in the trash, and starting over.
Best of all, I’ve learned a ton from this community in comments and email (Roth IRA recharacterization, the Child Tax Credit, de minimus safe-harbor election, and some cool cities in Spain come to mind…)
Thank you for the learning opportunity!
Fulfillment
If there was one thing in life that I’ve probably enjoyed more than any other, it is learning.
That is, until I started sharing what I’ve learned.
It’s nice to wake up to emails of gratitude from friends around the globe.
Expression
Blogging is a medium available to everyone. It is a means of self-expression where anyone with an idea can reach an audience the size of the world.
A few bloggers are experts in their field, and people come to them in search of knowledge. Others are funny, charming, artfully expressive… and people come to them to feel alive and inspired. Some are contentious and loud, others are warm and calm.
No two people will share ideas the same way or appeal to the same audience, but all can find value.
There are also more practical reasons for blogging:
Income
The costs of blogging are low, so it takes little to go from zero to profit.
For less than the cost of a monthly latte and the laptop you already own, you can host your very own income producing site. We went from zero to nearly paying all of our bills in just 2.5 years.
For early retirement minded people, a few extra bucks in the early years can help significantly with sequence of returns risk.
Taxes
Owning a business such as a blog provides some fun tax opportunities.
You can turn that laptop you already own and extra room in your house into tax deductions. If you happen to work a little business travel into your blogger lifestyle, travel expenses are tax deductible too.
As income increases, you can open a solo 401k (both Traditional and Roth varieties) to boost retirement savings. You could even hire your own kids, helping them pay for college while cutting your taxes.
Start a Blog
But that’s just me. Maybe you think nobody should blog… Wouldn’t that make a great blog post! ;)
If blogging sounds interesting, it only takes about 30 minutes to get started. My simple guide on how to start a blog walks you through the whole process.
Links in the start a blog guide (and below) are affiliate links. If you click on a link and start a blog, we will get a commission. This is completely optional, but certainly appreciated.
Have a great day!
With gratitude,
Jeremy, Winnie, & Julian
I agree with you on all fronts. One thing I also like about blogging is that it forces me to deeply analyze our plans and by writing about it to an audience, holds us to a certain level of accountability.
I tried to allude to this, but you said it much more clearly. If I was just trying to figure this stuff out for myself, I would just learn enough to be dangerous.
Agree on the accountability aspect – that has been very surprising to me. I *think* it might be a good thing but I am still new to this space (and writing about a different topic).
I love this post, more people should do it! I never enjoyed writing at work (probably because it’s highly technical), but love blogging! I just get to be myself, and whoever identifies with that can come along for the ride. Blogging has forced me to learn much more about my particular passion (real estate), which is often done by reading other blogs! I also can’t believe how much enjoyment I’m getting out of meeting likeminded people at FINCON and now Chautauqua. Can’t wait to see where this journey takes me!
I hated writing in college.
But blogging I like! Weird. It helps to be passionate about the topic.
Agreed! I just started blogging and already I’m reaping lots of the benefits.
I haven’t written any posts I needed to highly research beforehand, but I do find myself googling things I’m writing all the time to make sure I’m not totally wrong.
Also, I started my blog using your bluehost link, so enjoy your $5 kickback or whatever it is! ;)
Wow, thanks! I think the commission is $65 or something… I say I think, because I haven’t looked in awhile and as far as I can tell I’ve never gotten one :$
Keep up with it, it gets even better.
Pretty much agree, apart from the income thing. Do many blogs make money? I’ve been blogging for over ten years (niche-y teaching blog sendaiben.org and personal finance site retirejapan.info) and haven’t even come close to making money. I’ve spent a fair amount on hosting, email list management, etc. but very much in the red on both of those.
So I don’t know if the income is a no-brainer, or if it’s easier to make money if you are writing for a US audience, or what.
Any other failed (in a money sense) bloggers out there? I’ve learned a lot and had a lot of fun, but no moolah for me :)
The cost of hosting is just a few bucks a month and an ad click or an Amazon affiliate link can generate that fairly easily. That’s what I mean by the gap between zero and profit is fairly small.
I don’t think it is a US thing, but I’m not an expert on that at all. Winnie hasn’t really tried to monetize her blog, but it does more than break even. Her traffic is way bigger than GCC, so she has a lot of potential. (She has gotten a book deal though, so the income in her case is indirect.)
For GCC, I wrote awhile back about blog income and various sources. I turn down income offers a lot because I only promote stuff that we actually use and love, and don’t do sponsored posts or paid links.
Where does Winnie blog? How did I now know this?
Thanks!
-PoF
She has a blog in Chinese. Link is in the sidebar, and also here.
Since she became a mother she hasn’t done much with it, but has been posting regularly (with lots of photos!) on her public Facebook page.
Her book should come out in December or January, also in Chinese, probably only available in Asia. We’ll share more when we know.
That would be how I don’t know about this. I’ll check out the Facebook page though. Pictures are a universal language.
Cheers!
-PoF
I’ve been blogging for over 10 years. My first blog, which is still active, is a book blog http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com. I started putting adsense ads on it seven years ago. I started a financial planning blog http://racingtowardretirement.blogspot.com about 18 months ago. Adsense paid me $200 about a year ago (I had banking issues and just left it there to accumulate) and I’ve earned about $45 since then. I’ve also earned about $20 (total over 10 years) in Amazon commissions. I have more review copies of books than I can read and have gotten a few review items over the years. If I was paying for hosting and mail list managment, I’d be in the hole.
Right now when I look at my stats, I see that my book review posts generally get between 15 and 30 page views in the first couple of months. However, my blog has over 2700 posts so I still end up with over 4000 views a month (though some of them are bots). My financial planning blog posts generally get close to 100 views the first week and my monthly totals are between 3000 and 5000.
My blogs are a hobby and I treat them as such. I don’t spend hours creating “pin-worthy” graphics for my posts. I don’t spend my time creating and maintaining pinterest boards. I do have a facebook page on which I share my posts, but I don’t see that it does me a lot of good.
From what I can see, most bloggers that make money from blogging are doing it not by selling ads on their site but by getting people to click affilliate links and buy products (like courses on how to make money blogging). I’ve also used my blog as a way to get freelance writing gigs that have paid me, though not enough to make a living.
In short, I suspect blogging is like most other jobs–people who really work at it and are better than average at it can make money. Those who putter with it have a hobby, that, if they are lucky, will earn them something.
4k view per
monthday… with Adsense and Amazon affiliate links on each page, I would expect more like $200-$300 per month from Adsense and $100+ from Amazon. Subtract $5 per month for hosting, and it is still a pretty nice income stream.Edit: sorry, I misread the comment. These income levels are for 4k views/day
According to what I’ve read from others and my own experience with Adsense (I’ve had a couple sites that had several thousand visitors per day) a thousand views is likely to only generate between $1 – $10. If it were $200 for 4k views I would be a very rich man! :)
Is that the kind of return you saw from Adsense?
No, I completely misread the traffic numbers. I read it as 4k/day… but I even wrote 4k/month. Sorry.
I never much enjoyed writing reports at work, but blogging about early retirement and travel has been a lot of fun. Penning strategies down on paper has helped me gain an even better understanding while explaining to family and friends my ideas on financial independence. It’s also a great way to supplement photos from trips by recording a bit more of the story. So far we have met a few cool people as well. I’m not making much money, but the entertainment value has been much higher than watching TV or messing around on Facebook :)
Definitely, blogging is more fun than TV or Facebook. There is just something innately human about creating stuff instead of consuming it.
My husband and I left our jobs a couple months ago to begin traveling full time in an RV. I started a blog several months before we left to capture the process of rolling up our old life and I use it now to document our travels. I will absolutely agree that the opportunities for self expression are tremendous. After spending many years working in a career that did not exactly lend itself to creativity, it’s been nice to exercise a different part of my brain. I also find that having the blog provides motivation – motivation to research what is worth seeing in a given location and motivation to capture the experience in words and photographs. Finally, I like that I am creating a record that we’ll be able to look back on down the line and remember all the things we saw and did. All in all, it’s been one of my favorite aspects of this project and I highly recommend it.
Wow, sounds awesome! RVing may also be in our future (or maybe one of those floating RVs with sails.)
Now that you mention it, being able to look back and see what we’ve done is super valuable. It is nice having that record. Looking back through Instagram is lots of fun!
Enjoy the road!
My blog is not quite two months old, a mewling, squealing babe, but there is already much I love about it:
1. I love looking at my stats. Specifically, the breakdown of readership by cities and countries that Analytics does for you. Discovering that I’ve had readers from 19 countries (and yes, I am including hacker Vitaly from Russia, so there) is nothing short of amazing to me.
2. I once had a reader comment that he read a post of mine and yelled “motherf*r” out loud. I was proud as a proverbial peacock. Eliciting a heartfelt curse from a reader feels like the holy grail of blog authorship. I love it when anyone says they learned something new from my writing. The feeling of satisfaction is profound.
In the good old days you had to work like a dog on a book and then convince an editor somewhere that your voice and your story were worth being heard. Blogging has changed the game. There are a lot of rubbish blogs out there (and I strive daily to not be one of them), and some truly great ones. I’m grateful that the person who now gets to decide which is which is a reader and not an editor.
I’ve been called a MFer, so turning that into a positive means you are already a step ahead :) *high five*
Count me as another who largely hated writing in school but enjoys blogging. I think it comes down to me being able to choose the topics. It challenges me to learn more about the latest research related to my post and gives me others of a like mind to bounce ideas off. Really helpful when you realize my wife would rather go to the dentist then talk about economics or finance. Still I’m not making any money doing so and I don’t really expect more then breaking even directly. The ideas though may help significantly. I’m already pursuing some new side hustles as such.
I never really expected to make money either. It just sort of happened. But since I like money, I started trying to figure out how to make more of it.
But like you, the intangibles are why I started and why I continue.
This post came just in time! I just started my own blog and really enjoyed writing my initial posts. There have been moments of slight despair where I could just not figure out how to make it look a little better, but it’s fun to explore and make your blog your “home”.
I’ve been an avid reader of several other blogs specially in the personal finance world and am looking forward to being a part of this wonderful group.
It’s all a learning experience for me too. One post at a time…
Great article and, as usual, the good insights. Well done!
As a blogger myself, I would say “blogging certainly has its appeal”. You certainly nailed a bunch of positives. But I’m not sure it’s for everyone (forgive me for disagreeing GCC).
To blog at the same level of success that GoCurryCracker has achieved takes a lot of stars aligning. GoCurryCracker is an exceptionally good blog, with exceptionally good writing, and exceptionally good photos.
Yes, starting a blog is easy, but that also means that anyone and their grandmother can start a blog. There is immense competition for eyeballs. Only the very best blogs end up surviving more than a few years…and those survivors are *superbly* passionate!
The costs may only be a few dollars a month, but I think biggest cost is time. Time to write, time to manage, time to comment, time to reply to emails. It all adds up.
Turning that frown upside down… if you are blogging because you enjoy it, 3 years later you are practically guaranteed to be in the top 10% of your niche.
Time wise, I’ve probably average 4 hours/week this year. I could certainly do more, but I’ve gotten more efficient.
The stars never align upon those who don’t start.
Nobody’s frowning here, just a difference of opinion with all respect due and intended. :D
I only wish I averaged 4 hours a week. In all honesty, I’m probably average closer to 16-24 hours a week.
I love a good bit of differing opinions. Thank you.
We were on the road for 6 months this year, so I wasn’t doing much blog work at all. That brings the average down. Now that I’m in one place for awhile, I’ve been putting in a bit more hours (although some of that I would do anyway for tax planning, e.g. the recent home office and depreciation posts.)
My blog is 6 months old tomorrow (just realized that!) It’s been a ton of work, but also a lot of fun! The community is incredibly supportive and I look forward to meeting a lot of folks at FinCon next fall. I started my blog as a way to “give back” after reading blogs like yours for many years. I took advice from my older brother (who FIRE’d in his early 30’s) and information from all the blogs I read to reach Financial Independence a year or so ago. I haven’t really tried to monetize yet (and assume it will happen more indirectly down the line) – but that’s not my goal at this point. I agree that it requires a lot of deep thinking and reflection and even more learning. That’s all more productive than mindless TV and web-surfing!
Happy halfiversary! I think I added my first ad after 18 months or so, and didn’t even know what an affiliate link was when I got started.
I’m glad to hear about your brother, and that you were willing to listen to his advice and see him as a role model. I’m still working on my younger siblings ;)
Really enjoy reading your family adventure. It opens an option of life other than work, make more money, work, move up the pyramid. I actually gain a lot of peace of mind reading your post and knowing there is other choice in life and money , really how much do you need to live an abundant life…
Not sure about making money with a blog, your writing style and content does need to appeal to a broader audience. Not every blogger can do that (or will be as good at it).
That being said, it is a great way for sure to get your thoughts organized. Being forced to think about what you are writing, you also find out details that you would have otherwise overlooked. That has been the most helpful to us.
The most fun has been interacting with others, both online and in real life. No regrets whatsoever to start a blog!
Thanks for the inspiration Team GCC!
I understand your point that a blog *can* be started in 30 minutes. However, any content worth writing deserves to be read. As such, the author must take steps to prevent their blog from getting hacked. This is a tedious and time consuming setup process.
It can easily take a month or two to learn how to make your blog secure, setup plugins to backup your content, setup plugins to create a newsletter, and a plugin for SEO. All of this up front time cost is definitely worth it if you’re going to stick with writing your blog.
It’s more painful to try and do all these things once you’ve already got content. Or worse, once you’ve already been hacked.
I don’t know anything about any of that stuff.
maybe a meetup/beginner blog course for FI minded folks in Taipei!
Yeah? We have a pretty full schedule in Dec, but maybe we can host a meetup in January. Winnie’s book will be out by then too.
Sounds good. You recommend any meetups to meet locals/expats in Taipei? I just moved here.
Hi Chen
I’m not aware of much in the way of meetups. Most of the expats I knew have moved on, and the locals are mostly Winnie’s friends.
I’m always up for a coffee. Send me an email or Facebook message.
Are you still living near Da’an? would love to grab coffee. I am right by Da’an station.
I totally agree, as long as they don’t blog about early retirement, travel, and frugality (we don’t need the competition). Haha.
I’m already old and jaded, so I like the fresh perspective and youthful vigor that the new ER / travel bloggers bring. That’s a great part of the community I mentioned. As long as they put us on their blogroll, eh? ;) Then the rising tide lifts all boats.
I totally agree! Even if it’s not to make money it’s a great creative outlet!
I agree 100%. When I am researching I always read blogs.
Hey Jeremy!
I definitely agree with you that everyone should blog. Heck, I started my blog because of you, Root of Good, MMM, and MadFientist. It also helps me keep myself accountable by tracking what I have and where I am at life.
I’m always up to learn more from you guys!
Huge thanks to you all,
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