I normally don’t do a post on Tuesdays, but there are several miscellaneous announcements I want to share.
If you’re not interested in knowing what’s going on here at ESI Money, another money-related post will be available tomorrow.
But if you are, here are some things you’ll want to be aware of…
New Interview Series
My Millionaire Interviews series is very popular because it’s great to learn from others how to become wealthy.
But one of the drawbacks is that the series excludes a large number of readers from telling their stories. I want to change that.
So I’m starting a new series titled tentatively “My ESI Story.”
I will interview readers on their finances, focusing on how they are doing with earning, saving, and investing (similar to this post).
The interviews will provide everyone a great opportunity to share their stories and ask for feedback.
If you’re interested send me an email.
Giveaways
I’ll be holding a couple giveaways in the next two weeks (including one at the end of this week) — giving away some gift cards and some silver American Eagle coins.
Stay tuned as you won’t want to miss those.
In addition, I’ll have some giveaways early next year as well.
Everyone likes FREE STUFF, right?
More Travel
In the past two months I have been on four trips (two by car and two by air). Whew! I’m exhausted!!
But I will keep at it in the new year, so in 2018 I’ll be posting a bit more on travel.
I have some great trips coming up (including what we’re doing to replace our canceled cruise) and want to share them with you.
It’s great being retired! 馃槈
Active on Facebook and Twitter
I post regularly on Facebook and Twitter for those who might want to stay in touch those ways.
Help a Reader
As you know, I post reader questions now and then so anyone can get advice from the ESI Money community.
If you’d like to be featured in one of these posts, simply send me a note.
If you’re considering doing that, here are a couple things you’ll want to keep in mind:
- I need your questions a couple months in advance. I write well in advance, so if you send me something today, it probably won’t be posted for 60 days or so. In other words, if you need advice for a decision due tomorrow, this series is not going to work for you. Plan ahead a bit and it will work for both of us.
- Be detailed. The more information you provide, the better responses/advice you’ll get. If you submit something too short, there’s no way I can use it (and no way readers can give good advice). So take some time and put some effort into it if you want well-rounded advice.
FinCon 17
I’m recently back from the Financial Blogger’s Conference (yes, there’s actually a financial blogger’s conference).
It was a great time and I met many awesome people there.
I’ll be headed to Orlando next year in case anyone wants to join me. 馃槈
Clarify My Ad Policy
My current ad policy includes the following statement:
My personal policy is that I do not include links for items I do not either use personally or endorse for people in a specific financial situation.
Over the life of this site, I’ve basically stuck to the “I do not include links for items I do not either use personally” part of the above.
My rationale has been that if I don’t use something, I don’t recommend it.
That’s a fine policy in theory, but it gets a bit sticky when you consider:
- I don’t use many products/services because I’m old school. For instance, I use Quicken on my desktop (which is going away, ugh) and budget with a spreadsheet. I use Vanguard for investing. I read books from Amazon. That’s it.
- But many readers are not me — they are behind me in their journey (i.e. younger than me) — and would consider products and services that I don’t personally use but would “endorse for people in a specific financial situation.” For example, there are a whole host of great new financial tech products coming out. Should I simply ignore these when they could help some readers?
My thinking really got impacted when I went to Fin Con last month and saw a ton of good companies that I would not use. So I wrote them off. Then it came to me: just because I wouldn’t use them doesn’t mean they couldn’t be helpful to my readers who might want to know about some great options for managing their money.
So it’s likely that you’ll see an article now and then for a product or service that I don’t use but that I think will be helpful. These will be noted as such when they are posted, but just wanted to give you all the backstory in case you were interested.
That’s all for today. Hope you are having a great day and easing into the holiday season!
Sounds like you have exciting things coming up. Looking forward to the freebies and new series!
I don鈥檛 think Quicken desktop is going away. They are pushing everyone to an annual subscription, but (I hope) the desktop software stays. Enlighten me if I am wrong so I can join your mourning! There is nothing wrong with old school for this – Personal Capital and some of the other programs are slick, but they are basically just reporting tools.
Thank you for all of the information you put on your site, you do great work.
I’m not sure either. I tried to chat with them online but the wait was projected to be an hour. Uh, no.
The issue to me is that I think you will be forced to transmit your data to them, which I do not want to do. I’m not completely sure about this (I’ve Googled all over and have found nothing clear one way or the other) so I’ll hope with you that I’m wrong.
I think many things are in flux. My current understanding is that you get 5GB of storage on Dropbox with your subscription. I already keep my backup on Dropbox, so I鈥檓 ok with this. I鈥檓 hopeful that the separation from Intuit will be a positive. I was encouraged by the seamless change to the Quicken ID. Simple things like this haven鈥檛 been simple in the past.
Also, I鈥檓 a fellow numismatist and have an extra 2012 AE proof. I鈥檇 like to donate it for one of your giveaways. Can we privately share information so I can send it your way?
That is a very kind and generous offer, but I’m all set. If you’d like to give it away, please donate it to your charity of choice.
Quicken 2018 is released and is still desktop based. It is licensed via subscription now. Once the subscription ends the software will continue to function bit without financial institution connectivity
I love the millionaire series so really looking forward to the My ESI Story series as well. Keep up the great work and looking forward to it!
Sounds reasonable on the ad policy. And to reiterate the previous comments I look forward to the new series and the like (I might even send an e-mail to tell my “ESI Money” story. Cheers.
Would love to have you! 馃槈
Thanks for the update. Your blog is kicking some major butt, ESI!
-Mike
Haha! Thanks!
Looking forward to the new series. It takes a journey to reach the goal.
Sounds like some awesome things coming up on ESI soon! I think we could all benefit from recommendations of additional products that can help with the earn/save/invest journey, which if you were starting out would have been beneficial to you.
ESI, always enjoy your site and appreciate you keeping us up-to-date with site developments. Looking forward to the new series, and what the interview subjects will share of value to use readers. Also, your personal stories about retirement life, work memories, and home life are also interesting and a good way to get me thinking about different approaches to common situations.
Lots of exciting stuff going on! I love the millionaire series and I am looking forward to the new series as well. You offer a great example of how awesome early retirement can be. I always enjoy getting a glimpse into your retirement lifestyle. Keep up the awesome work, ESI!
I really like the millionaire section, I check every Monday….but this Monday non new ones……lol.
JK,
One question I struggle with is, how to live a little today while still aggressively saving.
As I grow older (46 now) I realize I probably won’t fully retire because I like what I do, but, I will have a more and more flexible schedule. I like the idea of part time before full time retirement. Would be interested in hearing the transition people make to retirement. Baby steps, or jump in the deep end.
Love the site, keep it going.
Chris I’m 47 and just went half-time at my job about 6 weeks ago. I used to love my job but that changed big-time as I became a manager. I’m staying part-time to keep the health benefits, and I’m using the extra time I have to start side-hustles and/or businesses.
So I guess you can say I’m taking a baby step to early retirement. I’m already FI, but the RE is a harder animal to tackle. So far I LOVE it, but ironically I feel anxious and stressed in my extra free time, mostly because I feel obligated to start aggressively attacking all those things I never had time to get around to. It’s going to take some time to settle into this new reality, but overall it’s still pretty awesome.
Best of luck. I’m easily bored so part time even 30 hours versus 40+ may be my sweet spot. If I were semi-retired now I would work when it’s dark instead of the roughly 9 hours a day it is light out.
I have 2 more years of my youngest in high school. Once she gets to college and we have those costs under control I hope to follow in your footsteps. 50 is the goal that would make her a junior in college.
Best of luck I will checkout your site.
I am pleased that you are changing the format to My life. The Millionaire Interviews are very good but people need to understand that it may be easy due to a high income or it may take longer time because there income is not high or a life changing event has happened but to get there it is achievable.
There is too much negative in the news that is nothing but discouragement that is so false we need to see people who are on track.
Taking this opportunity to say thank you. I stumbled acrossed your site and found FIRE. So much i had learn from you and other blogger and so much more to explore. Can’t wait to retire. Half way through my first million and once i am there. Would be interested to get an interview with you:)
“Just because I wouldn鈥檛 use them doesn鈥檛 mean they couldn鈥檛 be helpful to my readers” – Think that’s good advice for me too. I’m in the same boat – Vanguard, Spreadsheets – and have struggled to find anything I’d find useful to recommend.
Exciting stuff! The new interview series and recommendations sound great. And more travel? Retirement is good for you. 馃槈
It seems that I get bombarded by 6-8 of your articles at once on RSS Feed Reader, instead of getting a push notification every time you upload a new article. Could this be on your end?
They come through one at a time on my feed reader. Which one do you use?