I love this time of year.
To me it’s rewarding to look back and see how much has been accomplished over the past year.
It’s also a great time to dream for the next year and make plans to achieve those dreams.
The dreaming part is for another post (likely in January). For now we’ll look back and review some great posts from 2018.
I know there are many new readers here (or even long-time readers) who may have missed these gems.
Here is what I would consider my top 10 posts of 2018 in countdown order as well as why I selected each…
Top 10 Posts
10. Seeking a Six-Figure Income
I love this guest post because it dispels a “fact” that many people believe — teachers don’t (and can’t) make a high income.
If you agree with that, you may want to read this post from a teacher who’s well on her way to earning six-figures.
Oh, and you may want to check out the upcoming book Everyday Millionaires
. Their study of 10,000 millionaires listed “teacher” as one of the top three millionaire professions. 🙂
9. Which is Better: Paying Off a Mortgage or Investing More?
It’s a great debate with no clear answer and lots of strong opinions on both sides.
For a blogger it’s gold because it generates a lot of comments. Haha!
What’s not to love?
8. ESI Scale Financial Independence Calculator
I launched three calculators this year — the one above plus a “When can I retire?” calculator and the Impact of Career Growth Calculator.
I love all three as they address vital issues related to growing your net worth.
That said, this calculator is my favorite as it’s about financial independence AND includes E-S-I.
Of course all calculators have issues as they involve assumptions by the author. But I think all three of these do a good job of challenging thinking and letting you get a general sense of where you stand on various career, retirement, and financial independence issues.
7. How I Lost Millions by Retiring Early
This is a fun post with a fun title.
I wrote it because I like both “what ifs” as well as playing with numbers.
Plus I was sooooo curious how much I actually left on the table by retiring early.
I included it on this list because it resulted in a BIG NUMBER! Yikes!
That said, it didn’t really impact my thinking or make me reconsider my decisions. It was simply an interesting post.
6. How to Get Up the Nerve to Retire
Another great guest post.
This issue comes up often a couple different ways.
A couple examples:
- “I have $5 million and only need $2 million but I’m afraid to retire”
- “I’m ready to retire but afraid to pull the plug, what do I do?”
I wanted to address these concerns so I asked my buddy, Jim, to write a guest post on it. He’s close to retiring himself and is facing these issues head-on.
He did a great job and this post was very well received — making it more than worthy of being in the top 10.
5. Why Getting Fired Was One of the Best Things that Ever Happened to Me
So often events we think are terrible actually end up working out for the best.
This has happened to me so often that when something doesn’t go my way I can step back, take some time, and see if it really is good or bad. Time will certainly tell.
Unfortunately the opposite is true (something seems great and turns out poorly), but we won’t go into that now. 🙂
I like this post since it offers hope to those who may have had a career stumble and believed they were doomed in a way. I want them to take heart as what appears to be a curse can sometimes become a blessing.
4. How to Ignore the Basics of Personal Finance and Still Become Rich
Ugh.
I keep hearing from, running into, and getting comments from people who either want to dismiss some foundational principle and still become wealthy or make excuses for why this or that should not be included in the “how to become wealthy” discussion.
In this post the issue is about people wanting to grow their wealth while taking the “E” out of E-S-I. But it really serves as an example of what I get often — readers wanting to ignore the basics of becoming wealthy and still reach the same result.
It doesn’t work that way.
And speaking of not working that way…
3. If You Want What I Have You Have to Do What I’ve Done
Here’s yet another post (said in a different way) that talks to those who want to dismiss something vital on the path to wealth (generally because it’s too difficult.)
They want what I have (financial independence) but don’t want to do what I’ve done (work on earning, saving, and investing.)
Yet again, it doesn’t work that way…
2. Is Retiring on a Cruise Ship an Affordable Option?
This is an idea I haven’t given up on. If my wife was up for it I would certainly try living on a ship for at least six months, maybe a year.
But for now, this remains a dream. For the rest of you, it’s an interesting thought and discussion.
After all, who wouldn’t want to retire and be on an awesome vacation every day?
1. 13 Surprising Facts from 100 Millionaire Interviews and What We Can Learn from Them
This post represents not only itself, but the 75 millionaire interviews I did in 2018.
Yes, that number is correct. We started the year with number 33 on January 3 and ended with 108 just a bit more than a week ago.
I pushed the posts as I wanted to get to 100 this year and write a summary of our findings, which is what this post is.
There are more related posts to come as we’ll dive deep into how millionaires grew their wealth, what they list as their top money tips, the mistakes they made along the way, and so on.
One More
While Five Steps to Creating a Winning $25k Blog, Step 1: Determine Your Strategy didn’t make it into the top 10 (because it’s not directly about personal finance), I did want to include it here.
The series (starting with this post) details much of what I know about starting and growing a blog. I put a lot of time and energy into it to help new/aspiring bloggers get a head start.
For these reasons I just couldn’t pass it up without a mention.
Anyway, that’s my list. Did I get the order correct? Or are there any posts I missed that you think should have made the top 10?
Outstanding information from a thoughtful leader who cares about helping others. Job well done: good and faithful servant. Well done.
Thank you – Thank you – Thank you.
Just a bit sad that I wasn’t able to have this type of “sharp” information at my fingertips 30 years ago.
In saying that, my two boys are both in their early 30’s and I’m able to have meaningful discussions with them because I’m much more educated now. ESI continues to help me build my foundation in the area of finance and I love reading posts from other experts as well.
At 63, (wife 60), and with only 2 years from my/our retirement date (12/32/2020), we , as public school educators love learning new “stuff” ——- if everything continues as planned, we will retire with a Net-Worth of close to $4 million —- so, I’m not surprised to see TEACHERS at the top of the pack in the area of financial independence—- and I’m proud I chose this profession—-
Again, I appreciate the 2018 recap —- to say the least, it’s been a most interesting year.
Thanks! I appreciate all the great comments you leave here!
Congratulations on another year in the books.
My personal favorites from your list were the paying off mortgage vs investing one (I side with paying off the mortgage) and the 13 things learned from the 100 millionaire interviews.
Looking forward to what you have in store for 2019. Have a happy New year
You too!
It’s really impressive the amount of high quality articles you’re able to produce!
I’m not surprised teachers are some of the most likely to be millionaires! They have such great retirement accounts. It’s a shame that a lot of people don’t think that teaching is a good career.
I have found great value in the content available at ESI and feel lucky to have stumbled upon the site. So much so, I routinely point others in the same direction. The tools, reference materials and individual perspectives have provided both encouragement and reassurance for my own personal situation.
When I first stumbled upon this site, I was wrestling with accepting the fact that my advisor informed me I had achieved FI and could RE at will. As someone whom consistently lives via “trust, but verify”, this site has provided the information which enabled verification.
Thank you for all the hard work to make this site valuable.
Yeah. I think many of us wish we were smarter about this stuff in our earlier years. But there is always room for improvement going forward and I will always do what I can to offer help to my kids and anyone else who will listen. It’s fascinating how simple all this really is but yet there are many that still don’t put some basic steps to work.
Haha! Yes, if we all could go back I’m sure we’d do it better the second time.
Great list. I read them all. I’m glad you added the Five Steps to Creating a Winning Blog series, because I definitely used it this year.
Penny’s guest post about income, and the following posts you shared about how you can’t ignore earning hit right at an important point for my profession. Education is a great profession, with some financial advantages, but you can’t just accept the lowest salary and then expect to be wealthy.
Thanks for a great 2018. You made a difference for me. Looking forward to a great 2019.
Appreciate that. Here’s to a great 2019!
With respect:
Thanks for a year of great and useful info.
What always saddens me is how many millionaires give so little to charity. Not judging here, just going by the sections in the articles presented.
I realize the site is mostly about making all the money you can.
The Bible does not say money is the root of all evil. It says the LOVE of money is the root of all evil.
Often that love of money overshadows the need and/or importance of giving back to society through charitable organizations, volunteering, or whatever makes life less about YOU!
It saddens me how little most people give to charity whether they are millionaires or not.
You listed some of my favorites and some I have yet to read. I’m so glad you mentioned 5 steps to creating a winning $25k blog. Your 5 part series came at the exact point in my life when I was considering starting my own blog but didn’t really know how to start. I took action steps each week according to your advice. Additionally, I’d wait with bated breath for the next article. It was exactly the type of push I needed.
Cheers to a great 2019!
ESI, thanks for producing such great content, year after year. From FMF to ESI Money on to Rockstar Finance, your ability to build an informed and positive community of contributors is remarkable. Continued success to you, in family, life, and finance!
Some good ones in this list for sure, some of these I missed though. Sunday reading material ? Cheers to 2019!
Go for the cruise ship retirement and write about it! I think it would be a lot of fun going around the world and meeting new folks. Too bad about the satellite internet cost though, but you can easily go on land to a cafe or restaurant.
It’s funny, but I cannot remember what your last website was called now. It has totally slipped my mind… doh. Are you still running it?
Sam
See one of the comments above and maybe it will come back to you… 😉