As many of you know, you can subscribe to ESI Money by either using an RSS feed or being emailed a post summary each time I post. To do either you can visit my “subscribe” page.
When someone subscribes to the email list, I get a note saying I have a new subscriber. Likewise, when someone unsubscribes I also get a notice. In addition, sometimes the unsubscriber leaves a reason why he/she left and I receive that as well.
Recently a person unsubscribed and left this comment as the reasons why:
“Not much to add relative to other blogs and keeping identity hidden is a turn off.”
Response
First of all, I want to thank this person (though he likely won’t ever read this post — he’s long gone by now.) I want to thank him because he left a reason instead of simply going away. He gave me something of value, something I can use and learn from, and I appreciate that.
Second, this comment made me realize that I haven’t done a good job at addressing the two issues the commenter raises. So this post will rectify that omission.
Secret Identity
Let’s start with the second issue first. The one summed up as:
“keeping identity hidden is a turn off”
Let me explain why I do this.
It’s because I’m Batman.
Ok, that’s not really the reason. But I’ve always wanted to be Batman and just typing it felt fun!
The real reasons I don’t reveal my identity are as follows:
1. I like to share as much detail of my personal finances as possible. Being anonymous, especially as someone with a higher net worth, allows me to be very open so readers can see and learn more about what I’m doing and the results I’m getting.
If you look at other bloggers, there are many who write under their actual names. But these are generally people who are at the start of their financial journeys with low net worths. In fact, the only blogger I know of who has a significant net worth (multi-millions) and uses his own name is Sam at Financial Samurai.
If you know others, I’d love to hear about them.
Another side note: several years ago, a handful of financial bloggers sold their blogs for millions. Up to that point, most had shared the details of their personal finances. Once they became wealthy, they stopped. So apparently the wealthier you are the more anonymous you want to be. Are we back to Batman/Bruce Wayne now?
2. When people find out your identity, it limits what you can say. I know this first hand. I have another money blog and some people at work found out about it. News spread like wildfire that it was my site, what I had in assets, etc. — all of my business. It severely limited what I could say on the blog and then eventually became the reason I stopped writing there for a while. I don’t want that to happen here.
Comparison
Now on to this part of the comment:
“Not much to add relative to other blogs.”
I think I answered this issue in Why Another Financial Website?, the second post I wrote on this site.
But I understand that any new reader probably hasn’t seen that post, so let me hit the highlights.
You can click through to the post and read the details but here’s the summary of what makes ESI Money different:
It’s written by someone who is wealthy taking about what he’s actually done to get there.
Most other sites (blogs and mainstream media) are written by:
- People who are not wealthy (you can tell by what they say)
- People who are trying to figure out how to become wealthy
In case I’m not being clear enough, let me quote from The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)
聽on the author’s perspective of who to listen to:
“The key is to learn from the experts — those who have already done what you want to do.”
In short, I’m not making this wealth stuff up as I go along. I write about what I know and what I’ve seen work for me. Almost all other blogs write from the perspective of trying to become wealthy, not from someone who is already wealthy.
And it’s not just me. Many readers of ESI Money are better off financially than I am. They have skills, experience, and knowledge that I don’t have. And they leave comments — very useful, insightful, and worthwhile comments. Again, these comments are from people who know what they are talking about, not people trying to figure out the path to wealth. They make this site way better than I could if I was the only one contributing. Their contributions make it much different (better) than most other blogs (IMO).
Summary
So hopefully that answers the reader’s questions.
I’m sorry he’s not here to see them, but there are probably more out there like him wondering the same thing. If so, this post is for you.
Thanks for reading ESI Money and being part of this site. I am blessed by each one of you.
They say that feedback is a gift, so it is nice to know whey they left. I had someone unsubscribe last week and I have no idea why. To be fair, just because someone leaves you feedback, it doesn’t mean they have any idea what they are talking about either, so you have to keep that in mind too! But, it’s a good opportunity to reinforce your point of difference and value proposition for readers.
It seems to me, that the vast majority of pf blogs are from millennials who found themselves with $100k of student loan debt or $50k of credit card debt and then got scared straight. And, there are very few, to your point, from people who have already been successful and are sharing what they learned. And as a fellow anonymous blogger, I agree that it is very freeing and the content ends up being better for it.
Since you asked about bloggers who are public and wealthy, mr money mustache revealed his identity a few years ago. He doesn’t write as frequently any more but the forum on the blog is very active.
Personally, I completely agree about staying anon. The value is the content not the name,
An interesting comment from the reader and very opposite to my opinion. When you shut down your old blog there was a gap in my reading. I looked for other blogs and found that quite a few were not my style. Like when I first started reading money magazine 25 years ago there were all these articles on how to manage your million dollar portfolio. Well shoot I maybe had $100k at the time and felt out of place reading Money and did not fit me at the time. Your old blog reinforced quite a bit of what I believe in and I wanted to do like paying off my house early and being mortgage free. Maybe they are searching for answers and not finding what they want to hear.
In my search for a replacement blog I really did not find anything that did not involve similar wavelengths. All I found was extreme living or poor advice. Extreme saving 50% to 75% of your income and retiring at 30. Extremely frugal living telling you that you was your clothes too often, making a boat load of money and living in a trailer on poverty level income. Some of them insulting in calling you names like “complaney pants” and implying that if you did not think on their wavelength then there was something wrong with you. Some are good writers with bad advice and some are good advice but bad writers.
That is just not my style and I found some of it entertaining but most of it just silly advise to downright rude. Most have taken their extreme spending or savings habits and traded them for extreme living habits on how cheaply one can live which now has become there full time job.
I agree that it makes sense for you to stay anonymous in order to feel free to disclose as much about your finances as you do. I am glad that you returned to blogging as I never found another blog to fill the gap left when you stopped “publishing” your other blog. I hope blogging brings you income, as a reward for all your content. Now if only Old Limey were to return to commenting.
I agree with you staying anonymous. Sam at Financial Samurai also tries to keep his personal information extremely limited.
I think your content is more comprehensive. You are a very hard worker and it shows. You really built up the other blog nicely- I was commenting there since 2006. And it’s nice to see the formula work in real time- in just 10 years we are both effectively FI.
-Mike
Your doing a great job! Thanks for your time and efforts!
TR
Seeing all the comments above makes me thankful for each of you being part of this site.
I’ve made some good friends here and at my other blog over the years and appreciate knowing all of you.
There’s a great saying, “The key to success is to be the dumbest one in the room.”
It’s really being around a community of smarter, value-added people who really propel people along.
Thanks for sharing the ESI value prop!
Sam
Glad your back. Keep up the good work and hope retirement suites you ( I failed and found something to do 2 months later……4 years ago)
I’m not really anonymous, not completely out there, either, but people could find me if they put forth any effort. And, you’re right, it limits what I am comfortable writing about. I don’t share many of my money experiences or my net worth because I know the neighbors are reading. (And I truly think they are – one of them found me on twitter.)
And, I completely agree with learning from people who have actually done what you want to do. What better way to learn? Which is why I read on this site – we are looking at retirement in a few years and I want to know exactly what you have done to get there and how you are managing your early retirement. Great post!
Another note of thanks. I’m thankful that you started blogging again, I really missed the insights. You offer something different than most financial bloggers I’ve tried and it fits into where we are and where we want to be. It’s not for everyone, and part of that is the difference in people’s tastes. The good news is that there are plenty of bloggers out there, so hopefully those who need something else can find it. Keep up the good ‘work’ 馃檪
I was always curious how sure you were about being able to completely disassociate your identity at your old blog with this blog? I went through your email procedure to get the URL to this blog, but couldn’t someone who personally knew you at the old blog make a new email address and ask for the URL to your new (this) blog? Yeah, that would be a dastardly thing to do, but could you have prevented that?
Yes, it’s a balance.
I want to remain anonymous but I also wanted readers from my old blog to visit this site.
So I tried to do both the best I could. Time will tell if it’s a good strategy or not.
Shouldn’t be as much of an issue now that you’re retired. Hopefully.
Like others, I was thrilled that you started blogging again. I very much missed the old blog for your great starting points – and the very good comments discussion from an impressive group of contributors. I am glad to see that is back. (Like others, I miss Old Limey!)
I emailed OL today to see what he’s been up to. Not sure he’s even at the same email address (no word yet) but if he is, I’ll invite him here.
For readers like me, identify doesn’t matter as long as we are learning something from the blog. Keep writing with your amazing post, love reading it. Thank you.
Your response to this poster is exactly why I like reading your site. You are in a position I hope to be in within the next couple of years.
Yeah, baseline wisdom, remaining anonymous, knowing what I know of untrustworthy friends and even family members, not to mention the criminal class. And as we speak, Budgetsaresexy is apparently up for sale. I was running out of useful info there, so I came here. I do comment more than I should . . . mother always said, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. I’ve thrown that advice straight out the window, though it occasionally comes back by way of, what exactly am I trying to do here? LEARN, baby, learn, whether it’s pleasant, hurtful, or not. Not that playing favorites should matter, but having surveyed the whole lot, as of 2019, this is probably my favorite blog. Very important to hear other voices, though, and consider the broadest array of alternatives. Probably most enlightening is not the how or why, but the social history and lifestyles and setbacks and Great Recession references and everything else that crops out in (mostly) the millionaire interviews. Most distressing is how ill-prepared even this lofty mob seems to be in respect to future healthcare and insurance costs; to be fair, it can’t really be properly parsed so long as profiteering runs wild. Some countries clearly do a better job, others less so, but I refuse to be complacent or nonchalant about the ifs. IT comes for all, like it or not. We’ll see how that goes going forward.
Elizabeth Warren is not my gal, her ideas and solutions concern me, but I do believe her severe criticism of health insurance profiteering (to the tune of $23 billion predicated on exploitation and denied coverage) is more than warranted. How we reform or possibly stop it is another thing. We’ll see . . .
Budgets are Sexy was actually recently sold.
Fair enough . . . I noticed a decline in output near the end, quality of content a little more flippant, cutesy, less necessary. Seemed more than a sabbatical brewing. I guess he plateaued, more than making bank or something, but then I also needed a different variety of content, and more depth, found here. The MMM is a stranger attraction; I don’t want to live that way (for the most part), but it seems important to look. Hammering out the last of the great strategy, essentially, while keeping visions and alternatives clear.