Well, it was six years ago today that I started Free Money Finance with a simple post that detailed what this site is about (followed the next day with why the site exists -- I guess I was already lacking for inspiration on day #2! Ha!)
Anyway, I quickly followed with reasons I thought someone should even take two seconds to listen to me as well as my promises to readers I then got into the meat of my philosophy -- what I called the five principles -- as follows:
- Five Principles to Increasing Your Net Worth
- Principle 1: Maximize Income from All Sources
- Principle 2: Minimize Expenses
- Principle 3: Getting Out of Debt
- Principle 4: Invest in Appreciating Assets
- Principle 5: The Value of Insurance and Estate Planning
From there, the site grew simply by me writing about things I found interesting, what I was doing, etc. And almost 9,000 posts later, I'm still going.
I would be remiss if I didn't recognize those of you who comment here, and how you added to the success of this site. You've made it much, much better than I could have alone, and your contributions have not gone unnoticed. Thank you for them. I appreciate your efforts, thoughtfulness, and opinions (yes, even when they disagree with my own) more than I can put into words.
And for those of you interested in seeing some "highlights" of the past six years, feel free to browse my categories and archives as you like or re-read my top posts of 2010. Or, if you prefer specific recommendations, here are some pieces I've done recently that I especially like:
- Career Insurance: Insuring Your Most Valuable Asset
- Real-Life Case Study: How to Take Early Semi-Retirement, Part 1
- How to Buy and Sell Physical Gold and Silver, Part 1
- Toileting and Retirement, Should I Purchase Long-Term Care Insurance? Part 1
And as a reminder, this site still gives 100% of its profits to charities. We've contributed close to $300,000 now, which is a very cool thing IMO -- that you can help others out by reading about finances. ;-)
And if I may ask a favor, please recommend this site to your friends, family, co-workers -- anyone interested in personal finance. They can subscribe to Free Money Finance using their feedreader and this link or get daily email updates using this link.
Anyway, here's to another six years. Hopefully in that time we'll see the market up big, the economy get on its feet, and all of us growing our net worths at record pace! I look forward to traveling those times with you.
Congrats! Have enjoyed learning from you! And considering I have been blogging for ~18 months, it is hard to imagine 6 years!
Posted by: Dr Dean | April 05, 2011 at 03:50 PM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Lurker Carl | April 05, 2011 at 03:57 PM
Congratulations. You are a must read for me and have been for several years. Thank you for all the great posts that you write. I love that you donate your profits to charity.
Posted by: Mary Kay | April 05, 2011 at 04:21 PM
Congratulations! 6 years is an eternity in the blogging world. I've been going for 1 year, and your blog was one of the very first ones I started to read. Still reading regularly, obviously.
That's fantastic that you've given $300k to charity. I'd have to agree, very cool to actually make a real difference via this platform.
Posted by: Squirrelers | April 05, 2011 at 04:25 PM
Great Job
Posted by: Rockbell | April 05, 2011 at 04:43 PM
WOW 300K to charity. That's amazing!
Posted by: mysticaltyger | April 05, 2011 at 04:46 PM
Your blog posts are always inspiring. But even more inspiring is your focus on charitable giving. It has made me re-examine my own giving and motivated me to do more. Thank you!
Posted by: ACS | April 05, 2011 at 05:24 PM
Congrats! Keep up the good work.
Posted by: jim | April 05, 2011 at 05:40 PM
Congratulations FMF! Good job! and wow.... $300,000. Very cool indeed! MMEPO ( made my eyes pop out) ;-)
Posted by: billyjobob | April 05, 2011 at 06:37 PM
Your blog is great! I enjoy reading the many meaningful posts from literate posters and read it more than once a day. It's really refreshing compared with the thousands of illiterate, rude, and nasty comments that get left at the end of many of the articles on my home page of yahoo.com. I haven't come across another blog anywhere that begins to compare with freemoneyfinance.com.
Your doing us all a great favor by keeping it going so efficiently.
Posted by: Old Limey | April 05, 2011 at 06:55 PM
Excuse me - I see I made a grammatical error, "Your" instead of "You're".
Posted by: Old Limey | April 05, 2011 at 06:57 PM
Wow, Happy Birthday and thank you. I check this site daily and have it on my rss feed. I really appreciate the topics presented here in my quest to learn better financial habits. The fact that you have been able to donate so much money to charity is just the icing on the cake. Now for the next six years and beyond!
Posted by: Paula1849 | April 05, 2011 at 08:30 PM
happy B-day FMF. have always enjoyed hanging around. thank you for the multiple opportunities to guest post here. great that monies are donated to charity. wishing you all the continuing success.
Posted by: Sunil from The Extra Money Blog | April 05, 2011 at 09:18 PM
Six years - that's awesome!! And you have created something very a incredible here in that time - thanks for all you do and share!
Posted by: Lance | April 05, 2011 at 09:32 PM
Congrats. That's very decent that you have given $300k to charity. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Eric | April 05, 2011 at 11:19 PM
Congrats on making 300k in six years! That is quite impressive!
Posted by: Jacob @ My Personal Finance Journey | April 05, 2011 at 11:40 PM
Congratulations! My favorite pers finance site--nice job!
Posted by: KH | April 06, 2011 at 05:47 AM
Happy Birthday FMF, keep 'em coming!
Posted by: Mike Hunt | April 06, 2011 at 08:11 AM
Happy birthday FMF!!! 300k is indeed very cool but most of all God bless for your sunday posts... keep up the wonderful work!!!
Posted by: Petra | April 06, 2011 at 08:11 AM
Not a week goes by that I don't stop in and see what wisdom is here to garner...all my grown kids have received different articles I've found here. Thanks so much and CELEBRATE!
God Bless!
Posted by: Norma | April 06, 2011 at 08:47 AM
Freemoneyfinance.com is by far the "Sine Qua Non" of financial blogs. Keep up the great work!
Posted by: Old Limey | April 06, 2011 at 10:27 AM
Thanks so much to you all. I appreciate the kind words and the contribution you each make to helping this blog be as good as it can be. Truly, your comments and input are a blessing to me and to the others who read them.
Posted by: FMF | April 06, 2011 at 11:32 AM
Congratulations!
I love reading this site. In fact, I even love reading the comments on your site from the likes of regular readers like "Old Limey" (actually, especially Old Limey)!
WOW, 9000 posts is amazing! I'm just a bit over 500 posts and feeling creatively exhausted (at least on some days...)
Here's to another 6 years, thanks for writing great material!
Posted by: Money Reasons | April 06, 2011 at 02:57 PM
Love the site. Like others, I check it faithfully and enjoy the insights provided by FMF and readers. Thanks for doing this. Thanks for the perspective you bring and the forum you provide!
Posted by: J.P. | April 06, 2011 at 05:57 PM
Congrats. I read you faithfully. As my late husband said, "You are never poor if you have something to give to others."
There is a book I'm looking at buying. Have your ever reviewed it? It's called something like Freedom from Debt Slavery by a preacher. It told how he was able to up the giving to his church by helping his parisheners get out of debt.
Posted by: Georgia | April 07, 2011 at 11:17 AM
FMF,
six years? Wow - congrats and you gotta love being able to use the site to give away $300K - well done!
Posted by: Bob | April 07, 2011 at 11:21 AM
Georgia --
No, I've never heard of it.
Posted by: FMF | April 07, 2011 at 11:42 AM