In 2013, I finished my personal finance e-book, Live Cheaply, Be Happy, Grow Wealthy and then self-published it on smashwords.com. The marketing plan was to write a financial advice blog to promote the book. I was inspired by the movie Julie & Julia, where Julie Powell aspires to prepare all the recipes in Julia Child's first cookbook and blog about her experience. Her list of followers grew and eventually she had the material and an audience for a published book, and eventually a movie.
I never expected my personal finance blog to become a movie. But I liked the idea of building an audience, identifying hot topics, sharing advice, and then compiling a year's worth of columns into a book. However, I never got around to starting the blog.
And I worried that I had no credibility. My degree is not in Finance, or Economics, or Accounting, or any related field. I've never worked in banking or financial planning. I figured that having a published book about personal finance to my name would give me the credibility necessary to draw readers to my blog.
So I finished the book and published it. But then I went back to work as a contractor and the blog never got started.
Retired again, I'm making a New Year's resolution to finally start my blog. The goal is to gain more readers for Live Cheaply, Be Happy, Grow Wealthy and to gather material for an updated second edition. I welcome comments about the book as well as tips from readers about how to shrink your financial footprint and build wealth.
