I’m no longer anonymous – Blogging Anonymously or Publicly
Lately, it seems like every single day someone who I know finds out about my blog. Now, EVERYONE knows, besides the people who I work with. I need to keep it that way for now…
I say that I’m no longer anonymous because all of my friends know, and because I am easy to search on Google. I’ve also started posting more and more pictures everyday. I also plan on sharing our engagement photos once those are ready. The engagement photos will be my first official photos released on my blog that show my face. I know, you guys cannot wait at all. The suspense is killing you!
I am completely joking of course 
Also, sprinkled throughout this post are comments of what readers said in my last Should I still be anonymous post.
The other day, we were over at W’s friend’s house and his friend said “Hey Michelle, I heard you have some writing thing going on.” And also recently, someone ambushed me (of course I am using that term loosely!) and showed me my blog on their phone. ON THEIR PHONE! What was I supposed to say?
And then just last week, I received an email from a reader, and she was telling me that my blog is helpful. We then started talking back and forth and she actually went to the same high school as me, and she lives in the same town as me! Small world, right? I feel like I have nowhere to run now!
Everyone knows about my blog now. W’s parents asked me for my blog URL the other day, and my friends have found it all also. Probably doesn’t help that you can just type in “Michelle finance blog” and it’s on the first page!
I have W to blame for all of this.
He kept blabbing to everyone and everyone kept asking him for hints about my blog. Of course he gave enough hints and now everyone knows about it! Even though everyone knows, I honestly don’t think too many people read it. Not too many people have really brought up anything that I have talked about in a blog post.
Haha, but that is a good thing. I like not feeling like I am always hiding from everyone. Yes, I do not have any direct pictures of my face up yet, but I still want to be safe when it comes to my job. However, I am friends with many bloggers on Facebook and on my personal Instagram, so many of you already know what I look like. And most of you already know my last name.
I was anonymous in the beginning because I used my blog as a way to vent about the things going on in my life – the passing of my dad, the horrible things someone else in my family did, and so on. It was easy to talk about things on here, but now I’m moving past all of that, so it only seems normal to be public now.
Positives of being more public:
- I’m not as mysterious. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they would rather read a blog where the person is open about who they are. Well, this is something that I am working on. I can’t wait until I make the 100% freelancing switch and am then able to post awesome pictures of myself everyday
- I don’t feel like I’m hiding from my friends and family. This is number one on my list. I felt like I was living a double life for so long. Now, I talk about my blog so often that they are probably annoyed.
- It’s more fun! And it’s easier to blog publicly. I’m no longer trying to hide things that could potentially reveal who I am.
Risks of being public with my blog:
- Financials are now public. Do I really want to post our net worth on my blog anymore? What about my extra income updates and things about our jobs?
- Certain things that I’ve said about my family and the situations that I gone through have been edited. I would hate for you-know-who to see what I’ve written. Even though she is in the wrong and has done absolutely horrible things to me, and I am in the right, I would hate to go down that direction and open everything back up. Right now, I am just moving on going forward in life…
- Nothing is private. This is a given. Everyone will know everything about my life now!
- Of course, there is always the risk that my work will find my blog and read my passion or money post. That would be an awkward conversation…
Are you anonymous or public? What would you prefer to do and why?
Life Updates and $3,287 in Extra Income
That’s part of my sister’s lovely face on the left and me on the right…
Hey everyone! Happy Monday. The weekend went by too quickly, yet again. Hope all of you fathers enjoyed Father’s Day!
We took our engagement photos on Thursday night, and it went well! I was super nervous but our photographer was awesome. My sister helped us out and watched the dogs so that we could take some photos with them and photos without. We should be getting the photos either this week or next, so be on the lookout for them!
Who watched TrueBlood last night? Who is very confused?! This season definitely seems like a weird one. I’m not sure what to think.
I have my annual review at my work today, wish me luck!
We are still looking for a potential dream house and have been searching every single day. Haven’t found anything that we LOVE, which is probably good since our current house isn’t for sale yet. However, if the PERFECT one did come up, we will probably put an offer on it.
Also, we’ve decided that we will most likely sell our current house. We have been thinking about it, and if we were looking for a house to buy in order to rent out, we most likely wouldn’t do that with this one since we could definitely buy something cheaper and more “basic” and get a higher return from it.
Don’t forget that Google Reader shuts down in a couple of weeks. Don’t forget to switch your reader over to something else. I’ve come to love Bloglovin, so I recommend trying that out. What are you switching to?
Student Loan Update
My student loans will be gone this month! WOOHOOO! I’ll be making an update post on this soon. This feeling is awesome and I can’t believe that I am this close.
Spending
I don’t think we spent too much in the past week. I can’t really think of anything. We did of course spend money on our engagement photos and those were around $400. Well worth it to me though! I’m sure W would say otherwise…
Extra Income (does not include income from our main jobs)
Extra income was great last week. I finally collected some very overdue payments which helped increase my weekly income, but I am still waiting on a few more. Estimated taxes are due, and let me tell you, that is never any fun to pay… Lets please not even talk about how much I will pay altogether this year!
I launched my new blog last weekend. Diversified Finances is live! This blog will be all about how I’m trying to diversify my finances and eventually become financially independent. The newest post on there is all about passive income.
Posts from my blog:
- I started a new blog and $1,258 in Extra Income - My usual weekly update.
- My wedding dress and budget: Part 1 Dress and Photos – An awesome wedding post! I talk about my wedding dress and photo budget, and some tips for saving money in these areas.
- What is your pet worth? - Jordann’s post was a good one. Lots of great comments on this post as well! For me, I would pay anything for my dogs, they are my children and my life. Some people wouldn’t spend more than $100 and I just think that is extremely shocking, and scary…
- Emergency Fund or Pay Off Debt? – I asked everyone a question in this post. It seems like the choice is spit. Half of you only prefer to keep a small amount in your EF so that you can pay down high interest rate debt more quickly. For me, I prefer to keep my EF high because I am an extreme worrier.
Link love:
There were a lot of great posts in the past week, but one that I really enjoyed was It’s just a job on Blonde & Balanced. Of course we all know that this topic has been on my mind forever. What is your job to you, just a paycheck or passion? Both?
Being healthy
I haven’t been the healthiest this past week, and I will say it’s because I’ve been busy, but it’s partly been laziness as well. Working out has definitely gone downhill, but oh well. We have been eating very healthy though. That is one thing that we have got going for us! Both of us want to lose weight and look/feel better…
Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?
I Started a New Blog and $1,258 in Extra Income
Hey everyone! Happy Monday. I hope you all had an awesome weekend. I still can’t believe that it’s June. The year is just flying by.
We didn’t do a whole ton this weekend, just did a lot of relaxing and some side hustle work.
This week I have Thursday off and we are taking our engagement photos. W isn’t too happy because he doesn’t like photos. I honestly just want pictures of us and the dogs haha… I hope they turn out great! I really don’t want the normal cheesy looking photos where everything is posed. I want them as natural looking as possible. I’ll share some photos with you all as soon as I get them.
I wanted to share something funny with you all – well at least it’s funny to me. The other day I received an email from a reader, and she was telling me that my blog is helpful. We then started talking back and forth and she actually went to the same high school as me, and she lives in the same town as me! Small world, right?
Also, don’t forget but Google Reader shuts down in a couple of weeks. Don’t forget to switch your reader over to something else. I’ve come to love Bloglovin, so I receommend trying that out. What are you switching to?
Student Loan Update
My student loans are ALMOST GONE. That’s so nice to say. I will definitely have them paid off by the end of this month. I know that I’ve had some delays, but I am still of course very happy with my progress. Also, not putting thousands of dollars (my minimum payment was less than $500 but I’ve been throwing a lot of extra money towards the loans) towards student loans every single month will feel awesome!
Spending
We did do some spending in the past week. We bought W some new clothes for the engagement photos but I believe that was all. Spent around $200 but he could use the clothes anyway, so it was worth it.
Extra Income (does not include income from our main jobs)
Extra income was good last week, but I’m still waiting on quite a few payments. Hopefully these will FINALLY be collected this week because some are so old that they were due when I was on vacation in St. Thomas early last month.
I also finally launched my new blog this weekend. Diversified Finances is live! There isn’t much on it right now. I was going to wait to share it with you all, but I’m not much of a secret keeper and wanted to share it immediately. This blog will be all about how I’m trying to diversify my finances and eventually become financially independent.
Some of you might be wondering WHY I started a second blog. Well, I figured I wanted to bring Making Sense of Cents back to all things personal finance, and not talk 100% about my side hustles.
I went through my past posts recently, and pretty much 99% of them are about my side hustles. I have a ton of ideas for side hustles posts for the future (like over 50), and decided that since I like to talk so much, a second blog would probably be a better idea. I don’t think I will be posting too, too often on Diversified Finances, but maybe 2 to 3 times per week.
So what does this mean for my extra income posts? I’m still not sure. What would you rather I do? Should I post my monthly extra income posts on this blog or the other one? It would fit on the other blog better, but it seems to be such a big staple on Making Sense of Cents! Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Posts from my blog:
- $7,641 in Extra Income – Side Hustles! - This is my monthly extra income posts. I answered a lot of reader questions, so I hope you all enjoyed it.
- How to prepare for self employment - I plan on making the switch, and there are a lot of things that I need to think about. Thanks everyone for your wonderful suggestions!
- Finding time for it all – Summer edition – This is a post by Jordann. Summer always seems to fly by!
- Keep driving an old car or buy a new one – This is a guest post by Gary. We all know that me and W like our cars and have new ones. Go judge me
Link Love
- Early Retirement Isn’t Us Evolving PF – This was probably my most favorite post recently. Early retirement isn’t for everyone. I don’t want early retirement either, I want financial independence! I definitely recommend that you read this post, along with the interesting comments.
- Can a Masters Degree yield a negative return? Student Debt Survivor – Interesting post! I do think that my Finance MBA was worthwhile.
- When Passion Turns Into Work Debt Roundup – Another great post since I am making the switch to self employment. Will my self-employment work just all become “work?”
- Baby Fever. Kids are cute but they sure are expensive! Mo Money Mo Houses – I agree, everyone is having kids!
- What do you actually want? Cash Rebel – This post is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. Cash Rebel is a great blog and I definitely think everyone should be reading it.
- Strategery – Save Time and Money Working From Home Club Thrifty – Haha another one of my favorites. I definitely see us being able to save a lot of money (or at least some), once I make the switch.
- Would you take a 10% pay cut to get Fridays off? Budgets are Sexy – YES I WOULD! Three day weekends all the time would be amazing. The pay cut would stink, but I do think the exchange would be worthwhile. Would you take a 10% pay cut?
- I was mentioned in a carnival also at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff :)
Being healthy
I have actually been doing AWESOME with being more healthy. I did eat unhealthy yesterday, but for the most part I have been eating pretty healthy and working out a good amount.
I’ve been trying to run/walk at least a mile each dog with our dog (the other dog doesn’t go for walks – the joys of having a French Bulldog runt). I’ve also been trying to run around 4 miles every other day along with working out each day. It’s so nice having a gym in our basement and a cute pup to run with. I think I’m going to make it a monthly goal to run/walk at least 100 miles each month. It’s a lot, but I definitely that that it is doable.
Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?
