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Ask Me Anything

BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 377 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I have always been a big fan of Reddit’s Ask Me Anything threads, and then recently, I saw that Steve published an Ask Me Anything on his blog. I don't know why it’s taken me so long to decide to do one of these. But, here it is, and I hope you think it’s going to be as fun as I do!

Ask Me Anything is literally that – you can ask me anything. If you’re struggling to figure out what to ask, here are a few of the topics you may want to know more about:

  • Personal finance
  • Blogging
  • My life
  • Travel
  • RVing
  • Being location independent
  • Business
  • Making extra money
  • How much candy I eat on a daily basis
  • My favorite TV show
  • Questions about my dogs

And so on, and so on.

Seriously, ask me anything in the comments below, and I will take the time to answer every single one. Of course, please nothing inappropriate or creepy. I'll let you be the judge of what is creepy, I guess, haha!

All right, go for it, ask away!

 

P.S. If you're looking to see all of the comments and questions, make sure to hit “Older Comments” or “Newer Comments” below. The comments break apart in pages once there are over 50 comments.

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About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. Cory says

    April 26, 2018 at 5:02 pm

    Hi Michelle – Thank you for your guidance and efforts. I have a technical question. I am tax attorney in the process of launching my blog “Money Taxes Investing”. I cannot figure out how to change the color of a link in a blog post that does not change the color of all links on my site. Second question. Do you have a checklist that you recommend to review before going live?

    Thanks,

    Reply

  2. Alyssa Padgett says

    April 26, 2018 at 7:11 pm

    Asking this because people ask ME this all the time and I’m like, um I don’t know.

    You’ve owned three different RVs, I think. Did you buy them all cash, or opt for making payments on them knowing they weren’t a forever RV?

    PS You would be ASTOUNDED how many people ask me this! I think they are mostly broken hearted that we are no longer RV twins, but I’m so excited to watch y’all’s sailing adventures!!!

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      April 26, 2018 at 7:35 pm

      So, people ask YOU about my RV situations? That is so weird! haha. Long comment below, so hopefully you can just guide people to this next time they ask 🙂

      Haha, I’m ashamed to talk about how many RVs we’ve gone through. It’s been a lot and I know people think we are crazy. We think we’re crazy too. They all had a good reason, at least in our minds.

      The first one was broken sooooo much that it spent more time in the shop then with us, and no one was ever able to fix everything that was wrong with it. So, we regularly couldn’t cook, have hot water, have heat, etc., because things were always broken, and that was super disappointing to have such a lemon. The final straw was when a dealership who was fixing it flooded it and put cigarette burns in it, and then broke more things than they actually fixed.

      The Brave was great, as you would know, but we were newbies and trusted everything the salesman told us. He told us we could tow the Jeep easily (and that we wouldn’t be overweight), and we were dumb and believed that without questioning it. We never had towed before (our previous RV was pretty much a van) so we didn’t know much about what we were doing. Found out quickly that we were way over weight with the Jeep (two bad situations happened due to us being overweight) and that it wasn’t safe whatsoever.

      The third RV was great and we are really sad to get rid of it. However, we are obsessed with sailing right now and just can’t wait to get started, especially since we know it’ll be such a slow process.

      If we were going to do it again, we’d go back to van life (but, get a 4×4 van).

      We had a loan on the first one. We paid cash for the other two. We honestly thought we’d be in the Tiffin for a lot longer.

      I will say that for all 3, we sold them for nearly almost what we paid for them, so it made switching out super easy to do. The Tiffin is selling for almost what we paid for it, and the dealership that sold us is actually buying it back from us, so it is super easy. They are just going to pick it up from where we are currently parked, and are going to wire us the money. Couldn’t be easier.

      Reply

  4. Reisha says

    April 26, 2018 at 7:42 pm

    I want to begin blogging. I have my website setup but have not posted. Like you, I plan to make income from my blog. What should I do as far as paying taxes on the money that I bring in? I can’t find the answer to this question anywhere.

    Reply

  5. Art says

    April 26, 2018 at 11:59 pm

    Hi Michelle, I have enjoyed reading your content and your free guide on how to start a Blog.

    I am wondering the following:

    What plug-in you use for your social media sharing icons?
    Where do you go to get images for your blog?
    What plug-in do you use for your subscribe via email widget?

    Thanks!

    Reply

  6. Cristina says

    April 28, 2018 at 5:28 pm

    Hi Michelle! Love your blog. I am trying to decide whether to do an MA (1year) in Painting or an MFA (2 years) in Painting. Right now I’m teaching drawing part time at a private college and relishing it! I love teaching, it’s my dream. The MFA is the terminal degree to teach at university. The MA would qualify me to teach at some private independent schools but not university. Either degree will take me a minimum of 2 1/2 years because I will do it part time. I am 47 years old and I don’t have enough saved for retirement. These 2 degrees are entirely paid for (100% of the tuition) by my government. They are online degrees as well so I wouldn’t have very many living expenses as I live with my mum. I will be almost 50 by the time I graduate. Do you think I should do the shorter or the longer degree? I am expressly doing the degree to get more teaching jobs. However I’m worried about the length of the degrees as my savings for retirement are so small. But it would mean I can teach at university as well if I do the MFA but I would be probably 53 by the time I finish it. Sorry for the lengthy comment lol but what do you recommend? I plan on retiring at 72-75 years old. Thank you!

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      April 28, 2018 at 7:39 pm

      Hey Christina! Thank you for your question. This is a very personal decision. You’ll want to think about things such as 1) Which would make you more happy? 2) Can you work full-time or part-time on the side? 3) What would be the best career choice (for you, personally)?, etc

      Reply

      • Cristina says

        April 28, 2018 at 8:46 pm

        Thank you, Michelle! Those are great questions. I have my answer now. I can do the MFA while working part time and saving money. You don’t think I’m too old to do the degree and too close to retirement?

        Reply

  7. Leon Mclean says

    April 29, 2018 at 9:11 am

    Hey Michelle!

    You are a great example of best practice when it comes to blogging. (Therefore I try to use what I have learnt from you!).

    How does a relatively new blogger convert the small but steadily increasing stream of visitors into affiliate marketing purchases?

    Although I make recommendations in each of my blog posts, it translates into very little clicks.

    What do you suggest?

    Reply

  8. Phil says

    April 30, 2018 at 11:37 am

    Michelle, I noticed that you provide your first and last name on your website. I’m looking at beginning a blog, but have reservations about giving out my personal identity. Do you use a pen-name or is that your real name? Also, what are your rules about giving out where you live (do you only give out the state, or region, etc.)? I’m just concerned with how to be personal and connect with readers without giving out too much personal info for the crazies.

    Reply

  9. Jennifer says

    April 30, 2018 at 3:00 pm

    How do you come up with your graphics (the images on the right, “How to become a virtual assistant” for example). Do you create those yourself or do you outsource those? If you do create them, what program do you use?

    Reply

  10. Holly says

    March 27, 2019 at 1:49 pm

    How do you and your husband define roles? Is it awkward for him to not be the bread winner? Or awkward when he stopped working a job outside the blog?

    Reply

  11. Amanda Petersen says

    March 27, 2019 at 11:10 pm

    I have a blog idea that I have gone as far as to even buy a domain name/hosting for. It’s been on the back burner because of the education I am trying to obtain right now, but I still want to give it a try. I am starting to feel like it’s a dumb idea and nobody would be interested. How can I know if it’s worth investing a ton of time and money? Would you recommend paying a successful blogger to help me map it out?

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      March 31, 2019 at 11:37 am

      You can find a blog coach – it’s really just a personal preference. Some people start with a blog coach, others start with a blog course, and others start with nothing.

      I think that probably 99.99% of successful bloggers at one time thought their idea was stupid 🙂 It’s just a normal feeling that you have to move past.

      Reply

  12. Suzy says

    March 28, 2019 at 8:41 am

    Hi, Michelle,

    Thanks for all of the wonderful information you share with us! I wondered what your strategy is for health insurance since you are traveling the road (or sea)? My husband and I would love the RV lifestyle, but are completely in the dark about how to handle health insurance.

    Thanks for any tips you could give!

    Reply

  13. Beginner says

    March 28, 2019 at 9:16 am

    I’m a beginner. I mean a Beginner.
    I need help from step 1. Not step 5 on how to grow or advanced things.
    I dont understand how it works.
    Wordpress? Ok now what?
    Then go to another site? What is blue host? Why not wordpress? Do I choose? Is it a choice? How does it work? Do I use .com or .org

    Reply

  14. Dane Findley says

    March 28, 2019 at 9:32 am

    Will you take a glance at my site, and tell me your first gut-reaction about what the TITLE of my course should be, that you supsect would perform particularly well?

    Thank you!
    ~Dane / overfiftyandfit.com

    Reply

  15. JD says

    March 28, 2019 at 1:25 pm

    Hi There

    Love your work. I’m saving up to at one point get your Making Sense of affiliate marketing course. Hope it will help me out further on my blogging journey!

    Just one question….TRAFFIC….How can I get more traffic? I’m using Pinterest & Instagram but not getting real results even though I have a great Pinterest profile?? I’m dumbstruck

    Reply

  16. Linda says

    March 28, 2019 at 5:35 pm

    Hi Michelle,
    Thank you for your amazing inspiration!
    I am relatively new blogger, having just launched.
    Bought, have gone through most of your amazing Making Sense of affiliated marketing.

    My question is about the inbetween time between having launched, have some posts, but relatively few subscribers. I am considering doing a free ecourse to pump some sub interest (though I am seeing all the Bundles out there!), would you recommend I do the ecourse then affiliated marketing or the latter will help with subscribers too?
    Thank you in advance for your feedback!
    Linda

    Reply

  17. Amanda says

    March 31, 2019 at 8:34 am

    I thought you were answering every question? 🙂 was really disappointed to come back and see you skipped over mine

    Reply

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