Ask Me Anything

In October of 2017, I published my first Ask Me Anything here on Making Sense of Cents. That went super well, so I decided to make it more of a regular thing! Ask Me Anything is literally that – you can ask me anything. If you’re struggling to figure out what to ask, here are a…

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

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Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: May 24, 2023

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

In October of 2017, I published my first Ask Me Anything here on Making Sense of Cents. That went super well, so I decided to make it more of a regular thing!

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
  • 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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Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

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  1. Ms. Frugal Asian Finance

    I loved your first ask me anything post. Thank you for being so open! Below are my questions:
    – I saw on Twitter you just bought a boat. Do you mind sharing your thoughts process for buying the boat? How long do you two plan to keep it?
    – After the boat, do you plan to move back to an RV or buy a home with land?
    – Do you mind giving us a general idea of how you invest your growing monthly income?
    – What do you do when friends and/or family ask to borrow money from you?

    Thank you!

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hey!

      1) I will be creating a whole post on this. It would be hard to really answer that in just a single comment. We plan on sailing until we are tired of it 🙂

      2) Haven’t thought that far ahead yet. Things can change so there’s really no point in thinking about that yet.

      3) Vanguard funds 🙂

      4) I say no. Mixing money and relationships are 99.99% of the time are a bad idea.

      Reply
  2. Jason@WinningPersonalFinance

    How would you suggest to new bloggers that they drive “the right” traffic? I feel like my readership is mostly other finance bloggers and personal finance nerds. What’s the best way to reach people outside of the community?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Social media! Are you active on social media?

      Reply
  3. K.W.

    Michelle, I love your blog!

    What is it like having achieved the financial success you’ve achieved? What’s been different than you expected before you achieved this success? What’s been about in line with your expectations? How has your life changed the most since you started out on this journey, and how has your life changed the least?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Thank you!

      I’m very grateful for the financial success I’ve achieved. Life is still very similar for me, I don’t think I’ve changed a whole ton. I just save more money now 🙂

      Reply
  4. Andrea

    Hi Michelle, looking forward to following your new adventure on the boat! What is your plan as far as sailing/docking? Will you dock often so that you are able to get off the boat and exercise/explore?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Think of it like RV life, you don’t just drive nonstop 🙂 Most of the time will be spent anchored or docked.

      Reply
  5. Doug Roberts

    Is there one or two things you changed or added to your blog that made it accelerate rapidly in monetization and readership? What were they?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Being active on social media 🙂

      Reply
      1. Fred Leamnson

        Can you talk more about what you mean by being active on social media? I post lots of stuff, my own blogs and others, but haven’t increased traffice or added subscribers. My main source of traffice is via Facebook ads. Still, no opt ins. Thanks in advance.

        Reply
        1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

          Are you active on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and any other places where your target readers are?

          Reply
  6. Alberto

    Hey Michelle! What was most frustrating for you when you were starting up your blog?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Do you mean in the beginning or after I decided to start taking blogging seriously?

      Reply
      1. Doris

        Michael, I want to start s blog but don’t know how and right path to go about it

        Reply
        1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

          Here’s my free course – https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/freecourse 🙂

          Reply
  7. Chelsea C.

    Hi Michelle, blogging type question for you. I’m thinking about starting a personal finance blog. However, when I start thinking about marketing it and reaching out to use Facebook and Instagram to promote it, my enthusiasm withers. I don’t use social media (other than Pinterest) in my personal life, and I don’t know how much excitement I have when thinking of using it from a business perspective. Should I start just on the blog side anyway, and then branch out? Or is multi-platform social media exposure essential to success?

    Thank you!

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Hello!

      You can always just hire it out or automate most of the social media if it’s not something you like.

      Reply
  8. Jenny

    I feel like this is going to border on creepy but stay with me. My parents recently decided to buy a 5th wheel and travel more.
    Where in the country were you this week? I was on the phone with my mom and she was going on and on about this sweet couple that lives in their RV, travels the country and the girl runs her business from the computer.
    Trust me I know it’s a reach but stranger things have happened!
    Huge fan of your story by the way. My husband and I have been on the journey since January 2017 and I just got on board with him WHOLE HEARTEDLY by not just focusing on the budgeting, but whole new outlook on life. He also got me on to reading your blog and he inspired me to start writing as well.
    Thanks for all the inspiration and if you happen to run in to two crazy 70 something’s with a couple of basset hounds along your travels say “hi” to my folks for me!

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Haha! We’ve been in Florida for about 2 weeks now. But we did drive all the way from Arizona right before then.

      Reply
  9. Daniel

    How has your high income impacted your daily life, or is there any impact?

    In other words, what is the experience of making so high an income really like?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      It’s mainly just impacted my life in that I save a lot more money and will be able to retire whenever I want. Other than that, though, I still live a very similar life as I did before.

      Reply
  10. Katelyn

    Hey Michelle! I was wondering, has being a full time blogger had any major impacts on your relationship, good or bad?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      I would say that it’s better now, because we are able to have flexible schedules, can retire whenever we want, are happier now, and more.

      Reply
  11. Mike

    I’m interesting in creating my own course, like you did.

    I don’t would hate to go through all the trouble of creating slides, recording the audio, creating a website, etc, only to have very few customers (if any!) buy the course after all that effort.

    What can I do to make sure my course sells on day 1?
    How do you find a topic to focus on for the course? (should it be super niched, or more general?)

    Thanks for this opportunity to ask you questions!

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      You’ll have to find ways to market it, such as building a loyal following through a blog and/or email list, getting affiliates, promoting on social media, etc.

      I recommend creating a course on something that you’re an expert in.

      Reply
  12. Laci

    I hope this question doesn’t come across as offensive, because I don’t mean it that way at all. You have had incredible growth and success with your blog and your income is continuing to grow each month. Where do you see your income potential plateauing with this blog as it stands now, and once you plateau, will you maintain it there or work to expand further?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      I don’t really see it plateauing unless I stop working.

      Reply
  13. Krystine

    I’m a newbie blogger/freelance writer. Do you think it’s okay to have a homepage that addresses both my blog and my writing skills? I’ve been told by some people in a different forum to only talk about one or the other depending on if I want to be successful, however, I can’t shake the feeling that talking about both is helpful to more people than just talking about one of them.

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      Back when I was a freelance writer, I talked about both on my blog and I was just fine 🙂

      Reply
  14. Kris

    Hey Michelle,

    Thanks for doing this open forum, have a couple of questions:

    How do you receive paper mail since you travel full-time and don’t have a permanent address?
    What is the most strenuous hike you experienced?(For me it was Yosemite’s Half Dome)

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      We belong to a mail forwarding company, called My Dakota Address. All of our mail gets sent there, and then this company forwards our mail to wherever we are.

      You can read other common RV questions here – https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2016/01/common-rv-questions.html

      My most strenuous hikes have usually been 14ers and 13ers!

      Reply
      1. Kristin Hanes

        This was a great question! I was also wondering what to do with my mail once we start sailing.

        Reply
        1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

          It’s a very common question. We actually just switched to St. Brendan’s Isle since they are more cruiser friendly from what I’ve heard. Plus, we are switching our residency to Florida.

          Reply
  15. Mikaela Walker

    When reaching out to a business about doing a sponsored post on the site or marketing to your email list, what do you typically say in the email? What is the subject line of the email?

    Reply
    1. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

      I don’t usually send emails like that but if I do, I try to make it short and sweet. I’ll introduce myself, share my stats, and share some ideas I had for a partnership.

      Reply
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