I’m sure you have all noticed, but lately I’ve been asking everyone on Twitter if I should still remain anonymous. Lately I have felt the HUGE need to tell people. I told my sister about my blog last month, and her and the boy keep telling me that I should tell people.

It also doesn’t help that the boy has told a lot of his friends and family that I blog. Luckily I have told them all to not tell anyone, so no one else really knows. They also don’t know the URL (at least I don’t think), so I am safe there as well.

I do think that I am not entirely anonymous. I talk a ton about my life, I am Facebook friends with some of you, some of you have my cell phone number, and there are pictures of me out there on my blog, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. I just try not to post anything directly on my homepage of my blog.

This is mainly for my safety. I am able to talk about whatever I want without worrying if someone will find out and that I will hurt their feelings.

I also talk a ton about money, and I go into detail with our budget, income and everything else. I wouldn’t want some weirdo to know how much money I make, especially if this is a weirdo who me and the boy know. I wouldn’t want to put anything at risk.

I last made a post on my decision to be anonymous in January.

I would like to tell my friends so that I am not so private about everything. They probably are starting to wonder why I am still so busy even though I don’t have night classes anymore also.

One of the reasons that keeps holding me back is something that my friends recently said. We were all out one night and the topic of an acquaintance’s blog came up. They were saying some not so kind things and it made me nervous to say anything. However, I’m afraid that one day they’ll find out and wonder why I hid it.

I’m definitely NOT ashamed of my blog in anyway, but I do talk about a ton of personal things here on my blog.

And there are some things that Im not sure if I would want my friends to know, as it is all too personal and still upsets me.

Another reason why I want to share my blog is because I’m also starting a second blog (a site in which my sister will help run), and she wants it to not be anonymous. My friends will easily find it if she’s not anonymous and I would rather tell them now then them finding Making Sense of Cents and questioning it.

So I guess the thing is, if I were to stop being anonymous and became public with my identity, I would have to hide certain things, such as how much money I make. Or would I not? What would you do? Keep everything the same or hide some things in order to protect yourself?

If you have posts that explain why you’re anonymous or not, please leave them below in the comments. I would love to read them!

What do you think?

Were you ever anonymous and then decided to not be so private?

It’s Friday! I’m sure you all knew that. One of my youngest friends finally turned 21 the other day and we’re going out for her birthday tonight. I’m excited. I’ve been waiting for tonight all week. What plans do you have for the weekend? I start classes on Tuesday, so this weekend will also be pretty depressing.

Yesterday in my blog post I was asked why I keep my blog so private. I’ve also had many other people ask this, so to the person who asked this yesterday, I’m not trying to single you out. It’s a good question!

I try and blog anonymously as much as I can. If you look through past posts, you will find pictures though. And I always post pictures of things around my house, I’m just never in them. Also, if you look at other blogs, you will most likely find my pictures floating around.

1. I talk a lot about money. I like to openly talk about everything with my finances, and if I wasn’t private, I don’t know if I would still do that. I would want to make some things more private with my finances so that I could obviously have some privacy between me and my family/friends
2. I talk about my family. There are many things that I say in my blog about my family, that I really wish that my friends and family wouldn’t read. I have a very difficult time talking about my dad in person, and I feel like in my blog I can talk about it very openly without worrying about what people think, because you all are very kind and always make me feel better.
3. Since I blog kind of anonymously, I don’t hold back with what I say. I feel like I can share anything and everything. I’m not saying that I’m fake when I’m around my friends and family. I’m saying that I can be completely open and share all of my thoughts and feelings. Nothing wrong with that right?

I don’t want anyone thinking I’m a fake person though just because I don’t post a lot of pictures. Just because I blog anonymously does not mean that I’m not completely honest with you guys. Sorry if I come across in a different way. I do want to start posting more pictures though, because I want you guys to be able to relate to me more! It’s probably weird that I blog anonymously to some of you, I hope to change this soon. Thanks for the great question everyone!

Even though I do blog anonymously now, I DO actually want to change this soon. I’m hoping I can get over my problem and be more open.

I was also asked the other day why I have all of these vacations planned instead of paying off my debt.  I’m not really sure how to answer this. I don’t see traveling as me wasting money. I actually see it as one of the best ways that I can spend my money. I also budget every month for a vacation fund, so I’m not going more into debt for it.

Also, all of my vacations are relatively cheap compared to most. I don’t really pay for airfare (I’ll say this again, because of my dad’s survivor retirement benefits).  So it’s not like I’m spending a lot of money anyways. I’m also young, so of course I would want to travel now. My vacations that I budgeted for this year account for less than 5% of our after-tax yearly income also.

My net worth is positive also, and I have no credit card debt. I don’t think I’m frivolous with my money, but I do understand how it may seem like I am. I’ve also never been late with a payment. Also, I’m not trying to be rude or mean with what I’m saying. And I’m also not trying to have a pity party, but I like to relax every now and then because life can be stressful because of my family.

Update as of 9:30 am (I’ve added lots of clarifying updates to this post already because I’ve gotten some emails, thanks everyone for your input, keep them coming!):  Another excuse for why I want to travel more and why I recently started so much is because my dad was an avid traveler. He traveled everywhere (he was a pilot). And before he passed he told me that I need to live life more. My dad passed away when he was in his 50’s, which is pretty young. He also worked hard his entire life and towards the end he was pretty miserable (because of family problems). So, since my dad passed away, I’ve been trying to live life, have fun and stop thinking about regrets. I don’t want to die young and not have been completely happy.

I do understand that it is probably confusing that I say that I want to be out of debt so bad, but then I spend money having fun. I’m pretty frugal in my life, and I guess I just never really considered traveling a “bad” way to spend money. I don’t know, I guess I’m wrong. I guess traveling is one of my weaknesses, but before I quit my old job (June of 2010), I hadn’t had a single vacation day for 5 years (wasn’t allowed at my job).

I know I’m just throwing excuses out there, but I just don’t see traveling as a bad thing.

Am I wrong for spending money instead of strictly paying off debt?

Well I think that’s all the questions that I can think of for now that some of your asked me. I really hope this helps you guys understand me more. I really promise that one day soon I will stop blogging anonymously. I will of course delete some of the things about my mom that I’ve said, but I will do it soon.

What else would you want to know about me?

Now I have a question for you. What would you like to see me post more about?