36 Comments

  1. 1000000% agree! I hope you made it back home safely and uneventfully. As with last year, I’m bummed we didn’t get more time to chat, but you were so so popular! I’m so stoked for you that you won the Plutus award, and I’m thrilled to hear that you plan to keep blogging. Your voice is such an important one, and I’m so glad you’re here. <3

  2. Amanda Simmonds

    “Make time to laugh”. I was reminded this weekend how true that is, when I was enjoying myself and laughing (a lot!). Usually, I get too bogged down in focussing on work, trying to achieve things and saving money that I forget life is to be enjoyed and I need to be less uptight.

    Thanks – you make it all so much clearer.

    Amanda from the UK

    • I actually needed to hear your comment, Amanda! It’s sometimes a bit too easy for me to type things and then forget how important they truly are. Hearing them echoed back is valuable. Here’s to more laughs this week and always!

  3. It was great having met you in Orlando. Quality of any output increases naturally if you like what you do and even the more if your passion starts to shine through so the readers can start to feel it. Cheers to having fun blogging and to an open minded opportunity mindset to learn from and with each other. It’s more fun and yields to higher quality output this way!

  4. Doris Belland

    “I’m blogging because I love to write and because I have something to say.” Amen sister! That is some of the best advice I’ve read yet. This approach shines through in the writing of all the people whose posts I read beyond the “Top 5 ways to blahblahblah your finances”-type titles that proliferate in the finlit space. They love what they do and they do it with a purpose.

    Good on you! Great post.

    • Thanks, Doris! My rankings take a beating sometimes (OK, most of the time), but I’ve realized that I’m happiest when I let myself write however I dang well please, SEO plugins be darned! 🙂

  5. Jo-Anne

    Evidently congrats on your award! I’m sorta surprised you didn’t lead with that one! I think it doesnt matter how far along you are in any journey at some point you hate it. I’m on my last course that I need to get my professional designation… its an 8 month slog. If I could pay someone to do it at this point I would… I hate it. I will probably burn the 200+ page paper that will be the end result (I’m like 80+ pages in). So I feel your pain. But in the immortal words of my friends and family “you’re old and you’ll forget it… or you’re young and you’ll get over it!” So this too shall pass and once done I can go back to the always fun stuff, like agility with my pooch!.

    Unrelated keep blogging as you are one of my first checks every monday and wednesday!

  6. I second Tanja on her opinion about your voice. It is unique and while I come and go on blog reading, yours is one I don’t miss. You keep it real. And that is a quality in short supply in the community and the world in general.

  7. Great takeaways! I’m disappointed that I didn’t meet/find you and your little one around in FinCon. But I guess it’s hard to find people with the whole anonymity thing 🙂

  8. Hannah

    I also agree that myers-briggs is barely more useful than a cosmo quiz. Have you ever read the history of it? Neither of the women who created it were psychologists, statisticians, or really anything more than huge Carl Jung fans.

    It was really good to see you, and congratulations on your award! It’s so good to see my blogging friends take home the big awards!

    • It was so great to see you, Hannah. I wish we could have talked more! It was also a total joy to watch you strategize and work. You are SO good at what you do. I was totally inspired!

  9. Argh, I’m so sad I missed FinCon this year! I’m thrilled to live vicariously through posts like this. 😉 I love your point about authenticity. That’s the one thing that makes the blogosphere so interesting! We all have written about budgets at some point I’m sure, but it’s HOW you talk about budgets that is the key.

    • Exactly. And I wonder if I appreciate this more as an English major. Every idea has already been had. It’s how you share the ideas that matter!

  10. I agree it was hard trying to balance the sessions and catching up with everybody. There was a lot of good sessions this year. It’s a blast every year I cannot wait until D.C.!

  11. I believe that if you’re at a point where something like blogging is becoming more of a chore than being fun then it’s really time to consider quitting. It’s not worth your time to do something where their is no happiness and getting nothing out of it.
    I’ve been blogging for over a year now and I still love writing my stories and share them to others. Add to the fact that I enjoy interacting with other bloggers on Twitter. My only hope is that people reading it can learn something from and/or enjoy them. If their came a point where I don’t enjoy writing them anymore then I would seriously consider quitting.

  12. I love this post and am amazed at how people lift one another up in this community. It’s my favorite part.

    So, so bummed I did not get to meet you. It will happen someday.

    Congrats on the Plutus award! At least I now know what you look like so I will find you next time 🙂

  13. This post 10X’ed my night. It was only an hour ago, I was reading an article on SEO and after finishing the article my spirit was crushed. It talked about paying to find your domain authority, only writing about 1 niche, and crafting posts with keywords. I don’t write for Google, I write for people. More importantly, I write for myself. It is very uplifting to read that you write because you have something to say. I feel the same way. Thank you, Penny. Congratulations on your Plutus Award. You deserve it.

  14. I love the Girl Scout song, as a fellow scout who only made it to the Junior level 😉 It still brings back good memories!

    It was so great to meet you and hang out at the pool. Can’t wait to hang again next year at #FinCon19!

    • I’m sorry that we didn’t get to talk more, Krystel! Next year!

      Or maybe we’ll head through the Twin Cities before then. If you’re ever near Chicago, let me know!

  15. Love this Penny! These are the important lessons and I’m happy this is what you brought home from FinCon. I bought my ticket for next year and I’m looking forward to connecting and getting inspired way more than picking up tips to grow the blog.

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