So full disclosure, when I chose to start blogging about retirement it was not my first rodeo. I’ve been driving my wife and close friends nuts over the last few years regarding retirement and what are we going to do. It was after when I found out you could make money blogging all the while talking about subjects you love!
For me, I want to travel. My view on life is we’re only on this planet once unless you’re a Buddhist. My bucket list is long and I’d like to see as much of this beautiful blue ball of ours as I can while I’m healthy enough to do it.
More so, I really want to meet the people in these places, eat the food and take some nice pictures. Everyone laughs when I say I want to go to mt. Everest. I don’t want to climb the thing I just want to stand at the bottom and take the picture.
Most of us are so lucky to have the opportunity whether we know it or not and that’s the point of this article. Whether your a teenager or a millennial in your 20’s, just starting your family in your 30’s, like me in your 40’s (late 40’s lol) or older you can make opportunity now and for the future by starting a blog.
There are no prerequisites, you don’t need to be a college or university grad, or a tech wiz, you just need to be passionate about something.
Being passionate about something could be being a mother or father, really into health and fitness, living through the depression, very religious, love DIY, Cooking, video games, and on and on.
Personally, I’ve dabbled in a bunch of ideas for building wealth, are you ready? here’s the list.
- When I was a teenager I bought 10 air conditioners during a heat wave to resell
- I worked at a call center telemarketing
- I bought and sold websites
- I Started a Blog
- I joined Primerica (insurance and securities)
- I built a drop shipping site (sold it for a profit)
- I sold broken solar panels on Ebay and lots of other stuff
- I make luggage speakers that sell on Etsy still love making these
- I ran a Kickstarter project – failed to meet the goal
- I drove for uber for a while
- I buy and sell items online
- I’ve developed new products (still working on this one)
All of them have had a certain amount of success but most were not sustainable with where I was in life (work, kids etc). They were not something I could see myself doing for years or even into retirement. I wanted more, call it what you want fascination, obsession, I worry about what am I going to do in retirement?
I really think everyone should have a plan now, not later.
Get the Ball Rolling!
Remember your going to live at least another 30 years after retirement maybe 40 or 50 years! News flash you’ll need money! if you think relying on the government social security or pensions will cover it all, think again. Medical Costs alone in the USA could drive you into the poor house.
Number 4 on the list as I started a blog on… you guessed it Retirement. Sadly I stopped it because I didn’t think people were that interested in it and felt I was spending too much money to keep it going. Come to find out a year later after stopping the site was still getting visitors, so I re-evaluated and took all the info I had at the time and started over, this time with a purpose and a goal.
I realized a few things about myself while going through numbers 1-11 above
I love writing,
I love finding solutions to problems and,
I love helping people.
All of these could be accomplished if I started up the blog again. So here we are.
5 Really Good Reasons to Start Blogging
1. Reasons to Start Blogging – Its Really Fun
Maybe I’m crazy but I love talking and finding new things about retirement. Its one of those things I could get hit by a bus tomorrow (hopefully not) and never see retirement, but you still need a plan.
For me blogging about retirement is fun, I’m learning new things as I go about retirement (Duh!) how to blog, blogging strategies to get more people to my blog and monetizing my blog.
We all have something we’re passionate about, find yours and get going! You’ll find it very rewarding. You’ll be helping/ entertaining people, you’ll learn a ton, its challenging and its fun.
2. Reasons to Start Blogging – Connecting with People (or not)
Whether your an introvert or an extrovert a blog can provide a way for you to express yourself any way you want. You are your own boss you can post as little or as much as you want. If you’re an extrovert and want to engage your audience you can and if you’re more introverted you can choose just to blog on your favorite subject and leave it at that. Some people have grown their blog to a point where they are asked to speak to audiences on their subject or have started podcasts because the demand was so high.
3. Reasons to Start Blogging – Be the Expert
The idea of finding a Niche (specific subject) can be daunting but the reality is there is always someone out there looking for information on something. If you’re really into jeeps, parenting, sailing, finance, caring for the elderly, Poetry, fantasy football, cooking, canning, travel, health and wellness, mental health and wellness, anxiety, space, renewable energy, gardening, cycling etc… you get it. There are thousands of topics that you could be potentially the expert on or be as you decide on your blogging topic or Niche.
As it grows, so will your audience. Your audience will start to ask you to write on certain topics, further solidifying you as the expert. You can become the expert through the process of blogging as well, you’ll learn as you go which is something we all should be doing daily to keep our brains fresh and engaged.
4. Reasons to Start Blogging – It will give you purpose
I say this somewhat jokingly, but consider how many people right that are sitting in front of the TV, Tablet, Cell Phone watching TV or YouTube or just sitting and not doing anything really productive. Blogging has provided me an outlet that I didn’t know I was missing. I’m not wasting time on things that don’t provide any added value to my life. Instead, I’m doing something that I love, I’m learning more and more about that subject and even more so I have the pride of setting up my blog which I’m proud of. I’ve learned (still learning) the in’s and out’s of the internet in order to make my blog more accessible to more people.
You’ll be proud of what you created and want to continue to make it better. it’s very satisfying.
5. Reasons to Start Blogging – You Can Make Money… Boo Ya!
So here is the best part, you can make money blogging. Depending on what goals you can choose to make no money, some money or lots of money. There are people that make over $100K a month… a month with their blogs. Now, this doesn’t happen overnight and its a lot of work.
If you’re already doing something fun (see #1), connecting with people who like your subject (see #2), Fun (see #3) that gives you purpose (see #4) why not #5?
There are many ways to make money, you can be an affiliate (sell a product i.e. Amazon), Google Ads, sell ad space on your site, ebooks, training courses.
Again it’s not easy, it takes time but there are some really successful people out there, so why not you or me?
If I bring this all back to Retirement;
- Blogging can provide you a hobby while retired.
- It can provide you an extra income during retirement.
- You can start at anytime
- It could be an incredible business
- Starting earlier can help you make and save more for retirement
- help you pay down bills to get out of debt sooner.
I said it was fun right!
As always, I highly recommend if you are at all interested in creating your own blog (I have had so much fun with it!) Consider Alex and Lauren’s courses at Create and Go. They have tried it all and now offer these courses on how to set up your own blog and avoid the mistakes they made. You can make money Blogging, they made $150K last month so they know what they are talking about. It is an affiliate link, but I have purchased all their courses and they are by far the experts in this area.
My review of their Launch your Blog Course is here.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to drop me a line at theteam@wickedretirement.com
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