There are times that I think that Get Rich Slowly is a happy little hobby, a mere plaything that’s earning me side income. Most of the time, I view it as a potential future career. Sometimes — like now, at 7:48 on Tuesday evening — it’s quite clear that this is a full-time job, and then some.
I currently have 125 messages in my inbox, all of which need replies. I have 315 in a temporary archive, a remnant of my most recent declaration of e-mail bankruptcy. I’ll only get to them once I finish the 125 that are at hand.
Some of these 125 e-mail messages actually have a direct bearing on my financial future — they contain advertising proposals or offers to join blog networks, etc. Many others are guest entries written by folks who have something they’d like to share with Get Rich Slowly readers. A large number of the e-mail messages are just personal finance questions.
“Why do people write to you with questions like these?” Nick asks whenever I mention a particularly obscure message. “And why do you answer them?”
The real answer is that I feel like I finally have a calling. I’m not financial expert, as most of you know, but I’ve made enormous strides in the past two years. Before I started Get Rich Slowly, I had $25,000+ in consumer debt. That number is now down to $7,500, and likely to be $0 by the end of November, almost five months ahead of my most optimistic projection. In order to accomplish this, I’ve had to apply a lot of what I’ve read and learned. By looking at the effects on my own life, I’m able to see what works and what doesn’t. I believe that my readers like the fact that I’m just an average guy who’s trying puzzle this stuff out. I make mistakes all the time, but I don’t let them get me down, and I share them so that others can learn from my foolishness.
What I’m trying to say is: Get Rich Slowly almost requires more attention than I can give it. I have grand plans for the site, but I don’t have the time to implement them!
Meanwhile, I do have a little personal blog called foldedspace. It’d be nice if I were to write something for it now and then, wouldn’t it?