The Frugal Vagabond Turns One

Frugal Vagabond Turns One

It’s a momentous day here at Vagabond Central, as the blog quietly turned one year old over the weekend.

In one year’s time, I’ve published 99 articles on topics like Early Retirement, saving money with Dental Tourism, Real Estate Investment, and getting started with Travel Hacking. I’ve connected with almost 2,500 fellow walkers of the frugal path on TwitterΒ and a comparatively modest 173 people on Facebook. Best of all, I’ve made new friends, met up with some readers for a drink here and there, and generally stayed motivated thanks to your kind words and thoughtful comments and observations.

Over the course of the past year, I’ve really learned to blog as much for my own sake as for that of the readers, which has helped me to weather the ups and downs of trying to keep The Frugal Vagabond above water– my goal from the outset wasn’t to make money (which is why most of my posts have no affiliate links), but it was important to me that I not *lose* money keeping the blog running. Thankfully, the blog managed to break even after about 8 months, which has been wonderful (not to mention a relief!).

One Year of Exploring Adventures Abroad

The Retire Abroad series has been by far the most widely-visited and widely-commented-upon. It doesn’t surprise me that there are so many folks interested in the same sorts of adventures that we are, but it has still always been humbling and gratifying to share discussion with you all about retirement abroad, slow travel, and generally just taking the time to admire and partake in life in other places– some different, and others quite familiar.

One Year of Help From Our Friends

The progress we’ve made has been built on help from friends. Whether you’re my mom sharing articles from “this blogger she likes” or a powerhouse like Rockstar Finance literally changing the daily visitor count of the blog forever, without you we’d still be talking to ourselves. I’m sure you can agree that things are always a lot more interesting when you can interact with people, whether they agree with you or think you’re a total lunatic!

Thank you to our friends with generous hearts. Thank you if you’ve commented once or regularly. Thank you for staying with us when I made mistakes of grammar or content, or when I published something that wasn’t up your alley. Thank you.

Frugal Vagabond Turns One: The Future

Of course, I’ll continue to write on all of these topics, and we’ll continue to cruise towards financial independence with a goal of retiring by age 40. I want to share with you that I have a few very, very exciting projects in the works that I know you’re going to like.

Now, when a blogger says something like this, it usually means that they have a course or coaching about to come online– and those are awesome pursuits. In thinking about how we could make the blog relevant to even more people, I didn’t feel like those types of projects played to my strengths. No, what I’ve got coming up is something that doesn’t exist anywhere else on the internet. I don’t say that lightly as I’ve often felt that most ideas I have had are often already implemented, often better than I think I could have done them myself.

No, I really feel like the new project (which I’ve been teasing a bit on Twitter) finally sits at the intersection of my interests and my talents. If you guess, I won’t confirm or deny, so just hang in there. A *small* number of people have seen it, however, and even in its currently-rough state, I sense that it’ll be something that will help the retirement community (among many other different groups) in a major new way. Stick with me, as I hope to make it available sometime in September. There’s still a lot to do, and I’m also busy getting married this month, so my attention is a little divided.

Gratitude and Optimism

More than anything, I am grateful to you, reader, whether you’re one of my friends who I trust to know about my secret blog, a fellow personal finance blogger, or someone who just enjoys what’s going on over here. Though the blog is still very new and has only started to approach modest traffic, the trend is always upward– which is all anyone, whether you’re a blogger or a personal finance enthusiast, can ask for.

16 thoughts on “The Frugal Vagabond Turns One

  1. Physician on FIRE

    I get the feeling you’re just getting warmed up.

    Looking forward to the unveiling of what’s next. Pretty sure I got a preview on the MMM forum. It should be great!

    Cheers!
    -PoF

    1. The Vagabond Post author

      Thanks, and you’re right, you sure did! I hope/have faith that it will be something people will love… but I don’t want to get overenthusiastic for fear they don’t, haha! Thank you for your faith and your kind words!

  2. Eric

    One year already?! My how the time flies! Congrats on making this blog a success and I’m sure this next project will be great. I’m excited for it, for sure.

  3. Mr Groovy

    Congratulations from Mrs G and me on your one year anniversary and upcoming nuptials. All the best to you and looking forward to the unveiling of your new project.

  4. Peg

    Congrats! Love your blog! Keep up the great writing and I’ll keep reading and tweeting your tips. Can’t wait to hear more about your secret project.

    1. The Vagabond Post author

      Thanks, Peg! I’m always really grateful for your support on Twitter. I hope it won’t be too much longer on the secret project… ideally a few more weeks. The only clues are that it’s *not* a money grab, and that I think it’ll be something really useful to a huge group of people. πŸ™‚

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.