Our Community Keeps Multiplying! 3,000 Members Strong (Plus: A Little Housekeeping)

By Richard Reis

Hello dear,

55 days ago, we were celebrating 1,000 people. Now, we’ve multiplied like rabbits and reached 3,000 people!

Here’s a few updates:

• We are the 222nd most followed publication on Medium.
• We get on average 20,000 views per month.
• The good folks at Startups Co republished “Founders: Here’s How To Use Probability To Your Advantage” (thanks, Steph Newton!). It’s not finance related, but if you’re into startups it might be helpful. I love Startups.co (and have been trying to thank every single person sharing that post on Twitter, which takes a lot of time since Startups.co has a huge audience!)
• We started our 14-post “How To Save Money” series. This shed some light on automated savings, taxes, retirement plans, location, and bikes.
• I started helping some readers with their finances. Nothing extremely complex or risky (of course). I’m just looking at what they can do to save more money and pay off debt. Similar to Mr. Money Mustache’s Reader Case Studies (this is all for free, of course. I learn a ton just by teaching, so if you need anything just let me know at richardreeze1@gmail.com). I’ll keep you updated on their results later this year (if they want).

Like I said when we reached 1,000 members, I have no idea where we will be by the end of this year. But this is very, very exciting.

Now, a little house keeping:

I know you should never read the comments. But f*** it, I can’t help it sometimes (and thankfully, I’m not a YouTuber. So it’s not that bad).

This week, I wrote a letter about using a bicycle to save money (which is probably the best money-saving tip ever and many early retirement bloggers would agree with me).

However, one of the top criticisms was that I’m a ‘non-cyclist’ (e.g.: someone on the web wrote “An article on bike commuting written by a non-cyclist…” and got quite a few likes… Huh?!).

I won’t debate that since I never said I was a cyclist.

But, if I find a bike helped me save a ton of money, I’ll write about it so you can save mucho dinero!

Sometimes, even compliments can be a bit pesky.

For example, recently someone complimented me saying “your experience in digital banking is very big”.

Now, I know they meant well, and this was a compliment (thank you!). But I never said I have any experience in digital banking.

Yes, I do blog about early retirement and personal finance. But, I like to say I’m “Dj-ing on the shoulders of giants”. Meaning I gather the best advice I find and put it all together in one place (and constantly, constantly, constantly give credit where credit is due).

Why?

1. That advice is scattered like leaves. So it’s good to pile it all together into one nice place.
2. As Tim Ferriss said, “writing is the fastest way to improve your thinking”.
3. It helps ME remember it all.
4. It helps YOU learn the finance basics they should have taught in school.
5. Sometimes, people correct me. And not only do I increase my knowledge, but so does everyone who reads my work. Win-win.

I chose to write about personal finance because I loooooove the subject and could talk about it all day (ask any of my friends).

Thanks to this blog:

• I’m improving my thinking (I noticed I communicate better now, thanks!).
• I’m improving my knowledge (my Evernote has always been filled with notes, but this blog puts it all nicely together).
• And I’m helping 3,000 people!

What else could I ask for???

You’ll find the early retirement world has all sorts of choices and flavors. Pick what works best for you.

For example, in my work you’ll never find a post on travel-hacking, beer brewing, or furniture building. Simply because those subjects don’t interest me. Therefore, I wouldn’t do them justice. I wouldn’t write about them with as much energy as I write about all my other stuff.

I really hope this helps you understand this blog better. And I really hope its content is helping you the way it’s helped many others.

See you on Tuesday for Letter #16. We still have a lot of these things left :)

Thanks for 3,000 members! Welcome!!!

Be well,

R

P.S.: Earlier this week, I talked about some people complaining to me they wouldn’t get notified when I wrote something new. Well, I just got this text from a friend showing he did get a notification!

I don’t know how Medium’s algorithm works (take that beef with Ev Williams).

If you’re not getting a notification, there’s nothing I can do about it 😕. I thought about an e-mail newsletter (but that’s a ton of work) and starting to be active on Facebook (which isn’t a ton of work).

However, things seem to be ok thus far and our overlords at Medium decide whether or not you get a notification. I’ll only step in if this is annoying to lots of people.

But for now, I’ll follow these wise words: “don’t just do something, stand there!” 🙃

Thanks for reading! 😊
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Since I write about finance, legal jargon is obligatory (because the guys in suits made me). Before following any of my advice, read this disclaimer.

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