You had it all figured out.

You carefully considered what you were going to do and you reached a decision. You committed. You felt confident you did the right thing. Maybe you even felt like a bit of a genius.

The next day, you start questioning yourself. You think, ‘I shouldn’t have done that’ or ‘I could have done this instead’. And suddenly, you don’t feel so damn smart anymore.

Life is brutal that way. It’s an experience we’ve all had and unfortunately, it isn’t one we can avoid.

No matter how diligent we are, there’s always an opportunity to…

I drank my share of pool water.

When I was 8 years old, I took swimming lessons. It wasn’t my idea. But it was fun. I learned to kick with my feet holding onto the side of the pool. I could swim the length of the pool with a foam kickboard. Eventually, I could even do a short distance without it.

But once I got into the deep end, I started sinking. I freaked out. Ironically, I thrashed around like a fish out of water. I had to be rescued on more than one occasion. …

What does it mean to be financially irresponsible?

Is that when someone spends beyond their means and doesn’t save for their future? Is it when they take on too much debt? Does that only apply to credit cards and personal loans, or do you count the mortgage too? Or is it when people with healthy finances spend too much on “trivial” things?

I’m sure if we asked around, we would get different responses each time.

That’s what makes personal finance difficult. Different people have different needs, desires, incomes, and responsibilities. Sure, there are rough guidelines that can benefit most people…

Everyone is afraid of something.

Whenever you produce or even think of producing content, you start grappling with two fundamental fears.

1. The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). — “What if I actually tried (harder)?”
2. The Fear of Failure. — “What if it sucks?”

FOMO forces you to act, and Fear of Failure prevents you from doing so. They are opposing forces; emotional conflicts that we can resolve with logical solutions. If you can’t rid yourself of your fears, an imbalance of fear is what you need to progress.

Here’s the relationship between the two: When FOMO > Fear of Failure…

I facepalmed harder than Jean-Luc Picard.

The once quiet voice in my head was now screaming,

You’re supposed to be writing for readers! It doesn’t matter if writers don’t read your work.

And here I was after spending several months trying to get the attention of other writers. I’ve read this advice before but chose to ignore it. There are mistakes you need to make.

Only, this wasn’t a mistake. I wanted their attention and I regret nothing.

Becoming part of the community

Writing can be lonely.

Connecting with other writers makes it infinitely more interesting. They understand what you’re going through and they’re usually…

I love generic self-help.

I am particularly fond of meta statements that seem to address everything and nothing simultaneously. Unsurprisingly, many refer to these statements as ‘spelling out the obvious’ or ‘saying nothing at all’.

It’s also pretty clear that whoever writes this stuff thinks they are quite the smarty pants. As a generic self-help writer myself, I should know.

A blanket statement such as “Context is Key” is as profoundly deep as it is shallow. Ironically or unironically, it too requires context.

So let me give you some.

Options, Instructions, and Optional Instructions

I don’t like being told what to do or what to…

If I judged my progress by views and money earned, I would have stopped writing a long time ago. Actually, back in July, that’s exactly what I did. I stopped writing after self-publishing 5 articles back in June and getting a total of 5 views.

I couldn’t see a situation where this could scale quickly for me. I had a lot to learn and I returned in August with a longer-term perspective. I wasn’t going to measure my progress in the same way anymore.

I have since written around 100 articles.

It’s Time to Think Bigger

Earning pennies per article can make you think small…

Going once…going twice… sold!

Just like that, we lost out on what could’ve been our future home. Actually, the house sold for over $100k more than what my mom was willing to pay for it. It went for 20% above her max bid.

I didn’t understand.

I was 12 years old at the time. And as soon as the hammer dropped, I immediately turned to her in disbelief. She met the bewildered look in my eyes with hers and started laughing. Truth be told, she was a little confused too.

There were plenty of houses in the area selling for…