Rebirth of a newsletter

The newsletter is a-changin'!

Guys, I’m too excited to sleep tonight so I’m writing you this late-night email.

Remember a few weeks ago, when I asked you for feedback about changing my website?

Well, I did some thinking. Then, I threw a tantrum reflected on the recent Google changes and … gave up.

I gave up shaking my fist at the Google gods, wishing for the 2000s — when blogging was authentic — to return. And I asked myself: So what should I do now to be a happy writer?

So, I spent weeks researching a way out of my creative quagmire and by golly I think I found it.

This is my way of saying that BIG CHANGES ARE A-COMIN’ to the newsletter and blog. Heck, to what and how I’m writing online. I’m so excited I could barely contain myself, really.

I really enjoyed writing personal finance articles, but you know what? I don’t really want to be a personal finance influencer. Never really wanted to. And I suspect that once I mastered the investment side of things, I’m going to get bored with the topic and stop writing about it on the website.

Instead, I’m going to now focus on something that I’ve been obsessed about for nearly four decades:

Writing.

Not to say that I’ll stop writing about money. (I like money, don’t you?) But it will no longer be my main focus, and if I do write it, I will write about it in a more fun, authentic way.

As I look back at the articles I’ve published so far on this substack, I wince a little. I like all the essays I wrote about money but … it wasn’t something I really enjoyed writing, if I want to be terribly honest with you. It was dry. Robotic. It felt like work.

No doubt many have benefited from them; heck I’ve even attracted freelance jobs (and oodles of requests for “content partnerships”, but I want more.

Something more me.

If you’re wondering if I’m going to stop blogging, I’m not. However, I’m going to slow it down by a lot. I’m going to toss aside the tyranny of the EDITORIAL CALENDAR and focus on creating writing I like on this Substack instead.

My website will become a portal of all things me. My blog will be a “wiki” of everything I’ve learned, so you will still find meaty essays on finance and productivity there.

But the personal stuff?

It will live here.

I’ve always felt a little naked publishing more personal stuff on my blog where it can analysed by algorithms and marketers, and oggled at by folks I don’t know. Substack offers a more secure way of sharing my most precious creations and … maybe earn some money?

And I leave you tonight with this message that I’ve also changed the name of my newsletter, and it’s a sign of things to come.

In the next few days, you will see parts of this newsletter morph and change. My website will change along with it.

Exciting times.

I hope you will join me in this new journey.