This July, Micah and I will be celebrating 8 years together and our 3rd wedding anniversary. I started this blog three years ago, a short month after the wedding, and in that time both my blog and my life have changed considerably.
I’ve left up the earliest posts, even though reading them makes me a little embarrassed sometimes, because reading them also helps me see how far I’ve come. When I started this blog, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t have a full-time job, I didn’t even have full-time work experience!
In the past three years, I’ve learned a lot about finance, paid off a lot of debt, started a small business, built a savings account, and even started saving for retirement. I learned what it was like to juggle multiple part-time jobs and to work full-time while still freelancing. I learned how to live pretty small in a big city so that we could put our money toward the things that mattered, like paying down debt and saving for grad school.
Just as importantly, I learned what field I wanted to work in, found full-time work on the ground floor, and have started planning for my career. I had thought for many years that I might want to be a librarian. Now I know so much more about the breadth of the profession that I’m sure.
This is the beginning of the next step in my future and it’s time for me to say farewell to this part of my life. Leaving the blog wasn’t an easy decision. I’ve put a lot of time and work into it, more importantly, I’ve put a lot of myself into it and made some amazing friends through it. It makes me feel sad to go.
But on the other hand, the timing feels right. I’m starting graduate school part-time while still working full-time in the fall and my plan requires me to focus more on working and learning than blogging. In some ways, library school is more of a trade school than plain old academic, and I hope to focus on engaged learning as much as possible.
In my personal life, my mother’s health has declined steeply this spring, at times it feels like falling off a cliff, and my visits home and concern have taken up a larger part of my time and my mental life. It has been a fight at times to avoid falling into a depression like I did 5 years ago. The blog is a mixed blessing on that, providing both reader support and a sense of obligation to write even when it’s hard to muster the energy.
Rather than delete the site or let it languish, I sold it to Money Crashers, who will continue providing great content on engaging topics. The decision made sense for the site and it made sense for my future. Between my savings from freelance work and the after-tax money from the sale, I will be able to pay for graduate school without student loans.
The latter is very important to me. I do not want to take a step back and go into more debt. Library school scholarships and fellowships are drying up in the recession, so I couldn’t count on them to fund my education.
I’ve been working over the last month transferring Finance for a Freelance Life to Money Crashers and I’m confident in their ability to make this an awesome site and run it with integrity. They’ve been wonderful guys to work with and they’ve invited me to come back and guest post from time-to-time (really, as often as I like). I may take them up on that offer, particularly if interesting financial topics come into my life down the road.
What about the consulting business? Initially, I’d planned to sell that too, but I’ve decided instead to partner with a consultant named Scott, who’s been doing WordPress work for a while but did not have his own virtual storefront. So BlogCrafted will continue to run as it has before and may even add some new services (such as hosting), in the next few months.
I have met some amazing people through this site, both bloggers and readers. I’ve learned a lot from you and I hope I’ve contributed something too. It’s hard to find the words for this post…I got choked up several times while planning and writing it. But I’m also looking forward to the future, my own plans and to seeing how Money Crashers grows this site.
Thank you for being part of a mostly-wonderful three years.
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{ 40 comments }
Your blog will really be missed! Wish you the best of luck with school and your future endeavors. Hope to still chat with you on Twitter.
I’m not sure how I first stumbled across this blog, but I have really enjoyed your voice and your posts. You are going to make a great librarian. I belonged to ASIST while getting my MLIS and it was really rewarding…I highly recommend you check it out if your school has a student chapter (or check out the regional chapter). It all depends on your chapter, but I think you would be able to contribute a lot to that org and it’s great for networking.
Sorry to see you leave, but wish you all the best in your future grad school experience.
I do hope you’ll be able to guest post now and then at YOUR former site! Best wishes for a happy and prosperous future!
You will be missed, but it’s exciting to hear about your steps forward with school. I wish you peace with your mother and her illness, I’ve been there, but you are strong and will handle it all with grace.
Best wishes!
This site has always been a great influence and I’m so happy to have found it! It will be sad to see you go.
I wish there were blogs when I was your age. Starting one could have helped shape my life quite differently (no regrets, just saying).
Best of luck on your endeavors and life. Glad to hear you will still be a part of Blogcrafted.
Oh gosh Mrs M; I’ll be sad to see you go however fully understand your decision..It’ll be lovely to see you back guest posting every now and again.
Good luck in everything you do!
Have a great life. I know you have been changed by the process, just as you have changed others!
Congrats on this new phase, MM. It will be sad to see you move on, but you’ve left us all a great site and more importantly, you’ve set yourself up to pursue your dreams without using debt. If that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is!
And I’m glad to see you keep your consulting business – I was going to have to scramble to find someone for help next time I needed it! 🙂
Way to go, Mrs. Micah! Congratulations on taking the next steps in your life. Thank you for not just letting the site die, and good job getting it to help with grad school.
Best luck to you.
You will truly be missed. It’s bitter-sweet because although we may not be able to watch as closely as you pursue your dreams as we could if you were writing about them regularly, we all know you will succeed! You have touched many lives with your writing and influence in the niche and I wish you the best of luck.
Congrats on the sale, and it goes without saying, but you will be missed!! I wish you the best of luck with your future endeavors!!
Good luck with your studies and your future! I’ll miss your posts.
{sigh} Sorry to see you go, too. But on the other hand, the new things you’re up to are very exciting. It’s very satisfying to us old bats to contemplate the possibilities for young people like you and Mr. M…I hope your lives are wonderful and that you always stay together.
Glad to hear you decided to enter a partnership for BlogCrafted. You’re an important asset to Funny about Money–thanks for all the great things you’ve done for my site! 🙂
Congrats on the sale and figuring out what the right path is in your life!
Have wondered why I’ve seen so much less of you on Twitter. This explains it! I hope to see more of you online in some way soon, but it looks like you have lots on your plate right now, including good things. I can understand why this would be the thing you chose to let go. Enjoy the next phase!
You’ve done a great job — and kept it up better than most bloggers! Congratulations and good luck with grad school!!
Mrs. Micah, you will be missed! But I wish you the best of luck in grad school. I’m proud of you for making the decision to focus on what needs to be more important right now instead of overextending yourself and wearing yourself thin. Good luck, sweetie! And please keep in touch on Twitter!
We will miss you but wish you the best in grad school. I think it is great that you are doing it without student loans!
Ok, that’s it – I’m unsubscribing. 🙂
Seriously, congrats on the big changes in your life. Enjoy grad school.
I’ll miss your “voice” but wish you success in grad school and your chosen career. Congratulations on selling the blog and finding a partner for BlogCrafted.
I hope to see you on twitter.
I’ll miss seeing you post here, but like everyone else I’m glad to see you hang up your hat here for the right reason. If it feels right and works for you, kudos. It sounds like you are pursuing something you want to do and have the means to do it, and that’s a rare thing in this world. Good luck 🙂
Well this is sad. I must say, I have enjoyed your work the past year or so when I stumbled upon it. These decisions are always tough and I praise you for being able to make it. Good luck to you graduate school endeavors, I look forward to seeing how it goes via Twitter! Thanks for always answering my questions on there when I have them, you have always been a great resource and I hope you can continue to do so.
I envy you that you will be able to pay for graduate school without using student loans. Lord knows that is the biggest problem in my life. Good for you. Congratulations. Keep in touch!
Congratulations on the sale. Good luck with grad school. 🙂
And I very much hope your mom’s health improves. We’re going through something similar in our family — it’s not easy. :-/
Best wishes on this new chapter in your life with work and school! I’ll miss reading your posts here.
I hope your mom’s health improves; my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
You are loved. 🙂
Wow. Thank you all.
I too congratulate you on financing a debt-free graduate education, will miss you, and wish the best for you and your family.
Will you be keeping the mrsmicah email address or will that transfer with the blog?
Good question, Lora. The e-mail will transfer in a week or so, but the Money Crashers have agreed to forward personal communication mean for me & not the current blog owner.
Mrrrsss Micahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Nooooooooooooo! hehe… lucky for me I still have a future wordpress date with you 😉 and I know you IRL or else this would be quite sad for sure. But I will miss you on this site just like all the others!!!
XOXO,
Gossip Boy
Sad to see you go. It’s been wonderful reading your posts. Best wishes for a bright future and I hope your mom improves.
:sadface:
I’m sure it’s the best decision for you right now. Good luck with everything!
I started reading your blog back when you first started, and I’ve always enjoyed dropping in to see what you had written lately. I’m sorry that your mom isn’t doing well 🙁 But it sounds like you’ve figured out a lot of things in terms of where you’re heading in life, and are making good decisions. Congrats on selling the blog, and best of luck in library school!
This is bittersweet for me because I just found this site a few weeks ago and have loved your writing.
I’m am very happy for you that you are moving on in your life – and having school paid for!
I have loved reading the blog and learned lots. Thanks and best wishes.
Best wishes and good luck. Congrats on finding your bliss, and setting your priorities properly.
I’m so sorry to see you go! I’ve enjoyed your posts and the dialog with you and the others commenting on them. It’s been wonderful getting to know you & Micah through your posts…
But I’m happy for you that you’ve found your direction in life – enjoy your new beginning. I know you’ll do great things wherever you land. I’m sorry that we won’t get regular updates on your progress, but hope to hear from you when you can guest post.
Sending positive thoughts and prayers for you, your mom and your family during this difficult time.
Wishing you & Micah a wonderful life together and much success in all your endeavors!
Congrats! I hope we’ll still see you at some DC PF Happy Hours!
Well, I’m a little late to the party, but still wanted to say ‘hi’. I’m sad to see you go but I certainly understand why you’re going. Best of luck to you in grad school – not that you need it. It’s fantastic that you’ll be able to come out of grad school with no new student loans. Enjoy your time with Micah, your mom, and the rest of your family. You’re in my prayers.
I’m not sure how I missed this post, but you are missed. Let me know if you want any library info – my husband is a librarian. Best of luck to you!
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