How Blogging Changed My Life

Are you happy?

I would consider myself a pretty happy person. While I’ve had struggles just like the next person, I try to focus on the positives in my life. While I’ve always been happy, my happiness has increased significantly over the past few years and I attribute it to a few different reasons.

I live in a place that I love

Where you live makes a difference. I’m was raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and while I never hated the desert, I knew I didn’t want to live there forever. The extreme heat, the lack of rain and the lack of seasons made life seem a little mundane. Luckily, John felt the same way I did so we sold our house and moved to North Carolina in August 2014. We’ve only been here a year, but I wake up everyday excited about what’s ahead. I love driving around and admiring the landscape, the beautiful brick homes and the wildlife. It’s very peaceful here and I just love it. On top of the beauty, the people are super friendly and welcoming. Just going to the grocery store is a social event, and I like it!

I try to make the most out of everyday

For the past week, we’ve had nothing but rain here in North Carolina. I usually love the rain, but I’d by lying if I said I didn’t miss the sunshine. Luckily, the forecast for the rest of the week will be sunny. However, I’ve still managed to enjoy my days despite not being able to go outside. I encourage you to do one thing every day that you love. For me, that’s drinking an iced chai in the afternoon, texting with a friend, making cookies, or cuddling with my girls or my husband. It’s super simple and I’m sure most of you do these things daily anyways. But now, focus on it and look forward to the small joys in life.

I keep busy

I truly cannot tell you the last time that I was bored. Part of this is because I have two toddlers, but it’s also because I intentionally keep busy. I like to be busy! It keeps my mind sharp and keeps me happy. As you know since you’re reading this post, I attribute a good amount of my time to my business – blogging and freelancing. I wish I could say I was busy socializing with friends and traveling, but nope – I’m busy blogging and freelancing, and for now I love it. (Let’s be real- who really wants to travel with two toddlers anyways?!)

So, onto the point of this post a good 500 words later – how blogging changed my life.

How Blogging Changed My Life

It’s kept me busy. As I said above, being busy keeps me happy. I like having multiple things on my plate and accomplishing tasks throughout the day. Of course I enjoy downtime as much as the next person, but I was also built to work, we all were. However, if you’re doing something you love, you won’t call it work 🙂

It’s expanded my social circle. While I may not go out much since I have little kids with an early bedtime, I still socialize plenty with other bloggers. Between commenting on other blogs, interacting with people who have commented on mine, emailing other bloggers and even texting other bloggers, I have grown my social network tenfold. I never feel lonely, even though I live 2500 miles away from my family and friends, because of the blogging community. For this reason alone, I recommend everyone give blogging a shot. You WILL make friends and be a part of this fun crowd if you post and interact with others. While blogging can be “competitive,” I’ve been lucky to never have experienced this. I truly want the best for everyone and don’t view anyone as a threat. We are all in this together. No one has the perfect marriage, the perfect kids, the perfect life. Let’s just support each other 🙂

It’s made me money. Recently, my blogging income has increased significantly. I was making a few hundred each month, and now I’m making a few thousand! (You can view my latest income report here!)

It got me into personal finance writing. I’ve always wanted to be a personal finance writer. My major is in finance and I love to write. I freelanced for two years before ever getting a personal finance gig. What finally got me that gig, you ask? Why of course – my blog! My blog acted as my portfolio for all my personal finance writing and still does to this day.

It got me my FT job. I know most of you probably want OUT of your FT job, and that’s understandable, but in my case I got a FT job because of my blog and I couldn’t be more grateful. I’m doing the exact same thing as when I freelance – I manage the content for LendingTree and write for the site. LendingTree connects people to lenders, whether they’re looking for a mortgage, a personal loan, a credit card or a business loan. Clearly, all of the content is financial. My degree in finance coupled with my personal finance blog made me the perfect candidate. I never in a million years would have guessed that my blog would have led to my full-time job, but sure enough it did. I can’t guarantee where your blog will take you, but I CAN guarantee it will take you somewhere you never thought possible.

Have I convinced you yet? I really think everyone should start a blog. Our society is so advanced when it comes to technology and it’s only getting better. By 2020, 40 percent of workers will be freelanced. To land the best jobs, you’re going to need a blog to showcase your work. Plus, you will make friends, you’ll be a part of a community, you’ll give yourself an outlet to be creative, AND you’ll make money. Outside of marrying my husband and having my kids, starting a blog has hands-down been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Have an idea for a blog name?! See if it’s available here:

If you want to start your own blog, you can do so through my link here to Bluehost. Bluehost is the #1 recommended hosting provider for WordPress (the platform that blogs are run on). Through my link, you’ll pay just $3.95 per month for your hosting. Your domain name (ie www.thefrugalmillionaireblog.com) is FREE through Bluehost!



If you’ve been debating whether or not you should start a blog, I highly encourage you to do so now!!

Do you have a blog? If so, how has it changed your life?!