This indecision’s bugging me …
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An’ if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know!

~ The Clash

OK, so quoting a vintage Clash song from the 80s gives away my Gen X affiliation – and could easily be considered a little cheesy to boot. Still, I couldn’t think of any better way to frame this article. I wrote in November that I was taking a little time off to ponder the future of Balance Junkie and work on a new business venture. Today, I’d like to outline some of the thought processes I went through over the past 6 weeks or so and offer some tentative conclusions.

So far, things are going decently with the business and we’ve accomplished a lot of the little things that were hanging over our heads. But now is the time where the rubber really needs to hit the road. We need to convert all of these plans into a consistent revenue stream.

Reasons to Stay

Here are some of the positives Balance Junkie has to offer (gleaned from reader comments and my personal reflections) as well as reasons I enjoy writing the articles:

1. Unique Content: Not a lot of personal finance blogs cover the more sophisticated economic and market topics we tackle here. In addition, I’m a little older than many of the PF bloggers out there and therefore have a different perspective and level of experience to share as a result.
2. Canadian Twist: While we cover the global events affecting your money here, we also try to keep readers up to date with topics that are uniquely Canadian like TFSAs, RRSPs, and RESPs.
3. Wide Variety of Content: We try to offer information on just about anything related to personal finance and life balance. So you’ll find articles on everything from goal-setting, saving and basic budgeting to the latest economic forecasts, investment strategies, and financial crisis du jour.
4. High Quality, Unbiased Writing: Just going by reader comments here. While I’m as biased as the next human being in many ways, I don’t have any vested interest in expressing my views as I don’t work for any kind of financial firm.
5. Win-Win: In short, helping others helps me too. I like to hear that people have found the articles here interesting or though-provoking or helpful. Writing them also helps me clarify my own thoughts and strategies as I navigate life and money. Readers often bring up some great ideas that I can implement to improve my own life balance sheet.
6. Hard to Let Go: It’s taken a great deal of time and effort to build a stable of decent articles here. I’ve met a lot of really great people in the process. It’s so hard to think about letting all of that go.

Reasons to Go

Here are a few of the factors that have me considering taking my thoughts private again:

1. Small Voice, Big Crowd: While the content here may be relatively unique by some measures, it’s not like these topics won’t be adequately covered by someone somewhere. I sometimes wonder if Balance Junkie is just adding to the cyber noise out there.
2. Big Effort, Small Payback: I didn’t start this blog to make money. While it does bring in a small incremental income thanks to advertisers, it’s nowhere near commensurate with the time and effort I put into the blog. I sometimes wonder if I might make a better contribution to my family’s finances by throwing myself into helping Mr. Cents with the business full time.
3. Is Anybody Really Listening? On the heels of the 2008 financial crisis, I wanted to get the message out there that we could be in for increased economic and financial volatility for several years to come. I’m not sure very many people grasp that and I still see the same tired old investment advice repeated ad nauseum. Worse yet, people are still following it.
4. Mission Unaccomplished: I’ve had several family members and friends occasionally say things like: “I checked out your blog. It’s really well-written, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I imagine that’s a reference to the more sophisticated articles on sovereign debt and other very relevant, but somewhat complex topics. It was my intention to bring these topics to the average person so that they might better navigate some of the rough waters ahead. It seems I’ve failed in that respect and that puts me in a “Why bother?” frame of mind.
5. Elusive Balance: While I try very hard to write articles that address simple financial concepts as well as some of the more complicated financial issues facing us, I find it increasingly difficult to define my audience. I recently described it to someone this way: Half of my audience loves the personal finance/life balance angle to the site and the other half prefers the more sophisticated economic and market analysis. It can be more than a little challenging to keep both interested.
6. Networking Games: Increasingly, the blogs that rank the highest on various scales are those that promote and network relentlessly. They retweet, link to, “like”, and promote as many other bloggers as they can in the hopes that those people will return the favour. While I love linking to high quality information, I can’t bring myself to promote anything for the sake of mutual back-scratching. I would rather put the time and effort into writing the best articles I can.

I’m sure many of my fellow bloggers struggle with some of these trade-offs as well. I’d like to hear from some of you if you have any thoughts or experiences to share.

Decision Time

I won’t claim to have resolved all of these issues, but I do have a plan for 2012. I’m going to keep Balance Junkie going for now. I think I can contribute to our business and still write some helpful articles here.

There will be a few changes. I probably won’t write as consistently as I used to – only if I really have something to say and the time to write it down. I’ll also have a few more guest posts.

While I was away from BJ at the end of 2011, I read a few books, so I’ll be able to post some reviews for you. The first few articles of 2012 will consist of my annual Post Cards from . . . wrap-up of the year that was and a What to Watch for the year yet to come. I hope all of you are enjoying a relaxing Christmas and New Year and I wish you the best in 2012.

As always, I look forward to your thoughts.

No related posts.

It’s time to announce the winner of the signed copy of Never Too Late by Gail Vaz-Oxlade. I chose a random number based on the number of comments. The number was actually 1, so the first commenter won the book. Congratulations Sue! I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

Related posts:

1. Book Winner: Consumed
2. RESP Book Winner
3. Book Winner & Financial News Roundup

Everything in moderation, including moderation.

~Author Unknown

A couple of months ago the editors at Thrift Culture Now contacted me for an interview. I normally don’t mind doing this type of thing, especially if it’s in writing. I agreed to do it and they agreed to send over a set of questions for me to answer.

I expected to receive an email containing some generic personal finance or investing questions. Instead, I was treated to some really thoughtful inquiries that showed a real recognition of what Balance Junkie is all about. I was impressed.

Unfortunately, the interview questions arrived just as I was about to move. I started on some replies, but it soon became apparent that I wasn’t going to be able to give the interview the attention it deserved until after we settled in. The editors said “no problem” and very patiently waited for my replies.

Thrift Culture Now is “a free service dedicated to providing people with solutions for slashing all of their bills, eliminating clutter and waste, curbing consumer addiction, and thus enriching their lives financially.” It’s run by an enterprising group of young Canadians. (You know I’m a big fan of those!) The article that resulted from the interview is entitled Balance Junkie: Money Is a Means Not an End. It’s a nice summary of some of my answers where direct quotes are woven with the author’s thoughts on them. Nicely done!

Thanks to Rachel and the rest of the folks at Thrift Culture Now for humouring a slightly older Canadian!

Related posts:

1. Introduction to Balance Junkie
2. Balance Junkie Update: Changes Coming
3. Balance Junkie on Twitter

Just a short post today to enlist a little help. Thanks to Kerry Taylor from Squawkfox, Balance Junkie has been nominated for the 2011 edition of the Globe and Mail’s Best of the Blogs. It would be really great if you could take a moment to vote – and maybe invite a friend to do so too!

Of course, a vote for Balance Junkie would be greatly appreciated, but there are a lot of other great blogs in the running, so feel free to vote for your very favourite. Unfortunately, you can only pick one!

Thanks so much for all of your support, and congratulations to all of the nominees!

Related posts:

1. Enter the Personal Finance Guest Blogging Contest
2. Why Is Personal Finance a Hot Topic Now?
3. The First Rule of Personal Finance and Investing

Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.

~Pauline R. Kezer

Spring has finally arrived, bringing with it all kinds of changes. We’ve had quite a few changes come up at my house over the past couple of weeks too. I’ll spare you the details, but the end result is that I won’t be able to write as regularly or as often here at Balance Junkie. For now, I’m committed to writing at least once a week instead of the three times per week you’ve been accustomed to. I may write more or less depending on time constraints.

I’ll continue to follow the economy and financial markets and you can expect the same type of articles on anything from monetary policy to book reviews to basic personal finance topics. I’ll also continue to point out interesting articles in my monthly 20 Cents round-ups as well as the occasional Friday Food for Thought feature. I won’t be able to be quite as active in terms of social media, but I do intend to keep up on Twitter. You can see my tweets in the right sidebar here at BJ or follow me on Twitter @BalanceJunkie.

I’d like to thank all of the great folks who regularly read and comment on articles here. I hope you’ll continue to do so. If you don’t already, you can keep up with updates on Balance Junkie by subscribing for free via RSS feed or email. That way, you’ll be notified when a new article is posted. New articles also appear on Twitter, and you can always browse the oldies but goodies in the archives.

If you have any questions or concerns, the virtual door will be as open as always. You can use the comments section or send me an email directly. Thanks again for your support!

2 Cents

Related posts:

1. Balance Junkie Summer Update
2. Balance Junkie Joins Seeking Alpha
3. Introduction to Balance Junkie