I don't want this to be just another pf blog

Prepare yourself for some seriously stream-of-consciousness stuff in this post. Frankly, I don't want this blog to be just another personal finance blog. I mean, we can only clamor on about saving money and "hacking" your life before it becomes dreadfully repetitive.

Sure, I can tell all you awesome people to stop spending so much damn money, or never to buy a new car again, or resist the temptation to sink your life savings into a mortgage, but frankly...I don't know you, or your finances, from a whole in the ground. Your life. Your money.

You will do whatever the hell you want to do regardless of what I type into this blog. And, that's good. If I could control your way of life through these magical fingers as they punch the keys on my wireless Logitech keyboard, then we have a serious problem that demands the attention of a specialist. Perhaps an expert.

Any experts in the house?

No. I want this blog to be different. I want to give you people something that you wouldn't find on any other personal finance blog out there. And I definitely don't want to write magazine-quality shit. Again, you can get that stuff anywhere. Open up The Economist and read until your heart's content. We get that stuff everywhere. I don't want it here.

I want this blog to be a stream of whatever-is-happening-right-the-hell-now account of my life. I want to give you something new to read - a look at people's unique lifestyles, including my own. I cuss on my blog and always will. You might be offended by the language I use, but trust me...

While I love you people, I just don't give a shit.

You're here because you want something different from a personal finance blog. Occasionally, I'll talk about numbers. But honestly, I find numbers boring. I find talk about stocks, dividends and yields mind-numbing. You won't find hard-core investing advice on this blog. In fact, you won't find it on most blogs, either.

Why? Because we don't know you. Only you know you. You know your tendencies. You know whether or not you're likely to see things through until the very end or wind up throwing in the towel mid-way through. Any advice we give you is based purely on shallow, superficial qualities - often regurgitated crap we read or heard somewhere anyway. It looks good on paper, but...

We all know that saving more money means earlier retirement. You know it. I know it. If you want it bad enough, you'll do what's necessary. If you don't, you won't. There, blog complete.

Boring. Instead, I talk about pee. My pet peeves. How Erin Brockovich is one of my favorite movies. Because, let's face it - that stuff is way more interesting than reading about my diversification strategy in the stock market. Besides, here's a secret: I don't have a strategy. I know almost nothing about investing. You don't need to be a "math guy" or stock trader to make bank in the market. That's what targeted retirement accounts are for.

I started Think Save Retire way back in 2015 primarily as an escape from full-time work. Something else to focus on, and if I made a little change in the process, cool. I accidentally liked this stuff, but I'm not a professional blogger. There's just no way.

The truth is that I don't care about search engine optimization. In fact, I think a lot of it is bullshit. Most of us could spend hours going step-by-step down some SEO checklist and not see any improvement in Google. It's because there's just WAY more to Google ranking than simple elementary school changes. And unless you designed Google from the ground up (in which case, rock on man!), most of us probably will never know how it works. I mean really works.

I also don't care about those award things (Plutus Awards, I guess?), or attending conferences. I won't even nominate my own blog. I'm not in this thing to win awards. I blog because it provides me with an outlet to say whatever the hell I want to say, period. That's it.

I don't collect email addresses with an in-your-face pop up either because, if you want to see my stuff, you'll come back. I trust you. If you're interested enough, you'll make your way back and we'll have an enjoyable time - right here on the blog, reading posts just like this.

And this one is turning into a completely incomprehensible mess.

That's okay. I'm already this far in, so I might as well keep going. I'm channeling a little of Dr. Doom in this post I suppose, though he is - and will forever remain - a much better writer than I am.

And that reminds me - I'm no expert. Not at early retirement. Not at saving. Basically, nothing. In fact, I needed extra help getting through school because I learned differently from the vast majority of my classmates. Education for the masses didn't work well for me. I never took those "Advanced Placement" classes in high school. In fact, I laughed at those who did because it resulted primarily in additional work.

The economist in me plainly saw an advantage in staying away from additional work. I just didn't see the benefit.

And that is how I get through life. Not by expertly navigating the complex waters of personal finance. Not by graduating top of my class, attending some prestigious university and working my way into increasingly-influential levels of the fiery inferno known as corporate America. I didn't devote the 80% additional effort for the remaining 20% reward.

I'm sitting here - as a 35-year-old early retiree, because I chose a path that I felt provided maximum benefit for minimum effort. Degree in information technology, which set me up for almost any job in the tech sector. Worked for 12 years as a corporate stooge writing software for companies, not particularly enjoying the experience, but tolerating it enough to climb from a low-level employee to the Director of Information Technology. And then demoted myself once I realized what management was all about.

I'm an economist through and through. And that, my friends, is what this blog is all about.

Lastly, please excuse this weird stream-of-consciousness post. As you were...