Happy birthday, Mr. Blog - You're 1 year old today!

Today is a very special day in the life of Mr. Blog, aka: ThinkSaveRetire.com - he turns one!  A year ago today I published my first post about Starbucks and the retirement-killing habit that the place has quite literally turned into for a lot of people.

I got exactly zero comments on that particular article. How sad. Nobody read the blog at that time, so I was writing primarily for myself. That's okay - I've actually done that quite a bit in my life!

I suppose I should say something about "I can't believe it's been a year already!", but honestly, I don't feel that way.  Yeah, it seems like about a year has gone by, and I'm largely proud of the progress that this blog has made during that time.

One year in, I've written around 190 posts, all available from the blog's archive page. Tens of thousands of hits a month. Requests for sponsored posts (which I have declined...every one). Over 850 900 920 Twitter followers. Sorry Mr. Facebook page, I've largely ignored you. That's my bad.

I wrote every damn post except for one. While in Glacier National Park, my blogging buddy Chris over at Money Mozart penned my one and only guest post, Achieving your permanent paradise. Thanks again, Chris.

To be honest, I am not exactly sure what I am supposed to write in this post, but it seems like a blog's first anniversary is special enough to warrant something. How about I talk about what I have in store for the blog in the future?

Cool, let's talk about that. What do I have in store?

Actually, I don't know.

I know that post-retirement, the blog will remain active. My wife and I will be enjoying a life of full time travel in an RV. Our FullTimeExplorers.com blog will be the place where we post about our adventures, but I plan to keep this blog very focused on the softer side of financial independence and early retirement. The net worth will probably disappear from these pages, but we'll continue posting our budget.

I'll probably continue mocking the stupid buying habits of the typical consumer-oriented American, of which I was once very much a part of. But I'll do it from a coffee shop with my laptop at 10am on a Tuesday morning, retired, hopefully worry free. Sounds like fun!

The blog will probably turn more retirement-focused, but that's only a guess at this point. I always like to approach my writing from my current position in life, so it only stands to reason that after we call it quits, future content will possess the sweet flavor of early retirement. We'll see.

I may begin looking into opportunities to expand the blog by including additional content from external sources, but those plans are still very much in their infancy. If I do choose to go down that road, it won't be immediately after retirement anyway.

My favorite blogging landmarks from the first year

I would like to be able to say that I like all my posts equally, but of course, I don't. Some rock my world more than others, and several landmark posts and milestones along the way are definitely worth remembering.

Blog milestones:

• On January 9th, I officially unmoderated this entire blog; best decision ever!
• February was the first month we published our monthly budget (and tracked food)
• Our trip to Glacier National Park was our first REAL travel hacking experience
• February 20th marked our first ever Friday Feast
• My first off-site interview was published on March 28th at 1500days.com
• My first guest post was published over at DebtlessInTexas.com on April 18th
• The only guest post on THIS blog was published on July 16th by Chris at Money Mozart
• On August 1st, we officially changed our planned retirement date to the end of 2016!
• Previously, it was September, 2018

A few notable posts from the first year of operation?

• The most popular blog post: The Awesomeness of not being important
• My all time favorite blog post: My Retirement Renaissance
• The post I'm most proud of: What does Financial Independence mean to you?

Other favorites from over the year:

• Are your cars ruining your future?
• Because new cars tend to depreciate way too damn fast
• But you can improve your gas mileage with a very simple technique
• Why I quit my job as a high level manager
• And in the spirit of the new year: This New Years, don't resolve, reflect!
• Turn your life into a black and white photo
• The Our Next Life article series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4
• Why my wife and I are choosing to remain DINKs (or DINKWADs, if you will)

Today is more than the blog's 1st birthday

All in all, I'm happy. I'm happy with my life. I am happy with the goals that my wife and I have set out for ourselves. And the more I thought about Mr. Blog's first birthday, the more I realized that today also signals the one-year anniversary of our dramatic lifestyle change.

It may not be one-year to the day, but it's darn close - I started this blog well after my wife and I had decided to retire early, but we did not begin to significantly change the way that we lived our lives until the completion of our honeymoon, which we took in Hawaii after our October 4th wedding.

It has been amazing what we were able to accomplish in one year's time. Through the power of our DINKness, we've been able to save an average of 70% of two pretty darn good salaries in a very low cost of living area. Once we retire towards the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017, it would have been about two years since we made the decision to retire early.

I owe a lot of the success that we've had to this blog and especially the people that we have met along the way. The truth is the blog and all the comments keep us motivated. Reading other blogs gives us ideas to try, keeping us productive and focused.

What we've learned in one year's time is stunning to me.

Happy birthday, Mr. Blog.  Enjoy a yummy and delicious post, on me!