Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everybody!

2019 was a prolific year for Financial Samurai. There were over 200 posts and even more pages published.

Blogging is like fishing in a big ocean. You’ve got to be patient. Most of the time you’ll catch nothing. But every once in a while, you’ll catch a big fish that can feed your family for weeks.

The biggest fish I caught was Google. After Google upgraded Financial Samurai in August 2018, I wasn’t sure the upgrade would last.

But after 16 months, the upgrade has been maintained. 2019 organic search traffic remains higher than 2018 organic search traffic. And most of Financial Samurai’s traffic comes from organic search.

I really appreciate Google’s love because I’m not very active on social media. I’m not part of any online cliques or mastermind groups. Nor do I consistently promote myself or this site to bigger media outlets or podcasts.

If folks ask, I’ll definitely oblige. But so much of my time since 2017 has been devoted to being a stay at home dad. What time I have left is spent writing, playing recreational tennis and softball, and spending time with my wife.

Google enables me to be myself and just focus on what I like to do best – write about personal finance. I’m sure Google will one day turn on Financial Samurai. When that day comes, I will reflect on the 10+ years it has treated Financial Samurai well and be thankful.

My writing goals throughout the year are always to help readers save more money, make more money, think more broadly about issues, and better prepare for an unknown future.

By category, here are some of the best Financial Samurai articles for 2019.

During my exploration process of selling Financial Samurai, I consulted with a friend who sold his website for $2.8 million some years ago. He offered to share what transpired, what he would have done differently, and why he wished he would have held on. The numbers and timing have been slightly modified to protect his privacy as well as adhere to his non-disclosure clause.

In 2003 I started a website for $1,000 and in 2010 I sold it for $2.8 million. A 2,800X return is better than practically every single angel investment ever, but I still regret my decision.

At the time, I thought it was the best move I could have ever made. I was 30 years old and like Sam, had just started a family of my own.

By selling the site, I thought I would free up some valuable time to take care of my young boy and it did. But after six months, I wasn’t satisfied with only being a stay at home dad after working so hard on my business for so many years. When our boy turned one, we decided to send him to daycare so I could go back to my old routine of building a business. At 2.5 years old, we decided to send him to preschool. My wife worked a full-time job.

I also thought that by selling the site, I would feel much happier cashing out. In 2010, there was still a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the economy. I thought I was smart for selling because my site survived the downturn while so many other businesses went to zero.

Despite having a nice payout, I wish I never would have sold. Here are the reasons why.

_{Disclosure: Financial Samurai has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Samurai and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.}

I’ve been delaying this post for a while partly because I didn’t want to recognize the formal end of my 10-year journey writing on Financial Samurai. I was also waiting for some divine inspiration to figure out what’s next.

Earlier this year, several potential acquirers contacted me about selling Financial Samurai. I thanked them for their interest and told them I needed to first fulfill my 10-year goal.

In July, after achieving my goal, they all contacted me again. This time, I told them I first needed to write my 10-year recap post in order to make the achievement official.

Now that that post has been written, I know I’ll soon be contacted again and forced to make a decision. Financial Samurai has been a part of my life for so long that it’ll be tough to let it go. As I don’t want to be tempted by money, I’m trying to keep the offers at bay for as long as possible.

With Financial Samurai I have autonomy, fun, a sense of purpose, measurable results, and the ability to help people achieve their financial goals. As a stay at home dad, I can’t think of anything intellectually better to do while my boy is sleeping.

Financial Samurai has been a dream come true. Ironically, nothing kills a dream quite like achieving it. 

Starting a business changed my life for the better. But I dilly dallied for a couple years before starting Financial Samurai in 2009 because I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to commit to a long term plan. I remember hearing that it takes 10 years to become an expert in anything, and I didn’t want to start something if I wasn’t going to follow through. When the financial crisis hit I figured it was now or never.

Now that I’m 8.5 years in, there’s not a day that goes by where I’m not thankful for having this site. I understand that a lot of you will say that you don’t have a good business idea or don’t have a clue as to how to start. The reality is I had no business idea either.

But now, things are so much better than having a day job – 90% less stress and 100% more income. The key is to just launch and then figure things out as you go. You can afford to do so nowadays because the cost to launch and maintain is so cheap. Good luck trying to figure things out when you have to pay $5,000+ a month in rent to run a retail store or restaurant!

Let’s look at the top 10 benefits of owning your own business in Part I of this two part series.

_{Disclosure: Financial Samurai has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Samurai and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.}