It’s hard to believe this blog has been in existence for over 11 years. Last year, I celebrated the 10th anniversary of this blog and it’s quite fascinating that another year has gone by with the blink of an eye.
When I started it in July 2014, I didn’t really know what I was doing, despite having written on a few personal blogs during my university days. I started the blog because I was inspired by other blogs like Million Dollar Journey, My Own Advisor, 1500 Days to Freedom, Retire by 40, Boomer and Echo, Financial Samurai, and Mr. Money Mustache. All of these blogs still exist today, although some don’t publish new posts as regularly.
The idea behind this blog was simple – to chronicle our financial independence journey to share our knowledge along the way so we can hopefully inspire other people to start their own journey.
After 11 years and meeting different bloggers and readers, I believe this little blog of mine has done exactly what I set out to do. It brings a smile to my face knowing the small positive impact I have had on blog readers’ financial well-being.
The reason I didn’t name this blog after “dividend” or “financial independence” or anything personal finance related was because I wanted to have the freedom to write about different topics. After 11 years with over 700 published articles and pages (with more already scheduled and in the works), I feel like I did exactly that – I have covered a wide range of different topics:
- Dividend investing
- ETF investing
- Frugality
- Personal finance topics
- FIRE related topics
- Money psychology
- Our own struggles
- Having kids and the evolution of our family
- Saving vs Spending
- Finding balance in life
- Tax optimization
- Happiness & joy
- Life lessons
- Money successes
- Money challenges
- Travel hacks and travels
And various other topics that my mind can think of.
Although I write SEO topics (i.e. Best of and How to type of posts) here and there, I don’t find writing these SEO optimized posts all that interesting. What I enjoy writing about are topics that are personal to me and things that happen to our family that other people can relate to.
But after 11 years, it is getting harder and harder to find “new” topics to write about. Sometimes I feel like I’m simply repeating ideas or topics I have already covered. With search engines and AI, I feel that there’s less and less need to cover topics that have been written a million times, like what is FAT FIRE or what is a dividend reinvestment plan.
I’ll admit that sometimes I get stuck in a writer’s block, unable to find a topic interesting enough to write about. Or I start writing and then decide to scrap everything because I deem it was not really viable.
Sure, it would be easy to just come up with a few topics and throw them over to ChatGPS, Claude, or even Gemini and ask these AI tools to “write” a topic for me.
But that’s completely cheating and I believe readers are smart enough to be able to differentiate my writing and something written by AI (I sure can spot that on other websites).
I truly believe readers are coming back to this blog and continuing to read my articles because they find me relatable and find the articles personal. It’s certainly not because I’m the smartest investor in the world (I’m far from that!).
So what’s the future of Tawcan.com?
Well, I have no plan to change what I have done for the past 11 years. I plan to continue to write and publish new posts every Monday. As we get closer and closer to stopping working full time and move toward either part-time work or early retirement, I plan to write more articles on living off our investment portfolio, either via 100% dividends or a combination of dividends and capital withdrawals. I also plan to write more articles on the post-FIRE side of things because I don’t see as many articles on these topics. I’ll probably dabble in a few ideas that I have already written about previously and expand on them in more detail.
I don’t know when but at some point, the post frequency will probably drop as I shift my focus to other activities. This seems to happen to every single blog out there but I’m aiming and hoping this won’t happen for at least the next five years, hopefully longer.
So this is where you, my readers, come in. I would really appreciate it if you could fill out a reader’s survey so I can find out more about you. More specifically, I’m looking for your input on what you like about this site, why you keep coming back, and topics you’d like to see in the future. The survey also gives readers a way to provide feedback to me directly without anyone else seeing it.
I would really appreciate it if you could fill out the survey.
You could fill out the survey <<here>>
Note: By filling out the survey, you have a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. The draw for the gift card will be on August 15.
Thank you!
I Just completed the survey.
I am a weekly subscribed reader of your newsletter, and I would be selfish to ask for more content for free. Your current topics cover so so much (traveling, gardening, harvesting, meals, family explorations, dividend updates, new stock purchases, travel hacks, kids events, work related content etc.)
Just a FYI, the survey asked about paying for your kids post secondary education. My situation was not an option in any of the responses. Which is : I paid for all post secondary expenses 15 years ago.
Congrats on 11 years of blogging, and I am looking forward to another 11 years.
Thank you very much Carol!
I’m glad to see you’re still going strong and publishing on a weekly basis. I appreciate all that you’ve done and continue to do. May the FI be with you.
Cheers!
-Leif / PoF
Amazing to hear from you Leif! So glad that you’re enjoy your retirement life!
Keep Calm and Carry On
Congrats on 11 years and I’ve almost been there from the start I think !!!
Cheers
Thanks Chris, appreciate it.
I just published an article along the same lines on Friday. You definitely worded it better.
You’re too kind. Given advance in AI and AI in search results, it will be interesting to see what’s going to happen with blogs moving forward…
Congrats on 11 years! Time kinda flies doesn’t it? 11 years is almost like a lifetime ago with blogging.
AI is making it rough for us bloggers to gain traffic. But if we write about stuff that’s interesting to us, that is also helpful, I think that’ll sustain us for a long time.
Writing about post-FIRE life is fun. You’ll have a lot to write about I’m sure!
Best,
Sam
Thanks Sam. Yes time sure flies! Yes post-FIRE life will be fun to write about.
Hi Bob,
I read your blog every week. When I first discovered it I went back through the archives and learned a ton (honestly can’t thank you enough for how much it helped me). What I most enjoy is reading about your thoughts regarding what you are considering investing in. I hope you will continue writing about how you are deploying capital and which stocks you are considering for upcoming investment.
Thank you Stevey!
I always look forward to your blogs , please keep doing what your doing! It is greatly appreciated by many.
Thank you David, appreciate it!
Enjoy following your blog. The survey was designed for working types, not retired as we are.
I would think you have many retired individuals who follow the blog. Some notes dealing with the retirement aspect would be an avenue to look at as you drift towards retirement. You do follow My Own Advisor and he has entered the retirement period.
Thanks for all the effort and time you have put into the Blog.
Thank you Bob. That’s true on your survey note, I should have modified it a bit to keep retirees in mind. Thank you for the suggestion.
Was happy to fill out the survey. I don’t need a $100 incentive so if I win, please donate it to your favorite charity.
Keep on blogging!
Noted, thank you Phillip.
I really enjoy reading your blogs every week because I have something to shoot for always helps me thinking about the next step.
Thank you Cory!
I just completed the survey, but forgot to ask, how do you identify something that has been written with AI?
AI tends to use certain words from what I can find. That’s an interesting topic to explore in the future. 🙂
I look forward to your blog every week. I enjoy the diversity of your topics and love seeing your garden and travels and other activities. As a local resident, I enjoy seeing places in BC that you and your family enjoy. As a relatively new retiree, I continue to enjoy hearing about your retirement journey. Thank you.
Thank you Sandra! Congrats on being a new retiree!
I started the survey, but a lot of it doesn’t apply to me as I’m in my 70s and retired. I have children, but not living with me, etc., and I don’t think it’ll let me continue if I leave sections blank.
Hi Cathy,
Some of the questions are mandatory, some are not, so you should be able to leave some sections blank.
its YOUR blog, do what fills your cup and share as much or as little as you want. MMM barely publishes anymore as he’s had his personal growth through it as well.
Peace dude.
Thank you Jeff, good point!
I always try to read your blog every week. I would also like to see some topics like – Will, POA, living trust etc..
Thank you Raj! Will, POA, and living trust are interesting topics to explore for sure.
I enjoy your blog and look forward to it. Sometimes I’m busy and don’t read it right away but typically I catch up later. Since I recently retired, I’m always looking for tax optimization information, drawdown strategies and how to deal with a corporation. Anything on travel deals, researching and booking travel (since I’ll be doing more of this) would be great. Congratulations on your blog and looking forward to many more years of posts!
Thank you Sandra, I appreciate you kind words.
Also, in your survey, I suggest make below question as multiple choices
“What would you like to see more on Tawcan.com”
Good point, next time I do a survey I’ll see if I can make multiple choices as an option.
I think it’s ok to reduce the frequency to bi weekly. Monthly will lost momentum
A few topics suggestions since you will semi retired sometime
1: how to thrive as a freelance/part time job(how to find, tax implications etc)
2: potential tax optimization in your semi retirement years
3: how to raise kids about financial literacy
4: how to save money, focus on deals, credit card welcome bonus
5: how to travel with less
Hi Will,
Currently plan to keep the weekly post frequency but we’ll see what happens in the future. Thank ou for these topic suggestions.
I would love to read some topics that are related to:
1: how you want to raise your kids to be more independent, for example, delivering newspapers, part time job
2: how semi retirement life looks like. I have been wondering whether FIRE folks feel life is boring now
3: how do you spend money since you no longer have job salary, so I assume your life style should change. For example, you can pick when to travel to save money without thinking job requirements
4: Tax, this is definitely an important task
5: investment of course. I have been wondering since your tax will be low, whether you will take advantage of it and invest something different