Thank you so much for your inspiring posts and dedication to debt reduction. I admit, I have a little bit of the green-eyed monster when I look at your numbers, but I wish you all the best in your future debt-free, blog-free life with your family.

HS

Good luck in your future endeavors!

Congratulations.

I started reading your blog after hearing a story about it on NPR. (I just searched for the story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11596225.) I went to your site, and I got immediately hooked. I’d never been a blog reader before, and yours was the first I read. I started checking it daily (before I realized the wonders of Google Reader) and also looked for other blogs I liked as much as yours. I have 11 blogs on my Google Reader now, and yours is by far my favorite. I don’t even HAVE credit card/consumer debt and you kept me coming back. I think that speaks to your writing skills in many ways, but particularly how your warm personality shines through. I’m sure if we had met instead in “real life” it would have been easy to stereotype each other as being very different. People can say what they will about blogs, but one thing they have done for me is cause me to try and strip the superficial differences away and realize that, at the core, many people are more alike than not. The more society tries to draw lines and fraction our country into little blocks: “Wal-mart moms,” “elites,” “blue-collar workers,” etc, the more I resist. I’ve enjoyed reading your blog, and am so happy that you will be passing along your blog to someone else you feel will carry on its vision. I know you are not leaving us yet, but I wish you all the best in your life once you step out of the “spotlight.” I’ll still be rooting for you.

You have more restraint than I do, I would be paying off the credit card as we speak. I don’t do well with waiting.

I guess this blog has lived up to its name after all. Very cool.

More importantly, I’ve enjoyed watching those falling debt balances and have been inspired by your perseverance. Best wishes in your new endeavor!

It sounds to me from your post that blogging out of debt has also helped you discover what is important to you as a person. I think it is wonderful that you are willing to walk away from this (which you are obviously talented at) to focus on your true passions in life.

Nerd Money – I do plan on following the new blogger, so you’ll see me around

MB – This blog could have brought in more money, but given how I felt about this blog – it wouldn’t have felt right to me. But that is unique to this situation. I’m all about making lots of money with future endeavors

I was saddened and confused by one aspect of your posting: you said that your website could have earned you more money over the years, but you held back because you didn’t want it to affect your debt pay-off too much. That’s really limited thinking that I’m worried will hold you back in life. I understand that you didn’t want some windfall to just knock out your debts, and it’s smart that you decided to focus on making long-term life changes with how you handle money. However, that’s no reason to purposefully earn less. You could have been taking the extra money from the last two years and placing it straight into a college savings account for your child. You could have put it directly into a retirement account that you can’t access until an older age. There are many options other than just choosing to earn less!

I also think they’re wise to keep you on board (and you’re wise to stay on board) at least for now. When I hear about blogs being sold, I wonder if they’ll survive without the personality who shaped them.

~Ian (’Family Man’)