Well, when I started this blog back in 2013, I never imagined it would be still trundling along 5
years later. I suspect this may be partly due to having quite a bit of spare
time since taking early retirement and partly due to the fact that I am
probably too lazy to 'get a life'.
It is a record of the
later years of my personal investing journey and, looking back, it is clear the
focus has changed quite a bit since February 2013. Back then, I held most of my
equities in a mix of investment trusts and individual shares. Over the past
couple of years the shares have been reduced and now are all gone as well as
some of the trusts. I have increasingly embraced the lower cost index alternatives such as
Vanguard LifeStrategy.
First of all a big thanks to everyone who visits on a regular basis. Page views seem to have increased quite a bit since the early days.
Here are a few stats...
Total page views to date - 801,450, average per month is now around the 16,000 mark.
A total of 394 posts (200 in 2013/14) and most viewed article - Asset Allocation Revisited with 35,500 so far, followed by Vanguard Lifestrategy - A One-Stop Solution. In 2016 I was fortunate to be invited to write a guest post for Monevator following the publication of my latest book 'DIY Simple Investing' and a link in the article has boosted the views. Other popular articles are Work Out Your Retirement Figure and Vanguard Lifestrategy - 5 Year Performance.
The main sources of referring sites have been Monevator, Retirement Investing Today, Simple Living in Suffolk (now in Somerset!) and Money Saving Expert - many thanks!
Obviously, the majority of people visiting the blog are from UK (70%), however I am continually surprised to see how far diy investor has reached globally - USA (20%), and the remaining 10% between Germany , France, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Australia, India, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Serbia and New Zealand.
Development
As I say in my book “DIY Simple Investing”, family and friends soon change the subject when personal finance is discussed so, on a personal level, its really good to have an outlet for my ‘hobby’ of personal finance and investing and to be able to share it with what seems like an ever expanding community of like-minded people.
It is, of course, always interesting to look back at earlier posts and sometimes I am surprised at just how far my thinking has changed and developed since starting the blog.
In the early days, I was firmly committed to a strategy of generating a natural income from a mixture of individual shares, investment trusts and fixed interest securities. Over the past few years, I have read many interesting articles on various blogs and, as the time has passed, I have begun to embrace the low cost index philosophy. I have reviewed my former strategy and believe my process has become stronger and more balanced - as well as simpler!
After 5 years I find I am still enjoying my blogging and so long as I remain positive and others keep visiting, I hope to keep things going for a while longer - although if my portfolio is reduced to a couple of Vanguard trackers, there may not be too much to write about!
Thanks again for sharing the journey and for the comments…Here's to the next 5 years, assuming we all get through Brexit!
First of all a big thanks to everyone who visits on a regular basis. Page views seem to have increased quite a bit since the early days.
Here are a few stats...
Total page views to date - 801,450, average per month is now around the 16,000 mark.
A total of 394 posts (200 in 2013/14) and most viewed article - Asset Allocation Revisited with 35,500 so far, followed by Vanguard Lifestrategy - A One-Stop Solution. In 2016 I was fortunate to be invited to write a guest post for Monevator following the publication of my latest book 'DIY Simple Investing' and a link in the article has boosted the views. Other popular articles are Work Out Your Retirement Figure and Vanguard Lifestrategy - 5 Year Performance.
The main sources of referring sites have been Monevator, Retirement Investing Today, Simple Living in Suffolk (now in Somerset!) and Money Saving Expert - many thanks!
Obviously, the majority of people visiting the blog are from UK (70%), however I am continually surprised to see how far diy investor has reached globally - USA (20%), and the remaining 10% between Germany , France, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Australia, India, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Serbia and New Zealand.
Development
As I say in my book “DIY Simple Investing”, family and friends soon change the subject when personal finance is discussed so, on a personal level, its really good to have an outlet for my ‘hobby’ of personal finance and investing and to be able to share it with what seems like an ever expanding community of like-minded people.
It is, of course, always interesting to look back at earlier posts and sometimes I am surprised at just how far my thinking has changed and developed since starting the blog.
In the early days, I was firmly committed to a strategy of generating a natural income from a mixture of individual shares, investment trusts and fixed interest securities. Over the past few years, I have read many interesting articles on various blogs and, as the time has passed, I have begun to embrace the low cost index philosophy. I have reviewed my former strategy and believe my process has become stronger and more balanced - as well as simpler!
After 5 years I find I am still enjoying my blogging and so long as I remain positive and others keep visiting, I hope to keep things going for a while longer - although if my portfolio is reduced to a couple of Vanguard trackers, there may not be too much to write about!
Thanks again for sharing the journey and for the comments…Here's to the next 5 years, assuming we all get through Brexit!