Blog Hop: 20 Questions from Eclectic Evelyn

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What is a blog hop?

Being new to blogging, I had no idea what a blog hop was. The first time I became aware that blog hops even existed was when I discovered one over at Eclectic Evelyn’s website. Participating in a blog hop sounded like fun, though, so I decided to give it a try.

In the process I learned that a blog hop is a great way to find other interesting bloggers to follow. You get a chance to discover what you have in common with other bloggers and make new connections.

A blog hop can also be a fun strategy for promoting your own blog. If you are blogging as a creative way to catch-up retirement savings, you want more eyes on your blog. Hopefully, what you’ve written will be so entertaining that readers will check out some of your other posts, follow you, purchase your products or click on your ads to help you make money.

I know I definitely enjoyed checking out more of Eclectic Evelyn’s site! Let’s get to the blog hop Q & A . . .

Here are my answers to the questions from Eclectic Evelyn’s blog hop:

1.  If you could be any age for a week, what age would you be?

I have been 37 for quite a while now, and I have no intention of growing older! Just kidding – although I feel like I’m 37, I’m a baby boomer (not a millennial). Let’s just say that I’m aging positively, and that’s the best age mindset to have.

However, if I could go back in time to when I was 21 years old, I would have invested $10,000 in the stock market. My choice would have been to invest in a low-cost index fund, so my growing nest egg didn’t get eaten up by fees over time.

Even if I never contributed another dollar, the magic of compound interest would have allowed that one-time contribution to grow to $217,245!

I used this investing calculator, for a single, one-time imaginary contribution of $10,000 at 8% interest over 40 years. Try it out! Play around with the numbers and see what a difference saving different amounts of money could make for your retirement.

2.  What is your most frequently used emoji?

I don’t use them very often, and it freaks out my daughter when I do! I probably use hearts most often – we all need a little more love in our lives! Spreading a smile is also nice to do.

3.  What was your favorite dinosaur as a child?  

Stegosaurus. I’m not alone in my admiration for the spiky guy. Did you know the Stegosaurus is the Colorado state dinosaur?

Does the profile remind you of a certain personal finance blogger? Hint: starts with a J.

4.  Would you rather someone always tell the truth or protect your feelings?

One of the best ways to grow is to be open to feedback. When given in a thoughtful manner, without intention to harm, I think the truth is best. It’s just as important to listen, especially to someone who has a different life experience than you.

5.  If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?

I’d work more on my personal finance blog, hopefully inspiring others with creative ways catch up or increase their retirement savings. An important message I feel called to share is that it’s possible to catch-up retirement savings, even after a late start!

Be sure to check out my interview series featuring people who successfully caught up their retirement savings – even if they didn’t start saving until they were in their 50s!

Saving for Retirement: Interview 1, Elizabeth Wallace

Saving for Retirement: Interview 2, Becky Heptig

(I’m actively seeking more people to interview. If you know of someone who was able to catch-up retirement savings after a late start, please get in touch with me!)

6.  What is the predominant color in your closet?

Many of my clothes are black, but if I look closely, I see a lot of green (the color of money saved). Most of my clothes have come from thrift stores, which has allowed me to save more money for retirement.

Going one step further, a complete clothing ban can help you save even more money for retirement.

No, we’re not talking about going naked, just about not buying new clothes.

Angela at Tread Lightly, Retire Early has written about the money she’s saved and lessons learned from a two year clothing ban.

7.  What takes up too much of your time?

I probably spend a little too much time on Twitter!

My favorite tweet for Financial Literacy Month (April) via @Retirement_mdEZ (who is sadly no longer blogging):

“Best financial advice for the financially illiterate?  1) Join Twitter.  2) Follow 200-300 personal finance bloggers.  3) Enjoy!  Enough quality information is posted in a week to last a lifetime!” 

This is so true, and one of the reasons I find it hard to tear myself away from Twitter.

8.  How often do you people watch?

I’ve started to watch people who are winning with money. There is a huge Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) community that I pay attention to.

Motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. When you have financial goals, who you watch, who you learn from, and who you spend time with matters.

9.  What is something that a ton of people are obsessed with, but you just don’t get the point of?

Whatever the current popular television show is. I don’t pay for cable television or streaming subscription services. Watching television is the last thing I want to do.

Instead, I prefer to spend time with family and friends, read, enjoy hobbies, or work on my side hustles to generate more money for retirement.

10.  What fad or trend do you hope comes back?

The Victory Garden.

The practice of planting vegetable, fruit and herb gardens during WWI and WWII was before my time, but I think it’s a cool idea. During the wars, there were labor and transportation shortages that made it difficult to ship food.

The idea of people being able to supply their own food, and to be able to nourish and sustain their own communities is very powerful. I love it when people turn their entire yards into beautiful and edible gardens!

In addition, by bringing back Victory Gardens to our communities, we can help to save the bees!

11.  What one thing do you really want but can’t afford?

I am grateful for all that I have.

During October 2017, Sonoma County (where I live) experienced a devastating tragedy when wildfires swept through the area and destroyed many homes and businesses. I worked at an evacuation center and comforted people who escaped their homes with only the clothes on their backs as the fires raced forward.

My family was advised to pack up our car, but luckily we didn’t end up having to evacuate our home. While thinking about what to pack, though, we looked around and realized that the most important thing we have is each other.

12.  Where would you spend all your time if you could?

Traveling the world, seeing new sights, trying new foods, meeting cool people, and attending personal finance events, like Chautauqua!

13.  What are you absolutely determined to do?

Catch up my retirement savings. Currently I’m doing this by maxing out my 457(b)-retirement plan at my primary job, contributing to traditional and Roth IRAs, and investing additional money in a taxable investment account (low cost index funds).

I also try out a lot of creative ways to make extra money because that helps me catch-up my retirement savings! This includes blogging and writing, teaching herb classes, and more. In addition to my full-time social work job, I have a side job as a speech therapy assistant.

14.  As you get older, what are you becoming more and more afraid of?

Not having enough retirement savings, as well as poor health. My job as a social worker exposes me to a lot of elderly people who lack both money and health. It’s a difficult situation.

I’m in great health now, but my goal is to keep improving. I do a lot of yoga for flexibility, and a lot of walking, but I should exercise more. My grandmother lived to the age of 104, and part of her secret to a long and active life was exercising every single day.

15.  What do you hope your last words will be?

“So long and thanks for all the fish.”

Just kidding. (But did anyone get the reference?)

I hope I can say “I love you” and “thank you” to the most important people in my life.

16.  What have you created that you are most proud of?

I’m the co-creator of 30+ year partnership. Marriage isn’t easy, but it’s rewarding and meaningful. I feel grateful that my husband and I have overcome many challenges together and grown stronger in the process.

We’re also proud of our daughter, who has grown into a thoughtful, caring and confident young lady.

17.  What bends your mind every time you think about it?

Slime Queen, Karina Garcia makes up to $200,000 per month from ad revenue on her slime-creation videos on YouTube. It would take no time at all to catch-up retirement savings if I could become a YouTube sensation, hahaha!

18.  If you could have a video of any one event in your life, what event would you choose?

I don’t think I’d want one. I’d rather look to the future than live in the past. One of my favorite movies was Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.

One of the (many) lessons from that movie was that every day offers a new beginning, a chance to start over and improve your life, your community, and your world. You don’t have to be stuck.

19.  What lie do you tell most often?

That I will stop going down the rabbit hole known as Twitter and go to bed on time!

20.  What weird food combinations do you really enjoy?

It’s probably not too weird, but I like almond butter and banana sandwiches, on sprouted whole wheat bread. The banana is just sweet enough to balance out the rich flavor of the almond butter.

I also enjoy mushroom hunting and foraging for wild herbs such as miner’s lettuce, fir tips, nettles, and chickweed. Also commonly referred to as weeds, these gifts of nature are actually free superfoods!

Collecting wild plant foods and mushrooms can be a lucrative way to catch-up retirement savings. Some wild mushrooms sell for $40 per pound in grocery stores! (Just get educated on the ethics and safety precautions first).

My Final Thoughts

You never know what strange question will be in a blog hop – I hope this was as fun for you to read as it was for me to write!

I love connecting with new readers and hope these questions from Eclectic Evelyn’s Blog Hop helped you get to know me a little better. Even though my primary message is that it’s not too late to catch-up retirement savings, there’s room for some fun on this blog!

Please hit the “Like” button if you enjoyed this post, and be sure to subscribe to keep receiving more creative ways to make & save money!

Question: Of these 20 blog hop questions and answers, which one was your favorite, and why?  How would you have answered it?