Welcome to my financial blog!
I am a female personal finance enthusiast, mother of 2 who resides in Silicon Valley. I am starting this financial blog as a way to cover my adventures in finance, whether as someone who is learning from others or one who would like to share with you what I already know.
My career is in technology, and am formerly a software engineer. However, like many other financial fanatics out there, I’ve started entertaining the notion of becoming a full time online business owner. So basically, I plan to talk about both personal finance and business matters as well as both micro and macro economics on this blog.
I have a moderately healthy net worth, especially for one who lives in the Silicon Valley. But I live frugally, love to invest in the stock market, enjoy interior design and studying the real estate market and like to dabble with online business ideas.
Discussions In Personal Finance and Business
I’ve decided to start up this business venture to see where it leads me and I continue to contemplate on small business ideas. This place is where I plan to discuss my adventures in entrepreneurship and finance. Now that middle age has crept up on me, I’m going to have a go at a new “career”. I hope it turns out to be a rewarding effort in more ways than one.
I got the idea to pursue a couple of internet based business opportunities from the knowledge that it is relatively low cost to enter into this space and that I am fairly skilled in technology. As far as capital, you don’t really need much other than your rainy day fund to try to cover your expenses in starting something up in this venue, so if you already have a steady job or income from some other source, then all you need is some time out of your day to work on your projects.
I’ve often pondered just how certain online business ideas ended up turning into world class innovations. For instance, I was always fascinated and amused by Pierre Omidyar’s story about how he conceived of eBay.com by setting up a web site devoted to the ebola virus on one hand and his fledgling auction on the other. He did all this during his spare time. Same thing happened with the founders of Blogger.com, though that venture went through some humps throughout the years. Not that I have any delusions of grand success for my new online business ideas… Just a hope that perhaps I may be able to feast on a slice of the internet ecommerce pie and contribute something of value to the online world someday. After 17 years in the technology realm, it’s about time I leave some kind of legacy behind.
While I’ve started with no experience, I’ve also started with lots of ideas, determination and vision. The online world is helping by making it a little more affordable to start something off (everyone knows just how cheap it is to start a site, right?) So to cyberspace — THANK YOU for making it just a little bit easier for us budding capitalists to get our dreams started.
What Does The Digerati Life Offer?
Here’s what you can expect from your visit with us!
Posts, insights, observations, opinions, tips, reviews, resources and general articles on:
- Money in all its colors (this is what you’ll get 95% of the time). This covers personal finance, business and the economy.
- Technology and the people behind it (occasionally)
- The marriage of technology and money (to some degree) š
- Silicon Valley life and culture as it relates to finance.
Residing in a place where technology and money intersect in such a dramatic way, I find that it is all the more reason why I think that exploration of these subjects may turn out to be interesting and noteworthy. Hope you hang around and find what you’re looking for over here.
Please feel free to check out my About Page, Category and Archive Pages for more about this site, The Digerati Life!
Copyright © 2006 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Great idea. What are the costs associated with setting up a website and doesnāt it require a large amount of stock to get started? I spend a lot of my time reading blogs and browsing the internet If I can make money from a site with relatively low cost it would be a good idea for my spare time. Will be interesting to follow your success.
Oh, hey! Iām constantly surprised and energised by how much wonderful information is out there in the world of PF blogs. Thank you, SVB, for all the good work you do. š
I actually read somewhere that you are a 1st generation immigrant and “kababayan”. I was surprised by this very exciting fact!
Very cool. I like learning more about fellow bloggers. My parents came into the US as first generation immigrants for a better education and life. However, they didnāt master financial education. So kudos to you! Job well done!
Wow! Being a first generation immigrant and a former Software Engineer is certainly impressive! I know youāll hit that entrepreneurial mom goal any day now! Keep up the good work!
@Damien: Yes, we have decided on a more concrete financial goal weād like to reach fairly soon: one year to my āwork retirementā while the other half starts making an income via startup funding. Wish us luck!
@Financial Blogger: Iām actually Asian so yes, the drawing resembles me (okay, if not in the exterior, in the interiorā¦ š ). I have refrained from revealing more, so that I can remain as anonymous as possible, if I can muster it. Some co-workers I have are familiar with the pf blogging world and I get nervous about them finding me outā¦;)
I’m presently have my own business decorating up houses up for sale and it’s called home staging and it’s doing very fine! Now, I’m setting my sights to put up a website for this business of my own and I hope it can help me get more clients in my area!
Iām in the same place that you are. Web-based businesses are great because unlike with some other business endeavors, you donāt have to lay out thousands of dollars to get started. But you do have to be innovative, and thatās the kind of thing we always second-guess ourselves about. I keep trying in spite of the self doubt, and so should you. But you already know that!
Best of luck!
Yeah, this post is one of the very first I ever wrote on this site. Itās been sometime now and this site has been operational since summer of 2006! And weāve hit 1,000,000 unique visitors since then! Great stuff, and Iām *very* excited. Come check our archives for more posts over the last year and a half (or two)!
Setting up a website has gotten even cheaper than when you wrote this. Technology is usually not what prevents us from being successful. We are. Our attitudes and inertia.
Starting a web business is pretty easy but making it profitable is the harder part.
Register a website ($10/year)
Get domain hosting ($10/month to begin with)
Create a blog (WordPress is free) (even eliminate the first two costs at Blogger and WordPress.com)
Create content (Time oh precious time)
Generate traffic (again primarily takes time, content and some knowledge)
Convert to dollars ā advertising, affiliate links, your own eproducts, coaching, etc
Many people let the technology scare them but the time commitment and energy required to be successful is what really prevents them from doing it.
Excellent for a first post and I can see why it gets so much traffic!!
Hi Scott,
I am honored that you would comment on this ancient post. I still enjoy going back to my old archives to see how things have changed! Thatās why blogs are awesome, you can always see how everything once startedā¦. š As you have indicated, itās much easier to set up sites these days, but itās now much harder to make money, because of competition in certain niche areas. But hopefully, there will be opportunities developing as more people get into the online business, or as more people visit the internet.
What could be better than running your own business thatās in the comfort of your home. That would be awesome and the cherry on the cake. I mean to consider how our parents have given up their lives to serve their duties and what do they get eventually. The organization that they were appointed to eventually forgets them and moves on. With your own business at least you have this sense of pride for working for yourself and no other. Also as long as you make out a living from your business thatās what should count. Getting greedy is also a part of enjoying the rewards of owning a business. But all is not a rosy drive there ā there are occasional, regular bumps and thorns that one has to experience. But the reward is great, the satisfaction is great and the self-actualization is even more enormous.
I am compelled to respond to those who leave comments on my very first post everā¦ this one! Anyway, nice to reminisce here sometimes. Since this post was written up, itās been more than a couple of yearsā¦. This site is approaching four years nowā¦.in about a handful of months. Wow. Iāve done the full time blogging thing for around 2 years now and Iāve run this thing as a business around that time.
Definitely full of ups and downs, as the business is seasonal. But I feel that Iām reaching some momentum with many goals ahead mapped out. Itās now time for execution! I love this work ā I draw my creativity from various sources and I have found that it calls for all the experiences Iāve had in the past along with my natural skills and inclinations.
Running this business as a serious one does take so much more āunder the hoodā, but itās all been wonderful. Love this line of work and hope I last for some time! š
And just as a milestone check (since I mentioned it in an earlier commentā¦.), weāre approaching 4,000,000 unique visits in one more week! š Happy joy!
Just like the commenter a few above me, Iāve got my own home staging business. I struggled with finding someone to build a good website. The first person I hired did a crummy job but thankfully I found someone who knew what they were doing and created a great site for me. Once I got things going, I wouldnāt have any other job!