A reader poll
March 27, 2015
I’m curious, dear readers, and I hope you’ll satisfy my curiosity.
This blog has long been my refuge. Over the years I’ve shared, learned and grown in the experience of writing it. This is a greatly enjoyable hobby through which I’ve had the great fortune to make a better life and even found friends.
One friend called this a successful blog and, looking around the greater PF blogosphere that’s utterly transformed since I first started up almost ten years ago, it never would have occurred to me to consider it as such. But, from very modest beginnings, we’re still kicking! That’s one kind of success.
Would you care to tell me….
What have you enjoyed reading?
The topics I generally land on are:
Money: general money (deals, sales, maximizing savings)
Personal money (decisions, mistakes, planning, negotiations)
Investing (stocks, real estate, retirement portfolio)
Family: (pets, difficulties&complications, planning)
Career: (changes, planning, commentary)
What would you like to see more/less of?
And about you!
How long have you been reading?
How did you find me?
Have you filed your tax returns yet?
What are you most looking forward to this year?
Dear Revanche- I’ve had the pleasure of reading your blog for the last couple of years. I really enjoy all your blog posts from the financial, family, and now hearing about Little Bean. I think I may have ben sent your way from reading Single Ma’s blog or SaveSpendSplurge. I really like your link love posts- you put really thought provoking articles and cute videos. I haven’t filed my taxes yet because that task was given to my husband, but if I had known it wouldn’t be done already I would have done it myself. I haven’t because I’m on school and the thing I’m looking most forward to is graduating nursing school in May.
Hi Grace! Thanks for taking the time to comment and for reading all this time. I have sympathy for your husband not bring done with taxes, good luck with getting that done soon! And congratulations on graduating nursing school this year!
Hi Revanche!
I’ve been following A Gai Shan Life for a few years now off-and-on but pretty recently (a couple months ago?) went through the archives to really get a sense of the blog. I think I originally found you through Save Spend Splurge’s blog roll. My favorite posts of yours have always been when you’ve talked about the intersection between yourself, your health, your finances, and your family. I think it’s an honest perspective that’s very relatable. And reading about someone else dealing with these general life struggles and getting by is really helpful in assuaging my own anxieties about my own family and money problems. Also, of course, I love the posts about LB.
For me, I have indeed filed my taxes and gotten a return. I’m looking most forward to getting my house-buying process done this year, so hopefully my anxiety levels will go down a bit.
Hi Taylor! Thanks for reading and commenting! Best of luck with the house purchase, I totally understand that’s pretty nerve wracking.
I think I’ve been following you for about maybe 6 months now…maybe a little longer. I’m sure I probably found you by a comment you left of my blog. That’s usually how I discover “new” people. I usually like reading anything PF related (except investing) that feels real…not like canned “how-to’s” and “5 ways to save money on…” I like getting to know the person behind the blog. My accountant is working on my taxes as we speak.
Thanks for reading and commenting! We must have found each other around the same time.
Glad to know I don’t need any listicles to keep y’all reading 🙂
I like reading about personal money, family, and career most. Reading about investing is good for me to do, but not my favorite topic – kind of like vegetables are to food?
What would you like to see more/less of? More blog posts… Sorry, not helpful. 🙂
How long have you been reading? A long time. 2008 most likely.
How did you find me? Unsure, probably from someone’s blogroll, from a pf carnival, or… something.
Have you filed your tax returns yet? Yup!
What are you most looking forward to this year? Puppy!!!
The irony of you saying investing is the vegetable of PF is that reminded me you wanted veggie ideas 🙂
I think we go way back to just about the very beginning, don’t we?
What have you enjoyed reading?
Money: general money (deals, sales, maximizing savings) Yes
Personal money (decisions, mistakes, planning, negotiations) Most definitely!
Investing (stocks, real estate, retirement portfolio) Yes
Family: (pets, difficulties&complications, planning) Yes
Career: (changes, planning, commentary) Yes
What would you like to see more/less of? I always enjoy your personal perspective on financial topics, career, and family. That’s what keeps drawing me back. There are certainly differences between your life and mine (both circumstances and ages), but reading about how you came to a certain decision, what factors you considered, why you made the choice you did has been very helpful to me in thinking about the same sorts of topics.
How long have you been reading? Two years? Three years? Four years? I can’t recall when I started, quite frankly!
How did you find me? It had to have been through another blog, but I don’t remember which one. Maybe you commented on something on Get Rich Slowly years ago? That’s how I found some of the other blogs I still read. (Although I rarely read GRS anymore.)
Have you filed your tax returns yet? Yes! I work with an accountant and he gave me a deadline to turn in my tax planner (last week in February). I heard from him last Friday and sent in the forms so he could e-file. State taxes will be a wash this year (I owe Illinois, but California is refunding me about the same amount). I’ll also be getting a refund from IRS that should pay for a nice weekend trip. 🙂
What are you most looking forward to this year? Continuing to acclimate to my new home state of California and the possibilities it has opened up to me; making new friends; growing personally and being more compassionate, loving, and kind towards myself (instead of just pouring that energy into others); building my Spanish language skills. I know that’s a lot, but I couldn’t pare it down.
Might could have been Nicole and Maggie, as well, I probably commented there more than GRS.
Wow, your accountant is on top of things! That’s great. I’m glad to welcome you to CA, I really hope you do love it here. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment!
From this blog, I most like reading about you. That’s inclusive of what’s going on with your life, but also your thoughts and your opinions. I don’t really need another site that’s “five ways you can save money” or whatever.
You’re a really interesting person in a positive and inspiring manner (even when you don’t feel positive and inspiring, that’s still positive and inspiring). You’re also a really good writer.
What a lovely compliment, thank you!
What have you enjoyed reading:
Personal money (decisions, mistakes, planning, negotiations)
Investing (stocks, real estate, retirement portfolio)
Family: (pets, difficulties&complications, planning)
What would you like to see more/less of? Always love reading about money. But I relly like the personal stuff as well.
And about you!
How long have you been reading? I would guess 3-4 years
How did you find me? Browsing other PF blogs maybe? Not sure.
Have you filed your tax returns yet? No! EEK!!!
What are you most looking forward to this year? Getting a handle on our portfolio, estate planning, tons of adventure and fun experiences in life!
We are running out of time to file! Yikes!
Thanks for being a reader for so long, and taking the time to share.
What have you enjoyed reading?
1. Personal money (decisions, mistakes, planning, negotiations)
2. Money: general money (deals, sales, maximizing savings)
3. Career: (changes, planning, commentary)
4. Investing (stocks, real estate, retirement portfolio)
5. Family: (pets, difficulties&complications, planning)
What would you like to see more/less of? I love it all! I’m especially keen on the personal money, especially information about how to progress on savings and your side gigs. I find them pretty inspirational.
How long have you been reading? About six months.
How did you find me? Definitely through Better in Real Life, and I think it was on Twitter.
Have you filed your tax returns yet? Not yet. That’s next weekend’s project.
What are you most looking forward to this year? Growing into my new job, and maybe taking a trip to Morocco.
Morocco, how exciting, I’d love to hear about it if you do go. Thanks so much for reading and sharing this comment.
Topics I enjoy reading – personal money, family, career.
How long have you been reading? – 7-8 years? Ish?
How did you find me? Big PF blog phase when I was getting out of debt, saving for grad school. Yours is about the only one I still read.
Have you filed your tax returns yet? Yes
What are you most looking forward to this year? Completing draft of dissertation!
Hey oldtimer 😉 good luck with that dissertation, what a journey that’s been. Thanks for sticking with me all these years.
I like personal money, career and family and agree with SP on investing.
How long have you been reading? Umm since before (AGSL) time.
How did you find me? I’m sure it clicked a comment you left on someone’s blog…probably no longer around. I can’t remember that far back.
Have you filed your tax returns yet? Yes and received and deposited!
What are you most looking forward to this year? Training for my new job in another country.
You’ve been here since practically the very beginning! I got excited about your new job / country note til I saw what you meant below. But that’s still cool 🙂
I had applied to an internal job that would have been located in the motherland….
I will be training for a month so it’s still a little cool 😉
That’s definitely still cool 🙂
What have you enjoyed reading?
The intersection of family and finances is very interesting to me, for obvious reasons. And anything about the pup! 🙂
I also like your career posts, and the discussion of mistakes/decisions and negotiations/budgeting with your partner.
The honest portrayal of pregnancy and life with LB, and how you manage life with a debilitating chronic illness.
Agree with above commenter that your links are awesome. I also love it when you geek out about Comic-Con and the like.
What would you like to see more/less of? MOAR PUPPIES. And PiC, he sounds dreamy. Also maybe more career stuff?
And about you!
How long have you been reading?
Hahahaha, I couldn’t even begin to tell you. All I know is that I was already an established reader of your alter-ego before you switched over to this moniker. Most likely started reading you in 2005 or 2006, when I got super into PF. When did you start blogging?
How did you find me?
Again…this will forever remain a mystery. Someone’s blogroll, maybe a comment?
Have you filed your tax returns yet?
Federal? Yep. State? Nope.
What are you most looking forward to this year?
Going to Europe for the first time! (and on work’s dime to boot! :))
I bet you we started reading each other around the same time too! Because I remember you from before your big move even. It’s nice to hear the link posts are appreciated, I never know if they’re read since they’re light on comments.
Hehe I told PiC what you said; he IS dreamy 🙂
First time to Europe yay! I’m excited for you. Thanks for reading and sharing.
(To Karen: That is super exciting about the new job and new country!!! Congrats! When are you going to get a blog already?!)
Ha! I can’t blog; I’m a bad writer. I can’t even comment well. Example: job isn’t in a new country, only the training is. I’ll spend a month in Hamburg.
How long have you been reading? since pre AGSL
How did you find me? I *think* the old PF under 30 blogroll
Have you filed your tax returns yet? Almost
What are you most looking forward to this year? No idea
The good ole Under 30 blogroll! Not many of us are left from that group. Good luck with the tax filing, we have two more weeks. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Personal money (decisions, mistakes, planning, negotiations)
Family: (pets, difficulties&complications, planning)
Career: (changes, planning, commentary)
What would you like to see more/less of?
None 🙂
And about you!
How long have you been reading? FOREVER. Since my Fabulously Broke in the City days.. LOL
How did you find me? Er.. I think we found each other?
Have you filed your tax returns yet? No, this is a To Do for April as we need to file jointly.
What are you most looking forward to this year? Making money after not having worked for so long.
Yep, we found each other 🙂 when do Canadians have to file by? And I didn’t know you had the option of filing jointly when not married. Our options are married filing jointly or not jointly, or head of household.
Woots for income!
I honestly don’t know how long I’ve been reading. I go through spurts of reading blogs regularly. Then life intervenes, and I barely pay attention for awhile (despite my best intentions).
But I like reading what you write. I’m biased and like when you talk about living with health problems. But I love any introspection you do because it’s beautifully written and thoughtful.
That said, I also like your general life updates, including your dealing with investments (though anything other than rental stuff often leaves me confused from any blogger).
I’ve filed my taxes. I even bit the bullet and paid to e-file both sets for a whopping $18. Which is a personal achievement for me. I’m not great at saving myself hassle when it costs money.
What am I most looking forward to this year? To it being over! Which is to say, being done with Tim’s dental stuff and have it paid off (or almost entirely — looks like it’s going to be more expensive than expected).
Beyond that, I’m looking forward to FinCon. And to getting this last blood test done next month to hopefully finally have an answer about the miscarriages. We can then try one last time and find out whether we’re actually able to have children.
Wow, my stuff is kind of depressing.
So kind, thank you! High five to you for filing and making your life a little easier. Your stuff isn’t depressing so much as real. And it’s tough. We seem to have that in common. <3
Votes for personal money, family, career.
Couldn’t honestly say how long I’ve been reading or how I found you? Probably 6/7 years ago now.
I guess it’s fair to say I don’t blog about not-personal money anymore, really… !
I’ve been reading on and off since before it was called “A Gaishan Life”. I’m least interested in deals/saving money and pets. Interested in everything else. Here in Australia we don’t file tax returns till the second half of the year as the tax year ends on 30 June 🙂 We just moved house – this is the first house I’ve ever owned. So, I guess we are looking forward to getting it all organized. Otherwise, not anything unusual planned – probably will travel this year less given the house move but Turkey (again), Abu Dhabi (first time), and Israel (usual place to visit) are on the agenda….
Congratulations on the new house! And I envy you the later tax deadline. 😉 Hope you have a wonderful time traveling.
What have you enjoyed reading? This might sound a bit odd, but I find all of it pretty fascinating. I do skim some of the money things that don’t apply to me so much, but I started following your blog a few years ago because you had a wide variety of topics and you have an interesting take on life. Hearing about your family makes me feel less alone in my own family struggles, and I am consistently amazed at how upbeat you are in the face of some of the things you’re dealing with. I am dealing with some health issues that I’m trying to keep a positive attitude about, and you definitely help me remember to keep moving along.
How long have you been reading? How did you find me? I’ve been reading your blog for several years, but I’m not sure how I found you. I used to read a couple of other PF blogs, so perhaps I found you in the comments there? Or maybe as a guest blogger or something? I can’t remember! I just discovered that you’re also an AAM reader a couple of months ago, and I thought that was pretty fun. 🙂
Have you filed your tax returns yet? Nope, and it’s driving me nuts. We have an accountant now, because of some complications with both of us getting master’s and having some weird housing stuff in our state that was taking up more of my own time that I was willing to spend. (A few years ago I started figuring what my time was worth in terms of money, and this view point has changed my life and has made me think on multiple occasions, “Is this worth my time, effort, and frustration that would actually be cheaper by paying someone else to do it?” Paying taxes, so far, is the one thing where the answer was a resounding yes for both me and my husband.) Back to the taxes, it’s my own fault for not following up on a missing form earlier, so now we’re in wait mode. This is the latest I’ve ever been with taxes in my life!
What are you most looking forward to this year? I am looking forward to (hopefully) being able to focus on my master’s degree now that my husband is done with his. I’ve been taking one or two classes at a time, and I want to be able to take a full load of courses, but I’m also working full time, so it’s been pretty difficult. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can afford to quit and focus on school instead.
I had no idea, thanks for reading this long! And wonderful to “meet” you here and at AAM! 😉 I’m totally with you on the worth of an accountant to take care of your taxes. I never thought I’d give it up but it’s really a much better use of our time NOT struggling through and filing them ourselves these days.
Best of luck with finishing your master’s degree, I admire you for taking courses while working full time. I know people do it but it’s just not something I’ve been willing to try to take on myself.
I never post comments as I groggily read things on Feedly as I wake up in the morning, but have always loved your blog (not sure how long I have been reading, but at least a few years).
While I generally love all of your topics/posts, what resonates with me the most are those about your parents and brother. While not an identical situation, we are looking at someday having no choice but to support one, possibly two sets of parents. One set stopped working early due to a disability, and the other is supporting a set of our siblings, and will continue to do so until they have nothing left. We also have a set of siblings (being vague in case they ever read this – is a BIL/sister or SIL/brother combo) that are mooches and taking advantage of one set of our parents, so the interactions you have with your brother are also of interest and really hit home.
I also love any general money, financial, household management type things you post. Unlike another commenter, I generally don’t click through on any link love posts unless they are on an extremely interesting (to me) topic, but that has nothing to do you with you or your comment. Once upon a time for all blogs I read, I would just right click to open all the link love posts (not just yours, multiple people), and read them. That stopped when I did that and one of the links I clicked actually wasn’t to the article described, but led to a nasty computer virus. So now I am much, much more cautious. I don’t even remember which blog led me to it, but it pretty much scared me from blindly reading them even from bloggers I trust.
Thanks for taking the time to comment then, I understand that state of mind when blog reading 🙂 I have all the empathy for your situation, and hope that you might find something helpful in what I share.
I’m sorry you caught a virus from clicking through links! That sounds awful, if there’s a way I can better share links so that you can safely view them I’ll be sure to do that.
I just realized I didn’t answer all the questions!
I believe I found your blog through another personal finance blog, but it’s been so long I am not sure who it was. I know the first financial blog I ever read was “No Debt Plan”, who doesn’t post very often, and through that I came across lots of others.
We completed our taxes a month ago or so. We have an unusual situation where one of our employers pays to have our taxes done for us due to a very specific travel situation that creates complications (which causes an increase in taxes, that they reimburse us for). In order for the whole mess to be figured out we have to send things early and then file early enough that we meet the reimbursement timeline (from the company, not related to the IRS). I’m very on top of all of our paperwork (I actually have a spreadsheet projecting each years taxes to see where things net out and what paperwork we should expect, so once it is all in I can pass off to the tax preparer).
What am I looking forward to this year? A big overseas vacation that I’ve been wanting to do forever, and ended up canceling last year due to stupid fears. Also looking forward to getting a vacation over with that was discussed years ago with the mooching relatives (mostly our treat), checking it off the list will be nice and hopefully I will enjoy it too.
I hope you do take that vacation and actually enjoy it! Likewise the other vacation, I hope it’s not too much of a drain on y’all.
What would you like to see more/less of? I enjoy all of your topics for the most part but sometimes skim on the house stuff and stocks. It makes me a bit panicky that I do not own a house and do not invest in stocks and should be working to be in a more similar position. So I read them to try to learn for when I do but like someone above very aptly said, they are like vegetables!!
And about you!
How long have you been reading? I have only been reading for a few months but I very much enjoy it. It is easier to read than straight money blogs but makes me feel smarter and more informed than when I’m reading only personal blogs.
How did you find me? I believe I found you from Lauren from BIRL’s blogroll… I work 12 hour shifts in front of a computer and sometimes I’m starving for new people to read.
Have you filed your tax returns yet? No we haven’t but I have the next four days off and it is on the top of the list!!!!
What are you most looking forward to this year? Baby time in August!! I am not looking forward to being 9 months pregnant in the hottest part of the year but being pregnant was never my “thing” (I did not grow up dreaming about maternity photo shoots and feeling first kicks and whatnot) and I am already over it. Ready for screams and snuggles and madness!!
You’re a Lauren reader! That’s wonderful 🙂 And I’m pleased as punch to hear you feel smarter reading this. I sure do hope that you don’t feel pressure to “catch up” in any way, though!
Just 4 more months of baby baking!
I’ve been reading for about 1.5 years, but found you before that through NZ Muse and other bloggers who linked to you. I would like to see all of the same posts you’ve been doing, and maybe more photos :). I dropped my taxes in the mail yesterday! I am most looking forward to a healthy, prosperous year and working on investing in a new business and/or property (hopefully both).
Has it really been so long already? It seems like it was just yesterday! Here’s to a great 2015 and more!
Enjoyed Posts: Topics – Family and personal money.
More of: Honestly? Same same.
How long have I been reading? Ummm. 5 years? 6?
How did I find you? Errrr…. No idea. WAAAY too long ago. SaverSpender or Krystal probably?
Filed Taxes? This weekend! Mine and my parents!
Looking forward to: trip to Australia & NZ in July!
I’m looking forward to hearing all your good eats in Australia! I’ve heard many good things.