Looking Back and Moving Forward

The blog has officially reached its one year mark. One year ago this blog didn't even exist. My dreams of what the portfolio could become were small and unrealized. I can't put into words how proud I am to have kept it running this long. 

I won't say that it was without trying moments though. At least once per month while following other bloggers I would read about the doomsayers who sold out their entire portfolios expecting huge drops. It's really nerve wracking to constantly read about those who go through with it and sell it all with the expectation that they are taking the right move and selling at the highest. It makes you wonder about your own portfolio. Do you sell out with them? I wasn't seeing any signs of the doom that they saw coming. Yet I was a young investor with a limited knowledge base to pull from. It makes you wonder if they see something you don't. 

Obviously, as you can tell, I didn't break under the pressure. I held strong and continued to hold all that I had previously thought to be worthy of adding to the Dividend Scythe portfolio and I'm glad that I did. The portfolio has more value now than it ever has. If I would have sold out, lord knows where it would be today with how the market has responded. 

At the same time, I think about the other young investors out there that may have read the same posts and actually gone through with it themselves. This is why I try to hold a higher standard to the posts that I make when I purchase or evaluate potentials. Even though I myself try not to tell others what to buy as I don't want to freely give investment advice, there are tons of other blogs out there that are very vocal about what to buy and what to sell. It's just crazy to see how others can be influenced by what others say, regardless of their understanding of that individual's actual intelligence of the future. After all, none of us can say exactly what is going to happen in the market tomorrow. No one to my knowledge has that ability. 

I bring this all up because I think we as bloggers have a larger purpose. We can influence others in ways that we don't initially see. That being said, I think that I really want to expand the blog beyond just investing. I want to start doing more with it. I'm not exactly sure where I want to go with this blog beyond following my portfolio but I want there to be a larger purpose. At this point I'm thinking that I may expand it by adding videos or other blog posts that are outside the financial realm. I just think it would be cool to make something more than just a simple recap of what's going on in the Dividend Scythe. We will see where this ultimately goes next.