“Have you quit the day job yet?” everyone wants to know. “Are you blogging full-time?”

Not yet.

In fact, right now I have less time to write for Get Rich Slowly than at any point since I started the site nearly two years ago. Fortunately, this is a temporary situation.

We’ve hired my replacement at the box factory, our family business. David is a smart, capable young man, and a friend of the family. (Our fathers went to school together — his brother has submitted a guest post for publication here.) I’m confident that he’ll fill my shoes ably. In fact, he’ll probably do a better job.

For the past two weeks, my days have been spent training him, introducing him to the world of sales (or “customer relations”, as I like to think of it) and the world of boxes. There’s no down time. I’m not able to squeeze blog chores into the cracks of my work day because now there are no cracks. That means I have to do blog chores when I get home, which leaves little time for writing.

I’m currently taking every Friday afternoon and every Tuesday (all day) off from the box factory. I spend this time madly scrambling to write ahead. However, entries don’t come easily — especially those of quality. I like to write, but producing an entire article often takes several hours. (It can take eight hours or more if it’s a major piece.) I do what I can in the time available, but my writing suffers when I’m rushed. But, as I said, this is temporary.

Meanwhile, financial preparations are going well. I’ve cut spending sharply and am building my emergency fund. I’ll know more about my situation once I get our tax bill. I made quarterly estimated payments on my taxes in 2007, but in January I had no idea that the blog would be able to support me by the end of the year. I underpaid. I’m still not certain what our tax liability is going to be. (And the fact that some tax documents may have been stolen in the mail could delay things further.) Maybe I have more money than I think I do — maybe I have less. In any case, I’m creating a financial infrastructure that will support me when I no longer have a traditional job.

Currently my plan is to drop Mondays at the box factory starting in April. If things go well with the transition, I may actually make this change in March. I’ll continue to phase out of the business slowly over the next few months. Right now, I think that I can be officially a full-time blogger as of July 1st. As I gain more time to write from home, I’ll be able to tackle some goals for this site. (Like building an “emergency fund” of great articles.)

As always, I appreciate your feedback. I’m glad to hear which topics and articles you like best. But I’m also pleased to receive constructive negative feedback, too. My goal is to make Get Rich Slowly the best personal finance blog on the web. With your help, I aim to do that.

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This article is about Administration, Entrepreneurship