Sitting on my desk as I write this is an application I should have filled out months ago. Twenty-two months ago, to be exact.

It was then that I left my 40-hour-a-week office job, which included a convenient 401(k), dependable health care plan and, most refreshingly, a kind and understanding boss. It was tough to leave that job, but I wanted to pursue a career in freelance writing.

The entire experience was overwhelming. Details of that are for another post, perhaps, but the point is: what I found most overwhelming was dealing with my own finances. Administratively speaking, my employer had taken care of my retirement plan, taxes and health insurance. It was great.

There are those who believe that money writers lead perfect financial lives. Ha! Would that it were so. When we get together, we often share stories about the dumb things we’ve done. Today, my friends, I want to tell you about an instance in which I failed to follow my own advice, an example of how not to get rich slowly.

For several years now, one of my indulgences has been season tickets to the Portland Timbers, my home-town’s professional soccer team. I’ve been a Timbers fan since I was six years old. I used to listen to their exploits on the radio during the 1970s. I can still sing "Green is the Color" from memory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0WP05R1li0

It's the most wonderful time of the year -- no, not the holidays -- performance-review season at work! Now is when many employers evaluate their employees' contributions to the organization's mission and bottom line, and then make decisions about raises, bonuses, and promotions accordingly. So it's a great time to ask for a raise.

But if you aren't able to make a good case for yourself, then you might find that not only is your career becoming stagnant but also that you could be first on the chopping block in the event of corporate (or wider) economic misfortune. Assuming you don't want to be considered disposable in the eyes of your employer, here are some tactics and strategies to implement before you ask for a raise. They might just help increase your chances of success.

1. Use your initial job interview to set the stage.

Remember how nobody cares about your money more than you do? Well, nobody cares about your career more than you do, either. In fact, in many ways your career and your money are arguably the same thing.

Over the last few months, I've spent countless hours researching the process of selling items online for a large project I've been compiling. It's taught me that as much as I thought I knew about selling online, there's so much more that I have no clue about!

For example, a family member recently asked for my help selling an unneeded car on the internet. "Sure!" was my first thought. "Heck, maybe I'll even use this as a case study!" However, there's one major problem with this situation: I'm completely ignorant when it comes to cars.

Actually, I shouldn't say completely ignorant. That's not correct. I'm inexcusably ignorant when it comes to cars.

"My family's coming over for Thanksgiving," I told Kim last week. "Really?" she said. "Where are they going to sit?" Good point.

When I moved in, my condo was sparsely furnished. In the divorce, I took a handful of items that were clearly mine -- a couch, a chair, a liquor cabinet -- and let Kris keep the rest. During the year I lived alone in an apartment, I filled the gaps with inexpensive stuff. Now, in a larger home, there was lots of empty space. The dining room, for instance, was a sea of of emptiness because my IKEA table was acting as a desk in the spare bedroom. Part of this was by design. I hoped that Kim would agree to merge households, so I intentionally left parts of the canvas blank.

Sure enough: In July, she moved in, bringing her own hodgepodge collection of furniture. This meant we could use the IKEA table for its intended purpose...but we never did. After being moved to the dining room, it sat there alone and unloved. It was too small to meet our needs. We both wanted to replace it with something that allowed us to host friends for dinner parties, but it hadn't been a priority -- until I volunteered to host Thanksgiving.

My recent series of interviews with author Tim Ferriss has given me the travel bug. I find myself plotting grand vacations (or mini-retirements). But I don't have the money to spend on a trip to London or a cruise to Alaska. My sights are set a little lower.

Fortunately, several recent articles have addressed this subject. On Sunday, The New York Times published a list of 31 places to go this summer.

"The summer of 2008 is starting out like a cruel joke, with air travel increasingly a nightmare and with wildly escalating gas prices threatening to make the road trip all but obsolete," the authors write. "The summer vacation is still an inalienable right, however. And there is no reason to forgo it this year. It will just take a bit of creativity — and perhaps the willingness to stay a little closer to home this time around — to pull it off in 2008."

Whether through recent news articles or over the water cooler, you've probably heard something about reverse mortgages. But if you (or a loved one) is considering this type of loan, don't base your opinion on hearsay. For such a major financial decision, it's worth getting the facts about reverse mortgages. This type of mortgage can actually be a valuable option for people in the right circumstances and who understand the terms of the deal.

Reverse mortgages convert home-equity into cash
What is a reverse mortgage? If you own a home and are 62 or older, a reverse mortgage is a way to convert some of your home equity into cash. Rather than make monthly payments to your lender, your lender is making payments to you. The money you borrow through a reverse mortgage is paid back, with interest, when you move out of your home, sell your home, or die.

The older you are and the more valuable your home, the lower the interest rate you can get in a reverse mortgage — meaning you can borrow more money. Continue reading...

Something amazing has happened in the past eighteen months. While I've been learning about personal finance — and sharing my knowledge with you — Get Rich Slowly has grown from a small site with a couple hundred readers into a real-life business. GRS currently has 35,000 subscribers and generates $5,000 in monthly revenue. It also takes most of my time. This is a blessing and a curse.

The Blessing

As my income from this site has grown, I've been able to achieve my financial goals more quickly. In two weeks, I'll be debt-free except for the mortgage. I have an emergency fund. I'm maxing out my Roth IRA every year. Get Rich Slowly has also put me in touch with a lot of great people: readers, colleagues, and media contacts. Most of all, I've learned tons about personal finance. I'm still a novice when it comes to investing and retirement planning, but I'm a novice who knows how to find the information he needs, and who is willing to share it with others.

The Curse

As wonderful as this site has been to me, it's not without its drawbacks. Chief among these is that it takes time. Kris and I used to do more things together. I used to have spare time to read books and to play games and to hang out with my friends. Though I still do these things whenever possible, more of my time is devoted to providing quality content. Writing Get Rich Slowly is literally like having a second full-time job.

I believe that each of us possesses a money blueprint, a mental map that defines our behaviors and attitudes toward money. Our basic blueprints come from our parents. They're altered through our interactions with friends and co-workers. And, of course, our own experiences lead us to modify and add to our money blueprints.

A couple of months ago, I had lunch with my friend Michael. We talked a bit about my money blueprint, then we talked a bit about his. Because our backgrounds are similar, our money blueprints are similar.

"You know what would be interesting," Michael suggested. "You should write your financial autobiography."

A GRS reader dropped a line last weekend. "I want to invite you to the Diehard Organizational Meeting on Wednesday," he said. "I'm new to the group but obviously we're all believers of value of index funds and John Bogle's investment philosophy."

"Hope to see you there," I replied.

I'm still new to investing, but my reading continues to point in the direction of index funds. (An index fund is a mutual fund designed to track a particular stock market index. FSMKX, for example, attempts to mimic the performance of the S&P 500 index.) Index funds were popularized by John Bogle, the founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group. Followers of Bogle's investment philosophy call themselves Bogleheads or Diehards.