I’m back for good. And here is what I’ve been up to.

*Imagine me, thumping a “hot” microphone three times – thump, thump, thump.*

Is this thing even on after all these years……?

In full disclosure, I wrote this blog post back in May about a month after I officially purchased the site back from Soapbox, a division of The Motley Fool (you can read all about the acquisition, which happened in late 2019, here.) My intention was to post this article on the 10th anniversary of the day I started blogging (May 23rd, 2022 @ lbeeandthemoneytree.wordpress.com — WHO REMEMBERS?).

…. I thought maybe I'd get a cute balloon and post a picture on Instagram. But then I kept pushing it out because…well, a lot of life has been coming at me since we last spoke.

So, here we are…. post-Labor Day and I'm just now getting this article out. I still don't have answers to what my plans are for this site, but I didn't want too much time to go by without sticking my head in and saying hello. Because even though I don't have a ton of bandwidth right now, I do think I'm very close to having the appetite to start blogging again soon.

And BOY, do I have a lot to say.

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A brief back story

If you’re new to the site, welcome. I’m Lauren Bowling, the founder of Financial Best Life, known to friends and family as “LB” or “LBee” online. Formerly Lauren Seeger, now Bowling again, thanks to my recent divorce. (That’s an even longer story for a different day where copious amounts of wine should probably be involved.)

If you’re new to the site a lot has happened over the last ten years but the abridged version is as follows:

• I started this blog in 2012.
• Bought my first home in 2013. (which jump-started my passion for real estate)
• My blog took off and I was able to begin blogging full-time in 2014. 
• I went viral in 2015 for paying off $8,000 in debt in 90 days. 
• I re-branded from L Bee and the Money Tree into Financial Best Life in 2016. 
• Got married in 2018. 
• Sold my website in late 2019. 
• Had my first kid in 2020.
• Pandemic
• Pandemic
• Pandemic
• Filed for Divorce in 2021. 
• Still in a pandemic
• Bought my website back in 2022. 
• Finally no longer a Mrs. in August 2022

….And that’s it. I’m not sure what comes next. For this blog or for anything else…..but I didn’t want to miss my tenth blogging anniversary (which might as well be my 50th birthday in internet time) without saying something. Even though this post is muchly belated, I wanted to welcome all of you back…and maybe I wanted to welcome myself back, too.

All I can say is it’s been one hell of a decade.

Buying the website back was a bit of a lark….. 

I’d been writing blogs for FBL since I sold the site as part of my contract with Motley, but it wasn’t the same as blogging or being a blogger, per se. In 2019, I was glad for the ability to exit and I swore I was done with every little thing that comprised the business of blogging. Much of which everyday people know nothing about – the monetization, the writing for SEO, the soul-sucking sponsored posts, the changes in algorithms at the whim of big tech, the destabilization of the single-blogger system, etc. etc. etc.

But there were things I truly missed over these last three years that, frankly, I didn’t expect to: connecting with readers, The FinCon community and the friends I made there, meeting people out in the wild who read my stuff and told me it helped them in some way.

In the interest of transparency, I bought the website back because I’m now a divorced, financial head-of-household, and I realize more than ever the power of multiple side income streams. While a shadow of their former glory from a pageview/revenue perspective, the archives of this website still provide a modest amount of money each month. (Probably just enough to pay for Botox, but hey, I'll take it.)

But the biggest reason I bought this website back is that I couldn’t bear the thought of someone else controlling what does/doesn’t happen to my story. All the ins and outs of my money lessons and decisions from my 20s and early 30s still live here online. And in the last year or so, especially after filing for divorce, I've realized how vital it is that we begin claiming our stories.

It is imperative to own – and own fully – the parts of ourselves that light us up inside.

I’ll never think of selling the website in the first place as a mistake.

Even though this little corner of the internet will never quite be what it was, it is my piece of online real estate and I'm staying put. There’s still value in single-publisher stories, especially in money….when realistic narratives are fewer and further between. Even my own financial history is checkered with privilege, but that doesn't mean I don't have a story to tell. Or that where I'm at now in my money journey won't help another woman who finds herself in similar circumstances as I have these last twelve months.

When the time is right, I'll share those stories. TBD on when that is, but I'm targeting 2023 as the comeback for fresh weekly content here on the site. There will be some SEO stuff, and updates to the archives. But in an effort to connect more and write the type of content I want to produce, I'm going to start a weekly newsletter that will feature the more essay-style pieces around life and money you've come to love. (Examples here, here, and here.)

Guess what I'm calling it? L Bee and the Money Tree. Cuuuuuute, right? And you can sign up for L Bee and the Money Tree right here.

It wasn’t really the right “time” to buy a website

I was on the fence about it. But too much aligned for me to say no. It felt like destiny. And when destiny knocks, you answer the fucking door. 

I described it to a friend as similar to selling a house. But the buyers never moved furniture around or changed the paint. Essentially, they just kept the lights on. And that's what happened here. Essentially, I bought my old house back and got to walk right back in and it still felt like my house. And I can’t tell you what a wonderful, special thing it is to come home again and come back to the place that still looks and feels and smells like your house.

Anyway, that’s all I really have to say. I wanted to explain a bit why I’m back and say hello. Show my face and share my voice after all this time. Three years have felt like ten in many ways, but I know we’ve all been through so many issues and feelings inside of the pandemic. In the meantime, enjoy the legacy blog content and know that I’m only an email, contact form, or Instagram DM away. Thanks for following along.