Comments on: The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Freedom Edition

By: Evita

Evita — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:57:24 +0000

Justin: Trent wanted to concentrate on writing, not manage a website or manage an employee. I say good for him! (and hope for better writing now that he has less distractions)

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:49:18 +0000

Although, now that I think about it, the “opportunity cost” sentence makes more sense with your interpretation than with mine, so you’re probably right. Which is not surprising, because it’s been a long day.

By: Kai

Kai — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:41:32 +0000

Oh, the other way. I read it as Michael suggesting that being required to write articles for three whole years after selling the website was a bad deal, whereas usually the seller isn’t required to be involved for very long – 3 months at the worst he’s seen. Hence, the opportunity cost of being forced to stay with the sold site.
Interesting.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:07:18 +0000

@Kai: I thought that what Michael was talking about was the possibility that Cut Media could fire Trent and employ somebody else as a writer instead – in which case, what Trent wants wouldn’t matter. But maybe his contract with them specifies that they can’t do that.

By: Kai

Kai — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:03:34 +0000

@ Michael (#10).
The difference is that Trent wasn’t selling it to get rid of it. He wanted to stay on as the writer, and just have them do the rest of the stuff. If he had desired to just be rid of it, he might have been able to score a better deal, but for him, this one worked.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:42:40 +0000

#10 Michael. Trent is happy with the deal. And I’m sure he considered a lot of factors before agreeing to the arrangement.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:02:20 +0000

I’m a little worried that Cut Media did not give Trent a very good deal. I know I would be disappointed if I couldn’t work out a better deal than having to be a contract writer for three years after the sale. In opportunity cost that’s quite a lot. The worst I’ve seen from my friends who sell content sites is three months to transition in the new writers.

By: Kevin @ Thousandaire.com

Kevin @ Thousandaire.com — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:39:56 +0000

Thanks for featuring my post here Trent, and Congratulations on getting your site working again. I can relate to being really bad at fixing technical issues, so it’s nice that you can have them fixed immediately now by people who know what they are doing!

By: Ruby Leigh

Ruby Leigh — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:28:57 +0000

Reading through the comments again – and realizing the same thing I always do which is that comment-ers on the “The Simple Dollar” are notably jerky.

Anyway, my initial question was what do you mean by “limited” financial options, but I’m guessing that it is because Cut Media is taking some of the advertising profits. However, if you consider that you now have more free time to pursue other potentially profitable interests then perhaps the burden is being lessened.

Also, to #5 John, I think this idea that redefining priorities and choosing best options being thought of as lazy is misguided. Working ourselves into absolute burnout is not hard-working in fact it lacks prudence and doesn’t mesh with our other priorities. I personally work in a capacity that takes up less than 40 hours per week, I can live comfortably on the income I obtain, but it isn’t plush. Meanwhile I have a degree that could afford me much more income wise, but wouldn’t be the life I want. Does that make me lazy ? – I don’t think so.

By: Paula @ Afford Anything

Paula @ Afford Anything — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:26:56 +0000

Thank you so much for recommending my post about investing 100 percent of my 2012 income. I’m honored!

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:11:20 +0000

Eh, I’m with Trent – there’s no shame in setting up your life so you can do the parts of your job you like and not the other ones. And having employees comes with a whole other set of administrative hassles. There are plenty of valid paths in the world that don’t involve owning your own business.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:10:31 +0000

If Cut Media is handling the tech issues now, seems like there’d be info giving a way to directly contact them from the website to report the issue, so readers don’t have to notify Trent by email, twitter or facebook to get a response.

By: Kai

Kai — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:05:22 +0000

^Or just beyond your interest in spending the time to do, when you have the money available to pay someone else.

By: lurker carl

lurker carl — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:03:17 +0000

“They’re good at handling the things that I’m bad at and don’t enjoy. I might not have the financial options I had before, but I have a lot more freedom and a lot less stress.”

This is the same reasoning for hiring a mechanic to repair your car or anything else in your life that is beyond your ability to rectify alone.

By: josh

josh — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:53:32 +0000

It took 5 days for me to finally see an update to the front page. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again.

By: justin

justin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:28:06 +0000

you could have just hired an employee instead of selling the website.