How We Tripled Our Blog Traffic in 3 Months

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Yes, I know, this is a bit of a clickbaity title, but it’s true. We did triple our blog traffic in 3 months, and while there was a lot of work and different things that went into tripling our traffic, there is one common thread. The Money Mix Insiders blogging group. We joined the Insiders blogging group after being offered a 3-month free trial, and we saw so much progress that we had to join once our trial period was up. In fact, we saw more progress in 3 months of working with the group than we had over the previous 2 years. And this progress was despite hours of self-education on blogging and building a blog. The thing is, it takes much more than excellent and consistent writing to be successful with a blog. There are a lot of tricks and techniques that most bloggers won’t share that are […]

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Here’s What to Do After you Crush it and Retire Early

Way to go!! You buckled down and are able to retire early! Now what? Here - we paint 2 great pictures of the best possible outcomes - then leave it to you! #retireearly #finance #travel #homestead #snarky

Well, congratulations… You did it! You called on all the great frugal tips, created the perfect family budget, and took advantage of all the best tax credits. And because of all your hard work, you achieved the dream – you earned the right to retire early! Congrats!! …But now what? If you’re one of the prominent FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) bloggers/proponents, you’ll then go on to travel the world, live in either a sailboat or an RV, and blog about all the highs and lows of “living the dream!” Or maybe you won’t… You could go the other route of being “debt free including the mortgage”, plant some routes, and set up a co-op workspace for all the local entrepreneurs in your activity-rich town of choice. But – you’ve worked so hard to reach FIRE and now have to completely evaluate all the pros and cons of life on […]

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6 Tips to Taking Care of Your Family

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Ensuring that our family is taken care of is arguably our most important job in life. We tend to worry about everything from the quality of the roof over their heads to what and when they eat to the school they attend and the very clothes on their backs. Not to mention, the trepidation we can feel when considering the obstacles they’ll encounter throughout their daily lives. However, with a little bit of planning, you can implement any or all of these 6 following tips and reduce your stress levels when it comes to taking care of your family. 1 – 3: Affordable MUST Haves When it comes to protecting your family as much as possible, there are three things that a lot of people tend to forget. First, with a fireproof safe, your important documents are located in a central, secure location that will ensure easy access to those […]

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Winter Is Coming and So Is Christmas

As the seasons begin to change, this brings along with it one of the most special days of the year. A day to be merry, celebrate, show love to those you care about, be charitable, have fun, and create memories along the way. With its festive nature, the Christmas season provides the perfect backdrop for you to go all out with your decorations and bring a little Christmas cheer into your life. Go Shopping The best part about Christmas is that there are a lot of things you can do at little to no cost. There will be hundreds of discount sales going on if you didn’t take advantage of the Black Friday sales already. However, if you already have some decorations that are good-to-go, you can easily reuse them and keep some money in your pocket. You can add a few new items though, to change up the look. […]

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How to Be a Great Party Host: Tips, Tricks, and More

How to Be a Great Party Host: Tips, Tricks, and More

  Achieving pro party host status isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes years of trial and error in the form of burnt casseroles, bad playlists, and running out of booze before you can consider yourself an old salt in the entertaining department. But even though most people aren’t born a natural Martha (Stewart, that is), it doesn’t mean everyone can’t become one.   Here are some of our best tips and tricks for advancing your status from amateur to pro the next time you host       Never Make Your Guests Ask for Anything One basic philosophy to adopt as the host or hostess of any event is this: Never make your guests ask for anything. Consider yourself the giver of all things for the four or five hours your home is transformed into party headquarters, and try to anticipate a party-goer’s every need before they even have […]

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“You’re Crazy to Have a Single Fund Portfolio…”

"You're Crazy to Have a Single Fund Portfolio..."

  I saw a headline during my morning blog reading the other day that jumped out to me as ‘crazy talk’. I guess as far as the blogger is concerned, the headline worked – it grabbed my attention. But once I gave up the sacred click and dove into his post, I started thinking to myself that a single fund portfolio is reckless, at best. And at worst – catastrophic.    “Investing in a single fund portfolio is just downright crazy,” was my stance    Then all I had to was find the information to back up my claim…    #ScienctificMethod   As I researched and contemplated over the course of a few days, my data backed up my hypothesis. Not diversifying is dangerous.     But on Research Day 3 – I noticed a scarlet letter forming on my chest   “H” is for “Hypocrite”, Mike.    Or   “F” […]

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“911 is on the Way, Placenta Ruptured, Don’t Know About Baby…”

“911 is on the Way, Placenta Ruptured, Don't Know About Baby..."

  “911 is on the way. It looks like her placenta ruptured and I don’t know if the baby’s going to be OK…”   It took a full moment for the gravity of those statements to sink in. I was just coming back from lunch and aside from the phone in my wife’s hand and the look on her face, all seemed business as usual. We had patients in chairs, staff working their usual jobs, and folks in the lobby all presently uninformed to the fact that 2 lives were in danger.    ‘Grave danger?’    ‘Is there any other kind?’     But in just a few moments, that scene would change…   “Got it. What can I do?”   And as I waited for my wife’s response, I looked over her shoulder and saw a friend, colleague, one of our original 2 employees, and most importantly a 35-week […]

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It’s a Summertime ‘Mike’ Drop – See you Soon!

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  Hey, Team!   I interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to say that MikedUp Blog is going to be out on sabbatical for the remainder of the summer   After writing, publishing, editing, and sharing 3 posts with you each week (at a minimum) for the past year, I’m taking some much-needed downtime to do a few things… Spending time with my girls and family Beach volleyball Work on our business Vacation And actually spend what seem like the first moments of true ‘downtime’ I’ve had in a few years   I’ll miss you guys for these few weeks, but if you’re still looking to connect – I’ll be checking the email regularly and yes… I’m back on Twitter.   I’m looking forward to spending some time learning and experiencing so that I can come back recharged and ready to write articles that engage you, make you think, and hopefully […]

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My Best job; My Worst Job – and What I Learned From Each

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…Server, landscaper, men’s fragrance salesman, dock worker, restaurant expediter, ballpark vendor, childhood entrepreneur, big kid (adult) entrepreneur, quality supervisor, grad student researcher (I know it’s not really a job but it was – at times – incredibly fun work), teaching assistant, forensic scientist, restaurant host, laboratory technician, auditing manager, telemarketer, training director, and now CEO. These are all positions I’ve held at one time, and if we’re playing former job BINGO, as a 32-year-old, I like my chances…   (Photo courtesy of MKulp Photography)   What’s more, reflecting back on all of these opportunities a couple of things come to mind first: I’m lucky to have had so many vast experiences across so many industries, and I really didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do with my life, did I?   The good news for me and the fam’ is that I have a pretty solid handle on […]

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Entrepreneurship Uncensored – The Good, Terrible, and… Bankruptcy?!?

Actually owning a business - The Good, Terrible, and... Bankruptcy???

  Two years ago we pulled the trigger on something crazy… Something that would change the course of our family’s financial future in a significant way – good or bad. My wife and I bought a dental practice on June 30, 2017, and in the time since that purchase we’ve learned, grown, sobbed, soared to new heights, and everything in between. Owning a business isn’t a walk in the park…   This is the story of that journey, probably in it’s best iteration – told nearly entirely through GIFs.    They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. Well, these GIFs are made up of a few pictures each, and there are about 30 of them so – I’ve got about 100,000 words down here. Enjoy the ride!   (Photo courtesy of Justin Montemarano)     Actually owning a business – The Good, Terrible, and… Bankruptcy???   My wife never […]

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