Finances & Money

The Original Clever Dude is Back!

It’s been nearly 17 years since I wrote the first article here at CleverDude.com, and over 7 years since I last contributed (an automotive review).

In true fashion, this site has been about everything including Finances, Family, Marriage, and Life!

I started Clever Dude out of boredom and needed a hobby, and within 7 months I had hit it big with a feature about insulating your crawlspace, and then an article by none other than my wife, the Clever Dudette as I dubbed her, about saving money with frugal lunch options, breaking my site and teaching me about copyright infringement! Thankfully that was a free lesson as the artist community was forgiving of the naive new blogger.

I started earning a few dollars around that point from advertisers, and in retrospect, I guess I was an early influencer. I decided I would speak from my heart, keep some sort of anonymity, and try to teach others from my own mistakes.

But in 2010, when my work and life were really picking up, and especially as running the site was feeling more like a business than a fun hobby, I accepted an offer to sell the assets to a fellow blogger who was going full-time. I stayed on as a guest contributor through 2015, but then a job change (to where I am still today) took over all of my free time and that started the long hiatus.

The current site owner, another fellow blogger from the early days, reached out to me recently to see if I’d like to return. I think 7 years has provided enough new, fresh content in our lives, and enough time to provide a retrospective to the prior 17. I’m still no less busy with work and travel, so I’ll be posting weekly to bi-weekly as time allows.

What has changed for me since we last spoke? Well, we’ve paid off our house, purchased an RV, traveled more of the world, gotten new jobs and promotions, never had kids, lost a number of very close family and friends, and learned the importance of estate planning because of that. I started this site in my late-20s and now I’m approaching my mid-40s.

Thankfully this blog has a range of writers with diverse backgrounds to provide you all a little bit of what you crave, and with enough perspectives to maybe get you thinking differently.

So thank you James and the Clever Dude family for inviting and welcoming me back!