I think the best thing to do is not to take it so seriously. The name doesn't make or break you. Look at the names mentioned in the thread and realize how stupid and idiotic they really are. ...
This thread was one of my favorites:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/what's-in-a-name-username-meaning-discussion-thread/
@BlueHouse Your name makes me think of Bear in the Big Blue House! Agreed, plus taking it too seriously removes the fun which would make the endeavor short lived. Haha that thread... thanks for sharing!
I haven't been.able to see the Ops first video yet (stupid phone and since I'm pretty deaf I can only do closed captioning) but looking forward to it.
@spartana Hang tight! I'm going to add the CC in the next couple of days. I shamefully knew little about how it worked and now I feel like a real jerk. I'll let you know as soon as it's ready.
Few more things I thought of.
One, do not overload information in one video. I know this was your first one, so you were putting out an overview, but from the next time, just one topic per video, please.
Second, do not make the videos overly long. My limit for a youtube video is 15 minutes. I know there is a financial incentive to have a longer video but ignore those incentives and create videos that your target would want to watch. I've seen so many YouTubers put the ad-revenue cart before the content horse.
Third, try and put in examples for your content. Personal real-world examples are better, but that means you have to expose some of your personal life.
Hope these help.
@CowboyAndIndian They do help, thank you.
Being a fan of simplicity I like that approach as well. Better to make 4 specific short 5 minutes videos than 1 long 20 minute video.
I don't care about financial incentives... Good point on the personal examples, the analytics showed that people hung around during the part where I talking about how I saved money. It surprised me because I've always believed people don't give a crap about the teacher, it's about what the teacher has to offer them.
You may want to change your signature under your profile to show the new youtube name.
PS: Tried out the link and it does go to your youtube account.
Yeah it's frustrating, I've tried to change it and Youtube gives me an error. I've read that you have to have at least 1000 subscribers before their customer service will help. :(
Really not a bad video
I agree with others that it's a lot of ground covered for one video, but I think if you go back and do individual videos covering each of the highlighted points you covered in detail, then it will work as an "intro set". I also agree with others to keep the content personal, and largely about your story. You don't really want to position yourself as a subject matter expert, because then you set yourself up to be picked apart. I mean, the internet will still pick apart a personal story, but you're not putting yourself in as much of a position to defend the content of what you are saying. Plus it's just more interesting.
Question though: is your 20K budget a household budget or is that your half of your budget? There's a huge difference between a couple living on 20K vs 40K. Also, is your spouse still working, or do they have their own 'stache? Again, there's a difference between a couple retiring on 500K vs half of a couple retiring on 500K.
If your spouse is still working, expect the Internet Retirement Police to come after you, which is fine, they come for almost all of the bloggers, but you need to be prepared either way with a legitimate response.
If your household budget is really only 20K, and you've retired as a couple on 500K, then you should very much play up how you've done that while still enjoying your life. You will mostly get blow back as to how living on so little is unrealistic or would be miserable. Also you didn't mention kids, so if you don't have them, be prepared for the "that's just impossible with kids", which is a response I frequently have to parry in my financial discussions because I don't have kids.
Overall, good use of your teaching skills, but my advice is to not get sucked into your reflex to try and teach people. Focus as much as you can on sharing with people, not lecturing them, and I think you will get more traction. Make your story the product, not the financial content, because that's really the thing of value that you have to offer.
@Malcat Good point, I could definitely do a deep dive on each of the 4 points. Also great advice on not trying to play up that I'm an expert because I'm not, just someone who stumbled upon a great way to live and embraced it!
The $20k budget is just my half, so I guess not nearly as impressive. My SO and I keep our finances separate. She also teaches full time and is working toward FIRE as well but probably wont get there until she's 40 (8 years from now). She says she doesn't mind it though because she'd teach anyway, I told her she may not feel that way forever.
Also no kids! But I've researched that they cost around 6k per year and my wife and I could split that. Also housing is supposedly the biggest expense however with one of our bedrooms being empty in our 2 bedroom home we wouldn't need to upgrade. Regardless I wouldn't dare try to win an argument with someone who actually has kids... that's not winnable.
It's okay if the internet wants to beat me up, I'm just trying to help where I can, I've got nothing to lose because it can't hurt my ego that much when people who don't actually know me are slamming me and I'm self-aware enough already to know I'm not perfect and am quite okay with that. Also I believe in Theodore Roosevelt's Man in the Arena concept.
Thank you for the compliments, it goes against my grain not to play the teacher role but I'll work on it.
"Make your story the product, not the financial content" - There's a lot of value in that statement.
Make sense?
Doing proper captioning before publishing will not only make you look more polished, but also help the content potentially reach more people. Given the fact that I suspect you've at least roughly scripted what you've said, it probably shouldn't be very difficult or time consuming to do. Have a useful Tom Scott video on the topic.
@Daley Absolutely I'll add it to this one and each in the future. Thanks for that link, Britain is on to something.
Also I've filmed the next video, it's about how to save money on internet. We live in a part of the world where Spectrum has a monopoly and my bill is $45 dollars lower a month for the same service as my friends. I think it could be useful. I'll let ya'll know when I finish editing. While I got the volume right this time, I screwed up and over exposed the video.
*facepalm*