I have been anonymously writing about personal finance since March of 2006. If you’re a frequent reader you know I include a lot of personal information in this blog. I talk about where I live, what I do in my spare time, and how I spend my money.
Because this blog includes so much personal information I have always imagined that someone at some time would discover my identity. Of course, I always figured it would be a family member or friend, but today my identity was discovered by a co-worker. As a side note, I find it interesting that I almost never mention work in this blog.
An anonymous co-worker emailed me at OFG this morning. In essence, the email said, I think you and I work for the same company and I think I’ve met you. I emailed back a couple of questions about the company, which the co-worker answered spot on.
Given that information, I decided for the first time to reveal my identity. For a long time no one other than my husband knew about this blog. I blog anonymously for two reasons.
First, safety. You never know what kind of crazy people are out there reading blogs, and you certainly never know what a crazy person would do once they know you have a lot of money. Second, I’m extremely modest about my financial success. I think my relationship with friends and family members would change if they knew my net worth.
So when this anonymous email arrived, why did I decide to reveal my identity? Well I figured if this person had gone to all the trouble to piece two and two together then I should at least let them know whether or not they were right. Also, in all due honesty I was tickled pink to know that someone read enough of my postings to figure out who I might work for and who I might be. Of course, they have promised not to reveal my identity to anyone else, and of course, I am hopeful that this will remain true.
Even more interestingly this person remains anonymous to me. I am hopeful that they will ultimately reveal their identity, but in the mean time I’ll certainly be looking over my shoulder every time I step onto the elevator.
As a follow up to this post…
The identity of my anonymous blogger was kindly revealed. It just goes to show the world can be small in a very good way.
So….how exactly does one set up an anonymous blog?
It’s pretty simple actually. When you set up a new domain there is usually an option to request domain privacy protection. This will keep your personal details out of the WhoIs search.
Simple! I thought you had to post through a VPN and a whole bunch of stuff I know nothing about. Thank you.