Hail to the Chief (Mom Officer)
Liz, who blogs at Chief Mom Officer, is an invisible friend I met through the world of blogging about financial independence.
She first came to my attention via the Rockstar Finance forum, which is a virtual clubhouse for bloggers who geek out over personal finance.
I like Liz because she is thoughtful and considerate in ways I hope to be but never quite live up to.
When EJ from Dads, Dollars and Debts lost his home in the Tubbs Fire, Liz organized an impromptu blogger rally to create a series of posts on disaster preparedness.
I imagine she's the person who brings home-made cookies to book club. I aspire to be that person. Instead I bring wine to book club, but it's a lazy shortcut and I know it.
I admire Liz because she is tough as nails.
When her husband's routine surgery turned into a nightmare experience with sepsis involving a prolonged ICU stay and a months-long recovery, she continued to balance an executive workload, parenting three young boys, and supporting his recovery.
I respect Liz because she stands up for her beliefs.
I married a brilliant feminist. I dig tough broads so much, in fact, that we are currently raising one.
Nothing pisses me off more than thinking my daughter might be shut out or made to feel inadequate by virtue of having being born with ovaries.
Liz is changing the world into one where opportunities will be completely open to my daughter and her cohort.
When Mr. Money Mustache was taking questions on the big stage at FinCon18, Liz posed a tough one about perpetuating stereotypes of financial independence as a luxury affordable only to white male engineers.
To his credit, MMM suggested that referring future media inquiries to bloggers who don't fit that profile would be one valid option.
This may or may not have influenced a post-FinCon Wall Street Journal article on FIRE opening with a female attorney of color pursuing FIRE (a bright moment in an otherwise disparaging article).
Liz is all about making financial independence the logical option for as many of us as possible.
Because it should be. And because, as she's demonstrated, odds are good you'll retire before you were planning to.
Finally, I appreciate Liz because she is a whip-smart MBA happy to share her expertise.
Liz and I finally met at FinCon18, and there was something immediately comforting about her candor and deep knowledge of the business world.
I attended her talk on the Digital MBA, and I learned a ton.
I found out how many different ways I need to reconfigure my writing to increase my audience.
I realized how poorly equipped I was to run my vanity project as a business.
But most frighteningly, I realized how my small-time blog was a big-time liability waiting to happen if I didn't immediately put certain safeguards in position.
Like FinCon in general, her talk was attended by numerous high-powered and talented attorneys and CPAs who saw my Bambi's-mom-is-caught-in-the-fire look of desperation.
They were only too happy to provide me their contact information and suggest ways I might protect my assets while continuing to blog.
I'm in the slow process of following up on those recommendations (where did I put that nice CPA's card?) and making my blog as bulletproof as it can be.
Time to patch up the exhaust vulnerability in my Crispy Death Star before some happy-go-lucky Jedi in an X-wing fighter drops a rocket up my asteroid.