The 2018 Golden Nameplate Awards (Cubert’s Top FIRE Blogs)

It’s almost time to wrap-up another fun-filled year in this little corner of Blogtopia. There were plenty of New Year’s resolutions not kept, but I managed to find other challenges (aka “experiments”) to keep me, um, challenged. But let’s not dwell on that stuff. Today it’s time to celebrate some excellent writing and blog skills. With that, we usher in the 2018 Golden Nameplate Awards!

Last year’s inaugural crew turned out to be flat-out stellar. I even had a chance to meet two of my winners in person, months after the awards were given out. I’d like to think the Nameplate gave each winner a boost of sorts (10 views, maybe 20??). But even if it didn’t, at least they know how much their work is appreciated.

Done by Forty and Miss Mazuma — Nice to meet you! And the rest of the 2017 winners, I hope to meet you soon as well for my free hug. FinCon 2028??

In Review: The Winners of Last Year’s, 2017 Golden Nameplate:

(Click the plate to visit each winner’s site.)

All of these blogs went on to produce some excellent content in 2018. Some of them even won other, dare I say more respected awards. A few got featured in big-time national outlets. One went on to write a book (spurred by a Golden Nameplate award, obviously!) And one even got to split an amaze-balls Pizza Luce pie with yours truly, during a business trip to MPLS. Gravitas!

Here’s the fun part: Starting with this year’s awards, and going forward, the winners from the previous year get to nominate winners for the current year. That means no one can blame ME for picking favorites. Har!

No need to worry about that notion though. This “pay it forward” plan worked out amazingly well here in 2018. Granted, I had to HOUND a few of last year’s winners to get their picks in on time. (Celebrity bloggers really should consider finding talent agents…)

First-year nameplate winners did an outstanding job of picking some wonderful nominees for me to peruse and pick from. I hope you’re just as excited as I am because the quality of work here is top-notch!

Without further content-fattening adieu, announcing the winners of the 2018 Golden Nameplate Award (TM)! Drum roll, please???

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Okay okay… Enough! The winners are (in no particular order):

Crispy Doc

What’s not to love about a site that combines the crinkly, crumply, Kentucky Fried Chicken sound of fresh dollar bills, with MEDICINE?!? Sort of hits the mark there, in a social commentary sense..? Crispy admits that his blog is a “midlife crisis blog.” Oh, how I can personally relate to THAT. My man is living large-ish in Coastal California and that makes my cold Minnesota backside kinda jealous right there.

Crispy (err, Doctor Crispy… Doc?) has his stuff TOGETHER. Just read one of his more recent posts, and you’ll quickly see that his priorities are family-centric / people-centric. That, plus living in Coastal California is truthfully (I believe) the key to utter happiness.

Crispy got his start in September 2016, the same month and year I fired up Abandoned Cubicle. And that makes us brothers, and could even get me on his will. We’ll see. Regardless, I’m excited to dig deeper into his archives. There’s a LOT of healthy wisdom and quality writing there. Way to go, Crispy!!!

Frugasaurus

Introducing, Team Frugasaurus! I love this name because our kids are really into dinosaurs these days. And now they can learn about dinosaurs who watch their budgets like hawks (or pterodactyls…?) Kristine has created a blog “…about their journey to a more frugal, financially independent and environmentally friendly lifestyle.” I can dig that.

And the cool part? This duo is from Norway! Having traversed “Norge” from bottom-to-top several years ago, I can attest to what a beautiful country Kristine hails from.

Her and her husband’s goals are ambitious. They aspire to “…be our boss and retreat to our dream home of a sustainable cabin in the woods, with a large forest garden where we can grow a large proportion of our food and ideally be off-grid.” Wow. But I can tell you that in Norway, this is entirely achievable and much more the norm than here in the states.

Congrats to Kristine! Here’s your Golden Nameplate Award. Don’t worry, it’s recyclable! 😉

DiverseFI

What’s that? Another physician?? Damn. You’d think the medical field was nothing but hard work with bad bosses and mountains of debt or something. All these docs looking to hang up their rusty scalpels and bent needles…

Doc G at DiverseFI is another absolute gem blogger in an ever-growing community of medically-minded financial independence and early retirement seekers. This blog is special. Doc G writes about deep topics stemming from personal experience; in what has to be an enormously challenging and rewarding field of nursing home care.

I selfishly hope that with this award, Doc G will give me another chance to do a podcast panel. You need to check out what he and Paul Thompson are cooking up at What’s Up Next. If I sneak onto one of these shows, without my boss crashing my calendar, I know I will have made it big!

Four Pillar Freedom

Zach is cooking with gas. Heck, he’s cooking with rocket fuel over at Four Pillar Freedom. You get a new post at least six times a week! I have a hard enough time ginning up one worthy nugget per week. Yeesh.

Zach is a wonderful writer and curator of his blog. I love how he probes into the bigger questions and themes of FIRE. For the uninitiated, the name “Four Pillar Freedom” comes from the following, which can be used as a framework to help you live a rich, meaningful life:

Pillar 1: Philosophy – Identify your “why”
Pillar 2: Psychology – Reduce spending
Pillar 3: Work Ethic – Increase income
Pillar 4: Finance – Grow wealth

Notice how you don’t arrive at “Finance” until you get to Pillar 4? That’s because these mighty pillars are in sequential order, yo. Gotta crawl before you walk. Check out Zach’s latest project, “Collecting Wisdom“. It’s a wonderful spot to share the wealth of great ideas and thoughtful writing in the FIRE community.

Optimize Your Life

I’m just getting to know about Matt Lane and his writing. What I’ve seen so far, I dig! Matt’s blog, Optimize Your Life is “…based around the idea that with a little bit of research and a little bit of effort we can live a richer, more productive, and happier life.” I can get behind that idea, 100%.

Notice a theme here? Each of our nameplate winners has a philosophical twist on finances and lifestyle economics. I suppose that makes for inspiring and entertaining reading, but I think it speaks to the bigger point that our society is far, like light-years-far, from having reconciled its relationship with money.

One of Matt’s posts that hit home was published the same month Abandoned Cubicle was launched: How Much Does Happiness Cost? In the post, Matt nails it with the line, “…you should never forget that voluntary minimalism is a privilege.” Bravo, good sir!

CONGRATULATIONS, CLASS of 2018! Adorn your sites with these golden badges of honor and only good things will happen. 🙂

Keep up the phenomenal writing, and remember you have a new responsibility: I’ll be harping on each of you in late 2019 for nominees next year.