We caught up with the brilliant and insightful A Purple Life a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
A Purple, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
When I started my blog in 2015 I didn’t see a lot of black women writing in the financial independence space so I wanted to share my journey in case it helped someone else. Luckily since 2015 this space has become a lot more diverse.
However, I’ve continued to write about my experience after retiring at 30 in 2020 because I’ve heard from so many that it’s helped them in some way, especially how I publish specific numbers for every step of this journey.
I publish annual spending reports with every cent accounted for every December and I share my net worth monthly on Instagram and the blog to show the fluctuations of the market and my reactions to them. This is also why I’m anonymous online – so I can share all of this information while taking into account my own safety.
I’ve found this project deeply meaningful and it has enriched my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined. In addition to hearing from others that I have helped or inspired them, I also have loved having a catalog of my steps, thoughts and feelings as I worked towards financial independence and now during my early retirement. This blog is a capsule of my life and sharing it has allowed me to meet so many wonderful people all over the world and feel like a part of a thriving community.
A Purple, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m “Purple” and I’ve written at APurpleLife.com for almost a decade about my journey to and now through early retirement. I’m a black woman who worked in marketing and retired at 30 in October 2020. I did that by job hopping to triple my salary in 9 years and using domestic geo-arbitrage to decrease my spending while increasing my standard of living. I’m currently in my third year of traveling the world while living a nomadic life and enjoying hobbies such as birdwatching, stargazing and writing.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Building my social media has actually never been a goal of mine. However, I think that lack of goal is actually one of the reasons I have a following of 10K on Instagram and almost 12K on Twitter.
I don’t have a strategy and only post about things that I’m genuinely interested in and I think that shows through in my posts. I don’t follow trends or try to tailor my social media to what’s hot right now. I just post things that I find interesting and I think can help others, such as travel tips, restaurant reviews and hidden gems I find during my nomad life.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn that our only value as humans is what we can produce that makes money. I learned that through introspection and a lot of reading. Some of my favorite books on the subject are Laziness Doesn’t Exist by Dr. Devon Price, Work Won’t Love You Back by Sarah Jaffe and Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://apurplelife.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/apurplelife
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/APurpleLifeBlog
Image Credits
A Purple Life