What took you so long to start your own blog? It’s a question I’ve often been asked.  As you can probably tell, I write for a lot of blogs, but it hasn’t always been that way.

Three years ago I got my first big writing break from a little blog called Million Dollar Journey. I was totally new to the blogosphere. Although I considered myself financially savvy, I didn’t have a clue when it came to blogging. Slowly, but surely I started to improve as a writer before I was hired as a financial journalist at RateSupermarket.ca. It’s been great working for such a well-known website – it’s helped me land other fantastic writing gigs, recently at the Housing Block and Retire Happy, winner of the Globe and Mail’s Best Canadian Personal Finance Blog.

So what was the “Aha!” moment that convinced me to start my own blog? My friend Kyle Prevost, published author and owner of Young and Thrifty, mentioned while he’s seen my writing everywhere from the Toronto Star to the Globe and Mail, the one thing he felt I was missing was my own blog. While I write for a lot of blogs, I don’t have my own blog – until now! On my own blog, I’ll provide my take on the world of personal finance. I’ve been told I have a unique story to tell, so I’ll give you a glimpse into my life and how I’ve been able to reach a net worth of over $500K by age 29.

While I have a lot of freelance writing work to keep me busy, I feel it’s worthwhile to create my own blog to tell my own story. I plan to blog twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursday. This blog will be about my journey towards achieving financial indepence or “Findepence,” a term coined by Jonathan Chevreau.

A recent survey from CIBC says the average homeowner expects to be mortgage-free by age 58. I’ve set the stretch goal of reaching mortgage freedom a lot sooner – at the age of only 31. Starting with a mortgage of $255,000 in August 2012, two years late my mortgage balance sits at only $96,000.

While a lot of people are perfectly content with carrying a mortgage for 25 year or longer, not me. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices to make it to where I am today. I was inspired by the host of HGTV’s Income Property, Scott McGillivray, to live in the basement and rent out the upstairs of my house. My recent article in the Financial Post nicely summarizes my personal story: How this man plans to be mortgage free by age 31.

I look forward to you joining me on my journey towards mortgage freedom and financial independence. Enjoy the blog!

Sean Cooper is the bestselling author of the book, Burn Your Mortgage: The Simple, Powerful Path to Financial Freedom for Canadians, available now on Amazon and at Chapters, Indigo and major bookstores, and as an Audiobook on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.