Category Archives: Blogging

Not All Personal Financial Blogs Are A Good Fit For You

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The Good Personal Finance Advice

Before blogging I was an avid personal finance blog reader, with my favorite blog being a site called “Frugal Dad”.

Why did I gravitate to the site “Frugal Dad”?

Because it was a great site and described things that pertained to me.  When I started reading “Frugal Dad”, I was past the college phase, and I was debt free except for my house, but even then after a few years, I was mortgage free too (even before Frugal Dad was).  Frugal Dad talked about things that I was experiencing and I felt like he was more like someone journeying to the same location as I was.

But one critical thing was different with “Frugal Dad” than most other blog sites at the time…  And that difference was that he provided great financial advice advocating frugality even before it was fashionable or really even acceptable.  After getting hooked, I went into his archives and discovered that practically all of this writings about financial material more or less mirrored what I believed and practiced.  Jason (the frugal dad blogger) was a perfect financial kindred spirit to me.  The site was a perfect fit for me (too bad I was too shy at the time to comment on his articles).

The Bad Personal Finance Advice

Since the time when I started reading financial blogs the niche has become crowded with advice that isn’t what I consider good, or at least not a good fit for the majority of us.  While I realize that sometimes blog articles are written for shock value, to blatantly state incorrect or even nonsensical saddens me to a degree and I think such articles could damage the financial well-being of their readers.

Here are a few bad examples of the pf concepts that I believe aren’t really that great to follow, out in the personal finance blogosphere in the recent past.

  • Go into massive debt and buy real estate.  There is one blogger that advocated this approach, and while it did work for him at that time, such an approach is reckless and location dependent.  If I were to follow his advice, I would have lost a lot of money in the “Great Recession“.  So the concept is poor advice because it only is beneficial for a select few that have access to a great location and a lot of good luck to boot.
  • Default on your credit cards because that what the credit card companies really want to you do.  I think this statement was really a tongue in cheek sentence, but I’m still not sure to this day.  As a person that comes from a family background where owning businesses is common, the statement is incorrect.  Nobody like to lose money, that’s why rich people get upset sometimes about small money amounts such as $10.  This one still give me a good chuckle to this day.
  • Buy old and used because it’s the more financial savvy move.  To an extent this is true if the item is question is quality to begin with.  If not, it could be a money pit, and perhaps not even safe to use.  Why I don’t like buying brand new, I like to find the sweet spot for such purchases.  To me, I want to maximize the value to me, not buy the cheapest option.

Okay, I think you get my point.

While initially, I read a blogger that was in the same car as I was, I think it might have been wiser for me to read more of a site that would be the “next phase” for me in my personal finance journey.  After I outgrew the Frugal Dad blog, I went on to read the “Free Money Finance” blog.  This blogger at FMF was similar to me, but a few pages ahead of me in my personal finance journey, and a good target for me to shoot for with my personal finance goals.

So in conclusion, I’d recommend reading sites that provide a lot of value and that give great advice.  The FMF blogger seems to be successful in his real life, and blogs about his finances to share so others can follow such a path.  I have to admit, I don’t read that FMF as much either, but it’s still a great site with a lot of great advice.

Bests,

Don

All or Nothing Blogging

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I’ve been sick for quite a while, but I would like to share a small discovery that I’ve made about blogging.

Blogging is an “All or Nothing” activity for me! I find that keeping a consistent blogging schedule is harder now that I’m “supposedly” only blogging twice a week versus when I would blog each and every day. This is kind of surprising for me, as I thought I would instead create more creative articles to post on this site, but instead I’ve found that other things has taking my time up instead.

Mixed Emotions

Mixed Emotions

Such distractions include the following:

  • Spending more time with my kids!  Of all the options, this has been the most rewarding distraction.  I consider this to be the one distraction that I would stop blogging for permanently.
  • Stock Market theories and experimentation has also grown to take some more of my blogging time.  I feel like I’m going thru a learning phase and if I concentrate hard and long enough, that I can beat the averages by a wide margin.  While this hasn’t happened in my regular brokerage account, I’ve has some decent success in my Roth IRA account (see Roth IRA 50 % Return).  Of all the options, I’m finding I’m concentrating the most in the investments area.
  • Fighting Vertigo.  While I don’t get dizzy like I did this past summer, I still have some effects left over from when I had Vertigo.  Once such effect is a pounding headache when I try to think too long.

The above are the main activities that have replace my blogging time and has made it harder from me to accomplish my blogging goals.

I think once I defeat (or learn to deal with the Vertigo), I’ll obviously use all of that time to plow back into blogging and other online activities.

New Year And A New Direction Blogging?

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I’ve been thinking in ways that I’ve never thought before, life has changed for me and lately I’m in a constant state of flux.

Last year, I wanted to accomplish certain goals and change my lifestyle all around.  I was only partially successful!

I was successfully in accomplishing measurable goals like weight loss and financial goals.

I was unsuccessful in change my lifestyle in a meaningful, productive or challenging way.

I’ve discovered that when I establish a plan, historically something always blocks me in my progress.  This year I was full steam ahead and making great progress when BAM, I got vertigo like symptoms that I’m still fighting to a certain extent.  I’m bending around the health problem, but it’s still taking a toll on my plans!

Another way that I’ve changed is that I no longer see just one or two ways, but instead I see an issue from multiple directions and angles.  I believe I’ve always seen a few multiple viewpoints, but now I see even more and from different sociology-economical viewpoints.  I’m not sure if I like it, but I also have come to believe that no one answer is right, but also that there are solutions that are statistically prone to a higher probability of success.

On the investing plain, I’ve discovered that often times, I won’t be able to predict what is a hit or miss.  Take texting for example, when it first came out I thought that it didn’t make sense, but now I find myself even using the medium.  How that for a kick in the pants!

Another thing is Facebook.  While I understood the appeal, I thought some things were better left in the past, but to my surprise others don’t seem to think the same as I.  I do think that it’s funny that a lot of people get arrested because they post their pictures or videos of crimes they committed on their Facebook account.  While I have a personal account, I don’t use it much because I value my privacy.  It’s a choice, no right or wrong way about it.

While I like writing about financial tips and tricks I’ve discovered and about my journey to financial independence, lately I thoughts are all over the place and it’s making it hard for me to concentrate on the niche that I enjoy so much.  Hopefully in 2013, my mind will settle and my health will return!

If I remain healthy, I’m hope to be able to bring more value to online environment by creating useful online applications (we’ll see).

Congratulations everybody for surviving 12/21/2012, in some ways it was the end of the “old” world.  Here is to the new world!  Make you mark!

Best,

Don

Blogging at Starbucks

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It’s December and I’m in a Starbucks listening to Fiona Apple’s version of “Across the Universe” drinking a caramel brulee latte.  Life is good, but not great…

This is an odd move on a Friday night, there is only two other people in Starbucks and the traffic coming in is very light.  I think traffic is light because of the drive-thru and obviously because it’s Friday and there are better opportunities out there to do!  But it makes me unique on a Friday night and with a blog post to write, so on I type…

Usually by now, the snow is falling, especially by now!  But today it’s about 50 degrees (Fahrenheit) and quite honestly it’s a bit depressing.  I also long for other bloggers like myself to visit.  It’s hard being in a blogger in the Midwestern states.  I occasionally watch the traffic that visits my site and while I see a lot of visitors from New York and California, there are some states that I don’t see any traffic from.  While my state does have a few hits, they pale in comparison to the larger states.  I can honestly say I don’t know another financial blogger within 100 miles of where I live.

Now it might seem like I’m whining, but some time blogging is a lonely process while trying to write in the middle of nowhere…  In many ways I feel like like the proverbial lonely tree in the middle of a corn field.

Tree in Field

As much as I whine, it much better than is was 10 years ago!  With the social media that exists today, it’s easy to reach out and talk to people online and in the blogging community.  Now I just need to use those social sites more (like twitter, Facebook and whatever the latest medium is…).

Another nothing to do Friday in the sticks,

Have a great weekend,

Don