The personal finance community on the internet has grown exponentially in the last few years. The number of blogs which discuss topics about money has to be in the hundreds, and they are not all the same. There are fundamentally different viewpoints on different blogs. Some blogs offer great advice, some should not be listened to. Some get thousands of visitors a day and some get just a few. There are a lot of dirty little secrets about the personal finance world that not many people talk about, but they’re there. Let’s take a look at them, some of which I am guilty of myself.
I have practically no formal training in personal finance. I went to college for computer science and mathematics, the closest thing I took to a business class was macroeconomics. I took a few random business courses in high-school, but they didn’t amount to much. Much like the vast majority of the personal finance community, I learned everything I know about money outside of the classroom. My knowledge comes from the dozens of finance books I’ve read, the finance websites and magazines I read, and the finance talk shows I listen to on the radio.
I think some of the other personal finance bloggers are crazy. I have a very conservative viewpoint on money, and think leveraging is just a way to get your self in financial trouble. I could care less what my credit score is and don’t worry about little opportunities to make a few pennies here and there through things such as arbitrage and rewards programs. I don’t think that’s really enough. A lot of people focus on ways to make a few bucks here and there, but in my own financial life, I’ve realized that the only way to build wealth is to live on a fraction (often as low as 25%) of my income and saving/invest the rest.
I’m obsessed with my site statistics. I currently run two different statistics counters about my website, and am very interested in how many people come to my website on a daily basis. It would be a strange day if I didn’t check my SiteMeter statistics at least 5 times a day. Usually I check my Ad Sense revenue at least that much.
Some personal finance bloggers have major conflicts of interest. This is something that I do not do, however some bloggers will talk about a financial product or company and review them. At the end of their review, they will provide a link to the product they just reviewed, but instead of a regular link, it’s a referral link. They have some sort of financial incentive for you to go to that site and sign up for the product, so the chances their reviews are unbiased are pretty slim.
I spend way too much time promoting my site. I submit every single article to I write to at least 5 different social book-marking sites, talk articles up amongst my friends, post on other people’s blogs and then leave a link to mine at the bottom, submit them to all sorts of different directories and the like. I probably spend half as much time promoting my articles as I do writing them.
I have my own personal hate club on Fat Wallet. I recently wrote an article about why I could care less what my credit score is. I’m never going to borrow money, so I don’t really need one. Of course a group of financial sophisticates on Fat Wallet who earn a few thousand each year from playing games with credit cards just couldn’t that stand. So there was a 5 page thread that was created telling me I’m full of it. I wonder how many of these guys live on 25% of their income and save/invest the rest.
There are times I don’t follow my own advice. I make a lot of illustrations about how cutting back a bit here and there will save big over the long period of time. I also decried drinking pop in a post entitled “Say no to Soda!” Yet I still drink at least 2 cans a day. There are some things in life that I can’t bring my self to give up even though I know I should. Personal finance is all about behavior, and even sometimes my frugality does less than smart things.
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Great article! At the end of the day, personal finance is just that personal. Not everyone will have the same story or approach. I read many personal finance blogs and pick up on different ideas. However, what I realize is that I cannot always apply what others do to my situation. I have a long way to go in reducing my debt, but at the end of the day, our plan is very personal to our situation.