There was a great comment on the I Will Teach You How To Be Rich post I linked to the other day:
Most personal finance sites suck. There’s an overwhelming number of them run by people who really don’t know much of anything about finance — they simply found themselves in debt, decided it was too much to deal with, and went looking for help on the internet. What they found was the “online personal finance community”.
And they liked it. And they wanted to participate, so they started their own sites. But they have no real new knowledge nor research of their own, they simply apply the lessons they’ve learned from the rest of this community and write the same stories as everyone else. And so, once one person stopped buying lattes and wrote about it, everyone else did the same thing, and they all wrote about it, too.
It’s a self-perpetuating cycle of mediocrity and regurgitation.
Wow. Absolutely fabulous comment, Tyler.
I don’t want to pick on the Simple Dollar, but for the sake of being lazy, let’s. What the hell is he doing giving anyone advice? He’s just some schmo who worked himself out of a bad debt situation. Good for him. But explain to me how he’s qualified to give advice?
Then there’s the disclaimer. I hate the disclaimer. It usually says something to the effect that, while the site gives out advice, a person shouldn’t really listen to it. Or if they do, and the you know what hits the fan, then don’t hold the author responsible! It was for entertainment purposes only!
I’m reminded of the old saying, “Free advice is worth what you pay for it.”
Now, I don’t want to discount the advice that Trent or anyone gives. Mostly it’s pretty good. Yet there’s an awful lot of responsibility to get your stuff right. How can someone live with themselves knowing that they gave advice that didn’t work out, that lost someone money?
If I had a nickel for every post I’ve seen on ING Direct, I’d have quite the bag full of nickels. By now, if you haven’t heard of the benefits of ING Direct, you either can’t read or are living in a cave without internet access. How many more times do we have to see the same post? Is it a personal finance blog rite of passage or something?
Same thing with going to Starbucks, frugal tips to do whatever, avoiding overdraft fees and the evils of going out to eat. I get it, those are bad. So does everyone else. How about something that makes ya think?
I understand the desire to cater your blog to the lowest common denominator. More people=more page views. And once you’ve written a few hundred posts, the quality has to start going down some. I understand all that. But please don’t represent yourself as the knower of all and then hide behind a disclaimer.
If you keep reading this blog, there are going to be some posts that are going to strike out. Every blog has that. All I ask is that someone just try, rather than churn out another cookie cutter piece on the ways to save money grocery shopping.
How about your blog, or your favorite blog? Does it sound a lot like what Tyler describes?
I wish Tyler would start a blog. He is consistently bags a lot of folks out there and doesn’t say anything new himself. It seems like he’s disatisfied with his life and taking it out on others.
Trent probably makes at least $20,000/MONTH from his site. I’m sure he’s doing just fine.
FS- I feel you’ve missed my point. I’m new to the blogging world, so I’m not familiar with Tyler’s commenting history. He does bring up an interesting point, one that I’ve never really seen brought up during a year plus of reading 50 or so PF blogs.
From my admittedly limited perspective, Tyler is the one who has brought up something new and you’re the one who hasn’t added anything to the discussion. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but, frankly, I kind of wanted to be harsh.
As for what Trent makes on his site- I couldn’t care less. And neither should anyone else. Trent is a good writer. And yes, he does have a solid grip on the basics of personal finance. But is he qualified to give advice on stuff like stocks? I’d say no. And I don’t mean to pick on him, it’s just that it seems like every post he writes these days is a response to a reader question. There are 20 other PF bloggers that are guilty of the same thing.
Oh, and if Trent made $20k/month, why is his wife still working?
Telling me that I should start a blog because I can be critical of other blogs is a little bit like Michael Bay telling Roger Ebert, “Well, you try making a movie sometime, it’s hard!” after Transformers got a bad review.
Do you honestly think I’m dissatisfied with my life, Samurai (sorry, I don’t know your real name)? I have a fantastic life, I love it, and none of my biggest problems are finance-related, anyway. Here’s a project I did a little while ago, I think it illustrates my life fairly well: http://tylerkaraszewski.com/30%20Days%20as%20Me.html
Also, I do have a blog, but it’s not (and never will be) my top priority, so don’t expect it to be updated regularly, and I don’t think the RSS works, but you could click on my name in any comment I’ve ever left on pretty much any website (including this one) and read it if you want.
Sorry to sound so defensive, but it’s annoying when people start making personal accusations against me.
Now with all that said, I hope Financial Uproar here (sorry, don’t know your real name either) is successful in trying to post some new ideas on his site. Lord knows how much the internet needs another site talking about coupons how used cars are cheaper than new ones.
As far as The Simple Dollar goes, Trent is constantly giving advice on subjects with which he has absolutely no experience in response to reader questions. It turns me off, I don’t regularly visit the site anymore.
[...] is the reason why I don’t want personal finance blogs giving advice. I know this is fairly minor, and yes, the overall message of the post still makes sense. Just, if [...]
Hey – yeah couldn't agree more – there is a lot of circular information in the blog world… though honestly I would say that TheSimpleDollar.com is probably one of the better "debt recovery blogs" posing as a "finance blog" out there, even if ING Direct is mentioned like a broken record. Anyhow, there are a lot of people who are dumb with money and I think it helps them.
Good reading though