Hey, welcome fellow finance nerd. Obviously you take more than a passing interest in your finances, since you show up here (hopefully on a regular basis) to read about some financially related topic. As you all already know, around here I like to focus on the increasing revenue side of the equation, rather than the reducing expenses side. This is because: a) it’s way more fun and b) increasing income is essentially limitless, while decreasing expenses has a limit. But I’ve spent enough time on that, so let’s move on.
There are literally thousands of PF blogs out there. For the purpose of our discussion, I’m going to divide them into two categories. The first, which includes this blog, are written by people who have their financial house in order, and are trying to pass their wisdom onto others who might not be as financially advanced, but who are heading in the right direction. Most of the blogs I read are written by people in the same financial boat. JT McGee clearly knows his way around a balance. sheet. Andrew Hallam became a millionaire on a teacher’s salary. And I’m pretty sure the folks from Control Your Cash have their swimming pool filled up with gold coins, like Scrooge McDuck. No word on whether they skinny dip in it.
Meanwhile, we have the other group of financial blogs. They are written by people who have somewhat limited financial knowledge. They struggle with budgeting and debt repayment. Usually, these people have dug themselves into some sort of financial hole, saw the light, and are now on their way towards becoming debt free. Sometimes, like Fabulously Broke, they pay off their debt and graduate to some more advanced financial thinking. She’s on her way to becoming quite wealthy. Too bad she’s quite not single.
I don’t want to rag on anybody who’s just starting on their financial journey. Everybody has to start somewhere. I was lucky enough to have someone explain to me the wonders of compound interest when I was young enough to really take advantage about it. I was always good at saving money, so I never started out in any sort of financial hole. I was smart enough to start investing almost immediately after I turned 18. I’ve never known any sort of financial hardship. Money has always sort of been my thing.
Meanwhile, others struggle at it. We all can’t be good at everything. So while I was saving and investing, other people were going on shopping sprees and holidays, all funded by credit. They were taking out student loans or whatever. And, as we all know, eventually it all will catch up to you. At some point, you’ll reach rock bottom, and the debt will become a burden you just can’t control anymore.
So they start a personal finance blog.
And hey, that’s great. I can see the thought process behind it. These days, people take to Google to search for the solution of all their problems, from strange rashes to weird porn fetishes. So they Google ‘debt repayment’ and are taken to someone’s blog, which chronicles their journey out of debt. Emboldened by others’ success, they start their own blog, to keep themselves accountable on their path to a positive net worth.
And then, one of two things happen. Either they make significant progress, or they don’t. And, at least from this observer’s viewpoint, more and more aren’t really accomplishing much. These bloggers will have a good month or two, and then something will happen. Sometimes, this is a legitimate emergency. Other times, it’s just consumerism rearing its ugly head. The blogger needs a new laptop, since the one they have is getting slow. They’re serious about fitness now, so they shell out $100 a week on a gym membership and a personal trainer. And, of course, they can never buy the cheapest thing on the market, since it’s always crap. (Financial Uproar: proudly typed on the cheapest laptop I could find back in 2009)
Considering these people think about their finances often enough to HAVE A BLOG ABOUT THE SUBJECT, why doesn’t everybody with a finance blog do well financially? For every blogger that increases their net worth each and every month, we have another who just can’t climb out of debt. At the risk of sounding somewhat condescending, (editor’s note: too late) personal finance isn’t that complicated. Spend less than you make. If you can’t do it, either find a way to earn more or spend less.
We’re generally drawn to people who we consider our peers. This is why I usually don’t read blogs written by people drowning in debt. People who are in the same boat tend to read each other’s stuff. So when their peer makes a financial mistake, they aren’t very hard on them. After all, they’re struggling with many of the same types of issues.
The problem with grouping all types of blogs together is there’s always exceptions to the rule. For every PF blogger who makes consistent financial mistakes, there’s one that is making significant debt progress. For every blogger who struggles to make ends meet, but refuses to go out and earn extra income, there’s somebody else hustling their ass off. So please, if you’re a reader who struggles with the basics, don’t take this personally.
Instead, ask yourself if you’re really taking the steps you need to improve your finances. Are you maximizing your earnings? Are you working as much as you can? Are you minimizing your spending, or are you buying all sorts of unnecessary crap? Are you serious about becoming wealthy? Or are you not willing to put in the work needed to get there?
If the answer to any (or all) of those questions is no then please don’t whine about your financial state. Wealth is everywhere. You just have to put in the work to get it. Life has a way of rewarding the people who put in the most work.
Good to hear I have my PF stuff together.
Really, I don’t know all that much about personal finance. The rules for 401ks and IRAs, tax laws about this that and the other financial transactions are a pain in the rear. How to save what and do whatever with my money is…well, unimportant, I guess.
Personally, my experience was that I learned corporate finance before personal finance. I would say that my preference is still toward corporate finance and the financial markets.
If anything, the relatively large base of “beginner” personal finance websites just tells me that personal finance is easy. You don’t even have to play offense to take better control of your finances than someone else. You just have to put up a good defense and you’re set. Most people can’t be bothered to play defense, let alone step into the ring to play offense.
I’m still not letting debt bloggers off the hook, though.
Personal finance is really simple. It amazes me that, as a society, we’re not better at it. It also amazes me that people who choose to write about it aren’t better at it.
I think that I fall somewhere in the middle. I am making progress but wanted to take things to the next level so started writing as a way to focus myself more intently. I also view it as a way to record my thoughts and go back to see where I have been and where I need to be going.
I end up classifying these blogs as personal diaries rather than personal finance blogs. They have a few articles about paying off student loans and credit card debt, and a few posts about saving an emergency fund or saving up for a downpayment. Then they get distracted (meet a boy/girl) and blow all their money on travel/iPad/clothes.
Thanks for the mental image of Greg and Betty skinny-dipping in a pool filled with gold coins. Just what I needed to start my day.
Financial Uproar – Awkward mental images since 2010.
For the record- my work gave me my IPAD.
I’m glad I was on your good side for this post. And yes, I am very NOT single.
Still, as Boomer & Echo notes, I am reading them as a diary, not so much as a guide to getting out of debt.
Only the person getting out of debt, can get themselves out of debt.
Now for your Qs:
Are you maximizing your earnings? Yes. Trying to, at least.
Are you working as much as you can? No. I’m pretty lazy at times. 2011 was what I would call: The Year of Spending, even though I had (and still have) people hounding me for contracts
Are you minimizing your spending, or are you buying all sorts
of unnecessary crap? Ooo.. I’m buying a lot of unnecessary crap. This is why 2012 will be: The Year of Rebuilding Net Worth
Are you serious about becoming wealthy? Yes. Wealthy enough to retire and not eat dog food, that is.
Or are you
not willing to put in the work needed to get there? No. I’m willing.. I just want to do things like travel and shop which gets hard to control when I get excited
I’m one of the bloggers who started with a financial mess. My mess wasn’t due to my lack of financial knowledge, but because I was too unbelievably lazy to implement what I already knew.
Like Boomer and Echo said, I started my blog as a financial diary to document a goal that I had – eliminating close to $35,000 in less than a year. I’m less than $800 and 12 days away from completing that goal.
I still classify my blog as a personal finance blog. I’ve provided valuable information on mortgages, investing in property, insurance, budgeting, careers and increasing revenue. Sure I also talk about dumb mistakes I’ve made along the way, but I believe that personal touch is what makes a personal finance blog.
Now that I’m no longer drowning in debt, does this mean you’ll read my blog
I was actually a reader, but dropped it after you didn’t post for like 2 months. Your debt progress is impressive, and congratulations on almost becoming debt free.
The reason why I read (and will continue to, now you’re back) is that you talk about things other than your debt. Debt talk bores me.
Thanks and I’m glad you’re coming back!!!
Maybe it’s two niches? “Debt Journalers” and “Personal Finance Writers”? A “very good debt journaler” is also a personal finance writer – they were able to pay down the debt, so they likely have something important to say.
Also, I think there are a lot of Generation Y types writing PF blogs. They may not be rich yet, but they certainly are on the right path to Scrooge McDuck-style pools.
I’d actually argue that most Gen Y type PF bloggers aren’t on the right path. Some get it. Most make half ass efforts to get their debt under control. In fact, I’d argue most “debt journalers” will never be wealthy.
Maybe you’re right – I tend to be attracted to the “Personal Finance Writer” type… so maybe my Reader is biased the same way (basically, maybe my head is buried in the sand). Here’s what we should do: let’s get some young blogger with a lot of hunger to catalog the PF blogosphere and classify the sites. Thoughts?
Even PF writers want interns!
But yes, the debt journalers I read do tend to shoot themselves in the foot often.
I don’t know if this really answers your questions but I have learned SO much from blogging. I started my first PF blog back in 2008. I started it because I thought I had my financial poop in a group. But all the reading I did to keep up with the other financial bloggers taught me so so much.
I learned there is more to finances than budgeting and not going into debt. I learned to look at the big picture.
Why aren’t pf bloggers wealthier? It takes a long time to build wealth even after you know what you’re doing.
I am planning to jump from one side to the other (drowning in debt to swimming in wealth). But keeping a blog has done a lot of the things you mentioned (kept me accountable, cut my expenses, made me focus on increasing income) I hear what you are saying and respect if you don’t read my blog, although I do more than talk about my debt because I find other factors to be a lot more interesting. I like to read both types, I commiserate with the debtors and find clues in the wealth-builders’ strategy. So I think both types are equally worthy of review!
I can tell you right now why I’m not wealthy: Because I don’t work in a career that one can become wealthy in! Haha. So I’m not sure where I fit into your categories, because I’m certainly not on my way to being a member of the million dollar club, but I’ve also never suffered any severe (or even moderate) financial problems. In fact, I only just this month paid a dime in interest on my credit card, and it was only because I literally forgot to pay it! (Don’t know where my head has been at.) So I’m doing OK, and my net worth is growing, but just likely on a much smaller scale. And I also value my free time a lot more than most, which is why I kept my freelancing to a minimum, and then quit my job when I wanted to ramp it up. But I’m cool with the little amount of wealth I’ve got.
So…am I maximizing my earnings? Am I serious about being wealthy? Nope! But I’m not in trouble, either, nor have I ever been. Does that put me in some sort of illusive third category?
Just found your blog today. Totally agree with the post. I find that people tend to blame everyone but themselves for their woes (financial or otherwise). I’m writing about getting out of debt and how I’m doing it. But I don’t have the courage (or possibly drive to actually pay for a domain and make it all fancy).
I’ve written several blogs about life and fashion before I started my PF blog, which I guess falls under “debt journal”, but I didn’t start it for the explicit purpose of earning money – I started it to share what I’ve learned about spending less and getting out of debt with others and to improve as a writer. It helps keep me accountable, but I still make mistakes with money all the time. If I were perfect with money, I wouldn’t have gotten into the hole in the first place.
Personal finance bloggers are in vogue right now. Fabulous Broke blog is well written, the girl is just the perfect pal, but still she’s not the typical financial blogger. She’s out out debt, have a net worth of more than 100k. I mean, it’s not the kind of blog I like to read. I like to read about people like me who have debt, have a bad written style. I like stuff that is more underground than that too perfect Fabulous Broke blogger. She’s the super star of the whole financial bloggers if you see what I mean. But that’s not the real life. She’s not a real financial blogger because to be real, you need to be an investor investing in stocks, experiencing capital loss, capital gain, dividend income. There’s nothing of that nature with the Fabulous, she’s simply too neat and not into the hard game. However, her success as blogger demonstrates that the vast of majority of blog readers like what is neat. I am not part of the majority. No thank you.
Personally, I like the fact that the PF blogosphere is diverse because people can find things to read that are relevant to them. (Plus if it wasn’t diverse I’d be screwed.) Personally, I get bored to tears reading about investing because I haven’t made it that far yet. It’s completely foreign to me, and while that won’t always be the case, it’s the way I feel right now.
As far as what people write about, it depends on their goals. My goal isn’t to become wealthy. I mean, I wouldn’t turn down a few million if the opportunity presented itself, but I don’t really see that as something I’m actively trying to do. I wanted to quit wasting money on bank fees, credit card interest, and stupid nitpicky purchases. And I’ve done that. So now I’m working on continuing to knock out debt, and as you said, the people who read my site are generally people in the same position. Eventually, when my debt is gone and things are stable, the site will evolve as my goals change. And I think that’s what most people do.
I think a lot of people are missing the basics. Otherwise people wouldn’t have so much debt in the first place. In my case, I definitely made it to adulthood without a good financial head on my shoulders. Learning and applying what I’ve learned has been the coolest part about blogging so far.
Nice post. I really try to ignore the rest of the PF universe most of the time and focus only on topics relevant to me and others at my level (yeah, I have problems with being condescending too). This tactic serves me particularly poorly. Why? Because most people aren’t even close to maximizing their personal financial life the way I do. This impacts my readership in a big way. I don’t really have a solution. I’m not going to write about things that don’t impact me or pander to the least common PF denominator, but it is hard to rise above the rest of the PF noise.
Fantastic post, Nelson.
My blog has really taken shape in the 10 months since I launched it. At first I thought it would be a “general PF” blog, but that — as I’ve learned, and as you’ve pointed out — is far too broad. Readers are in vastly different boats, and no blog can appeal to ‘em all.
My blog is taking shape as a wealth-building site, since that’s the situation I’m in. I’ve never been in debt, and my focus is buying assets (real estate, stocks, launching businesses) for the sake of growing wealth and passive income.
I’m not rich, but at age 28 I own more income-yielding assets than most of my friends. But I’m far, far from wealthy. As Ashley said in her comment — wealth-building is slow, even when you know what you’re doing.
I’ve come to accept that people struggling with debt probably aren’t going to read my site — not because they’re not welcome (they’re very welcome!), but because I really don’t have anything to say about how to climb out of credit card debt. That information is best suited for another blog.
First of all- I really did need a new laptop, and second of all- I am a gadget snob so I had to get a MacBook.
Moving along, I read blogs for inspiration. I learn about things that I had no idea about. My personal blog is a journal to itemize my financial stupidity and my attempts to fix it asap, but along that way I learned about some fantastic things that I can do to expedite that.
Let me assure you that Betty skinny-dipping in a swimming pool full of gold coins is a sight to behold. Especially when she dries off with a towel made of Russian sable fur…I mean, when the in-house cabana boy dries her off with a towel made of Russian sable fur.
[...] ago now, Nelson at Financial Uproar published a post asking why aren’t personal finance bloggers wealthier . Whilst I don’t always agree with him, in fact I rarely do, I have a soft spot for Nelson: with [...]
And this is the reason why I started my PF Blog. I have always been the go-to person for financial advice amongst my friend and family. We’ve always had our financial house in order, but when searching for ways to grow my assets, the information was limited. Particularly from someone who brings in a significant income.
By the way, I love your last 2 paragraphs and agree 100%…I echo these sentiments on my site as well.
[...] more impressive – the number of subscribers or that I can count to 60. As I’ve mentioned before, I tend to stay away from bloggers who are neck deep in debt and despair. I do this because their [...]
Rather then consuming themselves with tips and tricks about what to do about their personal finance, more people need to simply take action. It is a failure to take action that is what is preventing them from starting to eliminate their debt. So, start taking action, not matter how small, and you will get the ball rolling.
I think the key word in “personal finance blogger” is the “personal” part. While I do love posts that are informational and offer tips and tools I can use to improve my finances, I also enjoy the personal stories that are shared in these blogs.
Everybody has a different relationship and history with money. Some of us grew up in households which provided great examples, some with bad, some none at all. Some people picked up finance quickly, others didn’t.
Not all personal finance bloggers are people in particularly lucrative industries. I know I’m definitely not. but there are some real extreme frugalistas and thrifters who are really interesting to read, people who make do with less and are happy for it. Some people build their wealth and aim to be millionaires before they are 30 and write terribly. To each their own. But that’s the difference. We’re not personal finance experts, those would be people advising others, we’re personal finance bloggers, writing about our own experiences.