Do you read blogs by people who are in debt?
Sometime 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 his strong opinions, brash confidence and crude humour he makes me think and keeps me entertained. So, I read this post, thought it rather interesting and moved on. Well, Nelson didn’t really answer his question but then so many bloggers do the same.
My mind kept drifting towards this post because of two claims:
1) that ‘personal finance is not that complicated’ and it boils down to ‘spend less than you make’; and
2) that Nelson doesn’t read blogs by people ‘drowning in debt’ because ‘we are naturally drawn to the people we consider our peers’.
Three questions kept churning in my mind: ‘is personal finance really that uncomplicated’ and ‘do I read blogs by people in debt’ and ‘why’. Continue reading
Principled money posts of the week
It is Sunday again and after the breathless speed of the week it is time for reflection. I am finding it harder to decide which posts to include: most blogs I follow publish interesting, well written articles. My experience with difficult choices tells me that when the going gets tough a good way out is to make the criteria more stringent. Today, the principled money posts of the week are the ones that made me think most and/or made me change my perspective on things. Let’s rock, peeps. Continue reading
To budget or to have a budget?
I don’t seem to mix well with budgets. Having a budget to me is like wearing a pair of shoes that have 10 cm high heels, pointy toes and are a size too small: restrictive, uncomfortable and outright painful. Good budgets are like comfortable shoes; they may not be very trendy but they feel part of you and are fit for purpose. Tight, uncomfortable budgets are like high heeled shoes: you can’t walk a mile in them. This is why I budget but I don’t have a budget.
The way I see it, there are three main differences between budgeting and having a budget. Continue reading
Ferriss, Timothy (2007) The-4 Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich
This review was written by Jan Armitage from Renovation and DIY: the green path . Thank you, Jan, for being my first guest contributor. I hope you are the first of many.
I read this book a few months ago from cover to cover. And last month I re-read it, pen in hand, underlining things and writing exclamation points in the margin. Just so you know.
Timothy Ferriss is a thirty something American – this is important, because the culture he’s writing for, and most definitely the sub-culture he comes from, is very different from mine. And yet here we are, meshing happily away…. His assumption, which I think is correct, is that everyone who’s interested in reading his book in the first place will be able to benefit from some of the ideas in it, whether self employed or not, traveller or not. It covers four sections, with the handy little acronym of DEAL. Continue reading
