I've been reading plenty of these PF blogs as well as creating my own since discovering the NetWorthIQ website. It is very interesting to see how different people think and feel about money. Maybe I should get a new career as a financial adviser instead of as an economics professor :) As a professor, I just just get to tell people how to think about money (when teaching introductory courses) ...
Mainly I have discovered how different I am to the majority of bloggers out there. There are at least two very different universes in the financial internet. People interested in investing and trading on sites like Silicon Investor, which I've belonged to since 1998, have a very different mindset to those interested in personal finance. There are, though, some crossovers like Stealthbucks and Adventures in Money Making. Investor blogs look very different. Investors aren't interested in saving money but instead on making more of it (and protecting what they have). Some of them are naturally frugal and some not. Most, but not all, PF Bloggers seem more directed on saving money than making it. Maybe an exaggeration... but that is why I recently added the phrase "Absolutely no money saving tips!" to my profile.
I don't try to save money and don't need or want money saving tips. It seems I am just trained to be naturally frugal. I don't like buying things, or having things. What I do buy though has to be good quality and convenient. I do take advantage of any deal which is not inconvenient to do. It's not a question of trying to control expenditure or deny myself things. I just spend whatever I want and given current income it isn't too much. On the other hand, when I was a student or unemployed I had to think much more about what I was spending as my income was very low. Maybe all those years helped train me. I seem pretty lavish compared to my parents - perhaps more on that in future posts.
PF bloggers seem to fall into several categories that might overlap:
1. Young people just starting out in the financial world and dreaming of getting rich.
2. People who used to spend beyond their means and regret it and now try to save and invest (I used to spend beyond my means but don't regret it).
3. People whose parents and family are "financially irresponsible" or had little money and didn't know anything about it and are now trying to live a prudent lifestyle themselves.
There don't seem to be many who come from very financially prudent families, got a good financial education, and are themselves a bit more relaxed (that's me).
4 comments:
Another interesting way to look at it is to try and figure out why "one" blogs. My guess is that there is a huge pool of PFblogers trying to use the blogsite as a source of income. When you consider this you can and also understand that there is a huge pool (group 2 in your post) of people out there to replace each person who drops off from their readership when they realize that it is a really a repeat of the same old theme. With each new reader comes a click and more ads revenue. Heck you can understand how come everyone seems to be rushing in, money for nothing. Not a bad business model, but its great strength is also its biggest weakness. With time the market will probably become saturated and the revenue stream will drop and you can guess the rest.
Yet others blog as a way of bouncing their ideas around, like speaking to oneself" often as a means of making a picture clearer. And yet others blog if I may quote you "This blog is to expand on my NetWorthIQ page and point to interesting personal finance and investing links"
People will ultimately find what will be of most help in their journeys and stick to it .
Just another POV.
Good point, but I think very few can be making any kind of money worth having? Jane Dough, though, had the great idea of putting a link in which can refer people to open an ING account and kick a referral fee back to her. I've kept accounts for a long time and was just fascinated by NetWorthIQ and then wanted to expand on my entry and this is what happened. I got a blogging account at first just so I could post comments on blogs which required membership.
I think I fit into category 2. I have been bailed out at least once, arguably twice by my parents.
I think most PFbloggers start out to tell their story and find an understanding community. Wanting a stream of income from their blog comes later. It has to do with Kiyosaki's concept of creating an additional stream of income. Why not have ads on your blog if you aren't opposed to them? It took me a while to come around and post a few though. I despise advertising enough not to own a TV.
Thanks for the mention!
to answer last1in's comment about being a source of revenue, its not that easy.
in order to have a good income you need to constantly blog, or have a very interesting blog. If you constantly blog, its probably a full-time job. And if its very interesting, its probably not entirely related to finance, which means the money you make per click is quite low.
Some people have made the transition to having a respectable income from a part-time blog, but they're rare.
blogging is its own reward!
I've made dozens of friends through blogging and thats made it worth it.
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