Personal Finance Blogs: What I Read, Link to, and Why

Here is a little background about my blog – why I write, what I read, what I link to and why:

How I Got Started Reading Personal Finance Blogs: I have always had an interest in money and personal finance issues, but it wasn’t until around November 2006 that I first started reading personal finance (pf) blogs. Until I stumbled across My Money Blog through some obscure Google query, I didn’t know much about blogs at all. I loved that there were people out there with similar interests, so I bookmarked the site. I would check Jonathan’s site everyday, until finally I realized what a blogroll was and there was a pf blog community! A whole new world opened up to me. Then I started reading the blogs from the Money Blog Network (I enjoy each of the members’ sites equally) and several other blogs daily.

Why I Started My Own Personal Finance Blog: After a couple months, I realized I had something to offer and I started my own blog. I am a former military member, and there are many money issues that are military specific. I knew I could give some good information to military members, their families, and those considering joining the service. At the time, the military community was represented by Dimes to Dollars, a military spouse, and Money for Military, and active duty Air Force member. Then I began my blog, and more recently, Active Duty Military Money and Matters, another active duty military member, began his pf blog.

If you want to start your own personal finance blog, read this great post by Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: 25 Steps to a Wildly Successful Personal Finance Blog. Bookmark it. Print it out. This was the primer I used to start my blog, though I’m still working on it becoming wildly successful! Thanks, Jim!

What I love About Blogging: The community. It’s great. Everyone in the pf blogging community is supportive because we share common goals: To earn more, save more, invest, spend less, reduce debt, and otherwise make better financial decisions.

Which Blogs I read and Why: I read a lot of pf blogs. It was tedious until I started using a feedreader. (feedreader explained, if you don’t know what it is). Feedreaders are great because it allows me to track current events in the pf blogging community and keep all of the blogs I read bookmarked independent of which computer I use. Today I edited my blogroll to include every blog from my feedreader. I am doing this so that anyone who visits my site can quickly know which blogs I read on a regular basis.

This is an old list of the pf blogs I read, and why I read them or what I think sets their blog apart from others. For a current list of personal finance blogs that I read, please see the blogroll which is located in the sidebar of my site (home page only):

• Active Duty Money and Military Matters: A military money blog. Vause is an officer and often writes about the TSP and investing for his future.
• All Financial Matters: Part of the Money Blog Network, JLP writes about everything – finance gurus like Dave Ramsey, mortgage and housing issues, investing, retirement planning, banking, etc. I like that he has a lot of reader interaction.
• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: Part of the Money Blog Network, Jim writes about everything including investing, insurance, real estate, debt issues, and more. Jim regularly engages his readers and has Devil’s Advocates posts, a series of contrarian personal finance views. He is also very helpful if you have questions.
• Carnival of Personal Finance: A weekly gathering of great personal finance posts and information. Check this site for updates and to find out where the next carnival will be held. Maybe one day I’ll be lucky enough to host.
• Cash Money Life: Yes I read my own blog through the feedreader. I just want to make sure everything looks right! I try to write about military money issues because it is important information for military members. I also try to write about personal finance issues that apply to everyone. I’m still working on improving my blog; comments are welcome and appreciated!
• Clever Dude: I like Clever Dude’s writing style and how he commonly writes about his own financial situation. He writes anonymously to protect the innocent…
• Consumerism Commentary: Part of the Money Blog Network, Flexo writes about every financial topic and regularly involves his readers. Flexo is also very good about sharing his financial experiences and his situation. Flexo has run quite a few contests on his site.
• Everybody Loves Your Money: Hazzard shares his personal experiences with a dose of no nonsense writing about debt, spending, and saving.
• Five Cent Nickel: Part of the Money Blog Network, Nickel has a lot of great posts about credit, house and home, self-employment, taxes, current events, and more.
• Free Money Finance: Part of the Money Blog Network, FMF regularly involves his readers and puts out a plethora of great info. Check out his site for multiple post series of how to’s.
• Generation X Finance: Jeremy writes about personal finance for the Gen X crowd – and everyone else. He also writes about real estate, taxes, and investing.
• Get Rich Slowly: J.D. is a very prolific writer whose topics cover just about everything personal finance, including frugal living, career, do it yourself topics, health and fitness, self-improvement, and more. 25,000 daily readers can’t be wrong!
• Hustler Money Blog: Hustler writes daily posts about how to make and save money through bank and credit card offers, rebates, and discounts. His blog is set up to make you money just by reading it!
• Lazy Man and Money: I started reading Lazy Man’s blog a few months ago. One of my favorite features is his Alternative Income Streams section. Lazy Man has set a goal to put his fixed monthly expenses on automatic pilot and have them paid for through income he doesn’t have to regularly work for. I would like to reach that point as well. Now, if I only knew how to do it!
• Mighty Bargain Hunter: Part of the Money Blog Network, MBH is the king of finding good deals at flea markets, garage sales, eBay, etc. He also makes a nice side income through reselling some of these items. MBH’s writing is not just limited to finding deals – he also writes good stuff about other personal finance issues including debt reduction and investing.
• Money, Matter, and More Musings: Golbguru has a lot of great information about all kinds of personal finance issues, but what I enjoy reading most on his site is his commentary and the questions he asks out loud. It is like looking into his mind – at least for personal finance issues! The responses in his post, “What Have You Got Against Personal Finance Bloggers?,” is a great resource for pf bloggers to read.
• Money Smart Life: In addition to great personal finance posts, I enjoy reading Money Smart Life’s posts about career and the workplace, and his editorial-type posts.
• My Money Blog: Johnathan’s blog was my introduction to pf blogs. I still visit his site everyday for tips on how to save, invest, allocate funds, find deals, and just about everything else related to personal finance.
• My Two Dollars: David writes about being frugal, paying down debt, and saving money. He also gives a lot of great personal references about how he does these things.
• No Credit Needed: NCN started his blog as a way to track his journey out of debt. He got out of debt over a year ago and doesn’t plan on ever going into debt again. He shares how he is doing this and includes other great posts.
• Punny Money: I like reading Nick’s posts because he integrates great personal finance information with humor, editorial comments, and reader interaction via polls and comments.
• SingleGuyMoney: Single Guy Money is a blog following Single Guy’s journey out of debt. He has made some important realizations about his personal finances and now blogs about how he is handling them. Good luck, Single Guy!
• The Digerati Life: The Silicon Valley Blogger writes about finances, technology, real estate, entrepreneurship, and everything that crosses her mind (which is a good thing).
• The Dividend Guy: I don’t currently invest in individual stock because I don’t know much about it. But, one day, I think I will take that challenge. Dividend Guy writes about buying dividend paying stocks – with the intention of one day earning a substantial sum of money just for owning stock.
• The Simple Dollar: Trent has to be one of the most prolific writers in the pf blogging community – he posts several times a day. His topics regularly cover investing, book reviews, saving, paying down debt, reader questions, and general topics that cover life and career. He is also not shy about sharing his own personal experiences. Trent has been featured several times in MSN Money.
• The Sun’s Financial Diary: Sun has good posts about investing in stocks, funds and ETFs, as well as other good posts dealing with debt, credit, investing, and more.

If your blog is not included in my blogroll and you would like it to be, please leave a comment or e-mail me and I will gladly check it out. If I start reading your blog on a regular basis, I will add it to my blogroll. Feel free to subscribe to my feed (upper right corner of the blog), or add my site to your blogroll. Of course, you don’t have to!

Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions about my site – what you like, don’t like, areas for improvement, etc. I welcome all constructive comments!