My 6 favorites in the personal finance blogosphere
Welcome to the week of Fincon, where we all get together and toooootally nerd out about personal finance and blogging. Because so many of us are tied up with the conference, I thought I'd do something a little different today - distribute some love!
Today, I'm linking to some of my favorite blogs in the personal finance blogosphere. As you know from past experience, I enjoy spreading the love. And, each blog was chosen for a very specific reason.
Ready? Here we go.
My six favorites in the personal finance blogosphere
1. The blog I visit when I want to smile.
I like to think of J$ as the Chip and Joanna Gaines (from the former HGTV television show Fixer Upper) of personal finance. He's always fun and light-hearted. He is nearly always positive and uplifting. If I'm on Twitter and want to read something other than mountains of relentless negativity (yes, there's a lot of negativity even from us PF bloggers), J's my go-to Twitter account to read.
2. My favorite blog name.
There's really no contest here, and it might have something to do with the fact that they cuss right there in the name of their blog. It certainly draws attention and they're definitely a natural at using colorful language to get their point across (I do the same damn thing, damnit. Damn).
They also write about interesting topics and produce excellent cover graphics for each and every blog post. Well done!
3. The blog I keep going back to.
I love how Amy writes. She is super insightful and thoroughly grounded in her writing. I also like how she takes on issues without an in-your-face style about it. She's objective. She's insightful. And, she just cares. Those three elements always seem to keep me returning to her blog.
4. The blog that I wish wasn't dormant.
One of my all-time favorite blogs was written by a video-game nerd over at LivingAFi.com. The guy is early retired right now, and while I totally understand that he has better things to do with his time than write, I also hung on his every freakin' word.
There are a lot of good writers in the PF space, but his writing is easily the best (to me). Before I quit working full-time, I remember reading his "The Job Experience" series of posts and getting completely hooked. I had to physically stop myself from pulling an all-nighter to read them all because, well, I had work the next day.
5. The blog who does "controversy" the best.
Sam, the dude behind the Financial Samurai blog, is a natural with controversy and his most controversial articles are also among his best performers. Like, this one has almost 900 comments alone!
He is detailed and persuasive and backs up his controversial posts with facts and figures. The guy even creates his own data tables for his posts to showcase numbers in a super organized way. I love reading about controversial subjects on his blog because each post is thorough, well laid out and he's active in the comments section.
6. The blog that I would buy if I could.
N/A
I had every intent to answer this question. In fact, I spent a good portion of the morning trying to come up with this answer, but I couldn't.
And, there's a pretty good reason for that.
Our blogs represent a piece of us, don't they? Our mindset. Our philosophy. There's no way I'd be able to just buy someone else's blog and start writing as if it were them. I wouldn't do it justice. And frankly, I also don't want to try and alienate their once-loyal audience.
After all, they aren't there to read about me. They're readers of the blog because they enjoyed the original author!
As we know from when DividendMantra.com was bought (and to some extent, GetRichSlowly.org), it's so darn tough to buy a personal blog and keep its true and genuine nature intact.
It's nearly impossible.
And so, the truthful answer to this question is: I'd save my money. I'd rather spend it on my own blog...reinvest it somehow.
Okay, let's turn it over to you. In each of those categories, what's your blog pick?