Finance and Fat » Rants

What I’m Trying to Accomplish Here or a ‘Where’s the Value’ Manifesto

Eden — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:26:37 +0000

*Maybe this is just a rant, and maybe it’s a bit long, but I think it turned into something worthwhile.

What’s the point of this blog and why do I spend my time writing it?

I started this blog after discovering a few personal finance blogs, I think Get Rich Slowly was the first one I found. I thought doing this would help me get organized and get focused on getting out of debt and getting in shape.

If I’m being honest, I also thought that by writing a blog about getting out of debt I could find vast riches and end up paying off all of my debt just by posting those annoying little Google ads on the site and waiting for the dollars to roll in. Of course, as 99% of all bloggers have found, the money doesn’t come rolling in very fast and only a select few, such as J.D. at Get Rich Slowly, Darren at ProBlogger, Bob at Christian Personal Finance, and Leo at Zen Habits can actually turn blogging into a full-time job (see what I did there? I linked to all of those fancy bloggers hoping that I would get noticed—I can’t help myself!).

I started off fairly well here, I was up to almost 200 subscribers after only a couple of months of blogging. Of course, back then I was posting frequently and taking the time to comment on other blogs and link to other blogs to help get noticed. Shockingly, not posting frequently and not working to get any attention for the site caused the traffic to drop substantially.

And therein lies the rub…you have to work on your blog like it’s a full-time job, or at least a part-time job, just to get it off the ground and achieve even a modest level of traffic, all the while only putting a few dollars in your pocket- if you’re even lucky enough to earn money above your hosting costs. And that’s when blogging died for me*. I could spend that same time doing freelance work for real money as opposed to earning pennies per hour for my efforts here. So that’s what I did, and I earned a lot of money on the side and paid off a lot of debt.

*Not that I’m bitter, this is officially a hobby, not a business. At least that’s how it will be until the money starts rolling in, and that’s okay. Really, I’m not bitter. I think. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m not.

So where does that leave me and what’s the point?

I’m going to keep writing here and I’m not going to worry about the money or turning this into a job. I already have a ‘real’ job it’s pretty good to me, and I enjoy most of what I do there. I don’t need to add a second job to my already busy life. However, I actually enjoy writing, and I need to do more of it to improve my skills, so that is going to be the real motivator behind continuing to write here.

To be perfectly honest, I find the topic of personal finance rather boring—if you’re honest about it, don’t you think so too? I wish I had chosen a different topic. Once you figure out that you need to live below your means, you’re pretty much done with your personal finance education. That’s the 80% part of the 80/20 rule. The rest is just filling in little details, which can certainly be helpful, but your bang for the buck drops precipitously the farther you go.

I feel like I’ve made a lot more progress on the finance part of this finance and fat concept than I have on the fat battle. However, just like ‘live below your means‘ losing weight can be summed up just as easily- burn more calories than you consume. I don’t really need to learn more about fitness, I just need to get off the couch and exercise while eating fruit instead of donuts. Of course the concept is simple and the devil is in the details, but I think mostly we just like adding to those details so we feel like we are accomplishing something worthwhile when the answer is really just to get off the couch and go for a walk or do some pushups.

Well, I just told you that I think personal finance is boring and there’s nothing more to learn about it and I think the same concept applies to losing weight. I guess the cat is out of the bag, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop writing here and it doesn’t mean that I can’t provide anything of value here.

Frankly, I’m very jealous of this guy, Chris at The Art of Non-Conformity, and I want to try to emulate his model of blogging success. I don’t want to remain beholden to Google and AdSense, but I have to create something of real value first. That is of course my next task.

I do think I have something to add to the conversation and I think I can offer a unique perspective. I’m no longer going to share the same crap you can read on 1,000 other personal finance blogs. If I don’t have something at least somewhat unique to say, I won’t say anything at all.

I’ll continue to share updates of my own, real progress because people seem to like that. I think I can offer a little hope, being the average guy that I am who is actually making some real progress to improve my life…and I didn’t do it by finding the perfect money hack or buying the right e-book.

It’s just a matter of working hard and focusing your efforts in the right place. And that’s the message I want to convey and that’s where I think some real value can be created. That’s where I’ll be focusing my efforts and I’m going to do my best to come up with content that is actually valuable to you. And if you made it this far, you really deserve some valuable content! I promise it’s coming soon. Thanks for reading.

What I’m Trying to Accomplish Here or a ‘Where’s the Value’ Manifesto

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Why I’m Done With Big Banks

Eden — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:15:38 +0000

I’ve had enough of the big banks. My personal experience was with WellsFargo, but this story could just as easily apply to any of them. You might think that a 10-plus year relationship with one might cause it to care a little bit about you as a customer, but that is clearly not the case.

I guess I can understand why. After all, I was just one of the millions of customers with a few bucks and an ATM card. There was nothing special about me. Except maybe that, at times in the past, I racked up some impressive Overdraft fees. You might think that would cause them to value me as a customer. Sadly, not even that was enough.

Like I said before, I banked with WellsFargo for more than a decade. Though I initially opened my account with a smaller, regional bank that WellsFargo aquired. WF never did anything spectacularly good or bad, but they were better than the other big bank I had used before (Bank of America) so I stuck with them. Over time, I grew less and less satisfied. Little things changed here and there that made me feel less like a customer and more like just another number.

The final straw came when I needed to call to check my balance one day. I only had to call to check my balance because my debit card wasn’t working at a store when I was trying to make a purchase. I knew I had plenty of money, so something must have been wrong, but I wanted to make sure.

To make a long story short…I had the money and the problem turned out to be something at the store and they were later able to process my transaction. All was well and I went on with my day. Until the next day…when I saw a $2.00 charge on my account for speaking to a banker on the phone- ridiculous! There is no way any business can justify this practice. I don’t care if it is ‘only’ $2.00 and I don’t care how much money they ‘lose’ by providing customer service. I am putting my money in their bank and I will not spend my money in order to talk to a person who works at the bank that is holding my money.

That was it for me and WellsFargo. I closed the account and opened a new one at a local credit union. My experience with the credit union has been a real pleasure. I can call them on the phone and actually talk to someone who works at the branch down the road. Crazy, I know…but it’s true. They even act like they are happy to talk to me. It’s an amazing difference and I strongly recommend you look into a local bank if you are at all unhappy with one of the big, national chains. There is simply no way the big chains can ever match the service of a good local bank. The only advantage I can see from a big bank is a large ATM network…but you can work around that. I’m happy with the change and I’ll never go back.

What do you think? Are there any good reasons to keep you money with a big bank?

Why I’m Done With Big Banks

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Stop Blogging and Get to Work

Eden — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:00:45 +0000

For those of you thinking you can start a blog about getting out of debt and get out of debt by getting rich from your blog…stop it! Take the time you were going to spend on the blog and pick up some overtime at work or find a side job utilizing your best skills and get someone to pay you to use those skills in a way that benefits them.

Only after you have exhausted all available hours and opportunities to make some real money should you even consider taking your valuable time and spending it on a blog. The return on investment for blogging is horrible!

Yeah, I know. I’m a blogger and I did the very same thing I’m telling you not to do. Well, that’s why I’m telling you not to do it. I made the same mistakes. I’m still blogging and I still plan to be a blogger for the long term, but my priorities have changed. The blog is now the last thing on my list. I make time for the blog after I’ve put in my regular work hours, done all of the freelance work I can, and spent some time developing contacts and skills that will benefit me in my real work and my real areas of expertise.

It’s nice to read about bloggers who have quit the day job and blog full-time now, but those are the exceptions. It’s okay if you hold on to dreams of getting there some day, but if you are deeply in debt or struggling to get your weight under control, your time is better spent achieving real results in those areas of your life. The blog can be there and it can grow slowly in the background, but you shouldn’t concern yourself with spending lots of time on it. Face it, almost no one will be reading it for quite a while! I know, it hurts, but it’s the truth. Take the time to write for yourself, determine your style and what you really want to write about. Find your voice and take it slow. If you are good at it, you’ll rise to the top some day. Focus on the problems in your life that caused you to start a blog to help solve them. The blog will still be there when you’re done.

Stop Blogging and Get to Work

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