Welcome to the first edition of Saturday Sneak-Peak! Every Saturday, I will be exploring a personal finance blog and giving a brief review. My major intent of this new adventure is to expose everyone to new and/or obscure blogs. Up this week is StretchyDollar.com. Jeff has been a frequent commenter on YMR and I greatly appreciate it.
Jeff is a twenty-something blogger who started StretchyDollar as an outlet for his ideas and as a place to interact with other people in similar situations. Although Jeff has only been blogging for three months, there are plenty of great articles over there to check out. Here are a few of my favorites:
10 Financial Commandments for Your 20s
Get (Real) Rewards for Searching the Internet
I also asked Jeff a few questions to help you get to know him. Here they are:
What have you liked most about blogging so far?
I enjoy blogging for two main reasons:
1. Meeting and networking with awesome people who have interests similar to you who can teach you a lot. It’s fun to connect with people and share a part of you with them.
2. To learn through ‘teaching’. I enjoy researching and learning something, and then trying to present it in an interesting and understandable way.
What have you disliked most about blogging so far?
It’s not a dislike, per say, but the hardest thing for me so far has been coming up with a great idea for a post and then seeing it executed better somewhere else. I’ve had a couple ideas that I thought would be cool, and then I see someone else do a great job writing about that topic and I feel like I shouldn’t do it because I wouldn’t do it justice, or they would just think I was copying them. It’s difficult sometimes to come up with ideas that I think people would be interested in actually reading.
What has been your worst financial decision so far and how did you learn from it?
Due to a landlord problem, my wife and I were backed into a corner and due to a lack of time had to rent an apartment we couldn’t really afford. We made it work for a couple of months off of gifts from our reception (it was right after we got married) and extra money that my wife had, but in the end we had to move. It wrecked us financially, and we were on the ropes for a bit, using credit card advances just to get by. It took us months to really fully recover from it, and we missed out on some great financial opportunities because the money wasn’t there. It was really the thing that got me interested in learning about personal finance. The main concept that I learned from that experience was to plan ahead and do my research, and to live well within my means. Just because I think I can afford something doesn’t mean I really can.
Which of your posts did you have the most fun writing?
That’s a tough question – I’ve enjoyed writing each post for different reasons. I’d have to say the most fun was maybe one of the first I posted on StretchyDollar.com – ‘The Value of a Vision.’ It talks about having an overall plan/dream about what you want your finances to be, and then working towards it. Most people really don’t want to be financially strong, because they aren’t willing to put in the hard work and make the sacrifices to make it happen. If you can decide, have a goal, and works towards it, anything is possible.
I want to send out a big thanks to Jeff for letting me interview him. Head over there today and be sure to check out his posts and comment on ones that connect with you.
Do you know of a blog that you would like to see on Saturday Sneak-Peak? Head over to my contact page and submit the name/URL of the blog. You can submit your own blog if you like.