Why I read financial blogs

 

. From startsmart.

 

 

There’s a little bit of a voyeur in all of us.  We like to snoop in on other people’s lives and find out what they’re spending money on and what they do with their time.  It’s the whole “grass is greener” concept because everyone else must have more fun, more money and more exciting lives than we do!

 

The Good

 

On some level I enjoy reading about how other “normal” people strive to save money and pay off their debts.  I am not alone in this struggle and debt can become very isolating. However.  There’s a deeper reason for the constant perusal of personal finance writings across the blog-o-sphere.  For me, it’s to learn.

I’ve learned how to make my own laundry soap (though I’m stuck on finding a big enough pot for the brew), mix my own custom oatmeal flavors, how to negotiate the land of coupons and rebates, what it takes to apply for loans and how to improve my credit score.

 

I have watched a dozen people parent and hope I can be as wise if and when my own children come along (I’ve begun practicing on my pets but the puppy is more content to chew on my socks than put them in the laundry basket. Alas.)

 

I’ve learned, like my own life, others don’t have it all together all the time.  Life is not a Disney matinee.

 

The Bad

 

I must admit I do follow several blogs as I watch strangers mess up their financial futures.  It’s my own personal Kill Bill series: violent, messy, ugly and utterly addictive.

 

Whether I read about an author making six figures and stuck in a cycle of payday advance loans or someone who ignored student loans until they found out they owed $24,000 next week, I always learn something.  How about the guy who, by all accounts, hates his girlfriend and her spending habits?  I can’t wait until they break up and he asks for all his loans back.  This is better than soap operas folks!

 

While I won’t be posting links to these blogs (out of sheer kindness) one struck a chord with me as the author observed a relative making a series of bad choices ending with a vehicle repossession. This series:  http://www.chicawithissues.com/2008/07/28/observing-others-financial-choices/

showed us the glimpse into a family that lives up the high life on credit cards, loans and fingerhut.  For those of you unaware (and it’s probably a good thing) fingerhut and other services sell items that you pay back by the month, $10/month for an ipod for example.  It all seems well and good until you consider that if you practiced a little self control, saved up the money and recognized that delayed gratification would save you hundreds in the long run you’d have that iPod without the fingerhut bill.

 

To my knowledge no one ever died from not owning an iPod.

 

And the Ugly

 

This phenomenon is like being stuck in traffic due to an accident and you’re cursing the hundreds of drivers in front of you, “just drive! it’s an fender bender not NASCAR!” and then you pull up to the scene and slow down just for a quick glance.

 

Yeah, that’s reading a post from a blogger who will “absolutely without a doubt pay down this debt!!!” and six months later has updated, quietly adding their new car loan to the list of debts.  It’s the millionaire who complains about picking up a relative at the airport and decides to charge her children $10 each time they come for a visit for “taxi service”.

 

But it’s also the blogger who tracks their spending too obsessively for my tastes, registering a dime as “found money” in Quicken.

 

All of these bloggers are making their own choices, living their financial lives out in the open in relative anonymity.  Maybe obsessive compulsive financial tracking works for them.  Maybe their choices, which seem absurd to me, will pay off in the long run.

 

Why me?

 

So if part of my interest in financial blogs is to see what people do right and another part to know what people did wrong is that enough?  Why not just read and avoid adding my own suggestions to the blogging universe?  Well, it seems I simply cannot keep my mouth shut.  You know those days when someone on the train or at the next table or desk is just wrong?  When they’ve got some idea so messed up in their head you just want to shake them?  That’s how I feel about my generation at times when it comes to money.

And I’m not usually so involved in other people’s personal decisions but this one, this one will directly influence my life.  In my region a lot of folks are losing their houses after buying mortgages they could not afford.  The rental market is pretty tight and prices are increasing. Cost of living increases and a tight job market means more people resort to social services, services we all pay for with taxes.  Difficult times and desperate peoplecan lead to an increase in crime which impacts all of us.