The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Throw Down the Gauntlet => Topic started by: trammatic on May 16, 2012, 10:10:46 AM
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As highlighted before in the MMM post: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/04/18/news-flash-your-debt-is-an-emergency/ Man vs Debt has another doozy of crappy advice up today here: http://manvsdebt.com/joan-finances-may-2012/
She does a good job of rebuking 401k's and 529's...she's also come up with a unique strategy of having goals for each account! Forget interest rates (where there are wide differencecs...) or even doing a snowball for the small wins...no! scatter those debt repayment dollars like dandylion seeds.
ugh..what BS
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Well, the problem is that she doesn't explain in her post how she decides on the next goals. Is it just writing down the next milestones expected in each account? Or is it where extra re-payments are being focused once all minimum payments have been made? She just doesn't say in this post... Maybe she's explained it in a previous post? I'm not sure because I only read sporadically. There may be a method, though. In any case, it does seem like she's realized her debt is an emergency, she's treating it accordingly and is making good progress. So, there is lots of positive there, regardless of the methodology (or lack thereof) she's using.
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There are a lot of bad personal finance sites out there, unfortunately. And many of the ones that used to be decent are getting worse and worse.
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There are a lot of bad personal finance sites out there, unfortunately. And many of the ones that used to be decent are getting worse and worse.
I agree, I used to read through a few different ones that seemed to be really good, but not so much anymore.
I also think it has to do with my increasing level of knowledge. In the past I'd read something new and just assume it was decent info. I know so much more now that I know enough to say "bull crap" or "that's stupid" when appropriate. And some posts aren't necessarily bad advice, just generally unhelpful.
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There are a lot of bad personal finance sites out there, unfortunately. And many of the ones that used to be decent are getting worse and worse.
I agree, I used to read through a few different ones that seemed to be really good, but not so much anymore.
I also think it has to do with my increasing level of knowledge. In the past I'd read something new and just assume it was decent info. I know so much more now that I know enough to say "bull crap" or "that's stupid" when appropriate. And some posts aren't necessarily bad advice, just generally unhelpful.
I think part of it is increasing financial knowledge, but another part is that as blogs attempt to monetize, they have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. So, while GRS used to be one dude getting better and better, moving into ever more interesting levels of knowledge, now it is repeats of old PF tropes (how to travel on a budget, 5 reasons to open an IRA today, etc).
I think that happens a lot - the blog reaches a certain esoteric level and rather than try to corner a niche market, they go the other route and try to cater to the masses. That is one reason (IMO) MMM exploded onto the scene. There is a huge demand for this particular niche that is totally unfilled by vanilla PF sites. I wouldn't be surprised if other sites saw a hit in their numbers when the forums went up. I know I used to read them (even though they were bland) just to fill mental space in a day. Now I'm more apt to click my MMM forum link than my RSS.
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I think part of it is increasing financial knowledge, but another part is that as blogs attempt to monetize, they have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. So, while GRS used to be one dude getting better and better, moving into ever more interesting levels of knowledge, now it is repeats of old PF tropes (how to travel on a budget, 5 reasons to open an IRA today, etc).
I think that happens a lot - the blog reaches a certain esoteric level and rather than try to corner a niche market, they go the other route and try to cater to the masses. That is one reason (IMO) MMM exploded onto the scene. There is a huge demand for this particular niche that is totally unfilled by vanilla PF sites. I wouldn't be surprised if other sites saw a hit in their numbers when the forums went up. I know I used to read them (even though they were bland) just to fill mental space in a day. Now I'm more apt to click my MMM forum link than my RSS.
Exactly.
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This is why Bad Money Advice is appealing. It's not from our perspective, necessarily, but at least the guy uses his brain.
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She seems to be making positive changes, so that's an improvement. And let's be honest, 90K in credit card debt is like $250K in college loan debt due to higher interest rates. So it's great that they are beginning to get their life back on track.
However, I'm not so sure they realize- as MMM says, "Your debt is an Emergency!". They are in their very late 30's ... maybe in 40. They are supposed to be coasting down the mountain instead of setting up base camp. Luckily for them they have over 100K in income coming in.
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I think that happens a lot - the blog reaches a certain esoteric level and rather than try to corner a niche market, they go the other route and try to cater to the masses. That is one reason (IMO) MMM exploded onto the scene. There is a huge demand for this particular niche that is totally unfilled by vanilla PF sites. I wouldn't be surprised if other sites saw a hit in their numbers when the forums went up. I know I used to read them (even though they were bland) just to fill mental space in a day. Now I'm more apt to click my MMM forum link than my RSS.
Word. Vanilla is a good way to describe most PF sites. As a newbie to PF, I've gotten some value from explanations of savings instruments and from learning how authors and commenters solve various challenges, but overall those sites can be pretty dull, with a layer of hackneyed motivation-speak over everything. So it's not just that MMM fills a niche, but that it does it so engagingly.