Welcome to Independently Financed

Just what the world needs, another personal finance blog

Personal finance journalism as an industry has a problem: it’s too often directed at the people who need it least. It shouldn’t take more than a moment’s reflection to realize that low-income renters need good personal finance advice much more than salaried homeowners, but personal finance journalism treats the problems of the latter with the kind of gravity usually reserved for the High Holy Days while neglecting the former.

While different opportunities are available to people in different circumstances, good personal finance practices are good no matter how much money you make or how much wealth you have, and I’m going to cover opportunities available up and down the income spectrum. If you get bored reading about opportunities only available to low-income people, you’ll have a sense of how the rest of us feel reading about your stock options.

This is advice

If you’ve ever read finance, tax or investing articles written by professionals you know the line that inevitably appears at the top, bottom, or middle, and sometimes all three: “this isn’t advice, your situation may vary, consult your own advisor about your specific situation.” Those bloodless articles leave feeling like I’ve been eating rice cakes: I’m pretty sure it’s food, but what’s the point?

Screw that. I’m not a lawyer (and I’m definitely not your lawyer), but if I think something’s a good idea, I’ll say so. If I think something’s a bad idea, I’ll tell you not to do it.

This is political

I belong to the radical fringe movement that believes the main problem facing poor people is a lack of money. There are other theories, of course: maybe it’s out-of-wedlock childbirth. Maybe it’s low high school completion rates. But as for me, I think what makes poor people poor is not having enough money.

With more money, poor people are more able to be engaged with their families, communities, and country. If we’re going to hang onto our representative system of government, it has to serve the needs of all its citizens, and that requires political engagement from all its citizens. Not having enough money is a serious obstacle on that front.

So I hope I can help there, as well.

About me

I have an unfortunate tendency to take things literally. I believe this must be a defect arising from my childhood and causes me no end of grief, but it does come in handy when discussing money since money is one of the few things in the world that benefits from being taken literally. The difference between a literal 6% return on your investments and a hypothetical 6% return on your investments, for example, makes all the difference in the world to your economic security.

I also have a modestly popular blog about travel hacking. Travel hacking and personal finance are closely related, and in fact many travel hackers are also enthusiasts for financial independence. I have written a number of articles on personal finance on that blog, but decided that it was time to create a separate space so my travel hacker readers aren’t bored by my views on personal finance, and vice versa.

Welcome!

I’m thrilled to finally have a blog hosted on Saverocity. Stay tuned to this space (and check out all the other Saverocity blogs) while we get things set up, and I hope you’ll come back soon.