I got into this MS gig about two or three years ago, and it has been wild roller coaster of emotions. After being envious of friends who had the financial freedom or recklessness to go on trips, I stumbled upon a couple MS bloggers. Then I got hooked into VR, bluebirds and then I researched more into forums like FT. Then after reading so many posts and just seeing how the community treats one. I realized that FT was not for me. Then i stumbled on saverocity. I visit this site much more than I do with SD which was something I was on religiously. What has changed since then? The people here by far have made this site not just something more accessible but has made this community more positive.
I understand for a lot of people when certain MS tools are exploited or certain tricks get outed, it draws the anger of others. I know sometimes we need to talk in code to prevent ms tricks from being leaked out. Point is that for a lot of us we want to protect the hobby as much as possible. By doing so, it allowed many of us to take fascinating trips to places we dreamed of. I never thought I would travel to Aruba in my life. However, when your gf asks where do you want to go because shes indecisive, and a beach boy song starts to play in your mind, it just happens. I kid you not!
The reason why I decided to write this post is that yesterday a friend of mine who is not as active in the MS community decided to ask me how to qualify for the mango saving 6% under the new structure. At first I was honestly annoyed, because I gave her husband all the details on how to do every step. I immediately told her to check the data points, which even confused her more. I then told her that I think the recent reports showed that certain banks would qualify for the DD. Then she asked more questions which annoyed me more. Maybe it was the stress of trying to load up RBs and unloading gold, that made me annoyed. After a decent night of sleep, I felt bad. I realized that I have been spoiled by a community like saverocity. Burgertm made a great post about gold to reach spending minimum which I was too scared of to create due to the thumbs down or the numerous gold detractors. I reached out to Burgertm just to bounce ideas off of about gold. On other forums FT or slickdeals I would be given the cold shoulder or the screw off tone. Thanks for messaging me back Burgertm! I have even emailed Matt, and he kindly responded back. I realized that my friend may not have time or the resources to understand the slang or the deals that we stumbled onto or know of. Maybe instead of talking like a FT robot (im working on a change), I could have talked to her as a friend and not as some FT lurker.
So what does Saverocity mean to me? Saverocity means community to me. It is a place where I can discuss travel plans or ms tools with like minded individuals. It is a place that I can learn and grown both financially and personally. Seeing how Matt resolves issues within the community has been a great model. It beats seeing a post for a Mod saying "Cut it out, or I am going to toss you over the boat." Lastly, it has been a place where I feel that people treat each other fairly and respect one another for the most part. It beats being in a forum where everybody is at each others throats. Now I am not saying that it doesnt happen from time to time because it does. What I am saying is that it is nice to be in a community where people aren't throwing knives at each other. I would like a VR thrown at me, that is not activated though, but loaded with 500 bucks. =)