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J.D.,

I’ve read your blog ever since I came across it for one major reason. You started out where most of your readers are – uncertain and with a poor history in terms of finances. You chronicled your journey and the blog is a brilliant way for people to come in at any point and see the path you took. This is both a testament to your generosity in sharing all this wisdom as you learned and to the power of blogging to document personal growth and learning.

I think that this is really the heart of what the blog is about – bringing us along on your journey. Your journey has gone in phases. You started in debt and learning the basics and fundamentals. Then you applied them toward getting out of debt. So I think future posts should answer and be about the next question: what do you do once you’re in the black? What is the purpose of finances at that point.

So this is going to get into some existential questions, as well as open the door to detailed looks at new topics that come up as one gets wealthier slowly. If the blog is about getting rich slowly, then we will look forward to hearing what you do as you become more rich.

The old posts chronicling your time at each previous stage are already there. No need to rehash them endlessly. People will always have those to go back to. Now you can start giving us the next phases. And of course there is no one answer to these questions of what you do at each stage. They are value judgments and will be personal to you. But you’ve always done a great job of saying what works for you as an example and balancing that with the need to remind us to make our own unique path.

I think you’re doing a great job and have one of the best blogs I’ve seen and I look forward to seeing it grow.

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/03/07/building-a-personal-finance-library-25-of-the-best-books-about-money/

is my favorite post. I like it when someone takes the time to read and then breaks down the pros and cons of it. Cause it saves me time in making sure I only read things that are relevant.

One to two posts a day is my favorite blog speed. That way I can actually read them as part of my daily morning wake up ritual. More than that and I take to skimming which doesn’t really get any points across.

no podcasts. They take up a lot more of your time for the breakdown of value of the user. Though I guess everyone wants to be a radio host at some point in their lives.

Guest posts are ok. However they need to be used infrequently. I am here because of GRS not because of some other person’s writing.

Financial calculators. Yeah. There are enough out there at the sites that want to get our money. I say just review them rather than place them on your site.

I love your daily (and sometimes more often) posts. I read all of them, except the book reviews. It’s rare I have time to read books, so when I do it usually isn’t going to be a finance-related one.

I like your budget tips and anything that has to do with frugal (but not extreme frugality) living and helpful ways to cut costs. I absolutely love that you admit to going out for expensive meals while explaining that it’s for special occasions and that you save up for them (and still try to keep costs down by avoiding drinks)!

Specific recommendations would be a big help to me: Who are reliable IRA account companies? Is it a good idea to open a personal retirement account with the same company as your work 401(k)? What banks are people using? I can research up and down the internet, but I like having some sort of reliable recommendation to work from.

Some of my favorite posts are from Kris or when you talk about how your budgeting or spending affects both of you.

Also, is it me, or is there a discrepancy between the # comments posted above the article and below the article?

I would like to see more information on investing. A lot of people are mystified by the process and I think if you could help bring some transparency to the ideas and process behind it, you could reach out to even more readers. I’ve learned a lot about investing since I started lurking around here, but I am always interested in learning more. The problem for me is that it almost always seems dull, the writing here is usually more entertaining than most most, and I think that could be helpful for a lot of people.

Additionally, more information on stretching money out would be nice. Perhaps on the forum we could share information on cheap/free entertainment that is available in different cities. I know that is not the purpose of this blog, but it may help foster a better sense of community.

My Suggestion:
This month, my church is running a series on personal finances, and we’re offering a lot of resources to everyone who walks in the door. This week, we’re including a recommendation of your blog (along with annualcreditreport.com and some other sites) and I think it would be fantastic if you had a prominent link at the top of your site to a “New to GRS? Start Here” type of page. A page with a few links to get a personal finance newbie started, a few links for the intermediate, etc.

I know a lot of bloggers do a post like that any time they get a surge of traffic from reddit or digg or something like that, so you may already have one even. But a good starting point, so a new reader who isn’t necessarily already deep into personal finance could find some of your solid articles on things they’d be dealing with (budgeting, basic frugality, basic saving methods, etc.) and then go from there…I think it’d be an excellent asset to your site and then I wouldn’t have to explain to people I recommend the site to on where to go.

I currently have to say “Well, go to the archives section and look for…” or “Find these one or two tags on the sidebar..” (and then have to explain what a tag is…)

Yeah. So can you have that done by this weekend? thanks.

JD,

I love the site and the forums, so certainly keep those.

Guest posts are great. I have some spare time to read so I wouldn’t mind if you posted more often but it would have to be the same quality of material.

Thanks for the site!

J.D.,

I love your site and check it several times a day. My favorites are articles on savings and the little everyday tricks to stretch the budget (like your wife’s articles on gardening/canning, etc.).

My least favorite have been the video posts – they take too long to get to the points I am interested in; I’d much rather skim an article for the info I want to read that sit through minutes of tv for a gem. Also not my favorite have been the guest articles that are so extreme (like your relatives that go from store to store and never buy, or the one on religion while you were in Europe).

Overall, though, it seems that you have struck a nice balance with your posts. I think I find something useful or interesting every week. Thanks for keeping up the site so well.

Lisa

I could do without the Investing articles myself – I’m just not in a position to really use them in any way that would make a difference. I’m still in the “Getting Out” phase right now. Perhaps once I get beyond that, I’ll be in more of a position to do Investing, but even then I’d rather do a mutual fund or use a pro than try to manage that stuff myself – I’d rather spend my time doing other things.

Less Video/Audio – more text/transcripts. I’d rather read through an article (perhaps with pics) than watch a video or try to listen to a podcast. I read quickly and can skim through to pick out the points I want and then read more carefully for details. With Video/Audio, I am stuck trying to concentrate on it or find a block of time dedicated to it. I don’t listen/watch and do other stuff very well.

Overall, I really enjoy the site. There’s a lot of practical advice here. Wish I had a story to share for the Wii drawing, but I will admit to having bought a Wii (planned out, thought about it, thought about it some more, one became available and I bought it) so don’t really need one except as a gift to someone else.

-Pete

Overall, I love this blog because of the wide spectrum of finance topics covered, even if not all of it applies directly to me. I don’t find the debt-reduction stuff as useful, because I’ve inherited my family’s tendency to save obsessively and don’t have any debt at this point (although grad school is approaching). I would like to see more about different ways of organizing personal finances, because I don’t feel like I have a very good sense of where my money is going, and could probably be doing smarter things with my money.

I would also like to see more posts about investing for people with no experience and people who are at the beginning of their working lives. Most of the things I read are for people who are closer to retirement and know what all the financial lingo means.

I read daily, I enjoy the blog. I like the book reviews, that you take the time to evaluate for us whether you feel the book is of value. I love when they sum up the key points of the book, saving me time from actually looking at the book itself. I look at your site daily looking for motivation and inspiration i suppose, to stay on the frugal path… While I am a proponent of home gardening, I don’t find the posts of value, as I am not a homeowner, and the places I rent are not viable options for gardening at this point in time, but that’s just me.
I really liked the ShopSmart: Five eco friendly wallet friendly sites, and the updates with good articles from other blogs and web sites. I like articles on basic financial education, though I never seem to actually sit down and watch the video posts, I usually just have time to skim the site, and get back to work.

I just bought a house and this site has helped me to realize things that will help me and my families future.

Hi J.D. I can’t remember how I stumbled across your site, but I have been a daily reader ever since.

Things I Love/Would Like to See More of:
1. Personal, inspirational stories of overcoming personal finance struggles
2. Creative ways to save money
3. Reviews of Savings Accounts/CDs & Credit Cards
4. Information for beginners, like the basics of IRAs or what interest rates mean (what on earth does APY stand for?)
5. Roundups of helpful articles from other sources
6. Info/guest post about starting a small business, or how stay-at-home moms can still add to family income

I also agree with some of the other commenters, that the blog is better when it is more personal. The guest posts are great, too, but I think it is important to keep yourself very present on the blog.

Thanks for all you do!

I usually like the kinds of things you post. Personally, I’d like to see more posts about investing, but not necessarily investing in the stock market… like investing in your home. I’d be great to have a post discussing if it’s better to invest in home improvements (like getting an attic finished, remodeling a kitchen, etc) or invest in an IRA (or whatever).

I think posting once a day is about right for frequency.

Wow, what a great site! I really appreciated your article on budgeting, the debt snowball effect and monthly expenses. We are going to evaluate our monthly expenses and see if we can save some money on these. You have also inspired me to look at a comprehensive picture of our debt and figure out how to reduce it.

You’ve moved the ads around so that they aren’t as obtrusive. When I first read the site many months ago, I couldn’t find the content and had no idea there were comments. You’ve cleaned that up now. I also like the sign up for email responses. My only recommendation is drop the bulletin boards and concentrate on the blog. Boards were popular in their time but are now a thing of the past. If you want threaded discussions, maybe make sorting options like on slashdot. I would then make this site a registration option so that you can set preferences – but still have anonymous users.

As far as types of posts – I like the variations. The best one was on wedding rings

I’ve only been a reader of Get Rich Slowly for a few weeks, but since then it’s been a regular read on my rss reader. I would say continue with the variety of articles covering different subtopics within the personal finance domain. It’s pretty interesting to look back through the archives for the older posts which are always a good read.

J.D. I read the blog from Google Reader daily on my lunch break. The thing I love about this site is the forum. I post under graphicgeek80. The people are super helpful especially the moderators and pf101.

The only thing that I think you could focus more on would be more detailed looks at investing, like picking your 401K distribution. What factors do you weigh, how do you read a prospectus.

Since I have been reading PF blogs for a while I want a more in depth look at these topics from people that I feel I have a relationship with, instead of a book because I know any questions I had would be readily answered by this great community.

While I understand that the majority of Americans are probably over 35 years old (baby boomers and such), I feel sometimes that articles are geared too much toward their interests. Learning to invest as much as possible, and not try to keep up with the Joneses are fine enough. I’d appreciate more things that apply to people in my situation: young singles or couples. Often, we’re in apartments we cannot modify to save money over the long haul, cannot change providers of essential services, and make less money than older people. Additionally, we often have single incomes or have other things like education taking our time or holding debt over our heads. We haven’t yet made it to the comfortable point of living a good distance below our means, and the economy is hurting us at the moment as well (see the housing crisis).

What can we do to push ourselves along better? How can we meal-plan without eating the same thing as leftovers the whole week? What can we do about expensive health care?

We’ve got major expenses pulling us in many different directions at once. Health care, car payments and insurance, education loans, rent, expensive heating and cooling, food, and on top of that, the ominous social security and retirement debacle looming over our heads that we have to prepare 40 years in advance for.

I would love to move to the country and live an easy life. In retirement. I don’t have the capitol necessary to do so yet, and I would have no idea how to transfer a young career to a new place.

A lot of young people have enough freedom to have carved out their own path, but enough responsibility to make carving a new one incredibly difficult. Changing light bulbs to CFL’s and starting a 401k is easy, and I’m sure it’s helped lots of people, including myself–but I suppose I want answers to the tough questions.

I, too, found your site through lifehacker and usually read on an RSS reader. I think it might be fun to have one tip per day that’s something like, “One simple way to save money TODAY” — even if they’re things most people already know, I think I would respond well to a small reminder.

I would also like more articles about frugality, and possibly less (or at least not an increase) in the investing ones. I am a grad student with no hope of having extra money to invest (in anything other than my employer’s retirement fund) for several years down the road, until I pay off my education debt.

I think what I like best about GRS is that you post something new every day, but not 20 times a day. It is the perfect 10 minute read & think between classes or at lunch. It would be nice to have a section of all the financial calculators people use/have made for themselves, excel spreadsheets etc. I also like the diversity of posts and the way you write about the content. Many financial websites make me feel like they are trying to sell me something, but here it is more like having a conversation with friends about what works best for us and what are the merits of different decisions. But overall, this is a must read for me every day, I am impressed with your ability to maintain this site as regularly as you do.

As a Canadian visitor I wouldn’t mind seeing more Canadian content. I’m sure as with many of the US based blogs I read, the audience is primarily American, but I’m sure you have some readers from elsewhere. Maybe there are some Canadian people out there who could volunteer to give advice particular to us sometimes (not me, I’m clueless!)

I’ve been reading this site for a long time now. Long ago when Ramit at I Will Teach You To Be Rich linked here.

I think the most valuable things about GRS for me is the frequency of posts and the modesty of your writing.

The frequency is great because getting financially secure is something you need to devote a little bit to everyday. The regular updates help me keep my finances in mind, make me more confident about my longer term plans and force me to think, “What’s next?”

The modesty is another important part because you don’t preach doctrine but you present yourself as someone who is also learning. It’s a refreshing twist on traditional financial advice, encourages comments from all sorts of people and asks the reader to get out and do some research of their own. It’s a reminder that reading about something on GRS is only the first step. It’s inspiring in a way to find someone who used to be crippled by credit card debt grow into such a great source of financial know-how.

Thanks for dedicating so much to growing this site.

I really enjoy most of the articles on your site. The one I have particularly found challenging is on Saving the Environment by buying less stuff. We are surrounded by advertising and pressure to buy, as well as being in bad personal habits where we don’t think about the impact of our spending. I would like to see more ideas like this where we can build in good habits to save money and the planet.

Hey JD. Long time reader here. I love the 2 posts a day. You deal in financial crack, I keep coming back for my next hit. You have really inspired me to take care of my finances and get a grip on my debt ever present. By following your sage advice, I will hopefully be debt free by the end of this year and have already began to “pay myself first” by starting and maintaining my savings account. I’ve had numerous aha moments from reading your posts that have led me to really understand the principles of personal finance. I am a big fan of the guest posts, they have really opened my eyes to the rest of the blogosphere. I appreciate your sincere approach to the field, you can tell that you really love what you do and helping others is the ultimate way to make the world a better place.

First of all, I have to say I love the blog, love your personal interaction with readers and your integrity.

My suggestions are:

*More psych. of money type posts. Posts that explore how our mindset affects our financial habits, and how to effect change in that area. Those types of stories always fascinate me. It’s easy to get basic facts and tips anywhere. I think learning how to actually implement some of the tips is crucial for some people and being able to explore the mindset involved helps tremendously for some. And besides, it’s just interesting (to me anyway).

*More self development type posts. Like another commenter, I too loved that “saying yes to things” post. More like that one, please!

*I’d love a “for dummies” type category, especially for investing, buying a home, etc–those things that can be intimidating the first time especially for those who don’t have anyone to help them through it.

This would be directed at people like me who do not know much about investing (and some other topics) and are intimidated, and it would break things down in the most simple terms, with lay language, etc. Take the most basic explanations you can find, and simply them even more, then you’ll be in the ballpark of what I’m looking for.

These posts would address common fears and address reasons why many area afraid to stick their toes into the stock, market waters as well as other investments (such as becoming a landlord, etc.).

*I also love the stories of extreme pf choices, such as living ultra frugally or simply and I’d love to learn about those who have made serious and at times very “alternative” transformations in their lives. I love the whole “living/thinking outside the box” type stories.

*Along with that is just a diversity of situations and lifestyles. It may not fit your demographics or your vision for your blog. I’m not sure. But I personally love to see a variety of types of people and situations covered regularly. I want to learn more about different ways to live, earn, save, etc. from a wide variety of people (including my particular interest in those who’ve faced serious struggles and are managing to succeed despite the obstacles. Tose who have misfortune rather than shopping sprees that have placed them in debt,–but we’ve talked about that a bit already! But not just those people. I want to learn from all types of people. The diversity in lifestyle is what fascinates me.)

*I’d also like to learn more about specific fields and careers, as they relate to finances.

Note: I haven’t read much of the archives so you may have some of this stuff, if so just disregard the above.

Anyway love your blog JD, and even better love what I know of you as a person: honest, with integrity, a desire to help, hard working, etc. That is what keeps me coming back (my perception of the type of admirable person I think you are) even more so than the financial advice and help!

Best,

M