Over the past few weeks, I’ve been making changes to Get Rich Slowly to make it more accessible to you, the reader. Now it’s time to take a look at the content side of things. If you have a spare moment, I’d appreciate it if you could complete this survey.
The survey is a few pages long, and while some of the questions might seem odd, they’ll help me decide what topics are most appropriate for future articles. Feel free to skip any questions you’d rather not answer.
With that finished, let’s move on to some fun finance articles from around the web:
The largest banks in the United States recently underwent a series of “stress tests” to see how well the could handle an economic collapse. Pamela Yip from The Dallas Morning News argues that consumers should face the numbers with their own personal financial stress test. Her test measures four factor:
- Disposable income ratio
- Suriving on savings
- Total spend-down
- Debt-to-income ratio
According to this stress test, I’m in excellent financial health. What about you?
Elsewhere, The New York Times reports that it’s becoming fashionable to shop at Goodwill — literally. Ruth la Ferla describes how this network of thrift stores is trying to appeal to fashion-conscious shoppers. As my wife can attest, I’m anything but fashionable. But I do love shopping for second-hand clothes.
At Articles to Make You Think, Ouida Vincent recently wrote about developing your personal financial philosophy. “Developing a financial philosophy that serves and empowers rather than imprisons us is a personal development activity that never ends,” she writes. “Without evolving philosophies we risk slavery to poverty and sacrifice carefreeness and charity even as we gain material wealth.”
Finally, Trent at The Simple Dollar just posted an article that describes 12 ways his wife quietly makes their life work. I wish I’d written this — not about Trent’s wife, but about Kris. Because the truth is that Kris makes our life work. She’s smart, level-headed, and supportive. Without her, there would be no Get Rich Slowly, and I would be an unhappy man. Great post, Trent.
This article is about Spare Change
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I would say write the post anyway…I know if my husband wrote something like that for me I’d print it up and frame it as a reminder of how well we work together!
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Hi J.D., Can I make a recommendation about the survey? If you’re really interested in knowing readers’ relationship status, please include at least one choice that includes non-married partnership. This doesn’t need to be “domestic partnership,” since I am sure there are plenty of people, myself included, who are living with a partner but are neither married nor legally domestically partnered, put something along the lines of “living with significant other(s)/ partner(s)” would be great. Thanks!
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Another recommendation, if I may? Under employment status considering having an option for “self-employed.” I checked that I work full-time (which I do), but I am self-employed and work from home for the past 12+ years (while taking care of two kids, now 13 and 15).
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My father constructed and analyzed consumer surveys for a living (and I spent many hours working for him!); you get more responses when you offer a reward, if not to each respondent, then to, say, 20 respondents chosen at random.
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This stress test should be done by everyone.
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Whoo-hoo, 78 pts and excellent health here! Maxed out factors 1 and 4, almost did for factor 3, but have low emergency savings (factor 2). We’ve almost paid off the student loan and plan on gathering emergency savings next, so hopefully by the end of the year we’ll be even better.
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I love your link round-up’s JD. Found a nice post from Trent here. I will complete your survey now!
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Good health – You have options to cope with change. That’s a good thing to know. I gotta work on my Disposable income ratio though. By the way: Excelent post J.D. This is exactly the kind of information I hope to find!
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On survey question 2.1 (“Which of the following accounts do you already have and/or are planning to open (please check all that apply)”) the only options were “Already have”, “Planning to open in 1-2 months”, “Trying to decide if I want one”. What about “Don’t have and don’t want”?
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JD, I had a hard time with this survey because it made too many assumptions — especially that I’m a US citizen!
For example, I had to say that a lot of topics or tools weren’t useful to me. That’s not because they aren’t useful information, it’s just that I’m in another country so the information doesn’t apply. An “N/A” option for the questions would have been helpful.
Maybe you’d get a better idea of what your US audience was looking for if you asked where people are coming from? Then you wouldn’t have us “outsiders” like me skewing your results
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Some of your questions did not apply to me because I am not American – 401k or whatever is for Americans.
And ditto to cmadler — you need a “don’t have and don’t want” option.
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Thanks for the feedback on the survey, folks. Obviously, I don’t have a lot of experience with them!
As for the “don’t have, don’t want”, I just assumed people would leave these blank. You’re right that it would have been better to have an explicit option for that.
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I’d just like to second Stefanie’s suggestion for adding a “shacking up” option for relationship status. I picked the answer that was technically correct but not really accurate.
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I just finished my survey but thought of something else that I would like to see more of on the site:
Discussions of finances & families — different ways that couples handle finances (whether married, shacking up, long-term dating, etc.), parents teaching kids, adult kids & parents, handling relatives in better or worse financial situations etc. I’d love to get more reader feedback on these topics!
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I would have been good to have an extra comments box as well. I am from the UK so not all the stuff here is relevant for me but this is still my favourite blog by a mile.
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My survey feedback somewhat duplicates the above, but here’s what I typed on Notepad as I took it:
-don’t have a debt problem even though I have debt
-don’t want some financial products. I have decided I don’t want them.
-bank bias – no mention of credit unions?
-age ranges are pretty clumsy – big difference between 25 and 21, for example.
-work fulltime / side business as an option?
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I completely agree with bon — I really want more info on how to handle finances with your significant other. Living together as well as marriage. Forgot to put that in the survey but it’s something I look for here and elsewhere and I can never find good info.
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Compared to the above comments, this might be nitpicky, but I work full-time and am a part-time student. This is something that affects my outlook and my finances… but I had to choose one in the survey. Making that question a “check all that apply” might have been better.
And I don’t think you need to offer a reward. Your readers are happy to give you feedback (including feedback on the setup of the survey!)
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Hi JD, I took the survey. I think they are an excellent way to find out about your readers and what your readers want…just a bit long. I was glad to see “final questions” at the top of the last page! I wanted to thank you for mentioning my blog post Developing Your Financial Philosophy. I very much enjoy reading your blog and am glad I found it.
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