As you’ll read tomorrow (or Monday), I’ve entered a new phase in my life. After years of hard work and long hours building this blog (time that I’ve enjoyed), I’ve been shifting things around so that I have more free time. As a result, I’m going to have more time to devote to creating quality blog posts, instead of rushing around at the last minute looking for something to write about.
Because of this, it’s time yet again to take requests. I do this about once a year, and it’s a great way to get a feel for what GRS readers are interested in. I’d be grateful if you’d take the time to leave a comment below with topic suggestions or article requests. It doesn’t matter if we’ve covered the subject in the past. If you’d like me (or one of the other GRS staff) to write about it, let me know.
Have there been too many articles about credit cards? Too few articles about credit cards? Would you like to know more about individual savings accounts? Do you like the articles about the psychology of spending? Would it be helpful to have somebody come in to explain insurance concepts in plain English? Should I try to persuade my wife to share more of her recipes now and then? Let me know what you’d like to read about!
While you’re all providing feedback about the site, here are a few recent articles of note:
Over at The Simple Dollar, Trent and his readers had a thoughtful discussion about the obligations of wealth. “I think there is some inherent distrust of the rich in the mainstream of American society,” Trent writes as he describes how a wealthy person can keep from alienating his friends. There’s so much to say about this topic; I’m tempted to write an entire article about it.
GRS reader Steven writes a blog called Hundred Goals, which is about achieving your goals while managing your finances. After Sierra’s post this morning about travel, he dropped me a line to let me know that he has a recent article about how to have a great vacation.
Speaking of vacation, my pal Jason over at No Credit Needed spent time compiling day-use fees and free days for state parks across the United States. Handy page to bookmark!
And here’s more travel! At The Art of Non-Conformity, my good friend Chris Guillebeau has posted a beginner’s guide to travel hacking. I’ve been asking him to share this info for a long time; now I’ve got to take responsibility to use the knowledge he’s shared.
Finally, I’ve been giving a lot of interviews lately. I’m much more comfortable with these than I used to be. (They used to scare me to death!) Some examples:
- Colleen from The Frisky interviewed me about how to save money even when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. This is a tough quandary, something I’m asked about a lot.
- In an interview with BeFrugal, I discuss frugality, happiness, and conscious spending. (Note: “the ballot” should be “the balance” — I must have mumbled.)
- Jeff Rose at Good Financial Cents also interviewed me. This interview is very much about the process of writing a book, which may or may not interest you.
- I also spoke with Beverly Harzog from Card Ratings. We chatted about credit cards, of course, but also about other aspects of personal finance.
- Finally, USA Weekend has a short piece on how to give your 401(k) a midyear check, for which author Richard Eisenberg interviewed me back in May. This is a perfect example of how much work goes into even a small newspaper article. Eisenberg spent 20-30 minutes on the phone with me, and I’m sure he did the same with the other folks he quotes. Plus, I’ll bet he spent a lot of time writing. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were 4-6 hours in this small piece.
Okay, one last thing before I go. Tim pointed me to a two-year-old New York Times series about the debt trap, which includes an interactive infographic showing average household debt loads over the past century.
That’s enough links for today. Please do leave a comment with topic requests or other feedback. Meanwhile, it’s time for me to go do some yardwork…
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I also second: My favorite posts deal with living better on less.
I prefer the posts on smaller ‘frugal’ type things we can do, rather than the detailed financial ones. (Although that is mainly because I’m Canadian so most of them don’t apply to me). Any interest in looking into Canadian financial products and investments, such as RRSPs and TFSAs?
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I’d like to see more of these types of articles:
- money management for people who have no debt
- retirement strategies for singles
- whether to convert to a Roth IRA
- investment ideas other than the stock market
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As a DVM I think people need to know more about pet health insurance/planning for medical emergencies with their pets which can easily go into thousands of dollars.
Also, I think it would be helpful to know more about charity–suggestions on when to start, how to do it responsibly, how it affects taxes (when can you write it off?) etc.
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- house purchasing timeline; different resources for figuring out how much house you can afford; maybe a look at how much “house” you get for your buck in a few major and minor cities to discuss relative value (I was the one who emailed in about co-buying with a friend and your answer and the comments were helpful but I initially was looking for a timeline of when we apply for mortagages, do we have to do it through the same lender, do we have the same realtor, what if one loan stalls when the other goes through – how do we work on the timing? guess we should both be pre-approved but does that mean it will go through right away? will sellers want to deal with people who are buying with 2 loans? experiences of folks who’ve co-bought before?)
- building a pet trust; what kind of atty involvement do you need; what kind of things can you put in a trust; picking people (executors and the folks who are the caretakers) who are going to respect the trust and not want all the money to go to people
- maybe a spectrum of people who dress well who’ve gotten the retail and huge-closet clothing monkey off their back and how (the clothing discussions are often okay but when I look at the authors their style is either not presented or is just arts and craftsy that I assume more stylish folks just ignore it as a “homey”/hippie thing to do?) or even how developing a signature style helps cut down on the number of pieces you need in your closet; how to pick things you’ll actually wear/that fit you
- what can tailors do; what can cobblers do to extend the life of your shoes or create better clothes for you? what shouldn’t we ask them to do?
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While you have a pretty ample selection of articles on the trials and tribulations of home ownership, I notice there’s a definite lack of “How To Get Started” if you’re looking to buy your first home.
No one really explains exactly how a mortgage works for a house of any given price (i.e. if a home is selling for $100,000 and I bring a down payment for $20,000, how much of a loan should I get? What can I expect in closing costs? How do I calculate my true monthly payments etc?). As someone looking to purchase in the next year or two, these are all things I’m very curious about.
But in general, more “How To” articles on common financial issues, milestones and decisions would be a welcome addition.
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love to keep seeing Reader Stories, so much to learn from real stories (both good and bad stories).
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JD-
I’d love to hear a post on cost of living & salary differences throughout the US and abroad…I think this could be really interesting and & don’t remember anything like this being posted in recent memory.
Thanks,
Joel
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I’d be interested in reading how people have changed or what they have learned having gone thru this recession. Also would be helpful to have a post on financial planning when you have a child with a disability.
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Count me in for HSAs – I’m really interested in those but can’t quite decide if they would work for me. I’d love to see a nuts and bolts info piece and then maybe interviews or opinions from those who have used them successfully and those who haven’t found them to be workable.
Also, #33 suggestion is great – knowing how folks teach their kids about money could be really helpful.
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would be interested to see an article on how to establish credit as a recent immigrant with no credit history. I have good income, but that means nothing when applying for a credit card. I am treated exactly like someone who has no credit history because they declared bankruptcy or something.
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Please do an article about funds i.e. mutal and index. In the next nine months, I’m going to be diving into investing, and although I’m doing plenty of research and learning a lot along the way, I still feel as if I don’t know enough.
Where does investment come into play for the long term goals of members of Get Rich Slowly? Is it necessary at all in order to achieve financial freedom and success? What are the moral implications and responsiblities of investors? What sort of discipline is needed for long term investors?
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HSAs and #33!
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I’d love to hear a post on cost of living & salary differences throughout the US and abroad…I think this could be really interesting and & don’t remember anything like this being posted in recent memory.
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Also, since you’re asking, it would be great if you wrote on the need for young people to save for their own college funds, and not just rely on the “bank of mom & dad.”
I’m starting graduate school in the fall, and after the initial sticker shock, I was able to find scholarships to get me through my first year.
However, after reading your blog and the books of John Bogle, I discovered the miracle of compounding interest.
I’ve been working since I was 11 years old (I’m turning 24 this summer), and if I saved just 10% of what I made from odd jobs and put it into an educational fund for myself, I probably wouldn’t be worrying about the possibility of taking on debt to pay for school.
This question is for J.D., and any other GRS reader out there (especially for those who have kids). Once kids start working and making their own money, should they be the ones to start saving for college, or is this something that can wait until they are older. Thanks!
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I would like more articles along the lines of the recent one on target-date funds – not SUPER advanced, but good info. As long as you can find experts with a good voice, and who “get” your audience, I’d like to hear from others with more advanced knowledge.
Maybe you could consider a “third stage” spinoff/micro-site or quick one-paragraph reviews of good “third stage” articles to direct your readers to. Or you could decide to be come a CFP and take your readers through the learning process!
A very specific topic I think would make a great article would be exploring a concept raised by a book review on NPR’s marketplace last week, which found that there is a positive correlation between being a “cheapskate” and high self-confidence.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/07/09/mm-im-a-cheapskate-out-and-proud/
I also agree with Deborah above — learning about different family structures and how they handle finances is interesting to me.
Other than that — Agree on the “living better on less”. I’m most interested in CREATIVE approaches – budgeting, frugality, shopping, saving, psychology, goal-setting – any of these topics are great as long as the concepts are fresh and I can maybe get some “ah-ha!” insights.
Finally, I’d love to see more on increasing income – especially from reader stories / concrete examples. Sorry for the super-long response!
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I’d be interested to see an article about the implications of not raising your kids to understand the implications the jobs and careers they choose have on their ability to maintain a lifestyle their parents might have provided.
I encounter peers (i’m 27) all the time with very large debt who aren’t necessarily living an extravagant life but a life they got a customed to when living at home. Now the they are in the real world it’s hard for them to accept that the job they chose is not able to provide them with the life style they were used to. So they continue to live in a ‘nicer’ apartment, go out for dinner and drinks more then they should.
How do parents, who are well off, handle providing their kids with the comforts and stuff they may not have had when they were younger while also raising them to be responsible later on.
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I’m part of the “sandwich generation” and my husband and I are facing two sets of parents who, in the next five years, will reach retirement age with no savings and significant financial problems. I’d like to know what options we have for helping them stay comfortable in their golden years without destroying any chance we have for financial peace! Thanks for all your great work – we love your blog and read daily.
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I’d love to read posts about couples in which one partner makes significantly more than the other and how they handle things. It’s all well and good to say that “we’ll both put X% in the kitty and pay our fair share” but in reality, I’m learning that the most honest and well-intentioned of couples have trouble with this in a practical way. How do they handle retirement planning, household expenses, budgeting, establishing financial goals, etc?
I also vote for more “living better on less” posts and psychology of money posts!
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Any article is good, if it is in simple layman language. The less jargon the better
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Hmmm, every single thread is about yet another way to save money. While I’m actively saving my pants off, I guess I’d love to see an article about how to increase income as well. Maybe some ways to scrape out a few hundred dollars a month so I don’t have to feel bad about not using a coupon to buy toilet paper. I’m all for saving, but making a little extra sure sounds good to me too.
My two cents.
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With so many people unemployed, myself included for six months (employed now however).I would like to have any help on how to get back in the black. I have already cut everything to the bone, including living with a broken air conditioning unit in Texas in the middle of the summer. Some fresh insight would be great. Keep up the good work, love GRS.
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I would love to see an article about retirement plans when you don’t pay into social security. There is a state retirement for us plan but I know it won’t be enough for us.
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@Laura (#47):
In case your question regarding pensions doesn’t get addressed (as it’s not exactly a topic that applies to everybody), this article I wrote a while back may be helpful.
@Claudia (#61):
Regarding index funds vs. other mutual funds, either this article or this article from GRS may be of use.
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What’s it like not having to work?
What’s a vacation?
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-Making ends meet when your income isn’t enough.
-life insurance, term vs whole.
-putting your kids through college.
-valid work at home options.
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I’d be interested also in managing money once debt free.
And topics more specifically for Canadians – investing and also savings on groceries, etc.
Also changing careers mid-life (which relates to savings and being debt-free).
Pet insurance is a good topic.
More specifics about managing money as a couple – especially when some accounts are separate. And financial implications of marriage.
I’ll leave it at that.
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I have just bought my first home, and there’s a lot I didn’t know! I second the request in #55 for a good article or series on buying a first home. For example, the difference between the APR and actual interest rate on your mortgage (I still don’t quite understand that part), all the other expenses you have to plan for, and to-do’s that are vital for getting started on the right foot. Setting up new utilities service, making sure your closing/escrow company gets everything right, insurance issues, and all the rest. I was surprised to learn, for example, that I’ll pay almost $600 up front to start propane service to my house because the tank-placement fee, first fill-up of 400 gallons, required safety check, and first year’s tank rental all must be paid at once when the tanks are delivered. There have been several little “surprises” like that, and if I hadn’t kept a big enough cash reserve on hand I would be in trouble now!
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My vote is on the Health Savings Account (HSA) and comparison to standard HMO/PPO coverage.
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Mike @48 totally feeling your pain! Just concentrate on snowballing your debt and realize there is a light at the end of the tunnel! We came up with a 5 year plan that meshed saving with paying off our own six figure student loan debt. We still have some time to go, but it helps to know we are at least making strides! We try to live cheaply, find small cozy cheap housing in a safe neighborhood, budget for trips, and every other source of “found money” goes directly to student loans!
I have two suggestions!!
A) what steps to take once you have launched yourself out of step #1 (paying off all debt and you have a healthy emergency fund) and the best ways to go about creating true wealth (at least sources and types of people to talk to). I find there is ample amount of writing about the first stage, but then transitioning to the second stage tends to be glossed over other than “save, diversify, and invest wisely”.
B) how to continue relationships with people (or how relationships are affected), for those who are on “the plan” and those who are not. For example, we have close friends that now have seemed to resented the fact we have changed our lifestyle, that we can now afford to go on a cruise or two a year etc. I keep explaining what we are doing, I don’t hide anything, but it feels like I am loosing long time friends just because of the way I relate to money and how they relate to money. I do have other friends that are more in line with our new lifestyle, but don’t necessarily resent us for what we have accomplished. It sounds easy to just get new friends, but we get along in every other aspect of our lives except when the topic of money comes up. At this point, I have literally known them half my life, they are geniuinely wonderful people, but HORRIBLE money managers! LOL.
Love the blog and looking forward to more articles!
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When you’re doing the HSA article (or an expert is doing it), I think one important thing to note is that a lot of people get the Health Savings Account mixed up with a Flexible Spending Account. The flexible spending account at my university for health is actually called an HSA, but the S stands for spending and not for saving. I was recently on a forum and someone was asking about an HSA combined with a high deductible policy and how that worked and all but one person responding talked about her own flexible spending account, which is similar but different in very important ways.
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I would love to read articles about the influence of commercials and marketing, especially the impact that it has on our children and their developing minds.
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Lots of great ideas here. This might be something where you have to get someone to guest post, but I’d like to some posts on religion and money. Religious beliefs have a pretty big impact on a lot of people’s lives and spending habits, so I think it would be useful to have a few posts to discuss this from a few different perspectives.
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1 – Roth 401K. What is it? When it is offered, who should use it? How is it like a 401K vs Roth IRA with funds, fees, penalties, etc
2 – Taxes and finances living abroad. I’m an American living and working in Singapore and I see so much mis-information from bloggers about this topic that I want more accurate and helpful posts to overshadow the inaccurate ones.
3 – Might be out of your topic range, but saving money to start a small business. How much do you need to offer yourself to get a loan (20%?)? Where should the money be saved?
4 – How to find value good contractors/service providers for your home to make your money count for more and make your repairs/services last longer
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First, thanks for giving us input! Here are some things that sounded like they might be interesting to others as well.
I’d love to see some information about retirement planning for couples who have very different life expectencies – for example, they may be more than 10 years apart in age or one might have a health issue that the other doesn’t. In my case, I’m eligible for retirement at a younger age, but my husband’s family all live to be 112 (and then only die because they fall off the roof when repairing a 2nd story window). I want a retirement, but I don’t want him to outlive our assets! How have other people dealt fairly with this?
I second the idea about figuring out how the government pensions affect your retirement, especially social security.
Another idea that might be interesting for folks (esp. those with older parents) is detecting signs of financial abuse/protecting your loved ones from financial abuse/recovering from financial abuse.
Last, it might be helpful to have a reader story on getting fired ‘for cause’, and how you deal with that. For example, how do you get a new job when you can’t use your last boss as a reference, what should you expect psychologically if you feel victimized, and since this might be out of the blue, what should you do first? What should you not do? (For example, I’ve heard that you should take the first job you can get, just to get some cash flow; and I’ve heard that you should never take a “filler” job because it affects your unemployment.)
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Love the reader stories and would love to keep seeing those — would be nice if you could profile some people who have retired or semi-retired early and have them explain how they did it. (The early retirement forum has lots of good candidates). Also profiles of people whose solid financial foundation allowed them to make dramatic and positive life changes — change to a different career, take time off to travel the world, etc. The more inspirational the better.
On the student loan question, it would be interesting to do a profile of recent graduates in similar careers but who followed different paths and accumulated different levels of debt to get there. I think it is often assumed that to get to X job you have to go to Y school and take on Z amount of student loans, but there are lots of people who prove this wrong. So if you could find four different investment bankers/lawyers/doctors/professsors/etc. who are in relatively the same professional position but got there very different ways, that would be really interesting to see/hear what they say about how their financial choices during school affect them now.
More posts from and about Kris (the latter with her permission, of course) would be great — especially ones where she gets to tell her version of your story. I love narrative…
More posts that incorporate reader input. You have developed a really great, supportive community here, and should maximize the benefit of it/to it.
Generally I really like the more philosophical posts, the ones where you dig in and explore the deeper meaning/role of money in our lives. You are an excellent, engaging writer, J.D., so I hope you will be giving us more as the result of this transition.
Oh, one minor quibble. As an overseas reader, I really don’t like the video posts that baker has been doing lately. I can’t watch them most of the time due to access issues, and it means one less GRS post to enjoy every day.
Thanks for seeking our feedback! GRS is one of the first sites I go to every day, and I really appreciate all your hard work and the great results it produces.
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Alex @ 79 – many thanks.
I’ll also second your idea regarding dealing with friends in different financial situations. I am trying to live like a student, which means that when I go out with friends, I nurse a coke. So I am feeling the opposite end of your divide – where my friends tend to be spending a lot more (in some of their cases, potentially above their means).
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I agree with @lhamo – keep the philosophy coming.
Additionally, having too much money can be as bad as not having enough, especially when we have kids and they don’t ‘do without’ like we used to. How do we pass this ethos on to the next generation when they have no experience of the consequences of not having money, and then squandering it? It seems like a have-have-not cycle over generations.
Just my 2-cents (pardon the pun) and you have a great blog. I think this is my first comment, but I’ve been reading you for about 18 months. Good luck with your new phase of life!
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A post on the good, the bad, and the ugly of educational debt, when, in this economy, there aren’t so many scholarships/grants, and you don’t want to take on a lot of debt to go back to school…
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Hi JD,
It would be great to see some articles of an international flavour. People get rich slowly all over the world, I’m doing it in the UK – so when it comes to posts on a 401k or tax dollar spending breakdowns, or indeed Health Insurance; I tend to skip over those posts as the principles may well apply but the technical details don’t.
So what about a look at the international equivalents, variants and possibilities???
Regards,
Stephen.
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Hi I’m a European who lived the last 10 years in Asia, so probably not really the demographics this blog caters to. It’s very biased towards the American system, which is natural. But I think your readers would benefit from seeing how things work in other developed countries (retirement systems, investment alternatives, income tax, cap gains tax etc. etc.). From Hong Kong which is exceptionally liberal and has a low flat rate tax to Sweden who is bordering socialist but have a very well functioning society.
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I am a current college student who reads your site on a regular basis. While a lot of the advice here can help me now or once I finish school, I find that on this blog, as well as others, student loans are thought to be “good” debt. However, with some of my loans at 6.8% or higher (and federal ones being some of the worst), which adds up to far too much interest for my liking, I find that I struggle with things such as creating a budget for my very irregular, sometimes non-existent income, as well as balancing paying for school for the current semester with minimal loans and getting a head start on paying off the ones I already have. I would also appreciate LESS articles on how students should go to state schools and their parents should refuse to cosign loans. While that was fine about 8 years ago when my sister was attending college, I find that at my private school, I am receiving more scholarships and paying the same or even less than many of those in state schools. My major also does not exist in most state schools, and I do not know of a single person my age who has been able to get a loan without a cosigner, as federal loans only cover so much, and some of us have only minimal help from our parents from various reasons.
J.D., perhaps you can find someone to guest post on these topics? Preferably someone who understands student life now, instead of 10 or 20 years ago.
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I would love to hear about finances when entering into a relationship – how to merge? Especially when one or both people have debt and make different amounts of money? Thanks!
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I’d like to see more posts for the divorced or never married single parent of kids.
We’re a big group and we have significant financial issues to deal with, but it seems like all the personal finance sites are aimed either at young childless singles or traditional married couples.
Our risk calculations have to be quite different than those of intact families because we are the sole support of our families, and we may have to pay child support (or pay lawyers to deal with ongoing custody issues) even if we lose our jobs. We also have to deal with figuring out how to share costs of raising children including college costs with a co-parent, and figuring out how to financially deal with a potential new spouse and/or stepchildren. Estate and life insurance, ie figuring out how to leave money for your kids that’s not going to be under the control of your ex-spouse, are also very critical for us.
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I’d like to see a post about what to do early on to have a secure financial future. My boyfriend and I are both in our 20s and in grad school, so our income is very limited, but we keep hearing that choices we make now make a big difference later on in life. What are those choices, and how can we make the right ones?
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I really like the psycology of spending articles. I would also like to see your thoughts on borrowing money to start a side business.
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Information on Long-Term disability insurance and social security disability benefits.
How much to purchase?
Purchasing an invidual policy
Factoring in potential SSDI benefits when purchasing a policy
What to look for
Thanks
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I’d love to see some articles about investing. I know not everyone is out of the, “in debt,” phase of their journey to being rich slowly, but I think the next step when you’re out of debt should be researching and learning more about investment and you don’t see a lot of that on most PF blogs.
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I’d like to see more posts on the psychology of money. For a personal example, I’m carrying student loan debt, but have an emergency fund with enough to cover a year of expenses (it’s enough to wipe out the debt and still have some left over). I know that technically I should wipe out the debt at 3.5% interest since that would be a guaranteed return greater than I could earn in the MMA, but I feel like cash is king right now and its comforting to me to have that cushion. I am making triple payments on the debt so it should be paid off in the next 1-2 yrs.
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A second for these:
#67 – Taking care of parents who have few or no resources as they age. This was a hot button topic on another blog and many baby boomers are facing retirement this way so I’d bet it would appeal to a broad spectrum of folks. I’ve been doing research on this for my parents and there are lots of programs for seniors to help so that even with just social security they actually can do it in on their own. But I know this is a major source of stress for many adult children of seniors and of course the seniors themselves.
#88 – Could not agree more on helping people understand the magnitude of student loan debt, along with the potential income their degrees will produce. This feel like dream killing to lots of people but I believe in telling kids you can’t always go to the college you want even if you get in. This is also applicable to graduate and professional school – lots of real life reader stories involve trying to figure out how to pay off six figure debt for degrees they went for because they didn’t have anything else to do. Chase your dreams but don’t mortgage your future to do it maybe?
I think #93 about single parenting is interesting but even if it feels too specific a request for you it would be nice to see single parents addressed in postings about the kid issues if advice to them would be different.
I’m excited to see what comes next!
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Wow, lots of comments already! From what I saw, I’m with the Beginners Group. I actually feel that a lot of articles have a lot to do with people who are either on a solid path to financial freedom or already there (which is AWESOME & gives me hope) but I usually have to go to the Searches for Basics. I personally love the hacks. Like others, I’d like more info on types of budgets, how to budget, etc. I have a huge problem with that.
Oh and one thing I noticed, there does seem to be a lack of information for really young people. The other day on the forums for instance I posted asking if anyone knew of any good finance books for a high school senior. He’s about to start the most vulnerable year of his financial life but seems to have a good head on his shoulders at the moment. I’d like to encourage the behavior. Well, no one responded so either no one cares or no one KNOWS.
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