My colleague Trent Hamm from The Simple Dollar may have started his blog six months after I did, but he’s ahead of me in books. He published his first, 365 Ways to Live Cheap! [my review], at the end of 2008, and his second, The Simple Dollar, was released this summer.
I’m a huge fan of The Simple Dollar (it’s the only personal-finance blog I read regularly besides my own), and I count Hamm as a colleague and a friend. I think there’s a lot of value in his new book, especially for readers who are financially flustered and ready to change. That said, I think The Simple Dollar (the book) has a serious flaw.
Bad news first
I usually save my complaints about a book until the end of a review. I’m not going to do that here.
My chief beef with The Simple Dollar is that it’s disorganized. For most of the book, there’s no central thesis, and the chapters jump from one topic to another with no discernible pattern. There are chapters on social capital, networking, and relationships, for example, that might make sense when strung together. Instead, they’re peppered throughout the book in what seems like random order.
This makes The Simple Dollar tough to follow. I’m reading about cash flow and frugality, then the book turns to networking and careers, before jumping back to saving and investing, and then hopping forward to money and relationships.
As a reader, it feels like the book is a puzzle that has been mixed up and re-assembled incorrectly. As someone who has written a book of his own (and who has talked to many other writers), it feels very much like somebody — read “the publisher” — came through after Hamm had finished and then arbitrarily changed the order of the chapters. In fact, knowing how methodical Hamm usually is, I’d be willing to bet money this is what happened.
A framework for freedom
Still, while The Simple Dollar as a whole is confusing at times, the chapters themselves are not. Hamm has a talent for cutting to core concepts and discarding the junk. He does that here, too. Where Hamm especially shines — and you know this if you read his blog — is when discussing frugality.
Here, for example, he writes about frugality as a framework for freedom:
Many people associate frugality with sacrifice: You have to give things up. They hear stories about having to give up lattes or giving up eating out or giving up nights on the town, and it sounds incredibly tedious.
A more appropriate view is that frugality is an exchange: You’re trading things you don’t value for things you do value.
Yes! A thousand times yes! It took me years to get this concept, but now that I have it, it guides every financial decision I make. I’ve written 1000-word articles trying to get this point across, but Hamm does it here in just a few sentences.
Hamm says that all of frugality can be boiled down to five simple rules:
- Don’t give up the things you love. Yes, you may have to cut back in the short term, but you don’t have to give up the things that make life worth living. Let’s use my own life as an example. As you know, I like comic books. When I was digging myself out of debt, I had to cut back on my comics spending, but I didn’t give them up completely. Instead, I followed Hamm’s second recommendation, which is…
- Find inexpensive ways to enjoy the things that are important to you. There are almost always cheaper alternatives for pursuing your passions. In my case, that meant borrowing comics from the library. It meant reading the ones I already owned. And it meant buying collections on DVD. (Comics on DVD can’t compare to the printed page, but it’s a cheap way to feed the habit.)
- Cut back hard on the things that matter less. I’ve written extensively about how important this is. In my case, I don’t value television. I rarely watch it. So why was I paying $65/month for a deluxe cable TV package? By cutting back to $15 basic cable, I freed money to pay off my debt or to spend on the things that mattered to me.
- Never go shopping without knowing exactly what you want. “If you ever walk into a store without a plan,” writes Hamm, “it’s highly likely you’re going to walk out the door with something you didn’t intend to buy.” This sort of accidental shopping simply kills frugality and intentional financial goals. Shop with purpose.
- Use the 30-day rule for any unplanned purchase. If you do find yourself tempted to buy on impulse, do what you can to defer the spending. Instead of buying today, put it off until next week — or next month. If you still want whatever is tempting you to spend, then consider the purchase — if you can afford it.
Each chapter of The Simple Dollar contains great advice like this, and Hamm concludes each chapter with five steps to help you change your life for the better.
There’s a lot of information in The Simple Dollar, and Hamm encourages readers to check out other books and websites to learn more. Along the way, he shares bits of his personal story, as well as anecdotes from folks who read his blog. These real-life stories give depth to the concepts he’s trying to convey.
What does it all mean?
The information in The Simple Dollar good, and it’s sure to be useful to many people.I do recommend this book, especially if you’re struggling to get your feet on the ground. But, as I mentioned, the book’s content is so jumbled that it’s difficult to see the Big Picture.
Until the final chapter, this book lacks a thesis, a clear theme that ties the content together. Finally, on page 235, Hamm writes:
If there’s a single overriding point of this entire book, it’s this: Money is nothing more than a tool with which you can create the life you truly want. The challenge is knowing what you truly want…
Amen. That’s a great point, and a fine thesis, but it belongs on page one, not page 235. Putting that at the front of the book and then referring to it throughout could help the reader parse the pile of ideas in The Simple Dollar. They’re great ideas, but what’s the point? We don’t know until the very end.
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@JD #27
I like his site too. I forgot to end my post with a
or a 
to take the edge off of it.
Also, why would anyone banish Trent for life for occasionally disagreeing with him? IF PF blogs are what you like to read, then TSD should be on your list.
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I like TSD, but not as well as I like GRS. To me, J.D. has a more creative, inclusive, and adventurous approach to life and that infuses his writing. T.H. seems to have a very closed and limited (in my view) outlook and life experience, which is fine for him, but it does limit the usefulness, to me, of his advice.
I rarely comment there anymore, not because I got stuck in moderation, but because so many commenters just want to argue. I would only stop reading if the material got completely repetitive or irrelevant (to me) which, as yet, it has not.
Thanks for the book review. Interesting about the chapter order/disorganization thing. I’ve noticed that in other self-helpy books and am willing to accept J.D.’s theory that the publisher is the culprit. Would be interested if T.H. could confirm!
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I also stopped reading Trent’s blog because he came across as a petulant child who 1) refused to consider or engage with criticism in a constructive way or 2) stuck his head in the sand and ignored criticism or 3) lied to get out of a mistake (like pretending he didn’t write something or changing his original blog posting without acknowledging this publicly).
Thinking of Trent and his blog just make me more grateful for JD and Get Rich Slowly – I appreciate JD’s willingness to be transparent and learn from his mistakes, open comments, constructive engagement with detractors, and thoughtful, logical postings.
I will not be buying or in any way supporting Trent’s books.
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I must admit, I haven’t read TSD for many months and didn’t realize Hamm was out of debt as the book title states. IIRC, last time I read his stuff he still owed on his house and car and maybe even student loans. Kudos to him for paying all of them off in that short period of time!
Thanks for the review – I’ll definitely be checking this out of the library as it’s not something I define as a NEED, merely a WANT to read. I know how highly TSD values needs vs. wants as I read in the swimsuit issue – thanks for the link #41 MoneySmarts! I feel a lot of PF bloggers need to lighten up a bit on the need/want thing and it’s good to read comments with a great sense of humor – I nearly spewed my wanted coffee on my wanted brand new laptop a couple of times.
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@Jacq – That’s another problem many of us have with The Simple Dollar. Trent didn’t “wipe out his debts.” His family still has a mortgage (and he refuses to count his home equity in his ‘net worth’ calculation, thus leaving him with a ‘negative net worth’) and a financed Prius (which is a whole additional issue).
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In response to #51:
It’s not an issue of “banishing” due to disagreement. It’s more an issue, for me anyway, of perception of trust. I read PF blogs; I ponder what the authors write and sort it against the knowledge I already have and information I gather. But I feel like I need to be able to trust that the writer of said blog is trustworthy and behaving in a way that is holds him accountable to his audience. And that is what turned me off.
When someone claims to have apologized for offending so many when it clearly didn’t happen, or edits and rewrites something so it looks like it was never there to begin with, it screams a lack of honestly and accountability to me. If someone is advising me on personal finance, they damn well better be accountable for what they put out.
Different strokes, different folks.
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Hmmmm…just tried to post and it seemed to get lost, so sorry if this is a duplicate.
I also stopped reading Trent’s blog because he comes across as a petulant, intransigent child. He 1) does not constructively deal with criticism or disagreement, 2) puts his head in the sand and entirely ignores certain critiques that he does not like or 3) lies about what he’s posted or changes a posting once it’s up without acknowledging what he’s done.
Trent’s blog and my experiences with Trent just made me more grateful for JD and Get Rich Slowly. JD, I appreciate that you are transparent, that you clearly learning from your mistakes and productively engage with criticism, and that your postings are thoughtful and logical. I will not be buying Trent’s books or in any way supporting his work anymore.
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I agree with chacha, Trent seems to have difficulty looking beyond his small town Midwestern and male experiences.
The other problem I have is how error prone Trent seems to be in his blog. Now I know that his third child was recently born and that might be part of it, but there have been some serious errors.
Things like in the Reader Mailbag answers that have nothing to do with the questions. Where it seemed Trent either scanned the question and assumed it said one thing and ran with it. The one that pops to mind was the pregnant woman writing in asking for advice about making make ahead, freezable meals for her family and Trent responded with information about how to make baby food.
There have been typos and grammatical mistakes and just things that seem nitpicky but are bothersome.
To me at least, it seems that there’s often a disconnect between what Trent tells us and what he shows us.
Good example is what Courtney mentioned. But also there’s his cooking series which has been riddled with fundamental errors that someone who claims to love cooking and claims to have spent a lot of money on cooking things should not be making. Things like cooking meat and then trying to marinate it. Or talking about making a recipe light and healthy but using nearly 5 cups of cheese.
The whole swimsuit issue was so stupid, especially since he was arguing that spending $70 on a swimsuit is this terrible decision to base on wants and he’s bought a brand new car based mostly on want rather than need.
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@56 yep.
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I like TSD blog, but I have to say that the subtitle of the book (How One Man Wiped Out His Debts and Achieved the Life of His Dreams) is a huge turn-off to me. It makes it look like a self-congratulatory autobiography.
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Thanks for the review, JD. Both you and Trent are inspirations. Disappointing to hear about the organization issues in his book.
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Chiming in with the same issue with the Simple Dollar. I had comments sitting in moderation for months at a time. When I emailed Trent to ask about it, saying I was frustrated and trying to participate in the community, I got a pretty petulant and abrasive response.
What’s the point of commenting if it only gets approved months later and people have already moved on and debated another point? What I LOVE about GRS is that I read the comments with the same interest with which I read the articles themselves. I can chime in and people chime in to discuss what I have said. Sorry, but I’m not buying Trent’s spam filter excuse. I checked back for WEEKS to see if various comments were approved but gave up.
I still read his blog on occasion, but not with the same love with which I read GRS, and I will not buy his book. I find JD and the staff writers here to have more humilty and a broader sense of experience and perspective.
I know these comments are not what JD was expecting with this article but since the two blogs share audiences it’s obvious that there are a lot of very frustrated people out there who have been unable to discuss their frustration with Trent or even have negative comments approved and instead these have been posted here.
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Same here on the comments, but I politely emailed and my comments were approved. Don’t know what happened as I never actually heard back from him.
Anyway, so perhaps the title of the book is a bit misleading, but I look at it like this: he paid off his considerable amount of *consumer* debt. Yes he still has a mortgage (and a car pmnt.?). He also has a family, which is a large expense (I know his wife works, too), and they are saving to fulfill many goals. He’s got his financial stuff in order, and that’s the gist of the book.
If you don’t think you can learn anything from him, then you don’t have to visit TSD or read the book!
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AMEN to these comments and for finally having the opportunity to give Trent feedback that we are denied on his own website!!!!!! I, too, stopped reading Trent’s blog and haven’t missed it since. I remember when he told readers to hide assets to qualify for more college financial aid. I was disgusted. What if someone went to jail due to his advice that he then lied about and sort of edited???? I sometimes read the blog after that but I found that I kept getting frustrated when my comments with any dissent were not posted and when Trent refused to learn from his mistakes or admit when he was wrong. I saw that I didn’t TRUST or RESPECT Trent, so why would I take his financial advice??! I also realized that his advice is coming from a narrow place, as people pointed out in the crazy swimming suit posting. He’s a dude (so am I, but he is particularly narrow minded in some ways we men can be), his job and life experience before blogging were unremarkable and boring, and his whole life is narrow and somewhat boring to me. I do not see a lot of evidence that he wants to explore the world beyond his alcove. So, I stopped reading. More time for Get Rich Slowly and JD’s rich life of travel and other financial adventures!!!
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Add me to the chorus of folks who’ve quit reading Trent. His take on women’s swimsuits and his general inability to acknowledge mistakes is a huge turn-off for me.
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I had a read through the intro and Table of Contents of the book available on Amazon and could definitely see the organizational issues mentioned in the review right in the first chapter.
Having said that, I do think that TSD is an excellent site for newbies to get an introduction to cutting back and frugality.
I didn’t stop reading the site because of tone or flavor (although I do prefer a more light-hearted, “oh well we all screw up and nobody’s died yet” approach), but more because I’ve lived more frugally than the author for many periods in my life so the blog was a little basic, which I can appreciate since that’s his audience – and too frequent for my tastes. You get tired of hitting delete after reading the topic after awhile.
As the book or his other one is not available in my library system (therefore not in the whole province), I’m going to request that my library stock both on their shelves – along with J.D.’s book as that isn’t available here either. Books like this (Mary Hunt’s, Amy Dacyzyn’s etc.) were a huge help to me when I was turning things around years ago so it’s important that they’re available to people who really need them.
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@Trent,
I’m another one who never gets comments approved. It just says awaiting moderation for weeks or months. Must be your spam filter. I don’t blame you for doing it that way…a blog your size must get an incredible amount of spam. But it is frustrating to not be able to participate in the discussions.
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from time to time I have read TSD, and today I recently subscribed to the RSS feed to see what its like, not sure if I will stick to it, but am willing to give it a shot.
Why don’t you just take what works and leave what doesn’t when you read TSD? You don’t have to agree with everything someone says. Why not take it and apply it to your own life. That’s just called critical thinking.
Are you talking about the post where he says people shouldn’t pay more than $3 for a swimsuit? I’ve never seen a swimsuit for women that has been sold for $3. I think the cheapest one I’ve seen were at Wal-Mart for $20-30.
Anyway I don’t really think that was the point of the post, I think he was saying to not always go with the most expensive item and to not let your materialism get the best of you. Maybe I’m wrong.
You know though if you really want to speak your opinion, why not just contact him and try to be diplomatic, people are more likely to listen to you when you speak in a reasonable voice, and make your opinion known.
Its kind of childish to come to GRS and say “Well so and so is a jerk,and now I can let my opinion be known.” I don’t know I just don’t think that really solves the problem you had with TSD by coming to another person’s blog and venting about them.
I work in Customer Service and the Customer’s that get the best service are the customers who are willing to state their issue in a calm voice, even if they do have a complaint. If you do have a complaint you really need to talk to the person themselves, by contacting them.
He lists his email you know. Also isn’t it more classy to just solve the problem with the person that you had the problem with and not just air it out to the rest of the world?!!
You know what in cases like these, I don’t envy popular bloggers, I really don’t. They don’t work in retail, but they still have to deal with customer service (keeping their readers happy and reading their blog).
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I did email Trent awhile back about the comment issue I was having but thought I was the only one. He must have changed something because I tried again yesterday and his comments were approved.
So whatever you did…thanks Trent!
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@68 If you read though the previous posts… people (including me) HAVE emailed him, and politely. Responses were either non-existent or in some cases rude. That is not good customer service.
I’m glad that everybody was able to voice their concerns here. There was no way on TSD to do so, and apparently now the problem is fixed (for how long, who knows). So it worked. Also I, and a number of other people, no longer feel singled out. So I am grateful to everybody who had the same concerns and to GRS for allowing a place for these concerns to be made known. It was a problem, and prior to this there was no way to be heard.
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Well, I was a big fan of TSD because it was the first blog I discovered about the theme. After almost two years of reading it I simply gave up, what it was written in the blog didn´t resonate to me anymore ….like another person said “I grew up” the site.
I like Trent message of frugality, being myself a blogger that went to the same route of reducing live expenses to the minimum, now I believe that there is a balance where you can continue to save money and at the same time enjoy life…and making my own soap is not part of that equation.
Good thing that there is another book about living frugally on the market, even though I am not interested on this particular one.
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@Jaimie – you’re missing the key point. Are you really Trent posing as Jaime? Many of us don’t TRUST Trent or his advice. Why would I bother to read someone’s blog (and help them make more money off my clicks) if I have to worry that their advice is downright wrong or ILLEGAL???! It’s one thing to disagree with blog advice. That happens on every blog at least occasionally. It’s different to have a financial blog where you dispense illegal advice about defrauding the government on financial aid forms and when you give incorrect information on other topics — and then you squish dissent in the comments, so people can’t even hear the truth or differing viewpoints. NO ONE SHOULD FOLLOW A FINANCIAL BLOGGER IF HE OR SHE IS NOT TRUSTWORTHY!! The area of money is full of sketchy people, so make sure to learn from financial bloggers who are competent, transparent and honest.
And what’s up with “I don’t envy bloggers” because “they don’t work in retain but still have to deal with customer service.” SERIOUSLY!!!???? You must be Trent in disguise. A million jobs that aren’t retain involve customer service. Dave Ramsey talks about how he’s a hit because of good customer service, integrity and treating the customer right. Bloggers like Trent have become wealthy off of their blogs and their readers — the LEAST they can do exercise basic customer service concepts. And if that’s too much to ask, then the least they can do is at least be honest and not give ILLEGAL advice. If you don’t want to deal with “customers” and “service,” you have the choice not to have a PUBLIC blog. And if you don’t want comments, then don’t pretend to allow comments when in fact you are deleting anything that you disagree with or that calls you out.
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“And if you don’t want comments, then don’t pretend to allow comments when in fact you are deleting anything that you disagree with or that calls you out.”
Are you seriously claiming that I don’t allow negative comments on The Simple Dollar? I’m often criticized for having *too many* negative comments. If you go through whatever’s on the home page at any given moment, the majority will have criticism in the comments and some will have serious criticism.
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@ MDD yes my name really is Jaime, I’m 27 and I’m a woman, and no I’m not Trent, sheesh. Okay make your opinion known but please don’t yell at me. I actually post here quite frequently if you haven’t noticed.
GRS is actually one of my favorite websites, so I’m a common poster. I do work in Customer Service, I’m trying to finish my bachelor’s degree so I don’t have to work in CSR anymore. I know customer service is important but its also very low paying, and I have goals I want to achieve like save for retirement so a bachelor’s degree can aid me in that.
Like I said I’m not a frequent reader of TSD, I just subscribed to his RSS feed just recently, to see what its like, if what you say is true then I guess I’ll eventually see it on TSD.
But really no need to yell at me, lordy, okay fine you don’t like TSD and you say he’s not ethical, if that’s the case, I’ll eventually find out on my own.
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@Jaime
Let me know if you need/want me to remove your email and phone number! And I’m glad you included your e-mail, because now I know who you are. You changed your login/email info for commenting, and I hadn’t made the connection with your old ID!
You readers — You don’t realize that I form emotional attachments to your email addresses and usernames, do you? So when you change them (NICOLE!), it can sometimes take me a long time to figure things out.
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Thanks JD, I’ll let you know.
@Nicole-Thanks for talking to me like a real person and for not yelling at me, I do appreciate that.
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hee, sorry JD… we went and got a blog, hence the new email
You are the only person who knows my real identity now! (Well, besides Maggie and my husband.)
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Jaime,
Sorry for making you feel yelled at. I suppose that ALL CAPS has that effect even though I didn’t intend it. I suppose I was just honestly worried about Trent getting positive press given that he truly has given out illegal advice and incorrect advice without acknowledging this.
Thanks.
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@MDD, hey its cool, no worries, thanks for explaining your view, I appreciate that.
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I think that Jaime raised a great point on choosing what does and doesn’t apply or interest you when reading a blog – I do that at TSD and here at GRS! Although questionable advice comes up from time to time, I think Trent and J.D both do a pretty good job clearly communicating that they are not technically financial advisers.
Also, J.D, I was really surprised to see you review this book, but also glad. It can be very tough to honestly review something that a colleague has done, and you did a great job highlighting things that Trent did well, and areas that could improve for his next work. I hope he appreciates the feedback!
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The main issue I have with TSD (and something I am surprised has not been pointed out) is that the blog (can’t comment about the book but I doubt it would be any different) is one-dimensional: it focusses almost exclusively on cutting down expenses instead of generating further income. Trent forgets that there is an opportunity cost to everything. For example, he might note that method A (which costs, say, 10 units of time/effort to save $50) is less efficient than method B (which costs, say, 15 units of time/effort to save $2/week which over a year is $100). But then there might be a method C where 20 units of time/effort [e.g. preparing to negotiate a raise, or shifting an investment portfolio from conservative to balanced] might have an expected gain of $300.
In other words, being frugal all the time may blind you to an initial non-frugal, non-intuitive outlay (such as taking your colleagues out to dinner, or using money to buy time) that pays dividends in time or money later.
Part of this is that TSD is exceedingly risk-averse and is geared towards “How not to fuck up your life” as opposed to “How to play the cost/benefit game”. But frankly I think the tone is stultifying and patronising at times.
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I’ve had a morbid fascination with TSD for a couple of years. For someone who frequently crows about being a “professional writer,” Trent’s prose is artless and inelegant, and he makes frequent grammatical and usage errors.
But, his story is somewhat compelling, and he manages to churn out a lot of copy each and every day, so more power to him.
As others have indicated, when readers catch him making careless or erroneous statements, it gets really interesting. He has little capacity for admitting error, and instead responds with a delicious mixture of petulance and arrogance. It’s highly entertaining – almost to the point that I wonder if some of it is calculated.
For this reader, TSD is akin to a guilty pleasure: it’s bad, but I can’t help but go back for more.
As for the book, he boasted (pre-publication) that it was the “most profound” thing he’d ever written. Despite the fact that he’d selected his publisher because he’d have more “creative control,” I suspect an editor got hold of a manuscript that was flawed, and tried to rescue it. Whether he/she improved the product or made it worse, we’ll never know. But I’ll pass: the site is quite enough.
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Okay – I now have evidence that Trent will not allow some comments perceived by him to be negative. Or at least his loss to the spam filter is not random
Yesterday I read http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/09/11/the-danger-of-assumption/ and commented, “Read blink. If you are always making the wrong assumptions, it should tell you something. Not good.” Twice. No dice getting my comments posted. That should have shown up as comment #2.
Today I used an anonymizer for my IP, a different email address, and a less to-the-point comment with reference to Blink. Ta-da! The latter is now a published comment at TSD. The former will never appear. 1984, anyone?
I do not trust Trent (especially given the comments on how when he suggests something ILLEGAL to do with your money and is called on it, he continues to defend it; see http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/04/07/reader-mailbag-5/).
Trent’s writing is that of someone who cannot have an actual dialogue or discussion on a topic where he is the recipient of information. While obviously leveraging some critiques and criticisms in his more recent blog entries, he never actually seems to appreciate clarification or give credit to others for their insights.
A blog should be a dynamic that allows conversation, not a one-way “enlightenment”. Isolation from that exchange loses an important component.
Did Trent go out on his own as a blogger because he scrimped and saved? Or is it that he can’t work with others? Can he be collaborative? The jury is out given our evidence.
If I had to made a real differentiation between “Get Rich Slowly” and TSD, it would be that this negative post will actually be published here whereas it would never have made it past the “spam filter” at TSD. This is a dialogue and true to the discussions.
Much appreciation, GRS to remaining true to your audience.
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It’s interesting that so many people seem to have issues with TSD, beyond the whole comments moderation aspect. And yet Trent will disregard all the valid criticisms, claiming it’s just “enraged negativity” or that we don’t trust people (re: Uncle Phil and financial aid), or that we are making assumptions (see all the recent not-so-veiled attempts at defending himself from criticism).
My biggest issues with Trent are that he can very rarely admit he is wrong and, when he does, it always takes quite a few heated exchanges and terrible comments from him before he grudgingly gives in. Someone said “petulant” above, and it’s the right word.
Another issue is how narrow his worldview is. His life and his aspirations bore me to tears, which, I admit, is more my problem than his. It’s hard to relate to someone who doesn’t seem to aspire to much beyond buying a country house, where he, presumably, can keep making homemade laundry detergent, cooking homemade meals and play board games.
Last, but not the least: for someone who calls himself a “professional writer”, he doesn’t have a lot of respect for the craft. Typos are frequent, the grammar errors make me wince, and he tends to overuse some words (“value”, “strong”, “deep”, “profound”, “tasty”, and a recent favorite, “literally”, just to name a few). Some posts even have sentences that end abruptly, and missing paragraphs.
A lot of the writing issues could be fixed if he listened to the readers and:
1. corrected mistakes when they are pointed out;
2. used a spell check tool;
3. actually took the time to edit his posts, instead of boasting about how little time he spends working, and how he wants to spend the rest of his life playing in the yard with his kids.
But those are easy solutions and Trent would never go for that.
Why do I still check in? I suspect it’s mostly for the entertainment factor (it can be like a trainwreck), and some readers’ comments.
Thanks for a space where we can vent a bit.
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@Andrew-Thanks for posting that comment about financial aid, I now see what others were concerned about. However, I was a little concerned because to me it seemed like you were all ganging up on him, but now that you posted that I see why other people were concerned.
I did dig into the archives this past Sunday to see what it was all about, yes he does make grammatical and spelling errors I did notice that in the archives, however he does bring up ethics in other posts and tells readers to do things that are ethical.
I wouldn’t hide money from financial aid. Its a penalty if you lie to them. I do disagree with his advice on financial aid.
@Rucas-As for the homemade laundry detergent, well I guess if someone wants to do it, that’s wonderful. Some people are into that, I would never do it though, I can buy a box of Tide for $8-9 and make it last 5-6 months.
However if others want to try that, I really don’t care, its up to them really. I wouldn’t try it myself though, the ingredients that Trent bought all sum up to $9.74 and that’s pretty much what a small box of Tide costs me, well maybe $10 with tax
My bf and I actually want to eventually buy land, so I am not against Trent’s dream of owning a country house. I like the idea of owning land and so does BF because its freedom…freedom from neighbors, also if you can buy land and be more self-reliant, that means that you work less for your needs.
Its the same reasons that people adopt minimalist/frugal lifestyles, they want to work less, have more free time, enjoy life more. If you are self reliant especially if you own land
Then you can use the money you earn, for fun stuff like travel (I really want to travel), finish college, have a job that I like, freedom to retire early or find other work that is fulfilling, and get out of the rat race. I’d love to go into illustration, web design, graphic design, etc. do creative work that makes me happy.
Not everyone wants to live in NYC or SF, or a big city, not everyone enjoys corporate work, and to some people it makes sense to live in the country, and to pursue other interests.
I’ve been to NYC before 9/11, and its an exciting city for sure, but its so populated, and actually the population is more irritating than anything else. There are cool things about it like the museums, Broadway, etc. Its a city that I’d rather visit than one that I’d live in.
So I don’t fault TH for wanting to live in the country, so I can kind of understand why he wants to live in the country. Anyway I’m sorry for writing a novel
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WOW! I have only been reading this site and Trent’s site for a month or so. I am amazed that this review post could bring out such venom! For what it is worth, I like both sites and enjoy reading and pondering if the ideas can help me. I really have not thought of either site as a way for me to spread my own ideas. For those of you that are angry, why don’ t you start a blog of your own to comment?
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