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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

You are the only person who knows my real identity now! (Well, besides Maggie and my husband.)

@Nicole-Thanks for talking to me like a real person and for not yelling at me, I do appreciate that.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So whatever you did…thanks Trent!

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).

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.