GRS 2.0 (still with cat pictures)

Now that J.D. has said his farewell, I wanted to introduce myself to the Get Rich Slowly community, since my name will be on many of the posts that are not written by staff writers.

I am Ellen Cannon, the editorial director of the financial services websites owned by QuinStreet. In addition to Get Rich Slowly, I oversee ConsumerismCommentary.com, MoneyRates.com, CardRatings.com, HSH.com and numerous others.

I am not the new face or financial guru of Get Rich Slowly; I’m just the hard-working managing editor of the site now. And there are four other editors who are helping me manage your comments, questions, personal stories and other daily duties.

I have been a journalist throughout my career, and most of my work has been in print. I have helped launch nine magazines, including Entertainment Weekly, the Australian edition of People (Sydney is the best city in the world!), and several personal finance titles at Bloomberg. Seven years ago, I moved to the online world as managing editor of Bankrate.com. I was recruited by QuinStreet two and a half years ago to direct the content for its financial services sites.

I have lived in Philadelphia, New York City, Sydney, Princeton, and currently live in Florida. I work from home, assisted by my kitty Mikey. (In keeping with GRS tradition, there will be cat pictures.)

When J.D. told us he was leaving, I thought a great deal about what direction the site should take. So many of you – myself included, long before I worked at QuinStreet – were drawn to GRS because of J.D.’s story and willingness to share what he learned about personal finance and life.

I share the Get Rich Slowly philosophy – I have saved and saved. But it wasn’t always that way. Living in New York when I started my career, earning very little money in a very expensive city, I got into the credit card debt trap just trying to make ends meet. My dad set me straight, though, with some simple math. “Look what the bank pays you in interest to use your money in a savings account. Look what you’re paying the credit card company to use their money. It will take you a long time to make up the difference.” From that point on, I set a budget and the amount of money I would live on. Whenever I got a raise at work, I continued to live on a set amount of money. I paid off all debts and plowed the rest into savings, which I continue to do.

But enough about me. Get Rich Slowly isn’t about any one voice or story. What J.D. created on Get Rich Slowly is this community of people who share their own stories about money, life, philosophy, ideas, work, school, you name it. J.D. may be gone, but you, the readers, are here and I hope you will continue to share your stories and wisdom with all of us.

We will keep bringing you a broad range of topics for discussion contributed by our staff writers, guest contributors, reader stories and, whenever he wants to, J.D. himself. And of course we’ll still be doing the most popular (and my favorite) feature on Fridays: Ask the Readers.

We are working on a new look for the site (your suggestions are welcome), and we hope to make it easier to navigate. We have had some site issues this week and are working through them; thank you for your patience. We are also updating the contributors’ page so that you can get to know the relatively new staff writers — Lisa Aberle, Sarah Gilbert, Nerdo, Honey Smith, Kristin Wong – and reacquaint yourselves with longtime contributors Robert Brokamp and April Dykman.

If there are topics you’d like to see covered or other useful content you would like to see, please drop us a line. You can use jdroth@getrichslowly.org or contact@getrichslowly.org.

GRS is committed to helping our readers save and achieve your financial goals.Savings interest rates may be low, but that’s all the more reason to shop for the best rate.Find the highest savings interest rate from Ally Bank, Capital One 360, Everbank, and more.

This article is about Administration, Savings