3 Excellent Blogs That Will Get You Out Of Debt

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3 Excellent Blogs That Will Get You Out Of Debt

via MakeUseOf.com by Ryan Dube on 3/26/09

When you are looking for ideas and techniques to get yourself and your family out of debt, finding information online that covers the importance of personal finance is almost overwhelming. Finances are a lot like other fields such as computers or car repair - everyone's an expert.
However, when you need good, solid advice that will not only get you out of debt but will also help you build a solid financial future, there are a few excellent blogs that deserve mention. People often ask, "Why is it important to plan personal finances?" Each of these blogs not only explain why, but they also show readers how.

The Financial Advice That You Really Need

There are countless blogs that provide advice about frugality, saving money or how to invest. There are online resources and tools available to help you do so - for a few examples, see Sam's list of 5 Online Tools to Help You Manage Your Money or Karl's review of Mint.
However, there are very few blogs that are backed by experts who can prove, post after post, that they really know what they're talking about. Personal finance can be extremely complicated, and near impossible for many people out there to manage on their own. This is why blogs that walk people through these issues in a clear and easily understood way are so critical.
These days, when people are struggling with overwhelming credit card debt, or they're trying to figure out how they can trim the fat in their upside-down budget, they only need to log on to the Internet to find good blogs that can effectively answer their burning financial questions. The following blogs do just that.

The Simple Dollar

The Simple Dollar is a blog created by Trent Hamm in 2006. He is the author of 365 Ways to Live Cheap: Your Everyday Guide to Saving Money. This guy lives, eats, and sleeps frugality and writes volumes about the importance of personal finance.
Trent writes the blog posts in an authentic down-to-earth voice that really strikes a chord with people who may not be financial experts themselves, but are trying desperately to understand why it's important to plan personal finances.

Trent updates this blog about one to two times a day with extremely helpful financial advice. He covers your relationship with money, why you spend the way you do right now and also provides a variety of ways that you can easily manage changing those wasteful spending habits. He describes how you can become more financially successful by changing how you look at money, and changing how you decide what to buy and when to buy it. The Simple Dollar can help anyone, from any walk of life, take a good hard look at their financial situation and it provides the tools and motivation to do what it takes to turn things around.
Some of the top articles on his blog include his trademark frugal ideas such as, "How To Make Your Own Laundry Detergent", "Homemade Bread: Cheap, Delicious, Healthy, and Easier Than You Think", or "Trimming The Fat: Forty Ways To Reduce Your Monthly Required Spending."

Get Rich Slowly

Get Rich Slowly is an impressive blog, written by a blogger known as "J.D." The blog has become so successful that, starting in January 2009, he decided to quit his day job and become a full time professional blogger. The blog is essentially about "sensible personal finance", covering a wide range of important personal finance topics like "How to get out of debt," or "Current CD rates at online banks." The nice thing about this particular financial blog is that it speaks to a reader base that might not necessarily own a huge stock portfolio, but who worries about their looming credit card debt or the growing costs of putting their children through college.

The articles are only subtly technical, but also extremely easy to follow, even for anyone who is not terribly financially adept. The author is extremely frank and honest in his posts, and his articles are effective because J.D. clearly not only "talks the talk," but he shows readers exactly how he successfully implemented the ideas that he writes about. By offering advice with his own personal examples and anecdotes, he's turned this blog into a useful source of financial information for anyone else who's looking to get out of debt.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

The blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich is written by Ramit Sethi, a Stanford graduate who wrote the book of the same name and is also the co-founder of PBwiki. Ramit describes his book as a "highly tactical 6-week program" to get rich.
I have to admit that of all three blogs, I enjoy Ramit's the most. His approach to personal finance is no holds barred - he does try to use regular everyday language, but his bold and direct technical financial advice means that his audience is a bit more financially savvy.

Ramit's readers arrive looking for more advanced financial advice such as how to get the most out of credit cards, how to work with investment accounts to accomplish the most gains, and automating your various financial accounts to your advantage.
Ramit's blog isn't merely about managing household finances to save money or get out of debt, his advice is for people who will only be satisfied when their existing financial situation grows exponentially into the stratosphere.

Final Words

There are certainly plenty of financial blogs to choose from that can help you get out of debt. The three reviewed here are prime examples of those at the top - from a blog on simple, frugal living to the blog that promises to turn your dull financial life into one of wealth and riches. The only question is, which approach do you want to take?
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