If you blog, I highly recommend throwing things against the wall and for a number of reasons:

1)      You can throw whatever you like

2)      You get to throw it as hard as you can

3)      Both 1 and 2 feel great

4)      Sometimes, the thing hits the wall and sticks so you get to throw more

My wife is my blogging confidant. She is completely dethatched from everything that I’m doing in the blogging world. In fact, she doesn’t even really enjoy my site and has no problem telling me that most of what I write about is boring and unreadable to a majority of the population. That’s why I love talking to her about blogging. She doesn’t have trouble telling me what she really thinks.

She also has no trouble explaining why. Her explanation for why my content is limiting was that I think a lot about my family’s finances and whatever I come up with, gets a post. That’s the name of the game, but problem as she explained it, is that I’m not exactly a noob when it comes to personal finance. So, while you might be reading financial thoughts you won’t find anywhere else on the web, I also need to spend a lot of time explaining my thinking and proving my points.

“There’s no room for fun and honey, you are pretty good at writing things that are fun!” (In reference to my guest post at Add Vodka, which she thought might have been one of the best posts I’ve ever written)

The other reason why my wife is so great for blogging feedback, she actually comes up with ideas for me to throw against the wall. My inspiration for the Add Vodka guest post was the random title of Daisy’s blog. Her suggestion was that every now and then I should focus on a random object and try to incorporate that random object into the subject of a post.

While I’m definitely not going to do this with every post, it sounded like a fun little challenge. My wife pointed to some bananas in our kitchen’s fruit basket and suggested that somehow, I make a post centered on bananas. I have to admit, “How Bananas Can Improve Your Finances” does sound like a fetching title.

To make things a little more interesting, I thought I’d ask the audience for some random, non-finance related nouns to become focused, helpful, but fun finance posts.

Feel free to shout out random things in the comments.

Blogging Goal Update

I’ve kept on track each week and I’ve created a lot of guest posts over the last several weeks. Two of my last submitted guest posts published last week. However, my most recent article didn’t make the cut.

I wrote something up for Yakezie. I try and be as active as possible in the forums, but I’d really like to introduce myself to the Yakezie community as a whole. I thought a post up on the front page would be a great way to achieve this. However, I should have asked Sam about posting rules before writing up the post. He told me that for the time being, they are only publishing member submissions.

Here is what was posted last week:

• Steadfast Finances Staff Post – New Benefit to Homeownership: Larger Unemployment Benefits
• Add Vodka – You Really Can Just Add Vodka and Save Money
• From Shopping to Saving – You Can Save a Lot of Money Buying Clothes You Don’t Need, If You Do It Right

Top Family Finance Posts #8

Here’s the best part of the article of my week, sharing the things that you’ve written that really inspire my own family’s finances.

1)      The College Investor shares how to turn budgeting and goal setting into a game. So long as it is anything like Candyland, my children will be willing to help.

2)      Family Money Values puts her grandchildren through financial boot camp. Now drop and give me 20 plus two in interest!

3)      What should have been titled, “how to convince your wife to let you buy a video game” was titled “Have Something You Want to Buy? Attach a Goal to It!” over at See Debt Run.

4)      There are many opinions and no right answers, but Nickle by Nickle does a good job of navigating the “How Much Should You Save in an Emergency Fund” question.

5)      Saving doesn’t have to be complicated. Squirrelers shares simple ways to save money.

6)      There are people in this world that study and get degrees in how to get you to buy things and they are called marketers. The Millionaire Nurse dissects selling tricks that will entice you to spend more.

7)      The government thinks it’ll cost a third of a million to raise a child. Retire by 40 has a rundown of how the cost stack up.

8)      Retire early by moving to a new, lower-cost country. Barbara Friedberg crunches the cost of living in the Philippines.

9)      There are plenty of ways to invest money that don’t involve stocks. The Free Financial Advisor tours investment options you may not have considered.

10)   We’ve heard gas saving tips 1,000 times, but Couple Money shares fuel efficiency tips that really do work.

My Family Finances from Around the Web

• Y & T’s Weekend Ramblings at Young and Thrifty

• Carnival of Retirement at Write and Get Paid

• Carnival of Fin. Camaraderie at The University of Money

• Carnival of MoneyPros at I Am 1 Percent

• Canadian PF Happy Hour at Canadian Personal Finance

• Yakezie Carnival at Edward Antrobus

• Carnival of Financial Planning at Money Smart Guides

• Married with Debt: Best Personal Finance Writing

• Money Smart Guides: The Round Table

• Don’t Quit Your Day Job: DQYDJ Weekender

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