It Has Drama,Good Gals and Villainesses- So Where Are All The Personal Finance BlogHers?
by Elana Centor

Dog Tee Shirt: Eat, Sleep, Finance
This may come as a surprise from someone who is a Contributing Editor for Business, Personal Finance and Career, but I don't like to talk about money.

Truth be told, I avoid the topic at all costs. I hate money. Yes, I like to use money. But I hate what it does to people. It divides. It judges.It makes people who have great personal success feel like failures.

Money  causes insomnia, tears, heartbreak and humiliation.

I have lots of drama around money.

As someone who has been a business owner for the majority of my career,I have had great success and horrific defeat.
As a small business owner (that is code for cash flow is the bane of my existence),I have described my life as walking a tight wire without a safety net.

I am always one client budget cut away from disaster.

And so, it was with some trepidation that I agreed to host a MeetUp for Personal Finance&Career.

Riding down the escalator from the Macy's Closing Event on Saturday evening, Patricia Jenkins, who blogs about Travel for Uptake,
asked how my Birds of A Feather Session on Personal Finance and Career went.

"It was a small, intimate group, " I said. " But we had a fabulous conversation."

She then said she had wanted to attend but there were two other competing sessions.

So it goes at a great conference. Lots of competition. Kind of like running a business.You can learn a lot from your competition.

I didn't do a head count but we definitely had under 15 people. We had some PR folks from Edelman who have worked with Wal-Mart on trying to figure out what kind of personal finance advice Wal-Mart customers want--evidently not advice on how to save money at the grocery store. They have much bigger issues to contend with.

There was a contingency from WiseBread and Allese Thomson, community manager for Wesabe. If I didn't mention you here, it's only because I didn't get your card-- please give a shout out in the comment section.

Given the economy, given that money is often at the root of marital stress, given that decisions to stay at a job,leave a job, or start a business all center around MONEY, it's ironic that so few people want to talk about it.

What it came down to,according to the group in the room, was that words matter and when it come sto this particular topic, the words don't resonate.

The group suggested that the problem wasn't the topic of money,or even strategies to manage it the main problem was with the words Personal Finance-they're a little too sterile. A little too rigid. Very much too masculine.

Is it just the name? Is it the topic? Or, is it a little of both? Intuitively, money management is a topic that should be getting lots of eyeballs. Yet, for many of us there is a lot of shame around money. There's that debt. There's that dwindling 401(k) and the mortgage that is now higher than the value of the home.

The Gen Xers in the room said they don't know who to trust. How do you vet a personal finance blogger to make sure their advice is something you should trust?

In addition to their qualifications, The Gen Xers have some concerns that advice that may have been solid in the 1990s is no longer relevant in a whacked out economy.

So for those of you who either couldn't attend BlogHer 08, or had other pressing issues during our MeetUp time slot, I want to hear from you.

Tell us what you want to read about regarding this thing called personal finance aka money management aka the root of all evil aka money makes the world go around.

Oh, and I do have a theory why there was such a small contingency of personal finance BlogHers. They not only have a budget they probably stick to it. And, they probably have conferences like BlogHer in the discretionary expense column instead of the fixed expense column.

Just sayin.

Image Credit: CafePress

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

Submitted by Elana Centor (view blog) on Sun, 07/20/2008 - 09:42

Comments

 

Thank you!

I just wanted to say that I truly appreciated the Birds of a Feather meet-up (even though it was small), because it got dialogue going (and any dialogue is good at this point.) I am interested to hear how other bloggers interpret "personal finance" and am glad that you summed up our meet-up so well. As someone who follows the budget, BlogHer was a stretch. Sponsorship definitely played a factor in my attending, and I only wish more had the opportunity!

If nothing else, BlogHer pulled me further into the issues of blogging from a female perspective (and this is important in personal finance.) The meetup was just another way to kickstart some new blogging opportunities for me personally (and for all of us at Wise Bread.) Thanks for facilitating!

Linsey Knerl

Submitted by kylinsmom on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 08:32
 

I *heart* personal finance!

I actually have a category on my personal blog where I blog about personal finance stuff: money and banking.

Liz Rizzo

I blog at Everyday Goddess.

Submitted by Liz Rizzo on Sun, 07/20/2008 - 23:13
 

It's the cross we bear

A long time ago a friend of mine in sales said to me, "I'd rather sell things people want than things they need."  Her point was that it's easier to sell chocolate than dental products no matter how much you need to have your teeth cleaned.  Personal finances, alas, fall more into the dental camp.

I have spent the past year blogging about accounting, which is a second cousin to personal finances.  I feel your pain!  I get very few comments, yet I have had some excellent reactions from the editors who syndicate my blog.  The reader stats keep going up, so I know there are people out there interested in financial topics.  They just don't seem to need to participate in a community.  I attribute that to the tendency of us accountants to be quiet and introverted, or maybe my prose isn't colorful enough to attract comments.  Who knows?

w

Submitted by wkennedy on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 08:12
 

Perhaps The Tide Is Turning

 I am actually optimistic for the potential of personal finance bloggers. The fact is there are very few people who are not feeling like they are worse off than they were 8 years ago. Many people who did the "right" thing, who had strong 401(ks) and homes with ever increasing equity are now saying they have to re-evalute.

A couple of weeks ago I was having drinks with two friends who are in financially enviable spots. One retired from corporate live 8 years ago and has been working with nonprofits and foundations. The other picks up work when she feels like it. 

But sitting having drinks I heard concern. One of the women had a great deal of their investments in financial services stocks and they have tanked. The other simply said , we are below the amount we need to live the way we want.

So if the smart, savvy and successful investors are feeling the pain then perhaps there is an opportunity to not only get the attention of people but actually provide some important value to their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

elana
Blogher Contributing Editor,Business&CareersFunnyBusiness

Submitted by Elana Centor on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 09:37
 

I don't like talking about money either

Elana, I understand.

I was raised that you didn't discuss money except behind closed doors, or in business meetings, which of course I would never be a part of because I was female. So ending up owning an insurance agency where you talk about money in many ways was quite a stretch.

The first time I sold a policy I hated asking for the check for the first month's premium. I would still rather not, but I'm not quite as panicked over it! When you discuss long term care insurance, annuities, monthly income and expenses with people eventually it's not as tough to do. And that's some pretty personal stuff to discuss. But, when you know you will only direct your clients to reasonable, logical and ethical decisions, it gets easier.

So I guess it's okay for me to discuss money now, since I'm invited to 'the meeting.'

Be well!

Colleen King

Colleen King Insurance Agency

Northridge, CA

Blog:www.askcolleenking.com

Web site: www.CKinginsurance.com

Email: Colleen@ckinginsurance.com

Submitted by ckingins on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 18:21
 

The name, the topic or the shame?

The category itself is too broad to navigate. The impact of this is less participation because,  when time is limited and valuable we choose the most specific topic, in order to quickly benefit from relevant information. 

Wander into a "personal finance" section and you could be hearing about - -well, check out our 6 posts so far - -real estate, insurance, accounting and Linsey's initial comment which was "curiosity on the definition."  Then add the filters for different classes, ages, and obligations and you've got one heck of a mess to wade through to find something relevant.

What I have found in my work with both male and female clients is that very few care about personal finance qua finance - -what they care about is the lifestyle that their personal finance delivers or impedes.  Personal finance is like a car, in that the mechanics and wiring of the machine are yawners but speed, comfort,efficiency, safety and reliability are always top of mind. 

"Lifestyle provisioning" is the phrase I use with my clients to segue from the cosmetic stuff to the mechanical stuff - -perhaps something like "making money work" or "paying for your lifestyle" would gin up hits.

Best to all - -
Laura

www.thehomezonecompany.com

 

Submitted by lenaramore on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 14:44