I reached out to a few personal finance bloggers to learn what made them so interested in their own finances. Below, I got some great insight and stories that hopefully will inspire you to take action too.
Whether you are new to the personal finance world or a seasoned vet, I always think it is cool to hear how others got their start in caring about finances.
Or better yet, where their “obsession” with finances and investing began.
And what better way, than to ask the people who share a lot of personal finance information on the daily?
I rounded up some of the personal finance, investing, and money blogs I read, follow, and respect to give us some insight as to what inspired them to care about their finances.
Example: I got started back in 2014 when I was sick of living paycheck to paycheck and was let go from my job a few weeks before Christmas. You can read more about my story here if interested. (Not that you are, but just in case you are *shrugs*).
There are A LOT of personal finance bloggers out there with different and interesting stories as to how they may have become so enamored with money. Needless to say, this post could easily be 10,000+ words.
But I thought this could be cool to hear directly from some newbies and even some recognizable personal finance bloggers as well.
Let’s take a look at insights from 12 personal finance bloggers as to what inspired them to take a deeper look in their own financial well-being.
[bctt tweet=”Learn what inspired these twelve personal finance bloggers to invest more time in their finances and start to create a path to a better financial future #PersonalFinance #Finances” username=”investedwallet”]
The College Investor:
“The biggest thing that inspired me to care about my finances was simply my love for money! I loved earning more money and I loved putting it to work for me. So, any opportunity I had to make money, I would. Then, as I had money, I would love to invest it and watch it grow!”
Millionaire Mob:
“For me, it was the moment I graduated college with over $50,000 in student loans. I had an urgency to clean up my financial situation, so I didn’t have to be reliant on anyone else. I wanted total autonomy with my finances.
I created Millionaire Mob as a way for others to learn how to improve their financial future. I found that I had many lessons learned from my financial experiences, both good and bad. I wanted people to learn from the good and avoid the negatives that I sadly learned. Most importantly, to live a happy life is to explore. So, travel plus financial freedom equals true happiness.”‘
Budgets Are Sexy:
“I started caring about my finances once we bought a house with no money down and no real budget whatsoever, haha… Logged online to research “how to budget” and voila! Got sucked into the financial blogging world and it’s been a passion of mine ever since!
Had no idea it would go on to completely transform my life and career and friends too! Been blogging now for over 10 years and getting closer to that ever elusive $1,000,000 mark ?”
Millennial Money:
“On August 25, 2010, I had $2.26 left in my bank account and set two seemingly unrealistic goals: to make $1 million and “retire” as quickly as possible. It was shortly thereafter that I read Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez and it truly changed my life. I was off to the races after that! It’s a true honor that Vicki wrote the forward to Financial Freedom.”
Fun fact: I wrote a few articles for Grant at Millennial Money and it is also what inspired me to start Invested Wallet!
Kelan from The Savvy Couple:
“I was inspired very early on in life about personal finance. I was blessed to grow up with parents who were very money savvy and shared their knowledge with myself and my siblings. The very first time my dad showed me I made money from compound interest in my savings account when I was eight I was hooked.
Other things like selling items on eBay, running car washes, and investing in stocks kept my passion growing as I got into my teenage years.
But the most impactful event in my life was being stuck working as a Jail Deputy for almost three years. The job sucked the soul right out of me and because we had so many bills and one income I was forced to stay. That’s when I decided I was going to start my own business, earn my own income, and take complete control over my life.”
Related: 7 Side Hustle Ideas That Have Full-Time Income Potential
Fitnancials:
“What inspired me to start caring about investing was learning early on how important investing is the younger you are. I’m 25 and had planned on putting off investing for a while. I figured I’m young, I can start later.
Eventually, I realized this was a tactic I was using to avoid investing because the topic was incredibly intimidating to me at first. Now my money goals consist of setting aside a majority of my money for my retirement and taking advantage of the compound effect of starting now instead of 10 years from now.”
MikedUp Blog:
“My pivotal financial moment was when my wife committed to attending to dental school. We knew that a mountain of debt would await us (although, admittedly – we had no idea how high that mountain would climb), but we had our arsenal of frugal tips and a general ability make good decisions with our then-modest income ($20k annually).
Fast forward to 7 years later, we’re now business owners, parents to a wonderful daughter with another on the way, and a couple of young kids that are starting to find their way in the world. Sometimes it’s the fire that forges the steel – and that’s how it went down for us. We were faced with a difficult challenge and it only made us stronger.”
The Dividend Pig:
“One of my earliest memories of my father is him saying, ‘It doesn’t take a genius to spend it.’ With his mantra, I was thoroughly indoctrinated into a frugal lifestyle at a very early age.
However, it wasn’t until a random conversation with a friend in my early 30s that I discovered and became driven to achieve financial independence. I realized if I wanted to build sustainable wealth, I needed my money working for me.
I quickly determined dividend investing was the strategy for me to accomplish that goal and haven’t looked back. I’m roughly 5 years away from my dividend portfolio covering 100% of my expenses.”
Appetite for Investing:
“After I got my first full-time job with benefits and a 401k plan, I realized I needed to learn more about my personal finances, most importantly my retirement savings. I soon noticed how little I knew and became overwhelmed with how much information there was out there.
The first book I ever read on finances was Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins, and it was such an easy read that it gave me the confidence to keep learning more about investing.
Before I knew it, I was getting my hands and ears on every book and podcast I could on investing, and I wanted to help others the same way these books and podcasts helped me, so I created my own blog.”
Frugal Money Man:
“It all started in my first job out of college, when I checked my company 401k for the first time. I noticed that the account was growing all by itself, separate of the contributions I was putting in. This encouraged me to research about how this was working, so I bought my first investment book. That investment book has led to dozens of money/investment books 2 1/2 years later.
I simply wanted to obtain as much money as I could. I was fortunate to graduate debt-free from college, but I didn’t accumulate a lot of wealth post-college. I bought a brand new car (dumb) and just didn’t know how to build wealth. Once I listened to Dave Ramsey, in combination with my own research, I discovered how easy it was to start building wealth.”
Money Life Wax:
“In October of 2014, I bought a brand new $37,000 truck and read Total Money Makeover in the same month. I felt like a complete idiot, to say the least for buying my truck. Fast forward to February 2016 and with over $275,000 in student loans in just my soon to be wife’s name I knew we had to start getting serious. We went all in with a plan to pay off our student loans and start chasing financial freedom so we could live life on our terms.
Growing up in a house with a single mom and at times seeing her struggle with money made me realize that I needed to be smart with money. I never had financial discipline. I had a strong work ethic that could result in making money, but spending it was innate.
After getting engaged my wife and I locked arms and knew for us, a debt-free lifestyle was going to be the best path for us. In 2019 we will be debt free and owe less than $150,000 on our mortgage.”
Cash Cow Couple:
Jacob: “Growing up, my family never had a lot of money. I remember personal finance being a stressful topic, so I began studying it. I wanted to find ways to cut expenses so that my family and I could live a more abundant life.
My interest in personal finance continued to grow as I devoured books and blogs on the topic, and I eventually began blogging while completing my Ph.D. in financial planning. Now that I’ve earned my Ph.D., most of my time is spent reading and writing about various money-related topics. I continue to be fascinated by the power money has to transform lives for the better, and my passion to help others find financial freedom grows more fastidious every day.”
Vanessa: “Before Jacob and I were married, I had a very simplistic view of financial planning: earn money, pay off your debt, live within your means. While that is certainly a good foundation, I have to credit Jacob for opening my eyes to the world of financial freedom, including the techniques we used to achieve it as well as its importance in finding purpose and peace in life.
Once I realized I didn’t have to follow a traditional path of consistent lifestyle inflation and could instead pursue a meaningful and exciting life with my best friend, we got married and started working toward financial freedom together. Nearly 6 years later, we’ve reached our goal, grown exponentially, and learned some life-changing lessons along the way. Now we work together to help others find freedom through their finances, too.”