Comments on: Six Invaluable Online Resources For Personal Finance Education

By: Tabuxander

Tabuxander — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 03:22:25 +0000

Thanks. Great list of resources. I really enjoy it.

By: This 20 Something Girl

This 20 Something Girl — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 05:34:58 +0000

I clicked on the “recently popular” link and you are the #1 (well an interview with you anyways). So, did you know that when you posted the link?

Either way, I thought it was cool.

I really enjoy your posts, you are a big inspiration to me! Thanks!

By: jimmy

jimmy — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:11:09 +0000

Thank you for the list. Perfect timing to help me implement one of my new years resolutions.

By: Sarina

Sarina — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:38:49 +0000

Trent, your blog has created an online education resource! When you asked folks to leave their best recommendations in the comment section, many did. The result? The best of the web is opened up to all of us. Thanks, Trent!

I used to never read the comments; I didn’t “have time”. Now I see that the give and take of the posting and the comments is a fuller picture.

By: Toby

Toby — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:25:31 +0000

@Passionista: Rich Dad? Perhaps the podcasts are different, but do you ever read Kiyosaki’s yahoo column. The guy is absolutely off his rocker. His advice is, at the very least, general and useless and, at the worst, downright wreckless! Not to mention how offensive he is if you are not doing things his way.

John T Reed has done a pretty good job discrediting Kiyosaki on his webpage.

http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

Now, he is also a real estate guru, so he does have an agenda, but Kiyosaki makes it too easy for this guy to make him look bad.

As far as I know, Kiyosaki himself has never demonstrated that he has made any of the real estate deals that he writes about in his book. As far as anyone has been able to discern, Kiyosaki made all his money selling Rich Dad, Poor Dad books/board games/seminars/etc and not from real estate.

So I would take Rich Dad with a grain of salt if I were you.

By: Passionista

Passionista — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:46:10 +0000

Don’t forget Rich Dad’s podcasts…

great for learning while driving!

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:38:47 +0000

Please check out http://www.wikistock.com for easily accessible investing information. Good reference guide.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:47:10 +0000

how about http://www.smartaboutmoney.org. They include a free financial planning tool that I would be curious to see your opinion on. Thanks for all the info!!

By: Millionaire Money Habits

Millionaire Money Habits — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:18:22 +0000

Thanks Trent. Never knew about PFblogs!

By: Honest Dollar

Honest Dollar — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:54:33 +0000

I love Money 101 and Morningstar's Classroom. One more great resource: The Basics of Money at Kiplinger.com, an excellent collection of articles on all the major aspects of personal finance.

By: Leisureguy

Leisureguy — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:52:15 +0000

Not sure whether it counts as an "on-line resource," but the Excel workbook Within Your Means certainly seems helpful to those starting a budget. More than 14,000 downloads of the free workbook to date.

By: Money Blue Book

Money Blue Book — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:32:41 +0000

Yahoo and CNN provide the best information in my opinion. Clean, easy to navigate, and frequently updated!
-Raymond

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:28:32 +0000

Toby, I totally agree that they are pushing their newsletters in the stock analysis articles at the Fool. However, if you read some of the educational articles in the personal finance section, there is a lot of good stuff. For example, the car buying tutorial is excellent. http://www.fool.com/car/car.htm

By: Toby

Toby — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:16:30 +0000

I love Morningstar and their investor’s classroom is excellent, but I have to comment that it is a *LOT* of work to get the free sixty days. They want you to earn 690 points and each lesson only provides to chance to earn 5 points. You have to complete practically every lesson to get enough points for what is basically the equivalent of a $30 value.

If you already have a good grasp of investing basics, I would skip to the higher level lessons and not try to earn the free trial, as you will be tremendously bored.

Also, regarding the Fool. I used to be a member of their pay forums (not any of the newsletters though) and was fairly active. The personal finance boards were fairly busy (especially LBYM) and had a lot of good people. I believe the forums may be free now, but I haven’t been over there lately.

My beef with the Fool is that their free columns are all in up-sell mode all the time. You start reading some analysis on a stock and by the end of it they are talking about how one of their newsletters uncovered the stock when it was trading at…yada yada. That’s part of the reason I stopped paying for the forums.

By: Colonel Cash

Colonel Cash — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:52:33 +0000

Thanks for the post! Good, reputable sites with a wealth (no pun intended!) of information. Thanks for the great content!

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:26:41 +0000

Ahh! Trent! You forgot The Fool!
http://www.fool.com/pf.htm (Personal Finance Section)

By: Plan Your Escape

Plan Your Escape — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:55:21 +0000

Great list of starting places Trent. This might be especially useful for someone who plans to start getting a handle on their personal finances in 2008. Thanks for sharing.

By: Writer's Coin

Writer's Coin — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:55:21 +0000

Great post. I can personally vouch for Morningstar’s lessons, they are great. I also recommend that readers make reading about money and finances a daily routine the way they would read the sports pages or book reviews or People magazine or whatever it is they are passionate about.

That, to me, is the key to managing all the information that is out there.

By: junger

junger — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:49:26 +0000

I would definitely add the Bogleheads forum @ http://www.diehards.org/forum to the list. It’s a great community of level-headed, experienced investors willing to help anyone with their investment questions.