I love your blog, but man, your commenters are mean!

While I really can’t relate to Trent on a personal level, I try to take the general message from his posts and apply them to my own situation. More often than not, I think he lives in a bubble and has no perspective of the world beyond the four walls of his house (since he never talks about doing much outside of them) but there are times when he makes a point which causes me to ask questions about my own life. That’s what I’m looking for.

I might be a fierce critic of Trent, but that doesn’t mean I don’t find at least some value in his writing every now and then. And, as far as critics are concerned, I think the dialogue on this blog is particularly respectful and constructive compared to other blogs or websites. More often than not, when I read the comments, it’s there that I find myself reflecting on the post and what I originally thought. So often I say to myself, “Wow, I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

That’s why I continue to read.

In my life, my “center” right now is music. And since I started really focusing on that, my spending has gone up, not down. Between buying new instruments and other equipment, paying for lessons, buying new albums to listen to for inspiration, and paying train fare to meet with my partner for rehearsals and to go to open mics, I’m spending, easily, $500 a month on this, probably more. That’s fine – I can afford it, because my other expenses are in balance, and because I’m fortunate enough to have a job that pays well. But if either of those things were not true, “just focus on your center” would be bad advice for me. It would not cause amazing things to happen.

I feel this post provided the missing piece in my Return to Frugality. I used to make bank and have to fight feeling resentful and entitled now that I don’t and need to adjust my spending habits. Then I’d get frustrated with myself because those aren’t rational or constructive feelings but I wasn’t sure of a way around them. Centering will provide that. This post makes so much sense and rings so true – I feel reinspired about the current leg of my journey. I think it will help me stay on course.

I’d reiterate “I’m a daily reader of TSD – some posts speak to me, some don’t, and always enjoy your writing and topics.”

One thing that’d I thought might be useful for others struggling with trimming is a practice that I learned a number of years ago regarding books. Yeah, they are expensive and I love to hold a book in my hands, I’ve tried friends ‘readers’ but its not the same for me. The crux of the matter is that Yes, I could go to my local library to find the books I like but library budgets are tight these days causing long waiting lists for books and often times they might not even have or be interested in ordering the book I need. SOLUTION: I believe strongly in giving back as a part of one’s budget, so I buy books on Amazon read them and then donate them to the local library for which I acquire both a tax deduction but also the sense of helping out my community.

“as though living frugally was keeping me from things that I would enjoy”

I think sometimes we focus so much on cutting out things we don’t think creatively about ways to get things and experiences for free, barter, or borrow.

I love this post – cuts to the heart of the matter.

I’m a daily reader of TSD – some posts speak to me; some don’t, but always enjoy your writing and topics.

MUST say that it’s generally a drag to come to the feedback section to post a comment. Wonder each time why readers feel compelled to rag on when they feel they didn’t get their money’s worth (huh???)

Trent, you’re an inspiration and I’ve recommended your wonderful site to fistfuls of people who want to turn their fiscal lives around.

Thanks for posting – and thanks SO MUCH for keeping the posts coming on a regular basis. I used to work for the most highly syndicated advice columnist in american history, and know that it’s a challenge to meet a deadline (as imposed by publisher OR self)

Possibly, if that were all JD was into. But he travels, is a commentator (I’ve heard him on NPR at least twice) attends events with fellow bloggers–even without his staff he’d have plenty to write about.

I remember this site during the early years and tone it had then. Now I tend to think of this site as an online diary of sorts. It’s a place for Trent to express his thoughts/opinions which may or may not be related to money. That’s the only way I can figure out the 10 Pieces of Inspiration. I mean, hey, his kids are cute and all, but they don’t do much for me personally, ya know? (Plus, don’t you eventually run out of things? We’re on #23 now, that’s 230 inspirations!)

Trent should turn this into just a personal blog, then he could talk about his children to his heart’s content. He wouldn’t be expected to stick to a single topic (personal finance) and there would be less criticism for not researching and correcting misinformation.

for the pf posts, the main article usually provides the basics and the comments cover all of the special cases very well (and sometimes correct errors in the article). a good example of this was the 401k post a few days back. the comments have become one of my fav parts!!!!

Not necessarily – some people go into major debt when a catastrophe happens and eats up all their savings and the only recourse they have is to use whatever credit cards, workday loans or store loan options they can access.

I’m about come to kjc’s point regarding the navel gazing.

If you feel that the natural next step of this site is to hire staff writers or even change direction, by all means do so, as long as the message jives with your mission. Or, if you want to keep things as they are, that’s just as well.

At risk of sounding trite, please allow me to thank you for keepin’ it REAL.