This article is by editor Linda Vergon.
There’s a tab up at the far right of the Get Rich Slowly website called “Forums.” I wonder if you’ve had a chance to visit. It’s where you (and a lot of other people) can join in with a crowd of like-minded and dedicated individuals to ask a question about your own personal financial situation and get an actual answer back.
Who moderates the Forum?
JerichoHill, kombat, and bpgui have been involved in the day-to-day business of the forum for many years, and they respond to many of the entries personally. They are each very knowledgeable about personal finance – but, interestingly, they come to the subject of personal finance from three different disciplines: JerichoHill is an economist, kombat is a computer programmer, and bpgui is an attorney.
What’s happening at the Forum?
Landing at the home page of the forum, you’ll see the three main sections (Personal Finance, General, and Fiscal Fitness) and be able to tell what their sub-topics are about. For example, the Personal Finance section has a sub-topic also called “Personal Finance” and it’s about “Saving & investing, frugality & simple living. They’re all part of the wealth equation. Here’s the place to discuss getting (and keeping!) your money.” You can tell how many discussions have been started and get a feel for how active each area is by looking at the number of topics, posts, and time of the last post.
JerichoHill started a post in January 2008 that is quite popular: “Ready to be inspired? Read the success stories at GRS forums.” Follow the link, and you are taken to a page with 267 discussions, things like:
Financial freedom here we come (10,177 views)
It started off with just $1 a day… (3,955 views)
Net worth at graduation (4,201 views)
Fiddlefaddle joined the forum in July of 2011 and had this to say in their first entry in the Fiscal Fitness Journals:
Hi! I’ve been reading this forum for a while and thought that starting a journal might help hold me accountable to my financial goals. Plus, my friends and family have no interest in talking about personal finance, so here I am. Any suggestions or advice is always appreciated!
We moved across town last fall and I feel like we’ve been playing catch-up with our finances ever since the move. After several unexpected expenses nearly wiped out our emergency fund this summer, I’m ready to take a step back and really focus on getting us back on firmer footing.
Here are my goals for the rest of 2011:
–Pay off my credit card ~1300 – This is tuition for grad school that I just put on my card last week. Will pay it all when the bill is due in early September and my company will reimburse me at the end of the semester.
–Rebuild the emergency fund to $5000.
–Pay off DH’s credit card ~$4000 (we’ve never carried balances before and he informed me earlier this week that he has been adding to this card all year…yikes!)
–Save up $1300 for spring tuition.
The good news is that we both have well-paying (for our area), stable jobs and our only other debt is our mortgage. Plus, today is DD’s last day of preschool, so I’ll have at least an extra $400 per month to help me meet my goals.
August is going to be tight since I wiped out most of our cash for this summer’s emergencies. Stay tuned…
Maybe you can relate. Maybe you will find something to inspire you. Maybe you have a question you need answered. Or maybe you would like to help others with your own helpful advice and encouraging words. There’s a lot of great stuff happening over there. Maybe you should check it out!
Have you visited the forum? If you participate in the discussions there, what has interested you or helped you the most?