Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

I Feel So Small

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Occasionally, I feel so very small.  I’ll try and explain. (Also, excuse me a bit, as this is only vaguely about money and finance, but please read to the end.)

I recently attended the Financial Bloggers Conference.  It’s a conference of people, like me, who run and write (or just write) blogs that are finance related.  Mostly, we write about personal finance.  Whether it’s by design or not, each of the FINCONs I’ve been to have had a very distinct “feel” to them.  The first had an emphasis (at least in my perception) of building the blog, and ways in which we can monetize our blogs to make them self-sustainable.  This year, the theme, as I perceived it, was all about voice.

Perhaps that can be attributed to Adam Baker (of Man Vs. Debt) and his opening keynote.  Throughout the speech, he spoke about defining the why.  Writing for the why.  Living out the why.  What is the why?  It’s the purpose.  It isn’t the product, and it certainly isn’t the site.  It’s the reason that we write what we write.  It’s the reason that we come back night after night to write articles for our sites.

For me, the “why” of Beating Broke is to share the knowledge I have.  It’s to share the knowledge I learn.  It’s to have an outlet that allows me to reach a few people and, hopefully, help them make their financial lives better.  I write articles about finance to make your financial life better.

During Adam’s keynote, I realized that I was surrounded by 450 or so other writers.  Each with their own unique voice, talents, and experiences.  The realization of that, and the realization of how many people there are out there that don’t even use the internet makes me feel so small.  I’m such a tiny, tiny, drop in a sea of information.

Later, I sat in on a panel of some of the pioneers in the financial blogging community.  During that panel, they spoke about how the community has grown, and how much the community’s influence has grown.  Another keynote speaker, Liz Weston, spoke about how our influence is growing.  She touched on how what we do, sharing information online, has become more and more accepted and acknowledged as a source of information.  Again, surrounded by the community of bloggers that I am a part of, I felt so small.

If you’re reading this, it’s because you have become a part of the Beating Broke community.  It’s a small community in the middle of a much larger community.  But, it’s a community with one overarching “why”.  We exist to make financial lives better.  We do it by making our financial lives better and then sharing that with others.

So, today, I’m going to ask you to share.  Share the community with someone else today.  Invite someone else into the community.  You’ve got plenty of options on how you do that.  With all the social media available, it’s becoming pretty easy.  Send an email, write a tweet, share on Facebook, or any number of other ways to share.  But, share.  We become better by helping others become better.

Share your favorite blog, blog post, or any bit of information today.  Invite them into the community.

And, finally, if you’re a part of the community, I want to help make your financial life better.  If you’ve got questions, please feel free to ask them.  Leave a comment below.  Or use the contact form to send me a note.  I’ll do whatever I can to get you an answer.

img credit:C! on Flickr

Your Credit Score Now Available on Kindle

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The Beating Broke Guide to Your Credit Score is a guide that I wrote a while back, that has been available as a download here on the site as a .pdf document for some time.  With the recent rise in usage for ebook readers, I thought it was time that it got converted over and presented as a kindle ebook.  So, that’s exactly what I did last weekend.  It’s now available in the Kindle store on Amazon for only $0.99.  It’s still available as a pdf download here for free, if that’s what you want, but I know some would rather have it directly on their reader.  It’s also been made available in the epub format (free) on Smashwords.

My Wife Quit Her Job: End of Year Update

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Last update, I told you that the COBRA health insurance plan premium went through the roof and we were deciding whether to continue paying for it, or to switch over to the plan that I get at work.  In the end, we decided to remain on the COBRA plan.  The difference was about $350 a month, but we figured that if we had only one or two medical mishaps, it would easily pay for itself with the 100% coverage.  And, as luck would have it, it turned out to be a good idea.  Both my wife and I ended up having issues that required several weeks of physical therapy.  Hers stems from an accident she had a few years back that seems to have thrown a few things off.  Nothing some pt and a pair of orthotics won’t fix.  Mine is from my football days.  Arguably, not completely necessary, but was something that would need to be fixed one way or the other, so decided to get it taken care of.  Then, to make our decision look even smarter, my wife fell in the ice and snow yesterday and severely sprained her ankle and knee and prompted a visit to the ER.  We got a nice new pair of crutches and what will likely be a very expensive pair of athletic wraps.  Of course, all paid for by our insurance.  The extra money has easily paid for itself.  But, that all ends on the 1st, so we’re switching back to the coverage that I get at work.

The business that my wife and her friends started continues to do well.  They received a very important certification from the state that will allow them to pick up another line of business and expand even further.  My wife continues to be the only one getting a regular paycheck from the company, but with this new certification, that will likely change very soon.  Luckily, the people that she’s working with are both very qualified for the business that they are in and have plenty of experience (my wife does to) so they don’t have much in the way of learning curves for the actual service that they provide.  Their biggest learning curve has been the actual running of the business.  They were smart and got a lawyer and an accountant right away though, so they’ve had excellent guidance along the way.

Also, I did receive a small raise this year which should help.  However, between the insurance and some increases in medical flex and childcare flex, my checks will likely be smaller than they were in 2009.  Most of that should come back through the flex accounts.  Tax free money for the win.  Especially on things like childcare that you’re going to spend money on anyways!