If there is one thing I know, it’s personal finance blogs.
I’ve been in this arena for a while, and I’ve met some amazing bloggers.
I could easily list the top 100 personal finance blogs, and that would probably be easier. Honestly, with the links at the end of this post, I will list hundreds of blogs, but I wanted to narrow it down to 25 blogs you may not know about, but should be reading.
These are 25 blogs you should at least be subscribed to. I know each one of these blogs (and most of these bloggers) well, so I’m going to give you a brief summary on each blog, as well as their focus. And no, I’m not getting paid to include any of these. This is a list that has taken weeks to put together, by carefully considering hundreds of blogs.
I’ve been featured on several of these blogs, but that didn’t sway my opinion. There are plenty of blogs I’ve been featured on that aren’t on here, and I haven’t been featured on plenty of these blogs.
And I kind of cheated…I put them in alphabetical order so that I didn’t have to rank them!
Quick Note: I felt like it was a little egotistical to put MoneyMiniBlog on this list, so you decide on that one. Though by adding this quick note, I kind of did add MoneyMiniBlog to the list, so…
1. Afford Anything
Focus: Real Estate
If you want in-depth discussions on all kinds of finance topics (especially mortgages), then this is your blog. From the articles to the discussion in the comments, you will probably learn more than you ever cared to know from Paula’s blog. She’s also the host of the M.O.N.E.Y. Podcast, which you should definitely subscribe to! By the way, my favorite post below is the perfect example of how deep the discussions go.
My Favorite Post: Should Your Pay Off Your Mortgage or Invest?
2.Budgets Are Sexy
Focus: Saving Money
I’ve been following J. Money for years! His unconventional approach to personal finance is what I like about him. As he notes on his blog, Benjamin Franklin says this is “a personal finance blog that won’t put you to sleep,” and old Ben is right about that. J. Money writes what he feels and thinks, with no filter usually. When you’re reading his articles, it feels like you’re hanging out with him, drinking some beers, talking about money. I’ve also written a guest post for Budgets Are Sexy, and I must say, J is one of the nicest dudes I know.
My Favorite Posts: How to Eat on Less Than $1.00/meal and 7 Things I’ve Learned in 7 Years of Blogging
3. Canadian Budget Binder
Focus: Saving Money
This is an awesome blog for everyone, not just Canadians. It’s all about saving money in every way possible. As a bonus, they also have a crazy-long list of awesome recipes. Their list of free money-saving tools is worth checking out! I’ve been featured as one of their Making a Difference (MAD) bloggers.
My Favorite Post: 10-Step Budget Series and How We Became Mortgage-Free in 5 Years
4. Club Thrifty
Focus: Saving Money
Holly writes for several finance websites across the web, but this is her actual blog. She and her husband share awesome insights on saving money, travel hacking and living without debt. Holly was able to leave her job a few years ago to blog full-time. Last year, her husband was able to join her, and leave his job! They’re practicing what they’re preaching, and living the dream. This is a blog to follow for sure. I had the opportunity to write for Club Thrifty and I can definitely say, Holly and her readers are very supportive and informative. The comments section of Club Thrifty defies the laws of internet comments, because it’s actually useful.
My Favorite Post: The 5 Financial Habit That Changed My Life
5. Debt RoundUp
Focus: Dumping Debt
I’ve known Grayson for a while, and I’ve been following Debt Roundup for even longer. He writes about dumping debt, saving money, making money, investing and practically every other personal finance topic. He paid off over $75k in debt and he shows you exactly how he did it in his free guide, which I recommend reading.
My Favorite Post: How I Paid Off My Debt and Saved at the Same Time
6. Disease Called Debt
Focus: Dumping Debt
Hayley has taken her readers through her entire journey of paying off a massive amount of debt. Now that she is debt-free, she writes about how she did it, and other money topics like making money (she has a great $3 book on this), saving, budgeting and life. Hayley features debt success stories occasionally, which are always motivating to read — she even featured her own and mine! She does Financially Savvy Saturdays, which is a weekly roundup of the best stuff she found on many different topics — I always read them. Shameless plug: I wrote a guest post for her about negotiating with credit card companies, and it’s worth reading as well!
My Favorite Post: 20 Things People in Debt Say (That Will Keep Them in Debt)
7. The Frugal Farmer
Focus: Saving Money
With a name like The Frugal Farmer, how would you not want to read it? Laurie has been writing about her experience with frugality and dumping debt for years. She and her husband really are farmers, if you haven’t guessed, and she includes a lot of posts about her experience on the farm and the financial side of things. Her goal is to minimize spending and consumption. She also has frugal recipes and ideas to save money for any type of family.
My Favorite Post: How to Pay Off Debt: Beating the Broke Mindset
8. Frugal Rules
Focus: Saving Money
As you might’ve guessed, this blog is about being frugal, but John also has articles on investing, beating debt and utilizing credit cards. In fact, John used to be a stock broker, and the reason he started Frugal Rules was to help people invest. Of course, you have to have money to invest, so he teaches you how to be frugal now to invest for the future.
My Favorite Post: 35 Simple Ways to Save Money Every Month
9. Good Financial Cents
Focus: Investing
This blog is actually ran by a Certified Financial Planner™, Jeff Rose, who owns a wealth planning company. Jeff runs multiple finance websites, but Good Financial Cents is his personal finance blog that covers a broad span of topics. I must admit a bias: I liked Jeff from the start, because he’s a brother-in-arms and an Iraqi combat veteran. He has a lot going on in the personal finance inter-webs, so start with this blog and go from there. He focuses on all kinds of topics, but his emphasis seems to be on investing and retirement planning.
My Favorite Post: 100 Ways to Make $100 Fast
10. I Will Teach You to Be Rich
Focus: Making More Money
Ramit Sethi is the author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich, and this is his blog, where he writes articles and very detailed guides on all kinds of topics, including a few non-finance topics. His articles and his free guides are worth thousands. He pours everything he has into all of it. If you subscribe to his list, you’ll hear about his private course, which is the main way he earns money. I’ve never taken his course, but if his free stuff is this valuable, it has to be amazing.
My Favorite Post: The Ultimate Guide to Personal Finance
11. Len Penzo
Focus: Money Management
Len Penzo is a unique blog, often with a contradictory view from what we consider “the norm,” and that’s great! I love that you won’t find the same articles here that you can find at any generic finance blog. He writes articles you didn’t know you wanted to read, but you do. He also writes articles that can help everyone. He thinks anyone can achieve financial freedom, and he’s right.
My Favorite Posts: 38 Secrets for Financial Success and The 6 Most Valuable Grocery Store Products
12. Luke 1428
Focus: Money Management
Luke1428 is a Christian-based finance blog, if you couldn’t tell, but that’s not why it’s on this list — that’s just a bonus. Brian is a product of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, so he has some Ramsey influence to his writings. As a Dave Ramsey fan myself, that was enough to get me reading. Brian writes on all kinds of topics, but his emphasis is on responsible money management.
My Favorite Posts: 7 Unfortunate Reasons People Spew Hatred at Dave Ramsey and Interview With a Centenarian
13. Making Sense of Cents
Focus: Making More Money
Michelle, owner of Making Sense of Cents, is a full-time blogger who discloses her monthly income reports. She earned over $100k in July, and she breaks down the basics of where it all comes from. Though her blog has a strong emphasis on making more money, there are also all kinds of helpful articles on budgeting, saving money, using credit cards, and even minimalism. Her archives are worth going through.
My Favorite Post: How to Save 50% or More of Your Income
14. The Military Wallet
Focus: Military
I included The Military Wallet, because I think it’s the best military blog, and I wanted to include at least one. Ryan also runs Cash Money Life, and I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him for a couple years now. The Military Wallet is the place to go for updates on military financial issues, benefits, and everything along those lines. For example, he just released an awesome piece on the new blended retirement system.
My Favorite Post: How to Manage Your Thrift Savings Plan Account
15. Modest Money
Focus: Investing
I’m one of many contributors to Modest Money. The focus of this blog has shifted recently to mostly investing news. I loved their old articles on general personal finance topics, but their new model is great, and much more specific. If you’re looking for advice on a specific stock, it’s probably here. Their Stock Wizard tool is really handy for getting information on individual companies.
My Favorite Post: 8 Simple Steps to Pick a Retirement Plan
16. Money Crashers
Focus: Money Management (With Emphasis on Credit Cards)
Money Crashers is a big blog that focuses on getting the best credit cards and bank accounts, but their topics also span to investing, real estate, getting out of debt, and much more. You can know that anything published here is going to be well-written and high-quality.
My Favorite Post: Thrift Store Flipping – 8 Best Items to Resell for a Profit
17. Monster Piggy Bank
Focus: Saving Money
Glen covers all kinds of personal finance topics. He shared his debt progress until 2014 when he became debt-free, and now he shows you how to do the same. He also shows you ways he personally uses to save money. You never know what topic he’ll write about, so it’s always interesting.
My Favorite Post: Super Cheap Hobbies for People on a Budget
18. Money Counselor
Focus: Saving Money
Kurt writes a lot of great posts on managing your money, getting out of debt, investing and all of the general topics you see around the finance realm. But what I really like is how he keeps you updated on the latest financial topics, such as changes in laws and tax changes. He may not be a professional attorney, but he keeps you updated with the latest news.
My Favorite Post: $200,000 Windfall! Now What?
19. Mr. Money Mustache
Focus: Money Management
Mr. Money Mustache is a classic blog with hundreds of awesome posts that are worth reading. Seriously, you should go read all of their classics and more. I read this blog regularly, which is easy to do since they only publish a few articles each month.
My Favorite Post: The Man Who Gets His Cars for Free and The Practical Benefits of Outrageous Optimism
20. PT Money
Focus: Money Management
Philip Taylor, a.k.a. “PT”, has been around the financial blogosphere for years. On top of being a finance blogger, he’s also a CPA and the CEO of FinCon, the annual financial blogger conference (that I will unfortunately not be attending this year ) He has an archive dating back to 2007, so you shouldn’t have a hard time finding great stuff to read.
My Favorite Post: 104 Ways to Save Extra Money and 15 Things You Should Never Pay For
21. Rockstar Finance
Focus: Money Management
Rockstar Finance is another project by J. Money that finds and features all of the best money articles on the internet. This is the place to go if you want to find articles from everywhere on topics you didn’t even know you wanted to read about. You can know, if it’s on Rockstar, it’s good stuff. The topics range from investing to budgeting to saving money, and include any other money topic you can think of…so what are you waiting for? Go check out the most popular posts below.
My Favorite Posts: Most Popular Category
22. SeedTime
Focus: Money Management
Seedtime, formerly Christian PF, was the first finance blog I really read. If it wasn’t for Bob’s article on How to Make Money Blogging, I probably would have never started this blog. Now Bob has several writers, and they all do a great job. If you haven’t guessed, this blog is Christian-themed, as it follows Biblical money principles, and also has quite a bit of Dave Ramsey influence. I think that’s a good thing, but that’s your call.
My Favorite Post: 250 Bible Verses About Money
23. The Simple Dollar
Focus: Saving Money
I probably read this blog more than any other blog on this page, as in actually reading each post. The Simple Dollar is getting famous, and for good reason. Trent Hamm started this blog in 2006, and since then it has grown to a million monthly readers, and is now owned by a company called “Soda.” Trent is still the primary writer, and I love all of his articles. I don’t understand how he has the time to write them all, but I love reading them. Subscribe to this one, for sure.
My Favorite Posts: 26 Cheap and Easy Meals and 100 Great Tips to Save Money
24. Stefanie O’Connell
Focus: Saving Money
Stefanie O’Connell’s blog, formerly The Broke and Beautiful Life, is full of Stefanie’s story-telling articles about common-sense personal finance. She’s really great at writing engaging articles about money that hold your attention with a good story. She writes a lot about living well with little spending. If you’re interested in being more frugal, read this blog.
My Favorite Post: How Much Does it Cost to Live in NYC? and The Danger of “Keeping Up With the Jones”
25. Young Adult Money
Focus: Money Management
David, or DC, has been blogging on Young Adult Money for about four years. Since then, he has written all kinds of helpful blog posts, and he just published a book. His fancy new design looks great and makes you want to read the content. Now DC has a team of writers, which helps him to produce several articles a week.
My Favorite Posts: 5 Practical Ways to Improve Your Finances and 100 Goals to Focus on for a Successful Year
These aren’t all of the best personal finance blogs. There are the obvious ones like Get Rich Slowly, The Penny Hoarder,Wisebread, Consumerist, Nerd Wallet and Bigger Pockets.
All of those blogs have grown to be quite popular. I think The Penny Hoarder is technically the largest personal finance blog on the internet, but it’s really hard to measure that as an overall rating. Get Rich Slowly has been around since the early 1800s, so it’s obviously well known. I read all of them, but I didn’t want to waste one of the 25 slots on a blog you already know about.
If you want more blogs, there are plenty of good lists out there. Here are a few:
- Wisebread’s Top Personal Finance Blogs – Getting close to 1000 strong.
- Money Crasher’s Top Personal Finance Blogs – Lots and lots of blogs.
- Modest Money’s Top Finance Blogs – Over 600 blogs.
- Rockstar Finance’s Best Money Blogs – Only a few blogs, but very selective.
- Debt Roundup’s Personal Finance Blog List – Many great blogs.
- Self Lender’s List of the 75 Most Influential Finance Blogs – A great list!
- TIME’s List of the Best Finance Blogs – 25 more commercial-type blogs.
So that’s my list, including my list of lists! What are your favorite personal finance blogs?
This post originally appeared on MoneyMiniBlog.