Know Your Blogger Series

Peerless Money Mentor

The mission of the blog is to help others escape Broke Phi Broke by becoming financially woke.
What makes the blog unique is that I combine my love of hip-hop, economics, psychology to tell deeply personal stories. I share my highs, lows, insecurities, etc.
Check out our Q&A with Peerless Money Mentor here.

Learn more about Peerless Money Mentor and how he documents his journey from broke to financially woke.

Each week at Personal Finance Blogs, we publish interviews from amazing bloggers from the personal finance space. This week, we are featuring the blog, Peerless Money Mentor.
During these weekly features, we are hoping to provide a way for you to interact and learn more about different blogs in the personal finance space.
Below, you can read more about the story behind Peerless Money Mentor, learn about the author, and learn personal finance tips from Peerless Money Mentor to help you improve your financial situation.
A big thanks for Peerless Money Mentor for this interview! Now, we will turn it over to the author for this interview.

Tell us about Peerless Money Mentor

After seeing other people share their money stories on Rockstar Finance, a now defunct personal finance curation site, I started my blog in November of 2017 to document my journey from broke to financially woke.

The mission of the blog is to help others escape Broke Phi Broke by becoming financially woke.

I came up with the name by adding money to a nickname I gave myself in college: peerless.

What makes you and your blog unique?

What makes the blog unique is that I combine my love of hip-hop, economics, psychology to tell deeply personal stories. I share my highs, lows, insecurities, etc.

In telling these stories, I try to put an interesting twist on them. For example, my article From Broke Phi Broke to Financially Woke was inspired by a Kanye West skit.

What does “being good with your personal finances” mean to you?

Being good with personal finances means learning how to spend below yours means and knowing how to create a financial plan for the future.

In my opinion, you can be good with your finances but the unknown variables of life can set you back financially.

That’s where a financial plan comes in handy. Although things may not play out exactly how you want them to, having a plan in place helps a lot.

What are some habits you practice to keep your personal finances in order?

Some habits I practice to keep my personal finances in order are:

Practicing stealth wealth whenever possible.
Paying my credit card statement balance to avoid interest payments.
Analyzing my spending monthly to see if I need to eliminate a bill.

What are your three articles people should read to get to know you and your message better on your site?

Here are three articles people should read:

A Lesson in Financial Empathy

Growing Up in the Ghetto: From the Projects to Home Ownership

From Broke Phi Broke to Financially Woke

For someone looking to improve their financial situation, what’s your best advice?

The first thing I’d recommend to someone who is looking to improve their financial situation in the short-term is to analyze their spending. Once they’ve analyzed their spending, they can gain a better idea of what they can cut back on to improve their cash flow. To do this, they can use budgeting apps such as Mint, Personal Capital, YNAB, etc.

The money freed up can be redirected towards paying down high-interests debts, saving for a vacation, wedding, etc.

For the medium-term, I’d start looking to investment vehicles such as stocks, real estate, bonds etc.

Finally, to improve their financial situation long-term, I’d recommend creating a financial plan for their long-term goals. For example, if someone wants to have kids, I’d tell them to start researching whether it makes sense to enroll in a 529 plan.

Beyond that, I’d look into the benefits of purchasing term or whole life to protect one’s assets.

What’s an area of your life which has benefited from improving your personal finances? Have there been any areas of your life which have suffered?

I believe my mental health has benefited from improving my personal finances. I’m no longer stressed out about how to pay bills or having no money.

However, as a result of being laser-focused on my finances in the past, some of my relationships have suffered.

Side hustling too much in my last relationship was one of the reasons why it didn’t work out. Instead of spending quality time with my girlfriend, I was trying to grow my blog, be a freelance writer, and drive for Uber every night.

What are your favorite personal blogs and bloggers you have been inspired by?

Some of my favorite personal finance blogs are: Budgets Are Sexy, RIch and Regular, ESI Money, Journey to Launch, and The Mastermind Within.

When I was first getting started, J. Money of Budgets Are Sexy, was the first person I reached out to for advice on how to start my blog. His advice was: “The best thing to do is just start it and write your heart out.”

Following has led to so many wonderful opportunities. I’ve gotten a chance to meet so many amazing people in the personal finance space.

In your opinion, what’s better? Renting a place or buying a house to live?

In my opinion, renting a home is better than buying one. For the sake of transparency, I am a renter, so I may be a bit biased.

Having rented a family home for the past five years, I haven’t had to pay:

$5,000 to replace the roof
$7,000 to replace the AC unit
$800 to get rid of termites

But again, I do stay in a family home, and the landlord (my mom) hasn’t raised the rent. I just pay the mortgage, cut the grass, and pay the utility bills.

Do you have any financial mistakes you’d like to share, and how have you grown from these mistakes to improve your personal finances?

I have plenty of financial mistakes to share. Here are some of my most embarrassing mistakes:

Racking up over $10,000 in credit card debt
Purchasing a car that was the same amount as my salary
Not enrolling in my employer’s health care plan right out of college

Currently, I try to avoid putting things I cannot afford on credit, unless it is something serious like a medical expense. My goal is to drive my current vehicle until it falls apart, while setting aside some money to buy the next one in cash. And I’m enrolled in my employer’s health care plan, which has saved me thousands of dollars this year.

What’s a non-money related interest you have and what do you love about it?

A non-money related interest of mine is riding electric bikes. Here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, you can check out Gotcha electric bikes.

When they debuted here last summer, I had to try them. I loved riding them so much that I purchased an annual subscription for $40.

I love that the bikes can travel up to speeds of 20 mph without much work on my part (lazy, I know). It’s also very relaxing. I’ll probably renew my subscription next month.

How You Can Contact Peerless Money Mentor for More Information

You can learn more about Peerless Money Mentor at https://www.peerlessmoneymentor.com/, like them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/peerlessmoneymentor, and follow them on Twitter at @peerlessmoney.

Thank you for reading this interview, and thank you, Peerless Money Mentor, for providing us with some great personal finance tips!