Know Your Blogger Series

Have Your Dollars Make Sense

I started blogging in January 2021. I’ve long been into personal finance, but with a seemingly abundant amount of time at home, I wanted to take on a new project and blogging seemed like an interesting way to get my knowledge out there. My goal is to help anyone out there who may be confused or just need some motivation when it comes to finances. Even if only a few people come away with a new idea or two, then I’m happy. The name Have Your Dollars Make Sense I think speaks for itself. It’s basically what I wanted to help do, make sense of their money.
Check out our Q&A with Have Your Dollars Make Sense here.

Come read about the great personal finance blog, Have Your Dollars Make Sense.

Each week at Personal Finance Blogs, we publish interviews from amazing bloggers from the personal finance space. This week, we are featuring the blog, Have Your Dollars Make Sense.

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 Have Your Dollars Make Sense, learn about the author, and learn personal finance tips from Have Your Dollars Make Sense to help you improve your financial situation.

A big thanks for Have Your Dollars Make Sense for this interview! Now, we will turn it over to the author for this interview.

Tell us about Have Your Dollars Make Sense

What makes you and your blog unique?

Although the PF blogging space is quite crowded, we’re all unique in our own ways. All of us come from different backgrounds, whether that be our upbringing, our job, current or past financial situations, etc. That all comes through in our perspectives and our writing. Each blogger out there has a unique perspective all their own, and I’m just bringing mine to the table now.

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

If I had to pick one major aspect of it, it’s this:

Live within your means.

Too often people are more occupied with impressing others and giving the illusion of wealth, than actually doing the work to accumulate it. Luxury cars, big houses, fancy vacations are not worth working for the rest of your life to me.

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

Yikes, they are probably more like obsessions than habits at this point. I must log into my bank account, credit card, investment accounts and other money related accounts on almost a daily basis. Tracking where my money is going and finding ways I can improve. Reading and learning anything I can, not just about finance, but different aspects of life too. You’d be surprised how often you can connect other things to finance.

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

Here are three you should check out:

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

Really it all comes down to hard work. No amount of reading blogs or searching for money saving tips online is going to change anything unless you are ready to really change what you are doing, which is hard. You’re not going to change overnight and nobody does the 100% right money move all the time, but if you put in the effort and really start applying what’s out there, the possibilities are endless.

In your opinion, what should you do first? Pay down debt, or invest?

I always like this question, because there are few different perspectives people can have and nobody is really wrong. On the one hand, debt is absolutely the worst part of anyone’s finances. Any interest paid is wasted money that you can’t get back. Telling anyone to crush their debt before anything else is never bad advice.

However, the caveat here is that the longer you are invested in the market, the sooner you’ll see the power of compounding gains. Starting even a year or two later can make a big difference down the road. Investing really is the best way to create wealth and you don’t want to delay that. Plus you can argue that if the gains on your investment are higher than the interest you pay on any debt you have, you’re up money in the long run.

So which is it? If I really had to pick one, I’d say get rid of that debt first. Yes, investing is great, and the sooner you start the better, but to really get someone out of financial trouble, debt has to be the first thing to go. Investing, in the end, is optional, but debt collectors will keep knocking at your door. Plus the mental relief of paying off debt can’t be understated for most people.

In your opinion, what’s better? Focusing on increasing your income, or focusing on decreasing your expenses?

Decreasing your expenses for sure for a few reasons. One, it’s something you can work on right away and almost immediately see results with. I’m sure most people would be able to find hundreds of dollars they could spend better on a monthly basis if they really started looking at where they were spending their money.

Next off, it’s something that is well within your control. In order to make more money, you either need a raise or find a new job, both of which can be difficult to do. Companies are out there to make a profit too and aren’t often in the habit of handing out money. You can very much control how much you spend and learn to live within your means.

If you aren’t good with money already, more money isn’t going to change that. If anything it will make it worse. The real key is forming good money habits. Once that is taken care of any future gains in income can be used to crush debt more or up your investment contributions

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 think I’ve had two major financial mistakes in my life. The first is a pretty common one and that’s not investing early enough. Most teenagers or young adults just don’t think about it or think it’s for old rich people only. The fact of the matter is that if I had started investing just a few years earlier, I’d be that much closer to my financial goals.

The other is my master’s degree. I was stuck in a job I didn’t like and there was what seemed like an exciting new field I could break into with the degree. I wish I had not only done more research on the university, but also the field.

Neither turned out to be what I expected. The program itself was okay at best. Teaching me some useful skills, but not nearly enough. The actual field itself, although still new and exciting, really didn’t lend itself to someone looking to start a family. You either had to have a position where you traveled 75-90% percent of the time or could literally be on call 24/7. Neither of which interested me. All in all, it cost me about 27k to have a useless degree.

If you received a $5,000,000 windfall tomorrow, what would you do with the money?

Oh wow, every person’s dream right? I’d absolutely crush it for sure. The first thing I would do is pay off the rest of my mortgage. Anyone who tells you not to because the interest is a tax write-off is just flat out wrong. Getting rid of this giant piece of debt would be a big difference maker.

Next up I’d put at least 50k into each of my kid’s college funds. They already have a substantial amount in each for their age and this would allow me to basically just let it ride until they went off to college. They would be able to pick anywhere they wanted to go without me having to worry about how to pay for it and them worrying about needing to go into debt before they even have a job.

Most of the rest would be invested. I spread it around dividend-paying mutual funds and probably buy up a bunch of real estate near me. Basically, any investment the generates a monthly cash flow would be on the table, but those would likely be my top two choices.

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

Fitness in general, but more specifically running. I’ve been a runner since high school and it’s something that has always stuck with me. I think the best part about running is that it’s mostly about improving yourself. I’m never going to be the faster or best one out there, but I still surprise myself with what I’m capable of doing. I’ve run in multiple marathons and at the age of 37 am running faster times than I did at 27.

Why do you believe learning about money and caring about personal finance is important?

It’s something that affects every aspect of our lives. Without understanding your own finances your really just not going to be able to be the best version of yourself. I don’t think people realize the full value of it.

For one, just getting over the mindset of “Keeping up with the Jones”, is a life changer. When you no longer worry or care about having other people think you’re rich or have a ton of money, you’re just a happier person in general. Learning to live within your means and be happy with what you have is worth its weight in gold.

After that, you’ll find that the things you once spent your money on just aren’t worth it and you can find a lot more fulfilling things to do with your money and your time. Being able to pursue a passion or interest because you didn’t waste your money on luxury or other wasteful things will open up so many opportunities you wouldn’t have had before.

How You Can Contact Have Your Dollars Make Sense for More Information

You can learn more about Have Your Dollars Make Sense at https://haveyourdollarsmakesense.com/ and follow them on Twitter at @HYDMS21.

Thank you for reading this interview, and thank you, Have Your Dollars Make Sense, for providing us with some great personal finance tips!