Morning!
Been helping a few readers find some things around the community and thought I’d share them with you too in case they help :)
One was looking for ways to connect with other like-minded people in the space, another was wondering if any other sites out there stream RSS feeds like we did back in the Rockstar Finance days, and then another’s about to head out on a massive road trip so I shot her a bunch of great articles around #VanLife to help inspire her.
I also needed some help myself for good bookkeeping services out there as mine is shutting down, so I’ll list the recs people shot over to me as well here at the end…
While I’m at it, I’ll also point out that I’ve added a bunch of resources around this blog too in the top menu bar, so be sure to click around there every now and then as I’m constantly adding and re-organizing things from the past 14+ years 👍
Here are shortcuts to some of them if you’re reading this in email or RSS yourself:
- My favorite blogs, books, apps!
- A bunch of great (free) budgeting spreadsheets
- Podcast appearances (including all 26 episodes of my own M.O.N.E.Y. show!)
- List of all the series we’ve had over the years (net worth, side hustle series, would you rathers, confessionals!)
- Reviews of a lot of books, apps, etc. (Digit, YNAB, Vanguard, Personal Capital, Honey…)
- Merch page
- “Hire Me” page
- How to subscribe to the blog (email, RSS, etc)
Alright, now onto some helpful links for whoever else might need them!
A bunch of great meet up communities
For those looking to connect both online, and off, to other like-minded people in our space:
- Camp FI — in-person retreats that “fosters genuine relationships across the FI community that encourage us to live financially independent and happy lives.”
- FIREList: Meetups — a list of FIRE meetups from California to Colorado to Massachusetts and in between
- Choose FI Community — host to both online and in-person local FIRE meetups
- Mr. Money Mustache Forums / Meetups — host to both online and in-person local “Mustachian” meetups
Inspiring articles around travel and #VanLife
Here was the note from my friend that spurred this: “I’m planning an epic road trip before I turn 35 and my husband turns 40. Thinking about renting a campervan and just driving around from national park to national park. Hopefully, I’ll have the courage to document this adventure and turn it into mini family vlog. I feel like it’s better to start recording our lives instead of just through photography.”
I agree!! Never know what opportunities can come from documenting things – I surely didn’t know it would go on to become a new career for me! :) I sent her a bunch of links around this (travel, not documenting), in hopes it would inspire her. That first one is pretty epic and a great overall blog too:
- Trip of a Lifestyle: How Two Twenty-Somethings Visited Every National Park
- The Fioneers: What We Learned From Our Van Life Experiment
- The Fioneers: We Bought a Camper Van! What To Do Before You Make a Huge Purchase
- All Options Considered: Airstream Basecamp Trips Part 1, with Training Wheels!
Sites that have streaming RSS feeds
A blogger friend was reminiscing about our old “Feeds” page we had at Rockstar Finance back in the day, where alllllll new blog posts that were published around the community would show up in *real time* and “stream” down a main page so you can see all new stuff as it comes out, and he was saying he wished something like that still existed.
I poked around a little bit and was quite surprised to see that it still does! Here’s a bunch of sites doing this around our space if you found this feature helpful too:
- Fiscovery.com — feeds of all FIRE bloggers streaming on the homepage
- FiFeeds.com — similar to the above, but much cleaner/easier to read
- Source of FIRE — similar to above, but harder to read
- CollectingWisdom.com — feeds of all $$$ bloggers in general streaming on the homepage, and many FIRE specific too
- PersonalFinanceBlogs.com/daily-personal-finance-blog-feed/ — great curation site in general, but also has a streaming feeds page as well linked there
- CampfireFinance.com/fire-feed/ — another curation site with feeds page, although not as active as PF Blogs above (the curation part – the streaming part is live and instantaneous)
*******
Also something fun to report here: I’ll be joining the team of curators over at Apex Money starting next week helping them find and share more great articles in the space :)
It’s in conjunction with the Plutus Foundation – our community org. – and the hope is to promote more bloggers’ content alongside the great main street articles that Apex tends to share. Should be a fun new way to spread eyeballs around more on the good stuff out there! Keep your eyes open for it!
Lastly, here’s a bunch of recommended accounting software from business owners in our community:
I ‘d been using – and very much enjoying! – a company called Outright that got bought out by Go Daddy a few years ago, but sadly they announced they’re shutting it down this month so it’s time to look for something new. I hit up all my social channels for some good recs, and below were the main ones that came up in order of how many people recommended them.
- Wave — “Simple bookkeeping and payment solutions for small business owners” (FREE to use their accounting/invoicing system – Costs $$$ if you accept payments or do payroll through them. This was by far the most raved about company from my friends, and also looks SUPER easy to use – just like Outright was.)
- QuickBooks — “Tools to help your business thrive: auto-track income and expenses, pay employees and contractors, always know where you stand.” ($12.50-$90/mo. Much more robust than Wave and others out there it looks like, but also maybe overkill if you just need something simple?)
- Xero — “Online accounting software for your business that connects you to your bank, accountant, bookkeeper, and other business apps.” (30 day free trial, then $12-$65/mo. I’ve heard good things about them over the years and believe they’re another more *robust* one)
- Freshbooks — “A preferred invoicing and accounting software for over 30 million users, small business owners, and accountants worldwide.” (30 day free trial, then $4.50-15+/mo. This one looks like a beefed up Wave off first look, and I’ve also heard about them more than any others up there over the years so that probably says something!)
- *NEW* Zipbooks — “Simple accounting software that makes you even smarter.” (Free – $30+/mo. Submitted by Rachel D. – “Like Wave, their free version is pretty usable, but you can accept payments without a subscription! Basic subscription is $15./mo and they partner with Gusto for payroll.”
I’m going to start testing with Wave first because everything I need is FREE there (!) and so many people raved about them, and then if that doesn’t work out I’ll move to Freshbooks and then after that just go old school again if needed and track everything in a spreadsheet… Something I did for the first half of my blogging career and does work, but I may have gotten too spoiled by automation and pretty reporting now to go back 😂
UPDATE: Just got this note from a reader too if anyone’s interested: “Hey J. Money – I started a bookkeeping business 6 years ago after leaving the corporate world – with a little help (push) from you many years ago and have been doing amazingly. It’s just my wife and I and I love it. I’d be happy to help you out or anyone else you might think needs something. I have over 20 years in the accounting industry reaching the CFO of a $100MM company. Decided years ago to get out of the corporate world and away from the BS that it brings and it was the best decision I have made professionally for myself and my family. Let me know if you’d like to talk or if I can be of any assistance.” If you’re interested, shoot me a note and I will forward it over for you 👍
Hope this helps! And thanks to everyone for hooking me up!
See ya back here on Monday,
PS: If you’re a fan of something we missed here, let me know and I’ll add it to the list!
PPS: How are these Monday and Thursday postings feeling to you guys? It’s really weird only doing two a week and feels like the opposite of hustling, haha, but it’s also keeping me nice and calm and letting me breathe throughout the week so it does seem to be working at least on this end :) I’ll keep monitoring it and see if we need to adjust, but just wanted to check in with y’all too and gauge thoughts. Thanks!
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Yo J Money!!
So good to have you back! I have been meaning to send a note, sorry it took a while. Your posts have been great and I’m liking the 2 days a week
I’ve always appreciated your content. Practical and inspiring! Keep rockin’ it and I’ll keep reading it!!
Happy Summer to you:)
Cheers
Blaine
Prince George BC, Canada
Thx Blaine! Happy Summer (and savings!) to you as well!
Man it is good to have you back! I’m so glad to see you are once again dispensing your financial knowledge in a one of a kind quirky, enjoyable & addictive manor!
Thanks Mitchell – glad it still comes across okay after taking years off :) Was a bit afraid i couldn’t get into the groove again, but so far feeling pretty good!
I still use Digit! I am up to $88k!
Holy $hit!!
What are you going to do with all that money??
Your emails/blog is so easy to read and take action. I’ve missed that and am loving two days a week. Glad to hear from you again. Tanks for all the great advice and tips.
Awesome – thx, Kim!
Appreciate the feedback! :)
Very helpful on the curation sites! It does seem like there used to be more of this kind of stuff (before I had a site of my own!). There are a couple on there that I wasn’t aware of. Hopefully they are in the market for once or twice per month content from a part-timer like myself!
Loving the return of Budgets Are Sexy!
thanks dude!!
yeah – they should be paying attention to *ALL* sites out there! at least if they’re good curators ;) maybe you’ll have to write something spicy to get their attention though?
Cool you are joining Apex. GRS was the first blog I started reading back in the day before it was originally sold, then repurchased… I feel like I heard about something like that happening recently…. what site was that again??? :) Please don’t burn yourself out though, this community needs J.Money.
Haha, thanks man…
JD is in the process of redesigning his site too to be more minimal! or as he calls it – “Dedesigning”…
guess we both just can’t stay away for too long :)
Hey man I am happy with whatever frequency your soul and body have to give. I always exit reading your thoughts with a little lift in my soul.
oh gosh – that’s the best compliment a guy can get, thank you!
i might have to print that last line out and put it where I can see it every day, haha…
Great list of resources. I’ve been using Wave for business expenses for years. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to organize business expenses/income for businesses of any size.
Rock on, thx!! Excited to try them out once I’m back from the beach.
I have a small business and my bookkeeping is super simple — so simple that I can enter a year’s worth of transactions in about an hour.
I’ve been using Quickbooks since 2000 so I don’t really want to switch to a different program (tried Wave and Xero — wasn’t a fan), but I hate the idea of paying a monthly subscription. My “hack” is to pay for only one month per year for their service. In mid-Dec I activate my account and pay for a month, enter all my transactions, then have my accountant grab a copy of my books once I’m done. Once she has a copy, I cancel my plan. Quickbooks keeps data for a year while cancelled, so there is no data loss (can still log in and view all reports, just can’t make any changes). ~92% yearly discount for Quickbooks :)
Oh jeez, haha… that’s certainly a hack!
Wave has been doing the trick just fine for me so far… It doensn’t connect to Paypal which surprised me, but the rest has been pretty smooth and easy so I’m gonna stick with it for now…. (and no hacking necessary as it’s 100% free!)