Favorites

I’ll be the first to admit it – I’m a total and complete personal finance geek. I’ve been reading books on personal finance since I was a teen (yep, made me the coolest kid in the room) and I’ve been listening to podcasts on the topic for years. Here I’m going to share some of my absolute favorite financial related blogs, podcasts, forums, and tools.

Blogs – The Big Ones

These are the sites that most likely everyone’s heard of – the big guys and gals.  I love popping over every week to read what they’ve written. Being big doesn’t make them less awesome!  These are my personal top 10:

• 1500 Days – Dinosaurs, Transformers, and Financial Independence – what more could you want?
• Afford Anything – You can afford anything, but not everything. What’s it going to be?
• Budgets Are Sexy – Who says money is boring? Give it a fun twist with J. Money!
• Financial Samurai – Sam has high expectations for you and your net worth-and advice on how to engineer your layoff
• Frugalwoods – They had a goal-to save enough to move to a homestead in the woods, while living in an expensive city. And they did it.
• Mad Fientist – Seeking FI, hacking HSA’s, and providing some awesome trackers
• Money Boss – The new home of J.D. Roth, founder of Get Rich Slowly (you know, back when it was good)
• Mr. Money Mustache – The original MMM himself, always ready to punch you in the face if you make a poor financial decision
• Retire by 40 – Because I’ll be 40 one day, and Joe’s a great writer
• White Coat Investor – Writes primarily for doctors, but has tons of valuable advice for all high-income professionals, and lower income ones too.

Blogs – My Awesome Friends

OK, most people hanging out in the Personal Finance blogosphere has heard of the blogs above. But what about the others? One thing I’ve learned since starting this site is that there are hundreds of awesome sites out there with amazing content. I’m not going to have enough space for all of them, so I’ve picked my top 15. Be sure to head over to the Rockstar Finance blog directory for all tons of amazing blogs.

• Green Swan – Teaching all us Swanigans about money!
• ESI Money – Earn. Save. Invest. It’s really that simple
• Freedom is Groovy – It sure is!
• Get Rich Quickish – Ty has a large family living on a single income, like I do
• Make Smarter Decisions – Vicki is going to retire to island time rather than succumbing to One More Year syndrome – woot woot!
• Miss Mazuma – Flight attendant extraordinaire fsaving huge percentages of her income
• Mustard Seed Money – He left the first comment ever on my blog, so he’s a memorable one to me. Plus he writes great articles about personal finance!
• Picky Pinchers – They’re working on paying off debt and retiring early – while having fun and eating great food!
• Physician on FIRE– He’s now partnering with the White Coat Investor, and has awesome content of his own. Like WCI he targets doctors but his advice applies to everyone
• Retirement Manifesto – Fritz is approaching FIRE, and his blog is on fire! Swing over and read about how he’s approaching retirement
• She Picks Up Pennies – Purposeful, deliberate, and frugal living
• Think, Save, Retire – Retired at 35 and enjoying the good life
• This Tiny Blue House – Jenny writes about her adventures as a SAHM, simplicity, and frugality

Podcasts

I have an hour and a half round trip commute – 45 minutes each way. You know what makes time fly by? Podcasts. Financial podcasts, specifically. If I’m stuck in the car that long every day, I may as well use the 7.5 hours per week to learn something. Here are my favorites:

• Afford Anythingwith Paula Pant: Podcasts once a week, excellent varied content
• Clark Howard: I listened to this for a few years but eventually felt like I outgrew it. It’s very good and informative though, especially if you want the basics
• Dave Ramsey: Great again for the basics and for getting out of debt, just be warned there’s three hours of this a day. If you need motivation to get out of debt I love this one
• Financial Independence Podcastwith the Mad Fientist: Financial independence with a mad scientist twist
• Financial Rockstar  with Scott Allen Turner: How often does money and rock music go together?
• Her Money with Jean Chatzsky: Covers lots of topics relevent to women and money
• Dough Roller with Rob Burger: All things money, and he had a great series on starting a blog a while back
• The Money Guy Show with Brian Preston: Once every two weeks, these are the only financial advisors charting 1% that I listen to
• So Moneywith Farnoosh Torabi: Great money advice and interviews three times a week
• Stacking Benjamins with Joe Saul-Sehy: Funny, you don’t learn anything, and part of the show doesn’t exist
• The Tim Ferris Show: Great interviews from the author of the Four Hour Workweek

Financial Forums

These are my favorite places to hang out and talk about money (or lurk and learn from others talking about money):

• Bogleheads – Populated by millionaires, famous authors, and big-time financal experts, I’ve been a Bogleheads fan since they were the Morningstar Diehards. I usually only lurk over here because it seems like everyone there knows a lot more than I do. Which is why I love to lurk over there!
• Reddit Personal Finance / Frugal – Where I learned to stop worrying about the “threes of dollars” I might spend on a Big Mac
• Rockstar Finance Forums – Where the cool kids go to talk about all things money
• White Coat Investor Forums – Populated by doctors, lots to learn over here

Calculators

When I’m itching to calculate something about money, these are the sites I turn to.

• Compound Interest Calculator – For running the numbers on a certain investment scenario
• FIRE Calc – For early retirement calculations
• Inflation Cost Calculator – When I want to calculate the value of something purchased long ago in today’s dollars
• Student Loan Payoff Calculator – If I’m writing about student loans, this is the one I turn to

Coupon/Deal Sites

Even the most frugal of us have to buy something every once in a while. When I do, I turn to these sites:

• Krazy Coupon Lady – All things coupons
• Hip2Save – All kinds of deals, every day, all day
• Money Saving Mom – Not as many deals as Hip2Save, but still plenty of money saving opportunities
• Retail Me Not – Always check here before purchasing-they have coupon codes/coupons for almost everything! Valid ones too, not junk like some sites

Leave a comment below with your favorite blog, podcast, forum, calculator, or site for scoring deals!