Introduction

• As part of my website and through my blogs I try to offer a good sprinkling of personal finance advice, based on solid finance theory and my own experience, focusing on important issues for millennials. Of course, the solid finance theory that I provide doesn’t just come from my own mind, I spend a good amount of time seeking out and refining the advice of others.
• The aim of this piece is to share the 7 best personal finance websites I’m currently using that provide up-to-date and relevant information for millennials. Alongside the list, I’ll explain what aspect of personal finance they cover, why I find them so useful and what I’ve learned from them.
• If you are interested in my other articles on personal finance you can see them all here: http://jablifestyle.net/category/personal-finance/
• I have broken the below sites into a few different categories which helps explain their relevance to me right now, and the relevance they might have for you:
  • Core Personal Finance Information
  • Best Finance Methodologies & Tools
  • Financial Blog Entrepreneurs

 

Core Personal Finance Information

• I believe the following two sites cover the core aspects of personal finance in an easy to understand and apply way.
• Boring Money (website)
  • Personal Finance Specialty: Simple, easy to understand information relating to pensions, investments and ISAs.
  • Why useful? It is an extremely easy to read and understand website with good content. If you are really taking control of your finances for the first time or wanting to dip your toe into the world of investment this is a great place to start.
  • What I’ve learnt: Lots of information on the internet relating to SIPPs (Self Invested Private Pensions) is very confusing, Boringmoney really helped me understand them better.
• I will teach you to be rich (website)
  • Personal Finance Speciality: Beginner information for saving, investing, budgeting and automation. Easy and practical advice for earning a bit of extra money, either through a getting a raise or monetising a hobby.
  • Why useful? It offers a really good blend of finance information across a lot of areas, and is very accessible. It’s polished and uses lots of graphics, which is a massive help to learning and condensing information.
  • What I’ve learnt: Ramit Sethi and his blog are like one big infomercial but a lot of what he says is really useful, one of my favourites is what he calls ‘85% solutions’. These are simple and easy to implement solutions that get you 85% of the way with very little effort, and 85% is a hell of a lot better than nothing.

 

Best Finance Methodologies & Tools

• Once you’ve got the core understanding of personal finance you need to understand the best methodologies and tools to help you achieve your goals, below are my favourite for each of these categories.
• Mr Money Mustache (website)
  • Personal Finance Specialty: Early retirement and low cost but high quality living
  • Why useful? Mr Money Mustache (aka Pete Adeney) has a cult following of people who want to shun what they see as the out of hand consumerism of the West, and the dependence on working for 60 years to pay for it. He provides advise on creating a better blend between earning money and enjoying life.
  • What I’ve learnt: The amount of money you need to retire is not as astronomical as I thought. If invested in a clever way, you only need 25x your annual spending to retire for the rest of your life. Therefore, if you spend £25,000 a year then you need a pot of £625,000 to never work again, regardless of your age.
• Financial mentor (website)
  • Personal Finance Speciality: Personal finance and investing education to help people become financially free.
  • Why useful? The sheer amount of free resources available is incredible, Todd shares calculators to help you calculate for retirement, mortgages, loans, inflation etc.
  • What I’ve learnt: I written about Todd Tresidder and his Financial Mentor podcast before, you can find the article here: http://jablifestyle.net/2016/06/26/best_podcasts_millennails/

 

Financial Blog Entrepreneurs

• The remaining three sites in this article cover a dual purpose for me. Firstly, they contain an excellent spectrum of personal finance information related to stock market investment, real estate investment and passive income creation. Secondly, they explain in detail how they have monetised their websites, tracking not only how much they are making but also sharing what tools and tests have worked and which haven’t. As I look to understand more about whether or not I want to monetize this site this information is gold dust.
• Financial Samurai (website)
  • Personal Finance Speciality: A former investment banker who created the website as an additional source of passive income. He shares his ideas & recommendations for building wealth through real estate, stocks and bonds, private equity, and online entrepreneurship
  • Why useful? It’s a great example of someone who is doing extremely well (earning ~$200,000 a year from the website, investments and consultancy work), while still being achievable. It offers very balanced views on investment and spending – some solid middle of the road advice.
  • What I’ve learnt: This is an excellent bench mark on how well you are doing for your age, compared to ‘above average people’, a very interesting read: http://www.financialsamurai.com/the-average-net-worth-for-the-above-average-person
• The Extra Income Project (website)
  • Personal Finance Speciality: Putting in place multiple things to create passive incomes streams to reach financial freedom, ‘put simply, I want to set up ways of making money while I sleep.’
  • Why useful? Extremely detailed information on the path to monetizing a website, and the tricks and tips which work best.
  • What I’ve learnt: That making money from blogging isn’t easy and statistically you are very unlikely to make enough money to do it as a full-time job, but that doesn’t have to be the goal, every little helps!
• From Cents to Retirement (website)
  • Personal Finance Speciality: Sharing his journey to retiring in his mid-thirties, through monetising his website, stock investment and retail investments.
  • Why useful? Extremely transparent, all his methods and progress are fully available on his website.
  • What I’ve learnt: As someone who is a couple of steps ahead of me in terms of monetising their blog, this provides an excellent template with clear next steps I’d need to implement if I want to reach that next milestone.

 

Conclusion

• Whether it’s increasing saving for a home or pension, investing in stocks or real estate, or monetising your favourite hobbies, I hope the above list provides you with good resources of different places you can learn more about personal finance. If you’re interested to know more about my views and advice on personal finance, from choosing the optimal current account, to stock market investment for beginners and pension saving for millennials, check it all out here: http://jablifestyle.net/category/personal-finance/

 

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