Get Rich Slowly

I just added another link to the personal finances section over to the right. I know I often add links to this site without saying much about them. Usually they are worth talking about, that’s why I put them up there… but I just don’t take the time to explain them.

This site in particular, Get Rich Slowly, is a wonderful personal finance blog. As normal, the author started out in heaps of debt and has worked his way out and learned a lot about personal finance along the way. I like the spin that this one has though because its focus is not on get rich quick schemes. Its goals are not to make one filthy rich just for the sake of fulfilling an idealistic dream of having everything that is possible to have.

Get Rich Slowly encourages people to understand money, personal finance, and saving as well as frugality and debt reduction/elimination. Its purpose however is to master these aspects of finance in order to live a simpler life that allows time for family, friends, reading, self development and expression, and purchase of things that REALLY matter to you as oppose to purchases of things that are completely immaterial to ones personal life.

The author states,

“Eight years ago, before I started Get Rich Slowly and while I was still deep in debt, I wrote on my personal blog that my goal was “to live a pastoral lifestyle”. What I meant was that I wanted to live simply, with few obligations. I wanted to work from home, to bike on errands, to squash my obsession with stuff. I wanted to read Dickens and Proust, to spend time with my friends, to enjoy life with Kris. This is still my ideal.”

I understand and agree with these statements and my goals are much like the author of this blog. I want to achieve financial freedom in order to live this “pastoral” life that allows for simplicity as well as comfort. I don’t want to worry about bills, mortgages, college tuition (mine, my spouse, or my children’s), or retirement. I want to leave a legacy of wealth for my children of course along with a sound understanding of financial principles so that said wealth is still around for the following generation.

Having these goals in perspective helps out a lot while planning, choosing investments, or skipping that cup of Starbucks that I would normally go for. I'd much rather really think about my purchases and buy things that I really want instead of things that I just buy out of habit. Breaking these habits is difficult though...