The M.O.N.E.Y. show interview with J.D. Roth

This was one of my favorite episodes of the MONEY Show.  JD Roth is the founder and former owner of Get Rich Slowly blog.  He now runs a blog called Money Bo$$ and travels the country with his girlfriend in an RV.  I like hearing stories about how people dig themselves out of a hole whether that’s a financial, health related, relationship, whatever. Coming from behind and making something of yourself; not giving up even when things seem bleak. I find inspiration in these stories.  

What affected me most though was how similar his story is to mine. Family business, making bad decisions with credit cards, divorce after many years of marriage, love of nerd culture, etc.  While his track was one of entrepreneurship and no kids, mine was one of kids and career. He was able to come up with something that, while not unique, was innovative and captivating.  Today he lives off the fruits of that labor and inspires others to reach their goals.  He also had an interesting take on looking at our personal finances as we would a business.  

In business you generally want to make a profit.  You want your expenses to be below your income.  The gap between those two is your profit. You want your personal finances to be the same. Working to increase that gap and make sure you’re saving for the future. 

The other thing was how he “gamified” getting out of debt.  Nowadays you can find all kinds of gamification for health (Fitbit), travel reviews (Travelocity), etc. where you get points badges for accomplishing small goals.  While there really is no site that does that for personal finance, you can still do something similar on your own.  Setting small challenges with yourself or friends, posting about it to be held accountable and celebrating when you hit a goal. Anyway, it inspired me to get my head wrapped around my debt situation and to start denying myself a few things to reach this goal.

He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler Yeats