Blog Review: Moolanomy

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Moolanomy is a bit smaller than the two previously reviewed blogs, but then again so is every personal finance blog in the universe.

I like the very personal approach he takes to sharing his goals with his audience. I remember the first time I went to this site and saw the ‘road to a million dollars’ widget and the percentage he’d achieved so far.

I thought that was very cool and definitely got me interested in the rest of his site.

A bit of a coincidence

Moolanomy started on July 10th of this year (only one day after my first post) and this guy dove in head first. It’s kind of funny because he only lives 10.1 miles from me (I mapquested it), which means around the 4th of July there were 2 guys walking around Queens, NY bursting with ideas that needed an outlet, getting ready to change the world… haha.

It’s amazing how quickly he has gained traction in the blogging world, which I think is a credit to the high quality nature of his material. I think he had a much better sense of what blogging was all about than I did, and its plain to see from the interactive nature of his blog that he has embraced the whole medium.

A sense of selflessness

I think what makes Pinyo’s site a bit different from the first two I reviewed is the directory-like feel I get there, kind of like a blogging hub. I trust his judgment when it comes to referring readers to other blogs and sometimes his site almost feels like a conduit to a lot of other useful content.

I’m starting to sound like a broken record here but what I find appealing about Moolanomy is the balance he strikes. Between promoting other blog posts and online carnivals he dispenses his own easy to follow, sound advice.

At the same time, he manages to foster a sense of community which is evident in his willingness to host different online events. Take a look at his upcoming schedule to see how involved he is.

Here’s a sampling of some of his posts:

• I Just Saved A Bunch Of Money On My Insurance - he talks about how doing a little extra homework saved him a huge chunk of change on both home and car insurance. Funny, I just switched to Geico and saved quite a bit of money, maybe I could have done more. This post here is reflective of what personal finance blogging is all about.
• Loyalty Is Dead, It’s Better To Be A New Customer - another great post written in a similar vein to the one above. Being that I’m from Queens, and have both Time Warner and Verizon, I think I’ll look into making a similar switch. It’s actually been on my mind for quite awhile and I think this post will give me the extra push I needed. I love the free LCD HDTV as well.
• $1 Million by 2017. What’s Your Goal? - like I said up above, this is one of the things that got me hooked on this blog. I think this goal is attainable and I’ll be interested to see his progress. I think the investment assumptions are reasonable (seeing that the S&P has averaged 11% since 1926) and I especially like all the talk about measuring progress on a regular basis. A man after my own heart.
• Mutual Fund Double Whammy - you have to be very careful when buying mutual funds. Pinyo illustrates some of the things you have to look out for when making your selection. I dedicated 2 weeks to addressing the hidden costs associated with mutual funds.
• 529 College Savings Plan for Our Son - this is a good article highlighting some of the benefits to having a 529 plan. I love 529 plans almost as much as I love Roth IRA’s; both accounts share many of the same tax friendly characteristics. I strongly recommend them for couples that have children or plan to have children.
• Test Your Asset Allocation IQ - of course I had to include a piece like this. I especially agree with the part that suggests investors who work with advisors are more likely to abide by an asset allocation. I took the Right Mix Quiz but unfortunately there was a problem with the tabulation page. Oh well, I think I know what I got anyway.
• Top 10 Money Wasters, Are You Guilty? - I think everyone can relate to at least a few of the items on this list. I’m guilty of pouring money into at least 4 of the 10 items.

Another nice thing about Moolanomy is the length of the posts. I think Pinyo gets the point of the article across without wasting anyone’s time, there’s not much beating around the bush.

Sometimes I’m not in the mood for a long read, especially when I’m busy (a lot of the time) and I really appreciate brevity. There’s nothing worse than dreading your feed reader.

An Ideal Scenario

Much of what you can learn at Moolanomy can be directly applied to investing in your future. In a perfect world you can figure out the monthly savings needed to pay Roth conversion taxes, and then create those savings using a lot of the ideas from Moolanomy…

Tags: blogroll review, Personal finance