So a fellow financial blogger called me out on one of my posts. They said that the contents of it were insultingly rudimentary advice or at least the message being put across in the post. Now I feel a little vindicated in that I didn’t write the post. It was one of my rare Guest Posts. However, I sometimes wonder what other folks think of some of my posts.
I strive to be believable, and as for my advice, it is mostly common sense. Many of my posts, have been incredibly insulting, but no one ever seemed to complain. Then an innocuous post from a guest and I get a comment about insultingly rudimentary advice, interesting. What my readers like or dislike, is not something I understand, but I was amused to see that if I got too “nice” or “overly simplified” I would upset people.
The one thing that comment did for me, was to reaffirm that:
- I really should stay the heck away from Guest Posts, because they confuse the issue and the message of this blog (the message you might ask? GET THE HELL OUT OF DEBT, STUPID).
- While I may simplify some things in the areas where I feel I have the expertise (which surprisingly is nothing to do with money, I am an I.T. computer guy at heart), I will try never to talk down to my audience (I may call you all financially stupid, but that is more of a term of endearment, than an insult).
Feel free to comment about this comment or the underlying messages in this blog. I welcome the feedback (while I may ignore it completely, your opinion matters to me).
The last thing I want to hear is that I am boring.
Your blog is hardly boring!
Disregard the call out.
Oh, is that what you write about, getting out of debt, sometimes? 🙂
Take care my friend,
Mark
I read your blog regularly. And until today I’ve never heard of the controlyourcash blog… And will probably never read it again.
I just read the “critique” and I don’t know what his problem is!
This is a very important issue for a lot of people, especially people who have worked 9-to-5 (or longer) five days a week for the last 40 odd years. Even if they have serious hobbies they would have spent a most a couple hours a week doing them. Once they retire, they assume that’s what they’ll do full-time, but not every hobby lends itself well to that. Unless you start thinking about it before you retire it can take a few years before you can really start enjoying your retirement.
Is there a single sentence in the guest post that’s insightful, or at least not self-evident? Let’s look:
“Your lifestyle choices will have a huge impact on your overall success in retirement, as well as your satisfaction with retirement.”
(Nope.)
“Your lifestyle choices will be one of the biggest factors in your retirement finances. ”
(Which was the very next sentence, no less. How about one that doesn’t start with “Your lifestyle choices will…”?)
“Your lifestyle can be greatly diminished if your physical and mental health deteriorate quickly in retirement.”
(There we go! That one really enlightened readers, opened their eyes to something that they couldn’t possibly have known before. Up until now I thought getting sick and infirm would enhance my lifestyle, not diminish it.)
Considering the source, I wouldn’t sweat it. CYC has his circle of friends that are untouchable, everybody else gets insulted just for the shock value.