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Post a CommentThis week’s Financial Guru Review is about J.D. Roth. He’s the personal finance blogger over at Get Rich Slowly. He’s very popular in the persnal finance blog niche and has been around for many years.
His mantra for his personal finance is ” do what works for you”. He doesn’t have hard and fast rules. J.D. Roth shares some guidelines, but wants readers to see for themselves whats best for them.
J.D. Roth on Getting Out of Debt and Credit Cards
J.D. sees debt reduction as a step, not just a goal. He points out that being successful involves making incremental changes:
Rather than quit cold turkey, I think the best way to begin a life of frugality is by taking small steps. Small steps eventually become big strides, but only after you’ve developed your frugal muscles.
Like many financial gurus, J.D believes in having an emergency fund before you start reducing you debt. He recommends the following steps:
- Stop acquiring new debt: Hide your credit cards and create a spending plan or a budget, whatever fits your personality. Reduce your expenses to ’stop the bleeding‘.
- Establish an emergency fund: Look at your expenses and see if you can ake some adjustments to increase the amount you can set aside for your emergency fund. He has an idea on increasing the barrier to using your emergency fund for frivolus reasons and oening a savings account at a different bank.
- Implement your debt reduction plan: He prefers to let his readers decide which method works for them: either a debt snowball or paying highest interest rate first.
J.D. and Building Wealth
Something fascinating with J.D. is that ,as a reader, you can follow his financial journey step by step through his blog. Now that he is out of debt, J.D. explored what to do with his money. Sharing his personal thoughts, he broke down how he is using his money to build his finances:
Once my consumer debt was repaid, that $1000 a month was available for other uses. The old J.D. would have immediately used it for fun and games. The new J.D. was smarter. I used this money to begin saving and investing, to begin building wealth. Since the end of 2007:
- Increased his emergency fund from $1000 to $12,000
- Opened a Roth IRA and a 401(k) and max the accounts out
Saving money each month is important to J.D. and he shared his views on what to shoot for:
Something that I find fascinating is that J.D.’s blog also explores avenues of personal fulfillment along with personal finances. He talks about home gardening. He has a wonderful series of posts, not just the frugality of it, but the enjoyment of it. He also has a wonderful post on affordable and great wines by Gary Vaynerchuk.
What J.D. Roth About Buying a Home
J.D. shares his thoughts on how much of a mortgage someone should budget for:
I’m a strong advocate of being conservative here. I believe your housing costs should be less than 28% of your gross income, and your total monthly debt payments should be less than 36%. These numbers provide ample room but prevent borrowers from being trapped by too much debt.
Again, J.D. stress that you should find something you’re comfortable with based on your budget. Being curious, using his thoughts, the price range we’re looking for in a house fits within his guidelines.
My Thoughts On J.D. Roth
I’m a huge fan of J.D. and agree that having a one size fits all approach is not practical. He has a great blog and his site’s forums is a wonderful resource if you have a question.
If you haven’t already, check out J.D’s and Jim’s wonderful radio show Personal Finance Hour. I’m usually in the chat room following the show as it airs. As for bloggers, he’s an extremely nice guy and very helpful to other bloggers.
What are your Thoughts?
Do you listen to financial gurus’ money advice? If so, which one? If not, why? Is there a financial guru you’d like me to review?
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I too am a big fan of JD…well everyone in the PF world pretty much is, but i’d like to see a little more critical review of JD….many good things have been said about his blog but let’s see what is lacking
just dnt ask me cause i cnt think of anything right now, but i’ll try to be more critical of his work and maybe have a review on that…..who knows maybe JD does have his flaws 
LOL, yeah; I had a hard time an think part of it is do with his ‘do your thing’ approach.
I really like J.D.’s step approach. I think it’s what missing from lot of the advice we give out – relying on people to just take the leap and go from poor finances (pardon the pun) to a great handle on money!
Thanks for the kind words.
If you want somebody to write a critical review of Get Rich Slowly, you should ask me to do it!
I’m my own worst critic. I’ll bet we all are. We’re so close to our work that we know our weaknesses. I know nothing about student loans or about money and kids, for example. I have a habit (not necessarily bad) of changing my mind/position on things. (Do I hate Elizabeth Warren? Or do I love her? Tomorrow I’ll give you a different answer!) My posts are way too frickin’ long. I’m a sucker for homonyms. (A reader pointed out two to me today: “buy” for “by”, for example.) I write too much about my own life and not enough about actual finance.
And, the one that makes me saddest, I don’t participate in the PF community enough. I try to interact with everyone, but I just don’t have the time anymore.
Finally, I feel like my writing has become stale. That’s one reason I’ll be auditioning Staff Writers over the next couple of weeks. I think some fresh blood could breathe some life into the site.
Anyhow, thanks for the review, Laura. I appreciate it.
Wow, J.D. you are your own worst critic!
Well, i appreciate your style and I think that changing positions in it of itself isn’t a flaw.
I think the Personal Finance show is a great way for you and Jim to interact with a lot of bloggers and listeners in a manageable way.
JD, I appreciate your style and your humility, too – even though you’re so successful it hasn’t gone to your head:) I’ve really enjoyed the posts I’ve read on your site and one thing I’ve noticed is that you’ve always had fresh writing – lots of guest posts, etc. So I wouldn’t worry about being stale!
Wow J.D…. that comment was kinda depressing!
But we love you! I know you see the room for improvement in your blog, but the rest of us just enjoy reading it. Oh, and if you ever need an expert on student loans, let me know! I have a ton of experience… that I kinda wish I didn’t have
Heh. I don’t mean to be depressing, Stephanie. But as my wife would be happy to tell you, I’m my own worst critic. I was just trying to point out that there are plenty of things I could do better! To start with, I could invite you to do a guest post on student loans. You have an open invitation to share with GRS readers, if you think there’s something they should know!