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Carving A Path To Financial Freedom: Mint’s Personal Finance Blogger Picks

Written by Mint.com
Published Jun 21, 2010
3 min read
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This week, we’d like to take you through a series of articles that highlight the stages of life that have an impact on our finances. We’ll share some insights by personal finance bloggers on matters involving college, work and career, and becoming financially successful.

1. Get excited about personal finance

Personal finance may not be the most exciting subject for everyone. But there are simple tricks you can employ to make learning about money more interesting. Take some cues from The Financial Student as he shares How I Try To Make Personal Finance Less Boring. (Thanks for the Mint.com shout out!)

2. Pay less for a college degree

People attend college to invest in their future — and many folks accumulate debt just to get that degree. To keep you from breaking the bank, Money Talks News gives you 6 Tips to Pay Less for a College Degree.

3. Turn your passion into a living

While you hang out in the corridors of your college or university, take a moment to think about your future: reflect on your dreams and develop your personal goals and visions. Take the cue from Wise Bread and consider their suggestions on how to Turn Your Passion Into A Living.

4. Find a work-life balance

When you’re finally out of school and ready to take on the world, the issues of work and life balance may enter the picture. As you try to make a go of your career, commiserate with BripBlap as he outlines the challenges in finding out a way to juggle life and work. You may agree or disagree with his ideas in Work-life Balance Is A False Choice, but it’s worth a good read and may just get your own ideas flowing.

5. Are you cut out to work for yourself?

Have you ever faced this fork in the road and asked: “Should you choose to be employed in a big company, with the trappings of financial and life security, or to work as a freelancer, with the perks of having your time under your control?” Allow Funny About Money to be your devil’s advocate as she delves into the challenges of freelancing. Her piece poses the question Are You Cut Out for a Freelance Job? Is Anyone? Here’s where you can weigh the pros and cons of freelancing versus having a full-time job.

6. Find inspiration in others’ success stories

Those deep in debt often fantasize about paying off all their obligations one day and becoming financially free. Let Get Rich Slowly reader Jaime Tardy inspire you as she tells you how she paid off her debts and is now starting to work her way towards her million-dollar goal in her story I Paid Off $70,000 in Debt and Quit My Job!

7. Don’t be afraid to dream big

On this note, let Ben S. from Banker, Saver help you dream, imagine and envision a plan for making a million through his article When Will I Be A Millionaire? Contrary to what some naysayers may believe, dreaming big can inspire you to achieve success. Retirement calculators and other money management tools can be effective visual aids for this purpose, and may show you that becoming a millionaire can be doable.

So what’s your personal financial journey like? Are you attending college and planning to get a job after you graduate? Or do you have a 9 to 5 job but secretly wish you can start your own business someday? We’ll try to keep bringing you fresh ideas on how to help you reach those goals.

Silicon Valley Blogger (SVB) runs The Digerati Life and The Smarter Wallet, where she writes about general personal finance topics such as investing, budgeting, debt management and small business ideas.