My company puts financial education programs in the workplace. Here’s a sample of a very common response from people who have attended my workshop:
“Jim was absolutely terrific. I wish I had taken this course years ago in my 20’s or 30’s and I probably would have retired 10 years earlier. This course should be mandatory for all employees in their 30’s. I wish my children could have dome to this course.”
I’m biased but I could not agree more. Here’s the problem. We offer courses to the 20 and 30 year olds but they just do not seem as interested in retirement and personal finance like the 40, 50 and 60 years olds. Maybe there’s a greater sense of urgency the older you get. Maybe young people just have different priorities. Maybe young people are just learning in different ways.
Some young people do care!
I recently read an article on Why 30 year olds are screwed. The original article makes some really good points but at the same time, it’s a bit of an over generalization since there are some 20 and 30 year olds that do keenly enjoy and practice good money habits.
In spending a lot more time blogging, tweeting, posting, etc. I have discovered a lot of young bloggers who do care about personal finance and they are very vocal about it. The social media revolution has created new ways to share and I think it has also created a new interest in personal finance from a younger demographic.
Take Crystal from BudgetingInTheFunStuff.com as an example. In her 20’s, she says “I was always a natural budgeter. My parents were a big financial influence. Money is a big part of everybody’s life including mine, so it is just a matter of me typing out what’s happening right now.”
And then there’s Briana from 20andEngaged.com who despite her youth is a blogging veteran with a passion for food, family and finance. She blogs about life as a young fiance. She got into personal finance and money through her previous job, working as a Social Media Coordinator for a personal finance website, “I was surrounded by it daily, and had to represent it, so I figured I needed to learn it. Who knew it would influence me the way it did?”
I discovered both Briana and Crystal through their work at StupidCents.com which is another site run by Tom Drake who is also a young blogger, though no longer in his 20′s. I’ve had the privilege of knowing Tom for a little over a year now and we’ve developed a great friendship. I have a lot of respect for Tom’s passion for personal finance.
Other Young Canadian Bloggers
When I think of young Canadian bloggers, I think of two personal finance bloggers that have stood out for me as pretty influential sources:
The first is Krystal Yee who started blogging in 2007 because she needed to change her life, “I was over $20,000 in debt, and I had a hard time figuring out how to get out of it. Debt does nothing but weigh you down and prevent you from having the life that you really want for yourself, and I wanted to start living my life as soon as possible.”
A self proclaimed ‘former shopaholic’, says her blog forced her to be accountable for her spending, “Having to write down my goals for anyone to see, forced me to take it seriously.”
Krystal writes a blog for Moneyville called 20-something and change as well as her own blog Give me back my five bucks.
And then there’s Young and Thrifty from Vancouver BC. who says, “I started blogging because I wanted an outlet where I could talk freely about money. I felt the need to spread the word about how awesome personal finance really is, and spread it to my fellow generation Y’ers.”
A few pearls of wisdom
I asked these four young women to share their BEST advice to other young people trying to get ahead financially and here’s what they said:
Crystal from Budgeting In The Fun Stuff – Start saving early. Compound interest is a wonderful thing and people in their 20’s need to know that amazing returns can be made by the time they hit their mid-life crisis if they simply start saving ASAP. My advice is to prioritize spending and start saving as soon as humanly possible.
Krystal from Give me back my five bucks and 20-something and change – My best advice for young people is to start understanding and getting a grasp on personal finance as early as possible. The earlier you can get yourself out of debt, save money, and establish a path to financial independence, the better off you’ll be.
Young and Thrifty – My BEST advice would be to automate your finances. Don’t wait until you have money left over from all your expenses to put into savings. Pay yourself first. You’ll be surprised how quickly your money starts to save up. Once you have some money to invest with, you can then learn about investing that money. But if you don’t have money to use in the first place, you’re not off to a good start.
Brianna from 20 and Engaged – My best advice for young people is to be yourself. Financially, start saving early, even if it’s a few cents at a time.
More young bloggers.
Because I am not young and I focus more on retirement planning for boomers and the already retired, I also asked them to share some other young bloggers that might help young people with personal finance. Here’s a few blogs to check out!
Studenomics
Budgeting In The Fun Stuff
Thousandaire
20 and Engaged
Money Mamba
Sweating the Big Stuff
Give me back my five bucks
20-something and change
Fabulously Broke in the City
Young and Thrifty
Punch Debt in the Face
Money Rabbit
I think it’s kind of tough for young people because there are less formal venues to get financial education. It can be tough for younger people to find advice through traditional means. Because the financial industry is scaleable, their lack of substantial wealth means financial adviors are reluctant to spend time on them. As a result, young bloggers can fill a void in personal finance resources for young people.
What are some other blogs that are aimed at helping young people?
Related Posts:
Jim Yih is a Fee Only Advisor, Best Selling Author, and Financial Speaker on wealth, retirement and personal finance. Currently, Jim specializes in putting Financial Education programs into the workplace.
For more information you can follow him on Twitter 
We’re kinda “young”. I’m in my mid 30s and Mrs. SPF is in her mid 20s. We got keenly interested just over a year ago about our PF and with help from Tom here @ Canadian Finance Blog and many other sites we link to week in and week out we’re feeling a lot better about our financial future (and living a sustainable lifestyle both in terms of our environment/social impact and our net worth / financial habits).
Yes, SPF … I am aware of your work! Sorry to overlook you on the list but keep up the great work!
Craig Ford is another young Canadian whose site, Moneyhelpforchristians.com is about both money management and Christian principles. He writes from the perspective of someone raised in Canada, educated in the States and living and working with the poor in Papua New Guinea. My bias (conflict of interest?) comes from being his father.
Thanks Art, If I had a son who ran a great money site like that, I would be proud to share as well! I’ve read lots of Craig’s work and it’s great! – Cheers!
Hi Art, Craig has a great site, we’re even in the Money Mavens network together!
Dear Dad,
Can I hire you as my marketing manager?
Craig
I’m even more impressed that over half the blogs you mention are from young women who have taken an interest in personal finance and are becoming a great resource for other gen y’s.
Jim, I remember going to an investing seminar back in my very early 20′s and I was the youngest person in the room by 30 years. Of course, they didn’t pay too much attention to me since I had no money to invest with
Great observation Echo! It could be that this list was created primarily by women but I do see more and more vocal women in personal finance!
In my workshops, I try to make a point of recognizing younger attendees. I think it’s great. How much of your financial savvy was influenced by your mom?
Good for you to single out and recognize the young folks at your seminars.
I would say that over time I learned a lot from my mom in terms of my values and how to manage money.
But I moved out of the house 3 weeks after I turned 18 and lived on my own. I would attribute a lot of my financial knowledge to the positive and negative experiences I gained trying to learn on my own.
Jim this is a great article! I think personal finance is becoming more popular among the 20-something crowd. Even just a few years ago when I started blogging, I felt like I couldn’t go to any of my friends for financial advice. But over the last year or so, we have been having open discussions about personal finance and money management. It’s an essential life skill!
In my mid 30s this is a topic that rarely comes up w/ my pals. I find it odd, and a bit disturbing that they don’t seem interested in the topic.
Hi,
I’m another young Canadian that just started learning about investing and personal finance last summer (2010). I’ve started a blog to post about my successes and mistakes in the learning process (although it isn’t updated on a regular basis).
You can read about my successes and mistakes so far at http://startingat22.blogspot.com
-Mike
This is a great list. It is encouraging that there are young individuals who care about sustainability as well as the future.
This is a great list Jim. We are in our late 20s and have always been interested in personal finance. We never had any debt (though savings took a little longer
) and now vigorously saving for our first home. I am sorry to waited this long to start our retirement savings and house down payment, but am glad to have made all the mistakes early.
Yeah, definitely great to hear younger people having that discipline. More outreach needs to be done and the old school method of seminars isn’t capturing the younger generations. They are way too occupied or perhaps distracted to take time out to attend a finance or budgeting event. I think social media and video interaction online is the way to capture that audience. We have to find what works for them. Virata Gamany
One thing I’ve noticed is a very US-centric PF blogosphere. Which is all well and good, but sometimes all the 401k/Roth talk and ridiculously low food/petrol prices gets a bit much! I definitely see a trend for young bloggers taking an interest in money and I think it’s great.
The Canadian and UK bloggers are out there and we know who they are!
I know of a lot of really great Canadian PF sites (like Tom’s) that I follow. But there is also great advice to be found on the US sites on topics about frugality and such too!
Start saving when you are young.
It’s easier said than done but definitely true. Virata Gamany
Thanks for linking to my blog! I don’t really cover that much personal finance–I tried!–as I found that I couldn’t really add much beyond what others were posting on their blog.
Instead, I’ve taken a turn toward institutional finance and business. Discussing how Alt-A mortgages play into the Fed’s interest rate policy, for example, is much more up my alley than building an emergency.
With that said, I’m glad to see a generational boom in personal finance. I’m a 21 year old, I think a lot of Yakeziers are under 30, so it’s really refreshing to see a new Gen-X,Y revival of making, saving and investing our money.
Thanks so much for featuring us Jim! Hopefully our generation will be known as the financially savvy generation, as we continue to mind our money.
Thanks for including me in this article Jim. I couldn’t agree more that there is a void in personal finance for young adults, and I’m doing my best (along with the other great young bloggers) to fill it!
We definitely qualify as young I think (early 20′s). I visit all the blogs on your list on a daily basis! Thanks for the focus on younger PF bloggers. I hope to be in the whole “retire before 50″ conversation one day.
Thanks for mentioning me in here.
The funny thing is that most of my friends don’t even have a clue about my life as pf blogger. The ones that do don’t care.
The other day my good drinking buddy asked how Studenomics was going. I replied with, “well, why don’t you go on it?”
My goal with blogging about money management is to show the average 20-something that saving money doesn’t have to be boring. If you simply cut back on dumb expenses, cut the other junk, and figure out how to make a few extra bucks, that you can have the life that you want.
I also wanted to thank everyone else mentioned in the post for encouraging the young crowd to take their finances seriously!
Thank you so much for including me! This was a fun post to read and now I have a few more bloggers I need to add to my reading list…
Sorry it took so long to say thank yoU!!
Thank you, Jim! (It’s been crazy busy for me at work/life).
Definitely a great list and honored to be a female PF blogger representin’ the Canadian crowd
I also agree people seem more and more open about it! I was talking to my boyfriend’s friend (aka acquaintance) the other day and picking up some travel books I lent her, and she started talking about how she wants to save up X amount of money and how she was approved for $450,000 of a mortgage but the mortgage broker made a mistake and it was only $250,000… i was first of all, shocked at the mortgage broker’s incompetence, and secondly kind of shocked she would tell someone who doesn’t talk to her regularly how much she was approved for
but it’s a good thing- that we’ve all become more and more open about it.
I’m new again to the blogging world and Krystal blog “givemebackmyfivebucks” was one of the first pf blogs that I started reading then I snooped through the blog roll and found some other great ladies/gents blogs and have become part of a great community of people.
Now I am older then most of these peeps and am unemployed at this current time but they give me hope that not all is lost and I know that once I have my financial bearings again that their examples will fuel me into becoming fiscally responsible and debt free hopefully by end of the year.
as an aspiring FP in my early 20s i cant help but be encouraged by these bloggers who are spreading the knowledge on taking control of personal finance. It would make my job a lot easier if I was able to show and discuss strategies with people that have some knowledge on the important of being financially responsible. After all, we all have goals and even though these goals are huge, they are attainable with some sacrifice. I always try to show the bigger picture, because if you keep running that race eventually that finish line will be in clear view.