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One comment/question I get asked about once per month is something along the lines of the following:
I enjoy reading your blog! It seems like you’ve got a pretty good base ofย knowledgeย about personal finance. Have you ever thought about working the financial industry?
It’s a very interesting question and one that I have given some thought to from time to time because I really do enjoy learning about personal finance. In fact, it probably wouldn’t be all that hard to switch careers because I did get an undergraduate degree in finance as well as engineering. However, my answer is always pretty quickly generated as a firm, “No.”
The reason for this is because while I enjoy learning about finance (and personal finance in particular) as a hobby, being involved in science as my primary career has always been more fulfilling at the end of the day. However, if I were to be in the financial industry, I would probably want to do one of the jobs below (the 2nd one listed would be my first choice actually):
- Work at Vanguard assisting with index mutual funds and trying to make them more competitive by decreasing expense ratios.
- Work as a fee-based financial planner, helping individuals and families get out of debt and save for retirement.
Because I want to make a science-based job my primary career and do personal finance as a hobby, blogging is a perfect fit for me!
And, the other day, I was doing some brainstorming and thought it would be fun to share 7 reasons that I came up with why being a financial blogger might actually be better than being a financial professional. I’ve listed these below. Enjoy!
7. Thoughts of financial bloggers can be conveyed 24 hours a day.
Unlike financial professionals who have to meet with clients to share their ideas, all of the advice and ideas a blogger has to offer is splayed out on a website which can be accessed even when he or she is sleeping. This is one of the cool things that attracted me to start blogging!
6. Bloggers don’t have to answer to clients asking why their investment account balance went down.
From what I’ve read, financial advisers who work with wealthy clients especially have a lot of pressure placed on them whenever their managed account balances go down. Naturally, bloggers don’t have to worry about this.
5. You can have international clients and an international audience.
Blogging enables you to set up your little corner of the Internet and make your ideas accessible to anyone in the world at a computer. Furthermore, you can have clients (advertisers) from all over the world and execute business remotely.
4. Financial bloggers can blog from anywhere in the world.
With blogging, you don’t have to work in a busy office building or a crowded stock trading floor. You can work from the comfort of your own office or home from any location.
3. With financial blogging, you don’t need a finance degree or any special financial certification.
One of the great things about financial blogging is that it is open to anyone who has an interest in it and can generate good conversation, opinions, and logical thoughts. In fact, many of the financial bloggers I know come from diverse backgrounds, and many are engineers.
2. Bloggers do not have to worry about conflicts of interest in what we write about.
For example, investment advisers at a firm like Edward Jones get paid based on commission when you trade stock. So, they get paid only when you buy/sell stock. In other words, growing your account balances isn’t their number one goal because it is not based on how they are paid.
This, in my mind, creates a severe conflict of interest which bloggers do not have to worry about.
1. Financial blogging is not official financial advice.
This is my personal favorite for why financial blogging could be better than being a financial professional, as it relates to the very nature of what financial blogging is.
The purpose of financial blogging is to create discussion and give people ideas to research further. It is not to be used for direct financial advice, as the advice is that comes from a financial professional. However, just between you and me, the advice of some of the good bloggers out there is probably worth every bit as much as the advice from financial professionals.
For example, the disclaimer that is on the bottom of every page of My Personal Finance Journey is shown below – “The information provided on this site is not financial advice, and I am not a financial professional. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities, or to invest in any specific product. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. Thanks for visiting!”
Note: if you’re a financial professional, please realize this list is meant only for fun (not an attack on the financial industry) and that I admire you all very much for what you do.
How about you all? What do you feel would be some of the advantages of being a financial blogger over a financial professional? What are some of the disadvantages?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy ofย http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=blogger#
