The name alone is catchy. And it’s true. Budgets are sexy, especially when you’ve got it mastered to a “T”. The “About” section on the blog declares up front that the blog can be a bit “kooky” at times. But that in no way detracts from the content. In my opinion, that’s what makes this blog one of my favourites. Let me introduce you to the man in charge, Mr. J Money aka Mr. Budgets are Sexy.
Mr. J Money, tell us a bit about yourself.
Hello hello! Thanks so much for having me here today. I never know what to say for these kinds of questions, but in a nutshell I’m a guy in my 30s who one day woke up and realized I needed to figure out all this money stuff. (And “that day” being the one where we bought a $360k house on a whim without a budget or even any money down.) I had turned to the internet looking for help, and when I came across all these wonderful finance blogs, I knew I had met one of my new loves. And for the past 4 years I’ve been blogging at my own site ever since!
You are the creator of the extremely popular blog “Budgets Are Sexy.” Where did that name come from and how did you get started in the blogging world?
Haha… you’re gonna laugh unless you’re a fan of his, but I got it off of Justin Timberlake’s “I’m bringing sexy back” song from a handful of years ago It was on the top of the billboard charts when I was coming up with my site, and after humming it for a few hours at a church retreat (while brainstorming blog ideas, naturally), I thought it was the perfect companion to a site about money that tends to be pretty bland to the general public. And it was perfect too, cuz I always love it when people mix two things that usually never go together.
(On a side note, check out these new shirts we just made! “I’m Bringing Budgets Back!”)
There never seems to be an end to wittiness, charm and enthusiasm in your content, which is probably why you’re so popular. How do you maintain such a high standard of content, that is never boring?
Oh man, well first off thanks so much for the kind words – it really means a lot. To be completely honest with you, it’s certainly gotten harder and harder as the weeks (and years) go by. After a while you feel like you’ve said everything you’ve wanted to say! Haha… but luckily in life, things keep changing and as you move through different stages – both good and bad – there’s always *something* going on relating to money.
And since my blog is pretty much a personal diary of my own personal accounts, it helps me to keep pushing out REAL and natural stuff because I’m physically living through it each and every day. And usually the best posts are those when something bad or crazy happens, which makes it easier to deal with in real life too My wife will tell you that the first thing out of my mouth now when something wild happens now is – “Well, at least I can blog about it!”
I’ve heard of the term blogger burn-out. Have you ever been a victim of this?
Haha, I guess I should have read these through before answering huh? But yeah, for sure. I think the average age for a blog, whether finance-related or not, is somewhere around the 3-6 month range, with the rest making it to 2 years before tuckering out. I’m not gonna lie, it’s hard as $hit to keep it up. And I think those that DO keep going get something out of it that that average person fails to see before it’s too late (like perhaps money or respect, or accountability, etc.).
Just like with everything in life, you tend to burn out once your passion goes, so if you can figure out WHAT exactly keeps you excited about stuff, you usually last a lot longer than others. And that pertains to other hobbies or careers too. Now that this is my full-time job though, it’ll be a lot harder to stop doing until I figure out a Plan B.
Social media has become a part of everything it seems. I know that you’re on Twitter and Facebook. When you started blogging, were these an integral part of your “offering” to your readers. How has your participation in these platforms affected the success of your blog?
Oh man, I refused FOREVER to get on those things! The thought of keeping track of another platform, and really embracing it to help grow the site, was the last thing I really wanted to do. So I joined them slowly and poked around until I got a good rhythm going. And honestly, I would be LOST without some of them now. Especially Twitter. I can’t tell you the amount of people and business and just overall AWESOMENESS I’ve gotten out of it so far! Every single one of my closest online friends have actually come from there – how crazy is that? And the amount of business and networking that goes on among social media is just insane – I love it. Twitter to me is like my second blog, and I treat it just as importantly now. (I could do without Facebook, esp. when they convert everyone to “Timeline” – bleh).
I’m a huge fan of your Side Hustle Series. How did that come about? Are you at all surprised by any of the side hustles that are revealed?
Thank you! It’s slowly become one of my favorites too J And it totally came off of a whim when I was trying to explain how awesome this guest post was on chicken farming. As I started to write the intro to it, I realized line by line how this could totally become a new series altogether, and so I literally just made it up on the spot and put it out there. And WOW have we gotten a ton of responses since! We’ve now covered jobs from worm counting to being a phone sex operator, and my goal is to just keep on running with it since there’s a lifetime supply of gigs out there. Especially the weird ones, haha… we even won a Plutus award for it at last year’s FINCON conference! I think people really get a lot out of them.
The Love Drop was a huge project that made a difference to so many people. You started with the simple, yet effective premise of “changing some lives.” Where did that come from?
It came from a good friend of mine and I (who I met on Twitter) wanting to do something *different* with a charity. Mainly by combining the power of small steps to do something MUCH bigger than ourselves. And since he was running a micro-giving project at the time revolving around small increments of TIME, and I was doing the personal finance stuff, we thought it would be a unique project to combine the two and make something awesome together. And 12 months later we had raised over $90,000 worth of stuff and helped 12 different families when all was said and done! Pretty incredible for being a peanut of an idea we threw out there one day… just goes to show what’s possible with today’s technology and when you really put your heart into it!
How has The Love Drop changed your life?
I think the #1 thing I learned with Love Drop is that there is a TON of hurt out in the world – and it sucks when you can’t help everyone. But I also realized that every small thing you do is so much BIGGER for that person or family that you’re helping J So I’m a total believer of doing as much as you can for people, even if YOU think it’s not “enough.” Sometimes just thinking about someone, or giving them a phone call can make all the difference in the world, and I think that’s an important thing to remember. At the end of the day, we’re all in this thing together, ya know?
Where do you draw your inspiration from and what impact has this had on you as a person going about your day to day life and as a blogger?
I draw most of my inspiration from those like-minded people around me. Whether it’s from my blog readers (who also enjoy good financial management and learning through sharing) or other bloggers or friends and family. They’re really the ones who keep me motivated and keep me asking more questions ‘cuz they PUSH ME to continue learning – which is great. And I think that’s why I’m still blogging to this day to be honest with you. If it wasn’t for the community we’ve built here, or that constant desire to keep doing *better*, I think I would have given up years ago.
But every single day I wake up and I’m actually EXCITED to sit and do “work” cuz I know it’ll help everyone to grow, and the more we do it the more we ALL learn J It’s a damn cool thing we’ve got going on here, and I’m blessed like crazy to be able to do this for a living.
You have another blog called Giveaways Are Sexy. Is that what you would call a blog spin-off? How did that come about?
Yup! Pretty much. I’ve had the idea for years to spin-off a site mainly for giveaways since I tend to get a lot of offers over at the Budgets site, so I thought I’d give it a shot and see what happens. And to be quite honest, it never really blew up like I thought it would. So I’ve actually cut down on the time I’ve spent on it now, and pretty much just keep it alive until I can figure out what to do with it…
I’m not ready to shut it down all the way just yet, but it wouldn’t be shocking either if it tuckered out after another 4-5 months. The thing I’m trying to be better about now is FOCUSING on what works and cutting out the stuff that doesn’t – even though it pains me at times when I think an idea is really good! Haha… but at the end of the day, if the audience doesn’t agree with me at the time, then they’re right. So you move on and try something else.
You are an inspiration to many bloggers and aspiring bloggers. What advice would you give to people who want to enter the blogging world?
Aww, thanks! The best thing *any* blogger can do is to just BE THEMSELVES and have a voice. The whole reason people go to your blog is cuz they want to hear from YOU. No one else or they’d have gone to their site instead. It’s okay to mimic others from here and there, and add your own spin to things – every blogger does that – but what makes your site special is that it all comes from YOUR experiences and your ideas. So def. do your best to just be you and throw your heart into it.
Which actually brings up the 2nd best thing I always tell people: BE PASSIONATE. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with something, or don’t, just as long as you care and you’re really INTO it. No one likes reading books or blogs that are just so-so on things – they want to see that fire! It’s why politics and religion gets so heated up. There’s no right or wrong answer there, but the people who are most respected and listened to are those who live and breathe their opinions.
Tell everyone why they should listen to you and keep coming back! How are you different from the blogger to the left? How much time and effort do you put into your articles? It’s no coincidence why the hardest workers grow their sites more than others; they genuinely care about their “product” and they put their all into it. If you do that, you’ll succeed 99.9% of the time (and the other .01% is if you’re blogging about underwater basket weaving – a niche that’s probably pretty small )
Great advice from a great blogger. It was a pleasure to have this conversation with J. Money. If you like what you’ve read and you want to learn more about J. Money, you can find him at Budgets Are Sexy, on Facebook and on Twitter. For another insightful interview check out our chat with Shaun at Money Cactus.