Interview With No Debt Plan

Kevin over at No Debt Plan runs a feature called subscriber swap saturday. He’s asked me to participate and I am more than happy. The idea behind Subscriber Swap Saturday is that he and another blogger interview each other, post the interviews on their respective blogs and then ask our subscribers to check out the other blog, and subscribe for a week to decide if you like the other blog enough to become a regular reader.

He’s posted my interview over at his site today that you can check out at No Debt Plan. And here is his interview with me:

My questions for him are in bold.

1. What lessons about money did you learn from your parents?
There were a couple of things I learned from my parents. The first is my Dad always told me to save 10% of my paycheck and I would be just fine. Turns out I think that number is a bit low, but the principle is sound. Secondly, in more a subtle way I learned not to spend every last dime that you make. I was never involved in the household budgeting, but I know we saved up for trips. My parents also tried to live on one income and save on the other — a great idea.

2. What are a few of your favorite personal finance blogs?
The first personal finance blog I really fell in love with was Get Rich Slowly. I’ve enjoyed reading JD’s transformation from debt laden worker to full time, debt free blogger. I’ve also enjoyed reading Gather Little By Little and Brip Blap.

3. Does a mortgage fall under your “no debt plan” or do you consider that good debt? Has the recent turn in housing changed your mind about that at all?
I think the determination of mortgage debt being good or bad really depends on the situation. (Don’t you love vague answers?) Anything that isn’t a 15, 20, or 30 year fixed mortgage I would think to be risky business. Those with mortgages that are 35% or more of their monthly income, that can be really dangerous (obviously the higher you go, the more “bad” the debt looks.) For us, our mortgage is in the 20-30% range of our monthly income so I don’t consider it bad debt even though we are above the typical 80% loan-to-value amounts.

4. What are your favorite 3 posts from your blog?
10 Steps to Avoid Becoming a Millionaire – This post was really simple to write, but was immensely popular in social media. I like it because it is a tongue-in-cheek post and I don’t do that a lot.
The Concept that Changed Our Financial Life – If everyone would do this simple switch in their budgets, life would be so much better. I really wish I could convince everyone of this tactic.
Paying Off Debt vs. Investing in this Economic Environment – This post was written late last year, but I still think it applies to today.

5. What is your proudest achievement from the past year?
There are a bunch of different ways I could go with this. I’m proud to be a happily married husband. I’m proud that 100,000 people visited my blog in its first year. I’m glad I got up to 600 RSS and e-mail subscribers. I’m proud that I’ve started earning a little bit of an income from blogging. And I’m proud that people keep coming back.

Thanks Kevin! I hope you all enjoyed the interview and will head on over to his site and check it out and don’t forget to subscribe to his feed!