WELCOME to the Greatest Personal Finance Site in the entire world.
The Short Version:
HUNDRED DOLLAR HERO is a personal finance site dedicated to improving your financial shape.
Through articles, resources, tools, and reviews we present the world of saving, budgeting, and investing with humor and unique insights. Take advantage of the TOOLS AND RESOURCES to get started immediately, or check out the BLOG to learn more.
And if you're still curious to learn more about what this site has to offer, check out the guide below.
The Specific (but Compelling) Version:
Here at Hundred Dollar Hero we are a little different. That's a damn good thing, too.
If The Onion and School House Rock had a literary baby, and it disappointed its parents by forgoing the family trade to study finance in college, this blog...would not be it. This is the blog it would date for a couple semesters before dumping right after graduation.
Other sites deal with personal finance ("PF", if you’re nasty) in a pretty predictable way: they define key terms, explain confusing concepts, and list some brief tips on how to get ahead. The whole thing resembles a Money 101 assembly your school put on when you were 14, given by an apathetic volunteer from the local chamber of commerce. It’s compelling stuff.
I lied. It’s not compelling. It can be insulting.
Sure, some of it is intelligent and helpful, and some of it serves an important purpose, but most of it is regurgitated past the point of usefulness. Unfortunately, much of it fails to examine anything in a new light.
The whole landscape of PF advice can feel very narrow-minded. That’s pretty amazing considering how our finances touch on nearly every aspect of our lives. There is no end to what we can use to learn and examine. Personal finance advice doesn't have to be limited to debates on Traditional vs. Roth IRA.
For example, here is a sneak peak (a brief but not exhaustive list) of some of the topics we examine in the world of our money and how to have more of it:
- Zombies
- Sex
- Drug use in the NBA
- Rug-burn
- Power tools to compensate for physical shortcomings
- BDSM
- The Battle of Little Big Horn
- Guilt-free vacations
- The educational corruption of today's youth
- Hollywood films
- Pranks pulled by the elderly
- The benefits of snoring
- The benefits of smothering your partner while he/she sleeps
- Slow, involuntary career suicide
- Porn
- Muttonchop facial hair (the complete opposite of porn)
- Fantasy football
- Fast food commercials: the world’s greatest lies
- Awkward eye contact
- and more!
Exciting, right? But we’re getting off topic. Nonetheless, you get the idea. Personal finance touches on everything that is personal to us, which is nearly everything. It’s an underserved topic.
We’ll finish this up by going to the readers directly. Let's take questions.
1st Question: Elizabet- I mean, the woman with her hand raised, who definitely does not work for us and whom we have never seen before.
There are lots of personal finance sites already.
That's not the question we told you to ask. That's not even a question.
Why bother with this one?
Thank you for that insightful question.
We'll keep our answer simple:
What We Know
Personal Finance is a damn dry topic. Headlines like to rail against the financial illiteracy of the populace, but we haven’t gotten dumber, the topics just became more numerous and more complicated. There is a lot out there to keep track of and take in, but that's just the world we all inhabit now.
What We Think
Personal finance is important to all of us, whether we focus on it or not; It doesn't have to always to be so boring and exclusionary; and there aren't enough insurgents making copies of their butts in its hallowed and musty halls.
What We Can Do About It
We thought about literally taking to the streets in super-costumes. The benefits seemed substantial:
- Possible comic book spin-off;
- My very own action figure made in my image (well, in a vague likeness of me, with better abs cut into the plastic);
- My wife wearing tight spandex;
- The ability to help people achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. Then we could vanish - with badass aplomb - into the moody nighttime fog.
Ultimately, we decided against it.
This site is a better option. This way we all get to communicate on the things that work, those things that are helping improve our finances a step at a time. We also have a place to examine the the ego-driven sharkshit that sometimes passes for original thought in personal finance.
2nd Question: Yes, you in the back.
Are you as narcissistic and conceited as this site's name would imply?
You betcha.
But we aren't selfish. If we were, the site would be called Hundred Dollar Villain. Or even Million Dollar Villain, because lying and theft would probably be involved. Here, there is no lying and no sugarcoating, just advice and analysis on the financial world around us, delivered honestly.
3rd Question: Over there. The guy making a face like he smells something raunchy.
What do you mean it's personal finance delivered honestly?
We mean we give it to you straight, dummy. Sheesh, this is going to be an uphill battle. Maybe an example would make it clearer. Okay, here is your first batch of financial honesty:
We are not all equal. Some of us need more help than others. That should seem obvious, but sometimes the prevailing wisdom of the personal finance yakosphere isn't even great advice, it's just what is convenient for the pundits to say by treating us all equally. Muted, bloated, worthless advice reaches more ears, but helps fewer budgets.
Some of you are connoisseurs of high finance. Some of you only pay attention to your expenses when you find an old receipt smuggled away in your pocket, clamped shut with gum.
But we can all get better; none of us are above learning more. Whatever your current debt level, your current financial focus, you can improve, but it requires putting the concept of your finances in your actual, conscious mind. No more swiping cards and pretending like none of it affects you. No more ignoring your finances because you haul in a kingly salary.
By addressing the PF topics that sometimes go unaddressed, we think we can keep each other honest. By not pandering to you for easy clicks and simple solutions, we think we can make PF far more personal.
Alright, Last Question: Yes, ma’am, what’s your question?
Who is this site for?
Wow, that’s a fair question. And you don’t even work for us.
Who Will Get the Most From This Site
- Real people seeking real opinions and advice on a variety of personal finance topics;
- Anyone with a sense of humor who also knows money is important because it lets you put food in your facehole;
- Readers bored or numbed by the more common advice they receive on their finances; and
- People who are hoping that their total immersion into the site and the comments section will cement them in the institution that this blog becomes, thereby securing them a minor role – played by some vaguely familiar but nameless character actor – in the Lifetime original movie that will ultimately be made about my triumphant rise. The part of yours truly, Your Humble Hero, will be played by John Stamos, aged younger digitally by the advanced editing software Lifetime possesses in 2032.
A caveat about the last bullet: ambitious readers, please don’t "Selena" me.
The Route to Take
You might be here because you have never given your finances a single thought before. Suddenly you feel like you need to examine this untapped world before you plummet further into failure.
Maybe you are a one of the few financial hobbyists consciously aware of your spending, saving and investing. Congrats. You are the chosen people.
Either way, the best thing you can do is continue to learn.
A good place to start is the FREE COLLECTION OF OUR FAVORITE FINANCIAL TOOLS AND RESOURCES. Or if you are looking to improve your understanding, check out the BLOG for our latest articles. And to get you closer to your goals, in a way that fits your situation, we have recently released an exclusive resource, the GUIDES TO THE DIFFERENT PATHS TO FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE.
After you are convinced this whole thing rocks, and you are smart enough to realize you should absorb even more, feel free to sign up for FREE UPDATES AND EXCLUSIVE CONTENT.
So come in, take a gander, take some advice, but don't take anything too seriously. Oh, and you might want to make sure you have all your shots.