“At the end of the day we’re all human creatures, so it’s smart to take all variables – both emotional and factual – into considering before making large decisions.” – J Money

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J. Money blogs over at the personal finance site, Budgets Are Sexy, and creates other fun projects on the side as well. Such as his recent “non-sucky” giveaway site, Take Our Stuff, and his attempt at sharing the secrets of blogging over at Blog Sexier ;) You can learn more about him at his one-pager here too: jmoney.biz. He likes to keep his identity a secret this adds to the x- factor of the site.

How and when did you develop interest in personal finance?
Probably as soon as we bought our house at the peak of the market right before it crashed. I’ve always been fascinated with money (especially getting more of it! ), but it wasn’t until we had such a large debt on the books where it really stopped me in my tracks to pay attention to it all. So naturally I turned to Google to learn more about money and how to be better with it, and out popped all these personal finance sites which motivated me to start my own!

When did you start your blog and how much time do you devote to maintain your blog?
I started my blog 5 years ago this month! So crazy… I remember it all like it was yesterday. At first I spent maybe 30 mins a day on it just pumping out one blog post a day, and then I went to an hour, and then 3 hours, 5 hours, all the way up to 12 hours a day in the later years. Now I do my best to spend 6-8 hours only but it’s really hard to do. When you’re passionate about your online stuff, it’s hard to slow down the brain

What do you enjoy writing most about and what are some of your most popular posts
90% of my posts all come from daily events in my life, with the other 10% from ideas I see on other people’s blogs/sites. I just write about whatever I’m interested at the time whether it has to do with savings, investing, hustlin’, or even collecting coins. I think of it like a personal diary, only having to do with money and it’s open for the entire world to read

Some of my most popular posts to date are:

• I Got Fired.
• Side Hustle Series: I’m a “Phone Actress”
• What if You Could Live Off 50% of Your Pay?

What tools do you use to manage your money and time?
I use an excel budget template I made to track all my money and net worth, and it’s REALLY helped me out over the years. It’s more manual than your automated Mint.com’s and what not, but you gotta stick with whatever works. As for managing my time, I’m still trying to figure that one out The only thing I’ve gotten great at is doing a bulk of my important work in the FIRST 3 hours of a day when I’m at my most productive levels. Anything after that is just gravy, haha….

Rohit: I have also created a simple excel template for budgeting which can help you create a budget in under five minutes.
What are some of your short-term and long-term personal finance goals?
My short-term goals are to get rid of my 2nd mortgage at $32,000 (we’re currently paying off about $2k extra every month), and my long-term goals are to get rid of my entire mortgages completely. Which I plan on doing within 8 more years… I really hate having so much house debt on the books, so my main financial mission in general is to knock it all out and then work less and enjoy a debt-free life since I won’t have to be bringing home as much money anymore going forward… It’s a nice dream to work towards

Which other personal finance sites do you follow?
I follow a lot of them on and off, but here are the ones that are usually in my top 3 at any given moment:

• Makin Sense Babe
• Free Money Finance
• Enemy of Debt

What is your favorite personal finance advice?
I don’t think I have a “favorite” one really, but I would like to point out that there are two sides to dealing with your money: the more factual one, and the more emotional one. And contrary to what most gurus like to say, it’s perfectly OK in my opinion to make decisions that are just as emotionally based as they are financially “smarter.” Kinda like that whole debt snowball idea – paying off the smaller balanced credit cards first even though they have lower interest rates than the others because it EXCITES you and motivates you to continue! A lot of people would say that’s just plain stupid because you should always follow the track that’s more financially smarter, but oftentimes that can lead us to burn out and/or lose steam pretty fast. At the end of the day we’re all human creatures, so it’s smart to take all variables – both emotional and factual – into considering before making large decisions. Or even small ones for that matter. There’s no point in picking the “right” method if you’re just gonna give up 2 months later!

What are some of your own financial mistakes?
I have lots of them But the biggie is buying too much “house” when we did right before the real estate bubble popped. That cost us $100 Grand from the get go, and even though the house fits us more now than it did back then (because our family is growing), I would go back in a heartbeat and get a smaller place instead… Though on the other hand, without making that mistake I wouldn’t be here today answering your questions! As it all led to me starting my blog

What surprises you most about people’s money habits?
That they pretend they don’t care about money when deep inside it eats them up Well, at least those who are super in debt and just continue ignoring it hoping/wishing it’ll all go away on its own. It won’t. And it’ll only get worse until you stop and change the path of everything! But the beauty of life is that we can adjust our doings at any point – we just need to get focused and motivated enough to start making some better changes with our money. People are great at digging themselves out of holes when they really WANT to enough.

What would your readers be surprised to know about you?
Hmmm…. That I have O.C.D.? (Obsessive compulsive disorder) Sometimes are worse than others, but I’m constantly fighting an internal battle with myself and trying to be as “normal” as possible so I don’t end up at the looney farm… I wouldn’t say I have it bad compared to others out there, but it def. gets in my way at times.

Any initiatives you are currently focusing on?
Yup! Two things. 1) We recently launched a giveaway site where we give out something *different* and awesome every single week (that’s not like your ordinary giveaway site out there), and 2) My blog about blogging sexier :) As you can tell, I really love this stuff!

What is unique about your blog?
Maybe that I just say whatever’s on my mind whether it’s good or bad? Or that I like to curse and/or drink while I blog?

Many readers of this site are also personal finance bloggers. Any advice for them?
Yup! ALWAYS BE YOURSELF. That’s the most important thing in my eyes because it separates you out from all the rest AND keeps your content “real.” Too often we strive to be like the others in our niche – especially the bigger and more successful ones out there – but it’s important to stay true to your own voice and what REALLY excites you with blogging. The farther you venture out, the closer you’ll get to burning out and abandoning your site altogether. So better to just do YOU from the start and continue on spreading your wise words of financial goodness

Any parting words?
Sure, come say hi to me on Twitter  @BudgetsAreSexy