Let me introduce to you the next best frugal site: Frugal Wonderful!
A buddy of mine who so happens to be a very successful frugal blogger gave me some incredible advice recently. He said,
“Sam, you’re doing it all wrong focusing on the mass affluent / aspirational niche. Instead of writing about investing, entrepreneurship, and real estate, you should focus on frugal living. I teach people how to save money on groceries, encourage people to walk or ride a bike to work, tell people to never turn on the heat, and of course never buy anything new. As a result, people love me for it! Teaching people how to be more frugal is possible for 100% of the population, which is why my site is so popular.
Whereas you, you talk about how earning $300,000 is middle class, establish tough net worth targets by age, and write super long posts on investment strategies in retirement while most of your readers are still working with less. Of course people are going to end up hating your guts because you’re excluding the vast majority of the population!
Showing tough love should only be reserved for the people you care about the most, not your readers who pay you nothing. If they end up getting crushed by inflation 20 years from now because they didn’t invest or thought they could cruise through life, it’s not your problem.
Another thing. I hate to say it but you are at a structural disadvantage as a minority. Most people like to connect with people who look and talk like them. Even if you get a 100% following of the Asian American population, you’ve only got a 6% marketshare. Conversely, if you get only a 10% marketshare of the Caucasian American population, you get a 7.7% market share! Think wisely about the demographic you want to reach.
Carefully analyze the backgrounds of your greatest detractors. Look at owners of the sites that have been sold for multiple millions of dollars or have developed a cult-like following. Finally, look at the profiles of the people in the mass media and the people the mass media repeatedly highlight. You will find a clear trend if you’re honest.
You can’t change your race or the name of your site, but at least you must make your readers feel better about themselves by telling them how little you spend and how little you need to make. I tell my readers I spend less than $30,000 a year for a family of four despite earning well over $1,000,000 on my website each year. This way, most of my readers can relate to me or even feel sorry for me because the median household income is double that. Of course I spend way more than $30,000 a year, but my readers will never know. I’ve carefully crafted a frugal image that is now unshakeable!
At the end of the day, people just want to read what they want to read to validate the decisions they’ve already made in their lives. Stop putting so much opinion in your posts. Every successful site in the PF space focuses on frugal living with uncontroversial topics. Focus on easy and watch your site rocket straight to the top!“
Digesting The Truth
Initially, I thought my friend’s advice was full of shitake mushroom. Why wouldn’t people want to focus on making more money, since making more money has unlimited upside compared to saving money. Further, I love to challenge myself to discover new ways to earn more. Being frugal is boring!
But then I realized much of what he said was true. There’s a reason why I no longer have four-pack abs. Eating healthy and working out every day is hard. Every personal finance site that sold for millions or that has grown to cult-like status focuses on personal finance basics. Finally, the disdain for my work is consistent, which is a bummer because my wife and I can’t stop being silly everyday.
Below is one example of an unpleasant reaction when I used satire to promote my pro-public school post. Even though the post is clearly pro-public school with detailed charts, and even though there’s a friendly dialogue in a podcast at the end of the post with my wife sharing our thoughts on education, there’s still so much outrage.
If I want our business to survive for the next 22 years to give my son the option to work for his old man after college and to have something fun to do as an unemployed person, I’ve got to find a way to at least sustain traffic. The only way I can do so is to broaden the topics in order to broaden the audience. Using controversial words that may hurt people’s feelings is probably not a good long term strategy.
With so much hate in this world, I worry about my son’s future. I know he’ll face bullies and lose opportunities because of who he is and how he looks. Surely, he will make the same mistakes as his father and write or say something that gets misconstrued. But these are all teachable moments that can help prepare him for the real world.
Other teachable moments from Twitter include:
* Realizing not everybody has the same sense of humor, so tread carefully.
* Realizing social media can be a big waste of time, so get off social media if you want to increase happiness.
* Realizing some people only read headlines and not the content, so spend less time writing and podcasting and more time crafting generic SEO friendly headlines.
* Realizing some people will hate you no matter what you say or do because of your background, so learn to accept and let go.
* Thinking differently will jolt people, so figure out when is the most appropriate time to be different and when is the most appropriate time to assimilate.
* Learning how to keep going no matter how difficult the path.
* Showing empathy towards the people who hate you the most, because the way you treat someone is a reflection of your own being.
For our son, I will keep working hard for as long as possible just in case he needs help. Failure is not an option. It doesn’t matter whether folks think it’s ridiculous for me to keep our business going to provide for my family or contemplate important decisions like education to plan for the future. I will always do what’s best for my loved ones and so should you. Contemplation is free and worth doing.
A New Beginning On Financial Samurai
Starting on June 15, 2018, Financial Samurai will seek to become the best frugal blog on the planet with a new URL: FrugalWonderful.com! It cost me $20 to register. Oh, how I love having an internet based business.
I’ve been focused on boosting income and growing my investments since 2009 and now it’s time to boost my Budgeting & Savings category on my new site. By dropping the Asian theme, I hope I can appeal to a broader audience who otherwise might be put off by Asian culture. With a name like Frugal Wonderful, how can the site not be filled with awesomeness!
Here are sample titles of upcoming posts I’d like to work on:
* The 10 Finest Cat Foods That Taste Like Chicken To Use In Your Stew
* Aggressive Snuggling: The Best Way To Save On Heat And Build A Loving Relationship
* If You Spend No Money You Can Retire Yesterday: How One Man Retired By 18
* 10 Date Ideas That Cost No Money If You Don’t Want To Get Laid
* You Haven’t Lived Until You’ve Pooped In The Woods
* Biking Is Life: Don’t You Dare Talk To Me If You Drive To Work
* How To Make Your Parents Pay For Everything As An Adult Child (oops, I already wrote about that)
* How To Get Girls If You Live In Mom’s Basement (darn, wrote about that too)
I really hope everybody can support me in my new endeavor. It’s going to be tough at first given my inexperience as a frugal blogger, but with your support, I believe we can make frugal sexy again!
May we continue to love and accept people from all different types of backgrounds – even those of us who choose to pinch pennies.
Related:
Related post: How Much Savings Should I Have Accumulated By Age?
For more nuanced personal finance content, join 50,000+ others and sign up for the free Financial Samurai newsletter. Financial Samurai is one of the largest independently-owned personal finance sites that started in 2009. I help people get rich and live the lifestyles they want.
I stopped reading the above post when he was telling you that people that were not Asian would not read you. I just discovered you are Asian last night when I began reading random posts and I have been following you for at least a year. I don’t care what your DNA is. What I care about is the quality of your writing and knowledge. People are people and it really does not matter what package a human comes in as long as they are a quality person inside.
Lmfao, I never even knew you were Asian. Who gives a crap?? LOL
I make significantly less than you and still find this information exceptionally useful. Because all that frugal BS is covered *everywhere* else on the internet. You’re my contrarian inspiration. To think about better options (while still living the frugal life, which you also seem to promote. You just encourage people to expand what “frugal” means.).
I’m a little late to the party…. Anyhoo, I cant relate to much of the material you post because I’m so far away in terms of net worth that a lot of this stuff just seems unreal to me. However, I keep reading because it’s aspirational. It gives me something to shoot for. So many blogs talk about penny pinching like that will make you rich (or happy for that matter). Personally, I want to find new streams of income that require less effort than I’m giving now and your site gives me plenty of ideas to do so. I don’t agree with 100% of the things you say but I have the power of discernment so I can still find the nuggets of info that will help me be better. Keep up the good work! Ignore the haters!
There’s a common theme to the haters on Twitter you posted here: they all have failing sites.
What a bunch of losers.
I’ve browsed through a lot of PF blogs and this is by far my FAVORITE!
Financial Samurai or Frugal Wonderful?! :)
Great post!
Dude don’t change. The world doesn’t need another unsophisticated goofball talking about 101 topics like 3 months of savings and avoiding consumer debt.
White reader with substantially lower income than you. I appreciate your sense of humor and consider your input on investing and real estate. I wish realtyshares was available to those of us with lower incomes and net worth. Oh well, atleast this was an april fools post and you’ll keep doing what you’re doing!
I’m a pediatrician, and what you see from the negative feedback about satire from people like ZJ, Emily, Mr Pie, and Finance 50 are cavemen like behavior where their brains literally shut down because of their inability to control their emotions and temper tantrums.
You wrote in a previous post about delaying gratification has the key to getting wealthy. I can promise you that these people Have more emotional issues, are less secure with themselves, and will have more difficulty achieving financial freedom. They lack patience and do not have the ability to listen.
Isn’t biology fun? We can partially blame their parents for not raising them properly.
LMAO! A great post. Awesome how the twitterverse can get in a uproar and not even bother to read the entire post. Screw them. I loved you examples of frugalness. I have one that my brother shared with me. He had a friend who was notorious for being cheap and frugal. They went golfing and were going to a party later on. My brother decided to take a shower in his friend’s house. As is fairly customary, my brother had the bathroom light on. His friend came in and turned off the light while he was taking a shower and said they all take showers in the dark.
I love a deal. Don’t get me wrong. I try not to spend unnecessarily. However, I also like to have a good time in life. A happy medium.
Haha! Sam, I laughed so hard at the post titles! I forgot it was April fools…. let’s hope you continue to focus on FS. Love every post on this blog
On the other hand, I believe there is no site which tells a 40+ year old, how to be financially savvy.
Haha so it’s a April Fool’s jokes. I thought it was when you said the blog made 1,000,000 dollars a year which was twice the median income of 59,000. I think one too many zeros.
Yikes! There are some belligerent, salty, and and nasty nasty people out there. And it’s interesting to see that all the people you highlight on Twitter have their own blogs, yet none of their sites come even close to your side in terms of quality and size.
You would think making friends, laughing, and supporting larger sites in your space to help build recognition and traffic would be a good thing. Maybe all of them went to public school and didn’t learn the value of getting along with different types of people :)
Thanks for the April fools post!
Lol. Almost got fooled. I was like “what the heck, another frugal site?” There is no shortages of these frugal sites. Enough of these bloggers/people telling us how not to “LIVE”.
Lots of truth in the advice from your friend. Definitely more money to be made in telling people how to cut costs and get rich slowly.
Also think it’s funny that people think your net worth targets are tough to reach. When I first came to your site I thought they would cause people to aim too low!
Fine, Sam, change your target audience, blog content, and improve your SEO. I for one am never, ever returning to FS, especially that I know you are Asian and have morphed into the frugal king. Next thing you’ll start writing at the third grade reading level and extolling the virtues of cheap beer. Thanks for nothing after all these years, Sam. Thanks for absolutely nothing, including the shit-take mushrooms.
You got me hook, line & sinker last year, so I am proud to say I was armed and ready for this post!
And I am TOTALLY stealing the “full of shiitake mushrooms” line.
Wait.. so did I not get you this year? NOOO! Need to up my game then. Hmmm.
FWIW – I read this blog and really only this blog and one other FI-related blog because I value Sam’s opinion. The other blog is montanamoneyadventures for similar reasons.
Darn! You fooled me again! I’m realizing that there is a downside to being such a faithful reader. In the past you’ve mentioned how you would like to expand your audience and June 15th made sense for giving birth to a new website so things seemed plausible. It wasn’t until I got to the potential topics at the bottom of the post that you had me LOL! What a great April Fools joke!!!
I think its a good idea.
Here are some article ideas:
-Save money by going to private school over public school
-Save money by moving out of the city after you’ve made money
Happy April 1 to you as well. :-)
You’re making humor and satire Sexy again !
This is actually quite funny and while I realized you were joking at the end, I have to admit that I found myself quite interested in reading some of the ‘articlrs.’ It could be quite funny and make your well-made points at the same time. And even perhaps give yourself a little outlet to explore otherwise bizarre paths and make (at least a few of us) laugh our asses off, while pooping in the woods.
“Aggressive Snuggling” hahahahahaha. Awesome stuff sir! :)
The inspiration for all jokes came out of real thoughts. Sorry you had to constantly take a beating in the comments and social media. Whether or not you are actually serious about Frugal Wonderful, as a reader I hope Financial Samurai will continue to focus on mass affluent / aspirational niche.
Bring frugal is like waking up early. There are no tricks. You set an alarm and tell yourself to wake up, as much as you want to continue to snuggle in your warm bed. Easier said then done? Yes, because the only tip to wake up early (or being frugal) is by practicing day after day.
Agree, Sam is very funny, a master satirist.
Agree, frugality is routines and self discipline based on a strong plan and knowing what you want. And practice for sure. Getting up early is a big advantage in life. You are always on top of everything, never behind, never rushing. Trained myself on that many years ago and see the dawn every day.
For me also, figuring out what to be frugal about, obviously things I do not care about. I eliminated a long long list of useless spending (to me). And then spend only on what really matters to me and ignore convention.
Getting up early is a no brainer. I’ve gotten up by 6am probably 95% of the days since 1999. It is so much easier to get things done or get smart on things before the day. I just need to take a nap after lunch though! Food coma.
As a SAHD, I try to get work down before my wife and son wake up by 7:30am-8am. It feels good to get stuff out of the way to then spend more time focusing on family.
No brainer, but so many cannot do it or think they cannot do it. Getting things done early is great, because as the day winds down, my tasks completed, looking forward to making dinner, maybe a glass of wine and conversation if I have somebody with me, doing something just for me, making the evening a new experience.
I can’t nap, it just makes me groggy. I never give in to the urge to sleep or I can’t get going again. But if short naps work, do it. My dad (the king of self-discipline, he never tried to do something, he just did it) napped every noon hour. I just never had a schedule where I could do it. Even now retired, I am running all day, can’t think of when and where I would nap.
I commend you for getting office work done before child is up (or after he goes to bed). I’ve always thought it’s kind of horrible and selfish to close the door to your own kid who knows you are behind the door and thinks you are ignoring them. But no choice I guess if you work at home. I have no kids, so I find it kind of shocking that some parents (not you) complain about having to answer questions or be interrupted. Nothing like talking to your kid right from birth — they love it and listen even when they don’t understand all of it. Attention and talking make a well behaved happy kid and create self worth.
Wow! Twitter is totally like high school!
Never understood why people like Finance By 50 think planning ahead is a sin. Are people that lazy or unintelligent?
ZJ Thorne and Kelly Whalen are like the girl in the Movie Mean girls. Yet, they aren’t popular or attractive :)
Thanks for sharing the rawness and the laughs!
Krishana, Twitter is totally like high school! It’s also a channel where a lot of people run their mouths without thinking about the consequences and get in trouble. See the news about new US Visa applicants needing to hand over their social media accounts before passing?
If I was still working, I’d be off social media/Twitter or just stay completely neutral. But even after reaching financial independence and leaving work, it’s hard to be mean or outrage if you are not a mean or easily outraged person.
Related: https://www.financialsamurai.com/once-you-have-f-you-money-its-hard-to-tell-others-to-f-off/
Loved the headlines at the end. Good stuff!