Trent at Simple Dollar has a great post targeting “Minimum Wage”, a frequent commentator (and some would say Troll - an accusation I’ve made) on many of the personal finance blogs. J.D. at Get Rich Slowly followed it up with another post on escaping minimum wage. Even more interesting than the posts themselves are the comments. One accusation that really stuck was a comment stating that personal finance bloggers are all smug. Even though it’s unlikely any commentator was thinking of me given I’m not popular enough to have enemies, I did feel a tad hurt by it. However, where there’s smoke there’s generally fire. Maybe not a a roaring bonfire, but at least a small barbecue grill.

I personally don’t find popular financial bloggers such as Trent at The Simple Dollar, JD at Get Rich Slowly, or Flexo at Consumerist Commentary to be either arrogant or smug (or at least I haven’t noticed). However, at least in the case of JD and Trent from what I can gather were served humble pie when they were younger. They didn’t start out being good with money, and their blogs are a testament and chronicle of how they’ve reassessed and got their financial lives on track. However there are many other bloggers whom I must be included amongst who’ve never had real financial difficulties. Not only have we not had big trouble, we also do pretty well for ourselves in terms income. For readers to complain that we are out of touch with the rest society is more than fair. It’s not very hard to establish an emergency fund, max out the 401k, and Roth when you’re raking in over 100k a year. Less than 15% of all households make over 100k a year, and 40% make less than 35k. For a family struggling on 35k a year, buying insurance, establishing an emergency fund, pursuing more education, and saving for retirement is hardly a given.  At that range of income, budgets are dominated by basic necessities such as shelter and food.  While I think it’s all well and good for us smug bloggers to share tidbits of knowledge, some of us could do a better job of acknowleding our blessings.

I’m firm believer that both luck and persistence and hardwork play large roles in our personal fortunes, financial and otherwise. Fortunes (other than ones that are inherited) are not made on luck alone, nor does hard work and persistence always pay off. However, even when things haven’t worked out there is still hope. Doing nothing to better your situation guarantees that you won’t improve it. Trying at least give you a chance when combined with a little luck may lead to better days.