No Debt Plan is about getting and staying out of debt with a plan. Kevin, the author, is passionate about budgeting, saving for the future, and using goals to reach financial freedom. You can subscribe to his blog by RSS or email.
This interview is part of a new feature he’s developed called Subscriber Swap Saturday. The basic idea is to get the subscribers of one blog to subscribe to the other blog for at least a week, just to try it out. After a week if you don’t find that blogger’s content enticing, drop it. The hope is that over time you will find several writers that you weren’t familiar with who provide meaningful content to you. You can read more about Subscriber Swap Saturday at his get out of debt blog, as well as his interview with me.
Here’s my interview with Kevin:
1. What motivates you to get up everyday and write a blog post for No Debt Plan?
The idea that I am building an online business that helps other people. I started off writing to get my thoughts on money on paper and to challenge myself to blog consistently for a year. I hit that goal and I’m starting to see some income being earned from my efforts. The idea that one day I might be able to live off of blogging is a big consideration as well (or at least use the money to pay off our mortgage faster while holding down my job).
2. With so many voices to listen to in the personal finance blog-o-sphere, why should people pay attention to what you’re presenting at No Debt Plan?
I think its a mixture of me being just an average guy with above-average money management skills and the knowledge that I’m continuing to improve myself with an MBA (and likely a Certified Financial Planner certification in the future). I’m 25, happily married, and we live in a house that we can easily pay for (I won’t say we “own” it until we’ve paid off the mortgage).
3. What can my readers do in the next 15 minutes that will help them improve their finances?
That depends on their current situation. Recently I’ve had success calling my service providers and winning discounts ($175/year from DirecTV and $150/year by switching car insurance companies). These calls didn’t take a lot of time and for that time I saved a considerable amount of money. The DirecTV call was somewhere in the 15-30 minute range so I might be stretching it a bit. 
4. If you won $20 million in the lottery, what would you do with the money?
Ahhh… how many times have I played this game with myself?
Without totally geeking out on your readers with a seriously complex answer, here’s what I would do if I won a $20 million (after-tax) lottery:
- Not change who I am or what I believe — I wouldn’t go completely crazy and I doubt I would tell many people
- Get a very high quality tax/financial adviser that would help protect us (set up trusts for future kids, etc.)
- Pay off our house
- Pay off any debt my parents have
- Set my parents up for life with whatever they wanted
- Travel and give the money out to people/friends in need
- Let’s say that through all of the above I blow through $5 million (highly unlikely we would spend that much, but let’s roll with it). That leaves $15 million. I would then set up our investments to expect 1-2% after taxes each year. I would invest the money most likely in bonds that would earn well above that, but plan on 1-2%. That’s $150,000 to $300,000 per year to do whatever we want.
- Continue blogging.
5. I notice you like PC gaming. If you were a game character, who would you be and why?
Hmmm I haven’t spent much time thinking about who I would want to be since most games are set in bad times (zombie invasions, wars, etc.). If I had to choose I would pick Gordon from the Half-Life series. He’s quiet and intellectual, but kicks butt and takes names at the same time.
6. What is the last vacation you went on?
It depends on what you mean by vacation. Our last true week long vacation (the kind where you forget the rest of the world and all of your worries) was our honeymoon in January 2007. Since then we’ve been on several small trips — Memorial Day weekend with friends at the lake, two weeks at home over Christmas — but nothing really huge and significant. My MBA schedule includes summer courses so that has limited our availability to disappear for a while.
7. You and I have both been blogging seriously for about the same length of time (since January 2008). You mention on your about page that you’d like to be doing this full-time on day. Something I’d like to do as well. What’s your plan to get there and/or how will you know you’re ready to make the leap?
Let me grab my crystal ball! I’m planning to kick things into high gear after August of this year when I finish school. I think I’ll have more time to devote to all of the little details of blogging — more editing, more time to write posts in advance, more time to write guest posts for bigger blogs, more time to focus on building up my search engine rankings and monetization, more time for everything. (And yes, more time to actually come up with that plan!)
As to making the leap… I imagine that being a gut wrenching decision. I think the problem I’m going to run into is the possibility of being able to manage blogging on the side while maintaining a full-time income. That would be like having three incomes from two people — obviously a good thing. I think that will be my biggest hurdle… giving up that full-time income. Losing benefits isn’t as big of a deal because we’re on my wife’s benefits. But the security will be gone.
I guess I’ll know when I start to get quoted in major media outlets like many of the big time bloggers, yourself included. When I have a “Media Requests” page I think it will start to dawn on me that this is getting pretty serious.
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Thanks, Kevin! To my readers: now it’s your turn! Head over to No Debt Plan and subscribe. Give him a week and see what he has to offer. You just might become a full-time reader like me.
Related Posts:
- A Plan to Be Debt Free
- Wife Swap and Couponing Gone Wrong
- Is the 529 Plan the Most Effective College Savings Plan?
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