Kevin from Financially Poor was gracious enough to grant me an interview; he is a Certified Bankruptcy Counselor and enjoys helping fix their finances on and off line. In addition to his interview, check out our favorite from Financially Poor this week: Financially Freedom and the Grocery Store.

1. What blog/website do you read most often?

That’s a tough one because my feed reader is packed with a bunch of PF blogs and blogs about blogging. I’d say the one I most look forward to is Girl With The Red Balloon because she always writes about her personal life and it’s really entertaining (in a good way). She really gets me thinking about what I would do in her situation.

 

2. What made you start writing?

I’m not a talkative guy but I have a lot of ideas and opinions. I just chose not to talk about them but I wanted a way to let them out. I started a blog several years back that I wanted to involve a lot of success stories about personal finance but that never panned out. So I finally felt I could get something going this time and started Financially Poor; so far so good.

 

3. What is your favorite post that you’ve written and why?

A lot of my first posts were a lot of me trying to change people’s minds about money, which I think is what needs to happen in order for change. However, my favorite post is Bankruptcy Is Not A Sin because It really goes into my thoughts on bankruptcy and why it’s not as bad as everyone portrays it.

 

4. As a bankruptcy counselor, would you consider yourself a bankruptcy advocate?

I would say so. It’s not an easy decision due to the stigma attached to it but it’s there for a reason. If I had a choice of dying from stress or getting out of my debts, I would choose get rid of my debts in a heart beat. Yes I do think people get themselves into that mess but people do make mistakes in life and they shouldn’t have to suffer forever just because of it. I do however feel that if you do get into the situation again due to your own negligence then you need to seek help.

 

5. How do you feel about frugality in today’s society?

I think it’s making a comeback but I think it’s just a temporary society will go back to spending more than they make. That’s really odd since with so much technology to make it really easy to be frugal; you would think more people would be that way. It’s just the way it is, when people have money to spend they spend it, when they don’t have money they become frugal.

 

6. Do you have a favorite money saving tip or practice that you use?

Really the most common advice is the best, and that is to pay yourself first. I learned that if I wait until the end of the month to put money into savings then I find a way to spend it.

 

7. Looking back on your financial life, if you had to do it all over again, is there any one thing you’d like to do over? Or one thing you believe was a pivotal moment?

I’ll go with the cliché, I wouldn’t change anything. Life is about experiences and making mistakes. If I didn’t make those mistakes then I wouldn’t have taken the necessary steps to learn about personal finance. I’d say the pivotal moment would have been when I had to keep telling my roommates to wait until I get paid next week in order to pay the bills. I knew there was a problem and had to change my habits. It wasn’t over night but it eventually changed for the better.

 

8. And just for fun, if you could be any superhero based on their alter ego, what would you be?(Because we all know Peter Parker and Clark Kent spent more time as themselves than walking around as superheroes.)

Oh that’s a good one. I would say batman would be my choice. And really the main reason would be just so I can go around saying “I am Batman” to everyone.

Andi B.

Andi B.