To continue the thought about my blog, it seems that the only way to make something successful in the world of the web is to present it in a way that is readable and simple, yet highly controversial and exciting.

That could be pretty difficult. Now, there are many blogs that discuss personal finance from the bottom up. They talk about Quicken, savings, house hunting, gasoline prices, etc… I find some of it interesting and extremely insightful. The issue that I take with these posts is that they usually use hackneyed expressions of personal savings and insight and don’t offer much that is new.

Now, I still browse them everyday because, here and there, I’ll find a good tidbit. They include:

Consumerism Commentary
PFBlog
Get Rich Slowly
My Money Blog
The Simple Dollar
I Will Teach You To Be Rich

What they don’t really tell you is that the top-down approach to personal finance is extremely important. Most personal finance sites won’t tell you that because they focus on the details and not on the big picture. Let’s face it, you need to know the big picture in order to choose the details. Who picks the color of a carpet, without looking at the walls, ceiling, lighting, and geographical location? You just don’t!

Personal finance is no different. When you choose a bank, you need to understand what you want to get out of it. Are you looking to deposit your cash for the long-term, or do you plan on investing it in a mix of assets? Do you need liquidity because of a short-term layoff, or because you plan on purchasing a large asset like a house? Innocuous questions, but go with the wrong bank, take the wrong turn, and you’re stuck. Make the right personal finance decision and you’re life gets a whole lot easier.

This brings me to my next topic. It’s called the concept of leverage. According to modern history, it seems that Archimedes gave the first rigorous explanation of the principles involved.

You SHOULD be using leverage when it comes to an analysis of your personal finances. In other words, is your money exerting the force that it could?

With the right principles, anything is possible…