Writer looking for Inspiring Retirement Stories

[FreeAtLast]

Hi Michelle:

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Coolius]

I, too, used to read TMF for ideas, but it quickly became obvious that it has morphed into a sales website. Always a tantalizing bit of "shocking information", or "you won't believe this!" kind of siren calls to make one subscribe or buy something.

Quickly got fed up with this technique. I now spend time at forums like this one, Investor Village, and MorningStar, where I am not being pushed to buy stuff.

TMF is appropriately named, only f**ls will visit that website and act on the stuff they find in there. Count me out of it.

 

[Purron]

I, too, used to read TMF for ideas, but it quickly became obvious that it has morphed into a sales website. Always a tantalizing bit of "shocking information", or "you won't believe this!" kind of siren calls to make one subscribe or buy something.

Quickly got fed up with this technique. I now spend time at forums like this one, Investor Village, and MorningStar, where I am not being pushed to buy stuff.

TMF is appropriately named, only f**ls will visit that website and act on the stuff they find in there. Count me out of it.

I noticed TMF ads on the AARP website with titles like "Why Wal-Mart is Doomed". If you click for the "free report" you have to enter your e-mail address to get in. Then go through screen after screen where you have to answer lots of questions about your personal and financial profile and preferences. Clearly a way to get your personal details and a subscription. I did it once with a fake e-mail address just to find out the "big news" and got a long diatribe with no concrete information. At the end, they indicated it would be e-mailed to me.
No thanks.

 

[Purron]

Her blog went dark nearly a year ago, no explanation let alone apology. Pffffffttt... short-timer.

Yeah, I was just joking. I remember we talked about this before Nords. BTW, just looked and the latest update was August 2010.

 

[chris2008]

Hi Michelle,

How about introducing yourself by giving some more detais:
What is the percentage of your income that you save?
What is your income / debt ratio?
When do you plan to retire and how will you finance retirement?
Do you track your expenses?
What do you think about LBYM or the "millionaire next door lifestyle"?

Answering these questions (if only for yourself) might produce some ideas for a real life story about retirement planning and its obstacles...

 

[chinaco]

Not likely! I don't wanna fool around!

I don't want to be on the list of sales people trying to sell me something (life insurance, brokers, etc) or others who want to borrow money or have a good investment or business opportunity that will make everyone rich.

 

[REWahoo]

Michelle has apparently moved on to greener pastures...

 

[chinaco]

Personally.... I think it would be "Foooooooolish" to put oneself in any media publications announcing how well off they are financially??

Because...

.... "Hey guess who is rich..."

.... You after you get the first call from sales people and people with their hand out.

 

[52andout]

I cracked a smile when I read all these responses. I for one would not want any of my relatives knowing any details of my finances and they are the type to pay for simple financial advice as they try to find the magic formula to gain riches instead of the old LBYM slow and steady formula. I prefer to have them think we are scraping by which has stopped the requests for handouts.

 

[devans0]

Hey Nords! If someone wanted to promote a project such as a book, and this site (hint), This writers offer could be a winning situation for all involved. Promo for book, promo for letting people learn about a better financial alternative (this site), and a writer with a story to write and sell.

Would a sudden influx of new people with new perspectives be good?

 

[ziggy29]

I noticed TMF ads on the AARP website with titles like "Why Wal-Mart is Doomed". If you click for the "free report" you have to enter your e-mail address to get in. Then go through screen after screen where you have to answer lots of questions about your personal and financial profile and preferences. Clearly a way to get your personal details and a subscription. I did it once with a fake e-mail address just to find out the "big news" and got a long diatribe with no concrete information. At the end, they indicated it would be e-mailed to me.
No thanks.

I remember when the Fool used to rail against the "Wise" and against the get rich quick investing strategies they sold to people. All we needed was to be armed with information and educate ourselves, and we wouldn't need the "Wise" or the fees they charged.

These days, they have more or less become what they used to criticize with all the subscription and fee-based investment products they sell. The emperor is clearly naked.

 

[Nords]

Michelle has apparently moved on to greener pastures...

With the size of this board (plus the lurkers) I'm pretty sure she has more phone, e-mail, & PM business than she can handle right now.

I cracked a smile when I read all these responses. I for one would not want any of my relatives knowing any details of my finances and they are the type to pay for simple financial advice as they try to find the magic formula to gain riches instead of the old LBYM slow and steady formula. I prefer to have them think we are scraping by which has stopped the requests for handouts.

I've interviewed a few times over the last five years, and believe it or not the journalists aren't really interested in your net worth or your spending numbers. That turns readers off, either from a "Oh, he's rich, that's easy for him to do" perspective or "Oh, geez, he's so cheap, no way am I living like that" perspective.

Instead of hearing how you change your own oil in the Rolls-Royce or rinse & re-use dental floss, they want to hear "normal" stories about fixing up a house and selling it, or recovering from a devastating divorce, or paying off debt by cutting out premium cable & lattés. They want to hear about all the stupid mistakes you made along the way, and how you're going to make it in spite of yourself. They want to read about the fun you have surfing & traveling. Feel-good "Hey, I can do that!" stuff.

I did that interview because I knew I'd eventually be marketing a book, but the publicity paid off unexpectedly. During my daughter's college tour, we were sitting in a NROTC office listening to a submarine lieutenant tell her what a good deal the Navy is. She knew what questions to ask and he answered them fairly well, but spouse and I had already traded a few "Yeah, right" looks. Suddenly his brain made a connection and he said to me "You were in that Fortune interview, right?" I admitted so and he started talking finances, including the part where he was getting his MBA and getting out of the service in a few months because his shore duty had been interrupted with a one-year "individual augmentee" tour in Iraq. He mentioned that the Navy's retention of submarine JOs was down into the single digits.

After we left his office, we were able to have a good family discussion about work/life balance and why NROTC seems like such a good deal at first. How financial independence gives you choices.

As a huge parental bonus, my daughter was thoroughly disgusted to realize she was related to a nuclear-geek celebrity.

Hey Nords! If someone wanted to promote a project such as a book, and this site (hint), This writers offer could be a winning situation for all involved. Promo for book, promo for letting people learn about a better financial alternative (this site), and a writer with a story to write and sell.
Would a sudden influx of new people with new perspectives be good?

When Impact and I put together the marketing list of review copies and press releases, it included nearly three dozen financial websites & publications. TMF wasn't one of them. Hopefully USAA is only the first of several media opportunities that are much more closely connected to servicemembers & veterans.

Personally I'm still mightily annoyed with how badly TMF has lost its way over the years.

Would a sudden influx of new people with new perspectives be good?

It'd probably be good for somebody!

Let's just say that the "new perspectives" are "new to them".

 

[clifp]

Personally I'm still mightily annoyed with how badly TMF has lost its way over the years.

".

Me too. Inspired by this thread I went back and checked back on the Fool boards,the first time in a couple of months. Mind you at one point I was roughly as active on the Motley Fool as I am on this forum.

I am disappointed but I can understand the complete reversal of TMF's from DIY don't trust Wise people to manage your money, to we are the experts give us your money. It is sort of like if HomeImprovement.com started off with hundreds of videos, and articles about how to fix stuff yourself, and than realized that the real money is in referring people to contractors.

The real value of TMF was the discussion boards,which I think the TMF recognized when they said years ago "lets monetize this asset by charging people to use them". Instead of this and most sites view of hey lets charge companies to advertise on this boards to reach this wealthy audience. TMF reversed course a few years latter but they killed the Golden Goose.

I went back and looked at my old boards and they are basically dead, except for the Berkshire Hathaway board which seems to doing ok. Post in the last week: Intel 0 posts, GE 3, Dividend Investing 1, Computer Games 15. Even Intercast original discussion board, (they split the board there is a conservative and liberal early retirement) is down to about 1900 post/week. More importantly it looks like pretty much the same group of a few dozen poster that have been there for years.

Just curious how many posts do these boards get in a week?

One of my takeaways is that as much as we on occasion bash newbies, new blood is vital for keeping an internet discussion interesting.

 

[LOL!]

I have talked 3 reporters/journalists of the WSJ in the past few years and quoted in their articles. It turns out to be relatively innocuous. It seems I have no acquaintances who read the Journal.

 

[REWahoo]

I have talked 3 reporters/journalists of the WSJ in the past few years and quoted in their articles. It turns out to be relatively innocuous. It seems I have no acquaintances who read the Journal.

I made the error of talking to a reporter from Bloomberg News several years ago. I don't know anyone who reads Bloomberg and used that logic to convince DW to cooperate, even allowing the reporter to take a couple of photos.

Unfortunately the day the story was released was a slow news day for the local San Antonio paper. They picked up the story and ran it in the business section, including our photo. I was in the doghouse for weeks.

No more reporters for me.

 

[freebird5825]

I have to say MasterBlaster, I find your flaunting your excessive housing wealth both ostentatious and in poor taste.

MasterBlaster and devans0, you made me crack up laughing.

 

[Nords]

I made the error of talking to a reporter from Bloomberg News several years ago. I don't know anyone who reads Bloomberg and used that logic to convince DW to cooperate, even allowing the reporter to take a couple of photos.
Unfortunately the day the story was released was a slow news day for the local San Antonio paper. They picked up the story and ran it in the business section, including our photo. I was in the doghouse for weeks.
No more reporters for me.

I see another well-known ER was also in that article too!

Maybe TMF could run a retrospective of "Where are they now?: REHP posters of the 1990s"...