When I started giving myself my crash course on personal finance a few years ago, I became pretty familiar with this weird little three petal flower-badge thing that kept popping up on the majority of sites I enjoyed. Every site that had this graphic on their sidebar consistently produced material and the vast majority of it was high quality and informative. When J.B. and I were looking at putting this site together I mentioned this graphic, and that it said Yakezie on it. I thought it was some sort of club for really smart people! As we researched into it a little, we found out that I was basically right. We instantly made it one of our primary goals to become part of the network. We felt that on the day we did that, we would feel that we could say with some authority that we were a legitimate site that could offer relevant information to people. The only negative consequence is that if we achieve our goal they’ll have to change the description of the network from, “Club for really smart people,” to, “A club for really smart people… and a couple of slightly above average hicks from Canada.”
The Yakezie network is basically a group of personal finance bloggers led by a guy named Sam from the blog Financial Samurai (check out our suggested readings list for more of our favourite Yakezie members). They have a diverse range of views and opinions, and are some of the most well-read people you are likely to meet. The ones I have made contact with are extremely driven individuals who I have already learned so much from. In order to join the Yakezie as a full fledged member you have to take on their challenge. That is what we are announcing here at My University Money, that we are taking on the Yakezie challenge! In order to become full fledged members we have to break the barrier of a 200,000 Alexa rank in the next 6 months amongst other things and this is known as the Yakezie challenge. Wish us luck, and thanks to all of our readers who make this blogging adventure a fun way to exchange ideas with people all over the world! I hope that in six months I can write a post talking about how great it is to be fully accepted into the Yakezie family. Thanks to all the Yakezie members we have already been in contact with for their support and for all the information we have learned on their respective sites!
Since most of you have now probably already left our site to view these other great ones I have mentioned (I definitely wouldn’t blame you), I will simply leave you with an interesting personal finance thought I have had while viewing a lot of different sites over the past few days:
Where does “frugal” end and “cheapness” begin? I seem to have a somewhat different view on this from many of my fellow personal finance bloggers and I’m interesting to hear where that “line” is for everyone.
Welcome and thanks for the smart people compliments! :-)
I think that if you are FRUGAL you are good with your money but still can be generous. You are CHEAP if you are frugal with other people as well. At least that’s my take.
PS are you calling me a hick? ;)
PPS Welcome to the Yakezie, you will be down to 200,000 in no time. I know it.
Haha I call ’em like I see ’em
Thanks for the distinction and the encouragement Y & T. I only label people hicks that take it as a compliment (hence J.B. and myself).
To me, cheap is spending the least amount of money possible, period. Thrifty is getting the best value for your money, or at least, spending money in the areas where you place value. A cheap person will spend $5 on something that gives them only 5 uses (even if they know that they’re going to need 10 uses over the next year) because that’s the cheapest option. A thrifty person will spend $10 on a version of that item that gives them 12 uses because its the better overall value. Another difference is attitude. The only people I would label… Read more »
What I don’t like is when 5 people are drinking and the first 4 guys take turns buying the round, and the 5th person finds some excuse not to buy the round on his turn….That is cheap…lol.
Welcome to the challenge!
I have varied views on the cheap vs. frugal debate–I believe it’s situational, as alluded in previous comments. One clear definition of cheap that I’ve witnessed in my own social circles are people who don’t contribute enough to group expenditures, restaurant tabs, etc. Also, people who don’t tip well despite outstanding service. Frugal would be more along the lines of making educated choices about finances, identifying ways to save when appropriate, and maintaining some sort of budget/goals to keep yourself in line when it comes to discretionary spending.
The tipping debate is always oddly intense amongst personal finance aficionados. Does not tipping (no matter what the service) always put you into the cheap category? I always tip, mostly because my significant other has worked a long time in the service industry.
Welcome to the challenge! You’re right…there are some really smart people in the group. But don’t worry, if they let me in, the standards can’t be THAT high!
Good to know were not the only ones in over our heads. Great name for your site btw.