Featured Financial Blogger: Michelle of Making Sense of Cents

Over the next few weeks, XY Planning Network is running a special feature on some of our favorite personal finance bloggers for Millennials. We enjoy these blogs for the stories they share and conversations they spark. This week, we chatted with Michelle of Making Sense of Cents.

Making Sense of Cents is a personal finance blog that serves as a fun resource for those just starting to explore their finances. Michelle's site is a excellent springboard into further research on how to do more with your money (and make more of it, too). With a number of "how to" posts and tips on getting started with money management and entrepreneurship, her blog is a great read for Millennials.

How long have you been blogging?

I have been blogging since August of 2011, so it's been about three years since I began.

What inspired you to start blogging about money?

There are several reasons for why I started blogging about personal finance. There were a ton of things going on in my life at the time, and I felt that money-related goals were the most attainable for me. I was also having money problems at the time, even though I had graduated from college a year before then.

My student loan bills were also coming in the mail each month, and I just didn't have my finances under control enough to pay all my bills and live a happy life. So, I started blogging about money to talk about my journey, track my finances, and hopefully improve. I thought having people there to read my blog and judge me would help me stay on track.

Of all the personal finance topics you blog about, which are you most passionate about?

That's a difficult question to answer because I enjoy talking about many personal finance topics. My most passionate topics probably include financial independence, budget traveling, and finance topics related to entrepreneurship.

I also like to help people travel hack and start their own blogs so that they can hopefully improve their finances as well.

Why do young adults need to build financial education?

I think young adults needs to be more educated about finance because it is a big part of nearly every person's life. Even if a person says that their life is not dictated by their finances, that is probably not true. If you want to buy a car, buy a home, go to college, travel, or anything else, finance will come into play.

What's the biggest thing young adults don't understand about money?

The biggest thing would probably have to be that saving for retirement is important. Too many young people think they can put off saving for retirement until later. They then buy useless products they probably do not need and go into debt they don't need either.

Too many young adults think that they will all actually be able to save later. That is just not the case. You never know if something medical-related will happen, or if a job loss will happen. It's best to save now because little amounts can add up quickly, and you also have compounding on your side as well.. There's no better time to save then right now.

If someone doesn't know a single thing about money, where can they go to start learning?

There are a lot of great personal finance websites out there. Some great ones include Wise Bread, Get Rich Slowly, Budgets Are Sexy, and Mr. Money Mustache.

What are 2 pieces of your favorite personal finance advice?

1. Side hustle your butt off if you have any financial goals you are trying to reach. Whether you want to build an emergency fund, start your own business, get out of debt, save money or travel the world, side hustling can help you reach that.
2. I was able to quickly pay off $40,000 worth of student loan debt shortly after I turned 24 because I had several side jobs. After my student loans were paid off, I felt much more free. It was amazing being able to pay them off so quickly.

Where can we connect with you?

I have a second website where readers can read more self-employment, entrepreneurship, and more. It's called Diversified Finances. You can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Bloglovin.

Please note that XY Planning Network has no affiliation or relationship with any featured blogger. Some of the bloggers we have linked to via this site share content with affiliate links and make money off commissioned sales of products. Each blog has a disclosure page that we encourage you to read for more consumer information and details about how these independent sites are monetized.