Social Media Sites That Help You Manage Your Finances

When I started No Credit Needed four years ago, there were only a handful of personal finance blogs.  Now, there are thousands of them, with hundreds that update their content on a daily basis.  Keeping up with all of the available information can be daunting, so I’ve gathered a few links that make it easier to connect to the information you need – and the people who write about personal finance.

Social Bookmarking Sites – Connect With Content

Tip’d – Tip’s is an online community, designed specifically for sharing financial tips, ideas, and and news.  Users can submit and vote for articles related to personal finance, real estate, and stocks.  You can click here to view my Tip’d profile.  Tip’d has been around for a short time, but it is quickly becoming a go-to resource.

Digg – Digg users know that it’s a great place to find technology news, but it’s also a great resource for financial news.  I have bookmarked the Digg Business and Finance section, so that I can click straight through to the information that interests me.  This is where most of the information related to personal finances can be found.  I recently created a new Digg profile, specifically for personal finance-related links.

PFBlogs – PFBlogs is a blog aggregator.  The freshest content from around the personal finance blogging community can always be found at PFBlogs.  The site breaks content down into three major categories – real estate, personal finance, and investing.  If you are looking for the very latest from the personal finance blogging community, PFBlogs is the place to look.

PFBuzz – PFBuzz is a social bookmarking site designed for users to share interesting articles about personal finance.  You can click here to view my PFBuzz profile.  PFBuzz allows users to share articles and vote to promote their favorite articles.

Twitter – Connect With Writers

Twitter – Twitter is a social networking, micro-blogging site where you can connect with, and share resources with, your favorite personal finance writers.  In some ways still in its infancy, Twitter has caught on with major media outlets, and is becoming a major source for breaking news and information.  Twitter allows for the rapid sharing of information, opinion, and resource links.  Please click here to follow me on Twitter.  I’d love to hear from you – and if you are new to Twitter – you will be amazed at how quickly you learn to love it.

A couple of my fellow personal finance bloggers have put together lists of ‘must-follow’ personal finance Twitter users.

Bible Money Matters has a list of ten people all personal finance junkies should follow on Twitter.  I’m humbled to note that I made his list.  Click to follow @MoneyMatters

Mighty Bargain Hunter has a massive list of Twitter users who write about personal finance.  Follow these people, and comb through the people they follow, and you’ll soon have your own list of influential personal finance writers.  Click to follow @MBHunter.

Click here to view the people that I follow and here to view the people that follow me.

(Thanks to PoorerThanYou for helping correct the above links.)

StumbleUpon – Connect With Surfers

StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon is an amazing tool that allows users to share links and surf friends’ favorites.  This tool helps users discover content that they might otherwise miss.  Click here to view my StumbleUpon profile… and if you are a current user, feel free to stumble this very post!

Forums – Connect With Readers

If you have ideas of your own that you would like to share, or questions to ask, the personal finance community has some wonderful forums.

Get Rich Slowly Forums – My favorite feature on the GRS Forums is the section allotted to Fiscal Fitness Journals.

Bargaineering Forums – A relatively new place for connecting with other readers, this forumn has sections dedicated to personal finance, frugality, investing, and for those interested in their own personal finance blogs, blogging.

Wise Bread Forums – The Wise Bread Forums go beyond personal finance, and branch out into discussions about personal development and life-hacks.

Feeds – Direct Connection

Social media sites are great.  They’re wonderful tools for connecting you with fresh content, interesting writers, and your fellow readers.  However, there are times when you want a direct connection to content.  You want it delivered directly to your desktop or your email.  That’s where feeds come in.

I’ll bet that your favorite personal finance writer offers a blog feed.  This is a direct link to a sites most recently published articles.  All you need to read a blog feed is a feed reader – like the free Google Reader.  Once you have signed up for a free Google Reader account, visit the site of your choice and click “subscribe to feed” or “subscribe via rss” button.  Your browser will ask you how you want to subscribe, and you can then choose your preferred feed reader.  You can see an example of this type of button on the top right-hand side of this page.  Click it, or here, to subscribe to the No Credit Needed rss feed.

Alternatively, if you prefer a daily email of a sites content, many of your favorite writers will have a “subscribe by email” or “subscribe vis email” option.  You can see an example of this type of button on the top of this page.  Click it, or here, to subscribe to No Credit Needed via daily email.  I have subscribed to several of my favorite sites via their daily email option, and this is my preferred option for keeping up with their content.

Blogrolls – Connect With Links

If you look at the bottom right-hand side of this page, you will see a long list of links, labeled PF Blogs.  These are just a few of my favorite personal finance blogs.  When reading your favorite sites, it’s always a good idea to check out that site’s blogroll.  I have found some very interesting sites by simply checking out the sites to which a particular author has linked.  This method is a little old-school (say 2005!), but it still works.