Comments on: Changing Your Opinion

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Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:02:08 +0000

[...] Mike from Four Pillars presents Changing your mind. [...]

By: Mrs. Modern Tightwad

Mrs. Modern Tightwad — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:26:02 +0000

I love, love, LOVED this post. I think bloggers have in some respects become internet rock stars with crazy subscribing stalkers. My inner 12 year old also loves reading the comments from people who have developed such a vested interest in the stories that they’re reading they seem to think they’re opinions should have been taken into consideration in the blogger’s daily life.

This is definitely making me rethink some of the tone in what I post. I think oftentimes I put out “authoritative” posts attempting to explain, or maybe even justify, why I’m doing the things that I do. Probably isn’t necessary to do, but then again, if I didn’t, what would I write about. No matter; no one’s vested enough in me to be disappointed yet.

By: Rob Bennett

Rob Bennett — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:31:29 +0000

Linda – you�re such a tease – whomever could you be talking about?

I found myself wondering about that one too.

Rob

By: Writer's Coin

Writer's Coin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:54:28 +0000

This kind of reminds me of some of the debates I had with friends during the political campaigns of 2008. To my mind, if someone is incapable of changing their mind, then that’s a bad sign.
When bad things happen and situations change, you need to have someone with a flexible mind that can adjust to new data.

Plus it’s fun!

By: plonkee

plonkee — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:01:52 +0000

I think a lot of money blog readers, myself included are looking for validation. I want to read that the way that I think is sensible is indeed the best way. Another thing that we don’t reward people who change their minds, even when it’s more sensible to do so. Finally even money bloggers like to retain a certain element of privacy – I assume that everyone writes the truth, but not necessarily truth in all the details, because that’s not usually important, but it can mean that readers are missing the bigger picture.

@guinness416:
My inner 12 year old also loves those comments.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:53:56 +0000

Thanks for the link. Everyone has a right to change their mind and do what is right for their personal situation. I don’t think we can fault DF for selling out but I do think it is unseemly to say X doesn’t work well anymore and keep selling a book that recommends X. (For the record, I would think now would be a great time to do X — X being investing in stocks for dividends).

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:52:45 +0000

Rob – thanks.

Mr. Cheap – thanks.

TStrump – very true.

Linda – you’re such a tease – whomever could you be talking about? (p.s. I got a good laugh from your comment).

Happy Rock – That’s true about the “principles” – but maybe personal finance isn’t the best arena for firm principles? Most issues aren’t all that black and white.

His explanation wasn’t very good – he mentioned that he might have to replace his truck as well this year which is why he didn’t want to use cash for the car. This sounds to me like he had enough cash for one new vehicle but not two.

If he is going to stick to his principle of only paying cash then maybe he should have bought an older (ie 5 years old) car and the same when it comes time to replace the truck.

Guinness – good comment – even if you did make me look up the word “histrionics”.

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:13:21 +0000

Money bloggers and their readers are a pretty histrionic bunch, even by blogging standards. I think all the “betrayed” people are kind of insecure or new to the magical world of financial planning and are reacting to the topic being something so personal – hang on, you agreed two years ago that MY way of splitting expenses with my spouse/giving my kid pocket money/planning my career/feeding my family was correct, and now you disagree?!? How dare you! This gets more stirred up at TSD because for whatever reason he doesn’t engage in the comments section.

Having said that, I love long winded I AM NOW UNSUBSCRIBING comments because my inner twelve year old finds the drama very entertaining.

By: The Happy Rock

The Happy Rock — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:12:27 +0000

I think I agree with your principle that perspective does change over the years which might cause you to change your decisions. I think what people are annoyed is that principles tend to not change. Trent has come across as a staunch principle man over the years to his credit, and then just quickly retreated from a pretty big one.

With The Simple Dollar I think his mistake was made long before he whipped out his spreadsheets . He keeps saying that he has the cash to buy a new car, but he doesn’t. He isn’t willing to spend his ‘emergency fund’, which means he doesn’t actually have the cash. I say he should have bought a used car with cash that he could afford.

I say this from experience too, since I have been at his exact same spot at least twice in last 4 years. Mathematically, I am not saying my choices worked out way better than a financing option, but psychologically, risk wise, and life wise it was the best decision IMO.

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:30:29 +0000

I think this “blowhard” problem rarely happens with true experts. Usually it only happens with wannabes who have some website to push or some self-published book they desperately want to sell. A few people even seem to think that the best way to be seen as an expert is to tear down the existing experts but it never seems to work for them. I’ve seen one guy go from website to website because people get tired of this and ban him and he seems to think the solution is to do it even more on the next website.