Today, I have been inspired by Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar to write a guide for people who are new to reading The Debt Hawk. The inspiration for this guide is Trent's own guide - A Beginner's Guide to The Simple Dollar. After you read my guide, I highly encourage you to read Trent's guide.
I hope that this guide will be a good starting place for people new to reading The Debt Hawk.
What is The Debt Hawk?
The Debt Hawk is my site where I discuss all things personal finance with a focus on helping people to get out of debt and stay out of debt. My goal for The Debt Hawk is to help people to get out of debt and learn how to manage money properly. Getting out of debt is not difficult, but it is hard. It is hard because it requires discipline and patience - two of the hardest virtues to possess.
About Me
I am a thirty four year old husband and father of two - my daughter is 6, my son is 4 and I have another baby boy on the way. My wife is a stay at home mother who has one of the most difficult jobs I know. I am an in-house attorney at a Fortune 100 company. Prior to moving in-house, I worked in a large law firm where I practiced corporate finance law, including mergers and acquisitions, securities law and business formation and governance.
Here on The Debt Hawk, I write under the nickname, Hawk. At this time I am still getting comfortable with my privacy concerns related to blogging about my personal finances. I want to be able to share my thoughts with you, but, at this time, I believe that in order to be as candid as I want to be, I need to write under a pseudonym. Maybe someday that will change, but for now, call me Hawk.
Why am I passionate about writing about debt matters?
Debt has had a profound impact on my adult life. At the young age of eighteen I started accumulating student loan debt. After earning my undergraduate degree, I went straight to law school where I borrowed even more money. Most people talk about education opening doors, but for me it closed some doors. My education loans prevent me from moving to different jobs that might pay less. So while I am fortunate to make a six figure salary, I need that six figure salary to pay my bills.
I am sure that I also spend too much in other areas of my life, but my student loan debt is what motivates me to talk about debt issues here at The Debt Hawk. You can read more about my struggle with law school loans at - My Student Loan Debt.
My Philosophy on Personal Finance
Disciplined Personal Finance - Those three words are the key to personal finance.
Personal finance all boils down to having discipline - discipline in spending money, discipline in paying off debt, and discipline investing. There is nothing that you need more than than discipline. Therefore disciplined personal finance is comprised of disciplined spending, disciplined debt reduction, and disciplined investing.
Even though practicing disciplined personal finance is important, I don't want you to think that I live to make money. Like almost every other personal finance blogger, my goal is to be financially independent. To me this means that I have enough in savings to not worry non-stop about losing my job, a plan showing that I will have enough in savings to retire, and enough money to help my family.
I think it is really important to remember that money is just a tool. I do not want to be rich. Instead, I want enough money to allow me to help my family and pursue my many passions. Wealth helps with your pursuit of hapiness, but it is not happiness.
I hope you enjoyed this guide. If so, please subscribe to my RSS feed so that you don't miss any of my articles. I write about 1 article a day - some days more, some days less. You can also follow me on Twitter if you would like to see what I am up to and chat with me.
I love when people leave comments on my site, so I encourage you to do so.
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