List of Asian Personal Finance Bloggers – Part 3

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After receiving great feedback on the list of Asian personal finance bloggers 1 & 2, I decided to continue this series with part 3.

My goal is to highlight the great work of Asian personal finance bloggers, especially those in North America (US and Canada) since that’s where most of my readers are located.

If you missed the previous posts, you can check them out below:

List of Asian Personal Finance Bloggers – Part I

List of Asian Personal Finance Bloggers – Part 2

List of Asian Personal Finance Bloggers – Part 1, 2 & 3

And here are our amazing bloggers (in alphabetical order):

A Journey We Love by Ruby and Peter

Ruby and Peter work full-time while chugging along on their blog.

They plan to reach financial independence by 2030 (13 years from now) through expense reduction, side hustles, investing, and AirBnB.

Ruby is the main brain power behind the blog. She loves sharing travel hacks and money saving tips with the reader.

Ruby moved from the Philippines to America for job opportunity.

She lives in Jacksonville, Florida and has traveled to more than 20 countries.

Peter, Ruby’s husband, is a contributor and editor on the blog.

He’s originally from Slovakia. Peter’s hobbies include soccer, College Football, reading and traveling.

They have a fur-baby named Rosie. Rosie “works” as a receptionist and security guard for Peter and Ruby’s Airbnb.

Cash Fasting by Jane

Jane started her blog in 2006 out of frustration about her slow debt payoff and retirement savings.

Fast forward to July 2017, she has paid off $35,000 under 3 years and is now on her way to financial independence.

Jane sets a long-term goal to lower her expenses through a series of “cash fasts” which she documents on her blog. Jane also publishes her quarterly financial updates where she talks about the progress with her financial goals for the year.

Jane lives in New York City with her boyfriend, Ian, and have great tips on dating on a budget in the city. Jane is half Chinese.

Dirt Cheap Wealth by Shivika 

Shivika’s grew up in a lower-middle class turned upper-class family in India. Her father hustled his way throughout most of his life. He made a fortune for himself and his family when he successfully founded an IMPEX (import-export) business for office equipment. He was one of the first people to introduce computers into India.

However, a business mishap exhausted her family’s wealth and pushed Shavika’s parents into selling some of their properties and moving to the US. Her family came to the US with $1,000. Her dad worked in an office and slept on the kitchen floor.

Shivika didn’t know how to save until she got married. Shivika was never taught about the principles of personal finance. On her blog, Shavika shares “unconventional and unique” wealth building tips.

Financial Independence 55 (Fi55) by Poh Tan

Poh is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) in his 50s. After achieving financial independence, Poh retired from the workforce. However, with a desire to stay productive, Poh went on to get his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) qualification and teach accounting at a local college.

Poh started his blog to share his tips on how to become financially independent.

Growing My Pennies by Tina

Tina is originally from the Midwest but currently lives in Las Vegas. She started blogging to connect with a community of bloggers who are working towards financial freedom. Tina particularly wants to connect with those with a similar background as her: in mid 30s, not in a really high-paying job, and passionate about early retirement.

Just Making Cents by JT, M, and Conner

JT worked on Wall Street for more than 15 years. He grew up in a poor family on the West Coast and has lived on the East Coast for over 16 years. His mom was a seamstress while his dad was a 7-11 employee. JT’s friends in Los Angeles were gang members.

JT moved to New York with $700 and no job. After getting a series of rejections, he started working at J Crew to cover his $20/day hostel expense. JT ended up getting a high-paying job at a multi-billion dollar hedge fund working mostly with Ivy Leaguers and some of the highest formerly elected officials.

JT later moved to Philadelphia, where he currently lives with his wife and three children (Zuzzy, Zack, and Liza).

M worked in consumer and digital marketing for magazines for more than ten years. He now works as a consultant for a top-3 MBA program, advising students on how to get job offers from the most precious companies in the world.

Conner works as an editor-in-chief for the blog.

Millionaire Before 50 by Menard

Menard was born and raised in the Philippines. In 1997, he came to America to work as a computer programmer. He came from a well-to-do family and was struck by the income inequality in Manila, where he used to live.

After living in America for five years, Menard realized the importance of being on time and investing early, something he didn’t realize in his 20s.

Menard now works as a software engineer. He lives with his wife, a registered nurse, his two children, and his in-laws. Over the past decades, he and his wife’s combined income ranged from $120K to $200K. Menard reached his millionaire status after Donald Trump won the presidential election in November, 2016.

Money Done Right by Logan and Caroline

Logan and Caroline are millennials in their 20s. Logan graduated from college with $35,631 in student loans in 2009. During that time, the economy was tanking, and he had no money, no assistance from his parents, and no car.

In the August night before he started his first job, Logan told himself that he would have to work hard, pay off his debt, and learn everything he could about money, investment, passive income, and financial freedom. Eight years later, Logan has increased his net worth from negative $35,000 to positive $775,000 (as of May 2017).

Logan’s wife, Caroline, is Korean American.

Millennial Revolution by FIRECracker & Wanderer

FIRECracker & Wanderer are computer engineers and children’s authors who retired at 31 and started traveling the world on $40,000 CAD/year.

After saving up tirelessly for years and realizing it still wasn’t enough in the expensive real estate market in one of the most expensive cities in Canada, they decided to not purchase a house.

Instead, the couple rented and invested their savings. They managed to build a 7-figure portfolio, which enabled them to reach financial independence at age 31.

Since then, they couple have pursued their passion projects such as writing children’s books, coding apps for a non-profit, and working on their personal finance blog.

RetireHappy by Jim Yih

Based in Canada, Jim is an award-winning blogger, professional financial speaker, best-selling author, and columnist. He focuses on investment, retirement, and personal finance with over 20 years of experience.

Jim believes in the importance of education in achieving financial success. After hitting the best sellers list with his first book Mutual Fundamentals in 1999, Jim has published 6 other books on personal finance, including 10 Things I Wish Someone Told Me About Retirement and Ideas for Success.

RetireHappy has been recognized as Canada’s best personal finance blog by the Globe and Mail.

Stretching My Money by Albert

Albert became serious about saving when he was a theater student and transitioned into a brief career as an artist making $400 a week. He then used the savings to get an MBA and went on to start an office job. On his blog, Albert shares his tips on spending, saving, and investment on his way to early retirement.

Albert is based in Toronto, Canada.

The Give and Get by Elizabeth

Elizabeth is an attorney in her early 30s working at a law firm in Washington DC. Her parents immigrated to America and worked hard to give themselves and their three children a college education.

They have paid off their house and are now retired. Elizabeth’s parents taught her the importance of saving and instilled in her an intolerance for waste.

Elizabeth started her blog one month after she was certain about her ending engagement. Her blog focuses on high-income earners who are not afraid to spend their hard-earned money on something they truly want whether it’s a latte or a Lexus paid in cash.

The Practical Saver by Allen Liwanag

Allen was born and raised in the Philippines. He came to America in 2004 after graduating from college. Allen got into a total of $25,000 debt in student loans and credit cards. He saw the amount as a wake-up call and took drastic actions to pay off debt.

Besides making the extra dollars to pay off debt, Allen also applied for more than 400 jobs and interviewed at more than 50 companies for a better-paying job opportunity. Allen learned everything he could about personal finance and was finally debt free after two years. Allen doesn’t mind people calling him cheap or “El Cheapo.”

Allen started blogging in February 2016. As of June 2017, his year-to-date blog income is more than $24,000. Allen also has impressive blog traffic stats to show in the early days of his blogging endeavor.

— 3rd month of blogging: 16,960 views ($657.17 in income)

— 4th month of blogging: 29,399 views ($1,400 in income)

— 5th month of blogging: 60,753 views ($2,950 in income)

— 6th month of blogging: 102,482 view ($3,430 in income)

Working Optional by Mr. WO

Mr. Working Optional (MO) is a first-generation immigrant from India. He has been self-employed in the IT industry for more than a decade. Mr. WO started blogging to document his journey to financial freedom and inspire others to pursue their own paths.

He aims to become a millionaire by 40 by saving, paying off the mortgage, exploring passive income, and learning tirelessly about personal finance.

His hobbies include hiking, traveling and riding his motorcycle. He lives with his wife and two children in Southern California.

Conclusion

As I was reading the bloggers’ profiles and blog posts to write brief bios about them, I realized that they all have different stories of how they have built their lives in America and Canada.

Some of them are first-generation citizens. Some immigrated to the US early on in their lives and have achieved great success in their education and careers. But all of them are passionate about the same topics: personal finance and financial independence.

And I’m glad to have found them and been able to highlight their great work in this post.

If you are an Asian personal finance blogger and don’t see your name on the list, please feel free to leave a comment below. I will add you to part 4 of the series. 🙂

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