I’m really sad about this because it was one of the only places on the internet to find a supportive community and personal stories about finances that didn’t fit into any particular narrative. I wonder if it was the last “big” finance blog that hadn’t fallen to clickbait.
What did I value most about The Billfold? It had a wide variety of topics on Personal Finance in a way that never felt prescriptive or preachy, and those came from a wide variety of perspectives.
I can’t say I’ve seen anywhere else that had a central theme of “There’s an infinite number of ways to ‘Do Money’ well, and here’s the ones that worked for individual people.”
And, of course, the community that sprung up in the comments section was wonderful. It’s truly a rare thing to see such a group of lightly-moderated Internetters treat each other so nicely, even when they disagree. And the gentle sense of good humor about things, and the support and advice, which never felt like “You Must Do This Or You Are A Moron” that is pervasive elsewhere.
Frankly, I’m not sure how to replicate it elsewhere, absent just openly re-directing TheBillfold URL to OMD (maybe with a note to incoming users), and simply putting Nicole in her “Old Job” of soliciting (and frequently writing) articles.
EDIT: I know TheBillfold and OhMyDollar aren’t the same thing, so maybe that’s why the Call for Articles just doesn’t really interest me. I can see that you are calling for articles for specific groups, which is cool, but I’m getting the impression that General Personal Finance is something of an afterthought. I rather liked The Billfold having a one-time call for articles for maybe a weeklong series, but filling the rest with more general-interest stuff. Maybe I’m reading too much into things… I dunno.
I can totally see the need for personal-finance information directed towards specific marginalized groups, but as somebody who really enjoyed being part of the Billfold community, I don’t feel like I’d have anything to contribute.
I’m so sad that the Billfold is shutting down. They really did something special, I think it was the only place I could find posts about money from someone working on a factory to someone working as a sex worker to someone with an MBA making six figures.
The Oh My Dollar! podcast has always featured a lot of diverse perspectives on money rather than demagoguery or only features targeted at specific groups. I’m open to any kind of pitches, though specifically called out content I’m definitely looking for, some of which is for specific groups of people. We’ll see what we manage to find! The big series I’m working on is “The Hidden Cost of Becoming a _______” for different professions (first one is hairdressers).
On another note; is there any way to bludgeon your forum software into doing Disqus-style threading? I long stream of post-replies, one-after-another for a free-wheeling discussion gets confusing real fast.
Oh! I was thinking of pitching something like this to the Billfold about becoming an architect. Which I can’t do yet because I’m not a licensed architect yet, le sigh. Soon. Hopefully summer 2019.
My fave thing about the billfold that I will miss is that it was a low-key place. Maybe that contributed to its demise in some way, but man, it was totally the place where I’d go when I wrote something that felt important but I didn’t really want to publish under my name.
Yeah. I get that this is a forum and you can click replies to see replies to the original post. But then replies to replies aren’t threaded. I’m not sure what can be done about that, if anything, because that’s not usually how forums works. Or at least how they didn’t work back when I used to use them. I feel like messageboards have long since fallen by the wayside.
Also the teenager is being a serious shithead right now. I can’t even with her.
The baby is delightful and the literal most outgoing person I have ever met. How outgoing? We took him on a plane and he made best friends with everyone on both legs. Like, he was actually a baby people really enjoyed having on their plane.
Same, I was on the Billfold multiple times a day when I worked in an office but now that I’m full-time work from home the Billfold is crucial (along with group text and Skyping with coworkers). I will miss it a lot but am here for any and all alternatives.
