Clever Dude founded CleverDude.com in June 2006 while working as a technical analyst in the Washington, D.C. area. A Penn State graduate, he built the site as a side project alongside a white-collar career that included earning a master’s degree and multiple promotions.
In five years he wrote nearly 1,300 articles on personal finance and life lessons drawn from his own experience. The blog grew from a hobby into a recognized early voice in the personal-finance community and generated meaningful revenue. He sold the site in 2010, continued as a guest contributor through 2015, and returned in 2023 after further career advances, paying off his home, and extensive travel.
August was a successful month with our net worth, but the stock market didn't help. Our overall net worth increased by 5.99% last month, thanks to an impressive debt payoff. We paid off about $3,800 in debt principal and gained about $1,100 in … [Read more...] about Net Worth Review: August 2007
Two big things happening this month: 1. Wednesday is my first day of graduate school. Stacie will be packing my lunch and seeing me off to the yellow bus. I'm sure she'll be crying cause her little boy is all grown up. Oh, wait, I can drive myself … [Read more...] about Back to School and 1 Month Left of Credit Card Debt
Just last month, I told you we were hit with an almost $400 electric bill. We had some major discrepancies in how they were calculating our estimated vs actual bill, but it all worked out since we hadn't had to pay any bills for 4 months … [Read more...] about Another expensive month for electricity
I'm going to be a little selfish today. I stopped doing roundups of my posts each week a while back because I wasn't happy with what I was producing. This month, though, I'm quite happy with many of my articles, so I wanted to highlight those posts … [Read more...] about Best Posts from August, 2007
So you hate your job, or you think you're under-paid or under-appreciated? Let's finish up this Examine Your Motives Series by discussing Changing Jobs. I've had 11 jobs in my life, in this order: Paperboy McDonald's Kmart KFC Computer … [Read more...] about Examine Your Motives Series: Changing Jobs
Gather Little By Little tagged me on a meme (I need to look that word up) to ask "What is your one money advice?". Apparently, Moolanomy is keeping track of these things. I'm not sure I can summarize all of my advice into a single statement AND make … [Read more...] about My One Money Advice (MOMA)
Marching on with our Examine Your Motives Series, it's now time to discuss Buying a Home. How appropriate in this current era of falling house prices and rising fear of recessions? I'll try to make this a timeless article by ignoring the current … [Read more...] about Examine Your Motives Series: Buying a Home
Susan, an extremely fanatical reader of Clever Dude (chuckle), emailed the following question to me. I had to respond that I am not a certified financial anything, so I wouldn't feel comfortable giving this advice: I am about to retire at the age of … [Read more...] about Help a reader with a retirement question
