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.
Pop question, hot shot: If you had a few grand stashed away for your young children, where would you keep it? A.) A bank vault B.) A piggy bank on top of the fridge C.) In the oven D.) Under the mattress Well, it turns out that I've heard of … [Read more...] about Would you rather save for your child’s future in a piggy bank or a real bank?
(Guest post by Travis) I recently had one of those parent moments that mean more than anything money could ever buy. About a week before my thirteen year old son's end of the school year field trip to the Minnesota Zoo, I got an email from … [Read more...] about A Father, A Teenager, and a Trip to the Zoo
Faith & Spirituality • Family or Marriage • Finances & Money
I have very few convictions, a few opinions, and everything else is all "gray area" to me. One of those convictions is "spend less than you earn", while a gray area is "Is living together before marriage a sin?" (because that gets into even bigger … [Read more...] about When you think you’re doing right, but maybe you’re just screwing things up
Automotive • Finances & Money • General
Wow, it's been SIX YEARS since I launched this blog and I'm still going. If you go check out my archives, you'll see I used to write 40-60 articles a month, but that was when I was in a job going nowhere and with nothing to do. Also, once we got out … [Read more...] about Of Gyms, Running, Cars and Anniversaries
Family or Marriage • Finances & Money • Home
For 11 years now, I've lived in the Washington D.C. area (never in D.C. though). I first lived and worked in Virginia. The 20-mile commute was horrible, and this was 11 years ago. Traffic in the area has only gotten worse. I moved to a different city … [Read more...] about No, I don’t want to move to your state!
So as you may know, my wife loves her MINI Cooper S. This is her 2nd MINI, both were used when we bought them, and this one is pretty much fully-loaded. I bought it for her as a replacement for the old MINI knowing the CVT transmission wasn't very … [Read more...] about We were so close to getting a new car… but not for me this time!
Family or Marriage • Finances & Money
So I've belonged to a chain gym for almost 10 years now. When I first joined, I used it almost daily for racquetball until I completely shredded my rotator cuff. I wasn't into running back then, and then I moved, changed jobs, etc. When I moved to … [Read more...] about Use your gym membership much? If so, you probably have no bargaining power
Automotive • Credit • Debt • Family or Marriage • Finances & Money • Frugality
How many of you have said "I'm always going to have a car (or credit card, or student loan) payment"? Ten years ago, I was definitely one of those people, and I know a number in my family still think that way, and I'm sure some friends and other … [Read more...] about Living a Life of Payments
