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.
The first lesson for personal finance basics is about you, your job and your future. Why People Work People work to meet their needs, wants and goals. Some of us also work out of a sense of duty to ourselves, our families or just our fellow men and … [Read more...] about Personal Finance Basics: Your Job, Your Future
While going through my bookshelf, I found my high school personal finance book. I've run across it a few times in the last decade-plus, but something kept me from tossing it. Well, the book is 18 years old, but still has some valuable educational … [Read more...] about Personal Finance Basics: Introduction
When I write up these end-of-month traffic reviews, I generally just use Google Analytics' numbers. However, I have Statcounter and Sitemeter also running on my site, and this past month, February 2008, will require the use of all 3 … [Read more...] about Thanks for the Hits: February 2008 Top Referrals and Other Stats
Since I didn't seem to notice that all of my ING referral links were used up until a friend told me (thanks Chris), you may have gotten frustrated with opening all those links and seeing the big red expired text. But now I have the last 7 … [Read more...] about More ING Direct Referrals Links Available!
Since Nickel was out on vacation all week, he requested some guest articles from other bloggers and a few finance professionals. Today, I have the special honor of being a leap day contributor. Go check out my article "Organizing Your Tax Records … [Read more...] about My Guest Article was posted at Five Cent Nickel
If you were born on February 29th, then Happy Birthday! For everyone else, you're not special. Make sure you get your free meals today, just for being special. … [Read more...] about Happy Leap Day!
Each tax season, tax experts J.K. Lasser send useful articles to various personal finance bloggers to provide to their readers. I'd like to present you with this week's article about the dreaded "A" word: No one should be afraid to take a … [Read more...] about What You Should Know About Audits
Last year, I signed up for Freecycle.org, just to give it a try. However, it wasn't what I thought it would be and I never really participated...until today. If you haven't tried Freecycle yet, here's the lowdown from my perspective. Basically, … [Read more...] about Freecycle: Strike One…Try Again Another Day
