In my Money Managers interview series, I interview notable members of the personal finance community. Generally, my interviewees are bloggers or professionals working in finance. In this article I interviewed Brandon-Richard Austin, creator of Rinkydoo Finance, a personal finance blog. I personally enjoy his attitude and how he approaches helping everyone achieve financial literacy (check out this page to see his core values and opinions about how anyone can become good with money). Without further ado, let’s get into the interview!
I feel like I know you (at least a little bit), but for my readers who may not be familiar with you, would you please introduce yourself? Who are you? What do you do?
First of all, thanks for setting up this interview! I’m grateful for the opportunity to introduce myself to your audience.
My name is Brandon-Richard Austin and I was born and raised in Toronto. I’m a marketing account manager at my day job.
I got into personal finance around the age of 20 after reading I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. The book helped me understand investing but also made me see personal finance as something I could write about someday. Ramit just made it seem so approachable. So that’s what led me to start my blog (Rinkydoo Finance) in my spare time.
What is your blog about, and in your opinion, what sets it apart from the others in your niche?
Rinkydoo Finance is all about various aspects of personal finance! I write about:
- Investing
- Saving
- Making important financial decisions (i.e. buying a car or house)
- Career advice
I think what sets Rinkydoo Finance apart from many others in the personal finance niche is twofold:
- I try to write exactly what the data (primarily SEO research) tells me people want to read. I don’t necessarily sit down and think about what I’d like to write that week. It’s all about serving readers (which isn’t altruistic, mind you; serving readers is how I’ll grow exponentially).
- I’m playing the long game with monetization. Many personal finance writers seem to come out with paid courses and eBooks relatively easily. While I’ve been tempted at various points to do the same, I’ve always come back to taking it slow, making connections, and building something bigger that I can monetize down the line.
There are certainly other personal finance bloggers doing these two things. I think it’s less common among beginners, though.
When and why did you start blogging? Looking back, would you have gone about starting it differently?
I’ve been blogging in some form or another for roughly seven years. My first blog just consisted of random personal musings, though. It was just a creative outlet.
I wouldn’t have approached it differently. It made me happy at the time and got me in the habit of writing regularly. When I started Rinkydoo Finance six years later (in 2020), I leaned on that experience (combined with my experience as a professional writer in the marketing space) and consequently felt pretty confident about my writing from day one.
Are there bloggers, authors, or anyone else who has really inspired you?
Ramit Sethi has been my biggest influence as a personal finance writer. However, there are also so many writers I talk and interact with every day who inspire me.
Some of their blogs include:
Beyond the sphere of writing and online content, I also give major credit to my English teacher in high school. English was one of the few subjects I really excelled at in school and he really pushed me to lean into that.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far, both as a blogger and in your own personal finance journey?
My biggest challenge in both areas has been patience. Progress comes slowly in both blogging and personal finance. While I’m confident I’ll end up in a good place in both regards, the challenge is always staying on track without giving into the temptation to pivot to every shiny thing that appears.
Time for a bit of a loaded question – what is your favorite type of investment and why (index funds, stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.)?
Index funds by far. Sure, they’re not exciting. They won’t make me rich overnight. But if everything goes the way it has for the past two centuries, I’ll be in an incredibly bright spot 20 to 30 years from now.
I’m so confident in this that I invest 99% of my money in index funds. I have a very small crypto position I’m building but that’s just with play money. All of my long-term money goes into index funds.
At the end of the day, what is the main thing you hope your readers take away from your blog?
Money is not a dirty subject! I feel like so many people (especially in my age group, early to mid-20s) are disenfranchised and wondering why money doesn’t seem to be working for them. That’s how we’ve ended up with such intense populist rhetoric.
My goal is to show my readers that even with today’s imperfect financial system, winning is possible for more people and change is closer than many people might assume.
That sounds like a political campaign slogan but I really stand behind it. I want to give people hope.
What’s the best piece of advice you received growing up? How did it shape you into the person you are today?
My mom told me to save money from every paycheck, even if it was only $10.
Now, one thing you’ve got to know about me is that I always overdo it. So once I realized saving $10 from every paycheck would give me a boost, I quickly started upping that to the point where I now save at least 40% of every paycheck.
Everyone views success differently, what personal metric do you use to define your own success?
There are two answers here. The first is reality while the second is where I’d like to be.
First, I admittedly do gauge success based on how much money I’m earning and investing each month. The higher that number is, the more successful I feel.
However, sooner or later I always come back to acknowledging that being motivated and happy is also very important to me. If I wake up too many days in a row unmotivated about work, I know deep down I’m falling short of that success metric. I just need to make it front of mind and not get carried away chasing money.
People tend to struggle with finding a good work-life balance, especially these days. How do you manage? In other words, what’s an average weekday like for you?
An average weekday for me looks like this:
- 7AM: Wake up and listen to an audiobook for an hour while browsing my personal social media feeds (it’s an oddly relaxing combination)
- 8AM: Work on the latest Rinkydoo Finance article for an hour
- 9AM: Start my day job (I’m an account manager at a digital marketing agency) and work fairly consistently until 5PM
- 5PM: From 5PM to about 8PM is essentially “me” time. When the weather is nice, I use this time for walking along the trail near my house, listening to music, or whatever else keeps me sane after about 10 hours of work.
- 8PM: Here’s where I come back and put in another three hours or so of work on personal projects. That includes social media strategy for Rinkydoo Finance and working through this web development course I’m currently taking.
What’s something you’re interested in – outside of blogging or personal finance?
Related to my previous point, I’m very interested in web development and tech right now. I love the way it makes me think. I find it very satisfying to build things from scratch. It’s a completely different sort of challenge compared to writing so it doesn’t even really feel like work at the end of a long day composed mostly of writing.
If you had to give advice to someone who has just joined the job market and started their personal finance journey, what would it be?
Start putting in the effort to succeed from day one, even if it doesn’t seem to make a difference! I know early in your career when your job title isn’t very impressive and you’re not earning tons of money, effort seems futile. It’s really not, though. You’re building habits. Plus, the effort you put in will pay off later on. Bosses notice. On the money side, even $1 you invest early in life can become $10 by the time you retire.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed learning about Brandon-Richard Austin and his views on personal finance as much as I did! If you liked what he had to say and want to see more, be sure to check out his blog, Rinkydoo Finance. As always, if you have any thoughts you’d like to contribute, add a comment!
