From Where My Wealth Builder Ideas Come

"The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away" ~ Linus Pauling

My Wealth Builder was born on August 13, 2006 at 11:30 AM with a post on Saving Is The Starting Point. I have been writing at least one article daily since December 1, 2006. This is the 623rd article that has been posted. Here's how I get some of the ideas for the articles I write:

Personal experience - A large proportion of articles are based on my personal experience - covering a range of topics that include saving, investing, education, working and retirement. I typcially am a student of example and I learn best from others who have had the experience. In return, I share some of my experiences on this blog.

Publications - I enjoy reading Yahoo! Finance, the money section of MSN.com, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Barron's. For the last three, I subscribe to and read the hard copy version. Personal finance blogs and Carnivals are also a source of potential topics. For this case, the original source will be referenced and have a link.

Stories of others - Family, friends, colleagues and readers often share their own personal finance stories. I am careful to never share such a story without their permission. However, often their stories connect me to a personal experience or a general topic, which I feel is appropriate to share.

Inspirational connections - Sometimes ideas seem to come out of nowhere. However, I know better:-) These seemingly new ideas are generally a recombination of various concepts to which I had been previously exposed. In my opinion, there isn't much new in personal finance. However, I do believe that the environment and the economic landscape are constantly changing. The writing opportunity is to describe how timeless principles of personal finance can be leveraged in this period of change.

Most the time I have about ten ideas for articles in the queue. Of course, I do have periods of writer's block. But then an event durng the day, a comment by a colleague or a plunge in the stock market (which is pretty frequent nowadays) will spark an idea that leads to a future article:-)

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for the next segment.

This is not financial or literary advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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