I feel bad. I missed my child’s birthday. Considering the fact, however, that my child is a subdirectory on a shared server, I don’t feel too bad.

I started this site just over a year ago, starting with my personal, um, personal finance history. My main goal with the site, at first, was to document my learning process as I began to study, and trade, stocks. I also touched on some personal stories which I thought taught good “life lessons”, such as how I was nearly robbed blind by unauthorized ACH transactions.

My day job is as a web content manager at an investment advisory service. Obviously, my company has played a big part in my learning experience when it comes to investing. I haven’t touched much on my actual job though, as it doesn’t have all that much to do with personal finance. But I do know a fair amount about search engine optimization and site monetization, as I deal with that almost daily.

I tried a few times to do that with this site. The problem, I found, is I had to turn the site into something I really didn’t like.

I only like writing when I feel I have something interesting to contribute. I only like linking when I feel that link also offers something interesting to read. I like writing accurate titles instead of ones that appear high on organic searches. I like voicing the contrarian opinion (invest in individual stocks!) instead of repeating the same dull advice of the masses (index fund!). I like venting about things that frustrate me, hopefully in a constructive manner.

What I do not like is writing about the same subject you see almost daily on other personal finance blogs (do we honestly need another list of how to increase your gas mileage, or a comparison between Roth and Simple IRA’s?). Speaking of which - I hate writing lists. 90% of the internet now seems comprised of lists. Do we really need to dumb down our writing that much? I do not like writing several posts a week that solely consisting of links to other sites, solely in order to increase my page rank. I do not like writing posts that serve solely as advertisements. And once again, I do not like regurgitating the same personal finance information you see all over the internet.

So where does this leave me? With a site that won’t make me money (although I was able to sell an ad or two, which was nice) or make me an internet star. It also leaves me ostracized from the personal finance (please find it in your heart to forgive me for using this term) blogosphere. But I’m fine with that, because what it does leave me with is a site I enjoy writing for, and hopefully one that at least some people find entertaining and useful.

I have to admit: I just wrote a list of all the personal finance sites I’ve read over the past year, and pretty much lambasted the ones I really dislike. Then I deleted that, because I’m the type of person who goes to those improv shows but can’t even boo the acts I don’t like (even when you’re told to cheer or boo to decide the winner).

Instead, this is a pretty easy way to find the sites I’m not a huge fan of: In the past month, have they offered $25 to sign up for an ING account? In the past week, have the mentioned a $100 Discover Card offer? If so, chances are I’m not a huge fan. My two problems with hawking these advertisements is that first, I have to read them over, and over, and over again on at least a dozen sites which all latch on to the exact same offer and then mention it every other day on their site.

Second, why do sites which supposedly promote financial responsibility keep pushing credit card offers down our throats? I love credit cards, and I’ve never had a balance in my life, but a lot of people who read these types of sites aren’t in the same situation, and I can’t help but chuckle at the hypocrisy of offering credit cards to them. Even if someone knows how to manage their spending on credit cards, it doesn’t exactly help their score when you try to get them to open up a new account every month. Banks aren’t much better either. Sure, it won’t effect your credit, but slinging your social security number all of the place and having accounts at ten financial institution for a measly $10 or $25 really doesn’t seem worth it - to the reader.

With that out of the way, I’d instead like to individually focus on a few sites that I really do like.

Advanced Personal Finance: This is a really high quality site. Sure, it has a fairly drab design (sorry!), and uses normal paragraph structure instead of a list every other post (gasp!). But it has solid content from a good writer, few ads, no empty posts just consisting of links, and is only updated when it has something interesting to say.

An English Major’s Money: I love this blog. Catchy title too. It takes the word “personal” in personal finance to heart, and more than any other site I really feel as though the writer lets you identify with her financial situation. It’s also the only site I can say inspired me to write more in their style.

Ask Dong: This guy is funny, to the point, and writes interesting posts. He also avoids all the things I hate.

Monogamoney: This is a newer blog, that I found when they left a comment on my site. It’s another clever name, written with a personal touch, and is very open in its writing.

Hmm … and it seems like that’s about it. I think part of the problem is that a lot of these sites don’t offer much to stand out from one another.

So what’s next for The Money Mythos? I’ll continue posting interesting personal finance stories as I happen upon them (or as they happen upon me). I’ll also continue updates on my stock trading, in the endless pursuit to show the average person that they can succeed buying individual stocks (up nearly 10% this year!).

Thanks for reading.