Recently Kyle Prevost (Young and Thrifty) hosted the online Canadian Financial Summit which included video presentations and interviews with 25 Canadian personal finance experts. While the presentations were free from September 13-16, you can still buy a pass to view these presentations.

Blogs by many of these people are regularly featured in SPP’s Best from the Blogosphere, but there were some interesting people on the agenda who are new to me. Today I introduce you to some of their recent work.

Alyssa Fischer is the writer behind one of Canada’s top up and coming blogs MixedUpMoney.com. In How My Accountability Buddy Became My Secret Financial Weapon she writes that grocery shopping with her husband is important because they help each other stick to their budget. She says, “If I let myself spend money in a frivolous fashion each time I needed a pick me up, I would be right back where I was 3 years ago. In debt, maxed out, and over my limit.”

Martin Dasko on Studenomics graduated from college debt-free and the purpose of his blog is to help readers get to financial freedom by age 30 (no debt, money saved, and the ability to do whatever they want). In Why You Should Save $10k in The Next Six Months (and how to start) he explains that personal finance is often about habits and choices. “You may decide to find new ways to make more money or spend less.  Having money in the bank will make your life better because you will have options and you can plan your next move,” Dasko notes.

Chris Enns is an opera-singing-financial-planning-farmboy and the man behind Ragstoreasonable.com. He wonders whether he can be an artist and be profitable. He also questions the following core beliefs  so many carry in the creative industry.

• That breaking even is enough.
• That paying the bills is enough.
• That building a profitable creative business is next to impossible.

He recognizes that wanting just “enough” to live his life is holding him back in a huge way. Instead he says shifting his thinking to “making a profit” is more likely to pave the way to building his savings and planning for the future.

Janine Rogan is the talented writer and CPA behind JanineRogan.com.  Rogan suggests that if your bank balance is too high you are more likely to spend too much. For example, even though you have $15,000 sitting in your chequing account, some (or all) of that money may be spoken for.

But you may feel you can splurge because you have extra cash on hand. Therefore she suggests that you should set guidelines for a maximum bank balance in your chequing account and once you hit that threshold excess cash should be moved to a savings or investment account.

Rogan says, “Shifting the expectation to living on less because you only have a set amount of cash in your bank account means that you will function in more of a frugal mind set.”

Half-banked.com is Desirae Odjick’s personal finance blog for millennials who want to manage their money and still have a life. She offers Five ways to learn about money for free (without leaving the house). They include:

• Taking out a stack of books from your local library.
• Watching money videos on YouTube.
• Reading a whole pile of financial blogs.
• Tracking your spending.
• Visiting the Canadian Financial Summit .

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Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

Written by Sheryl Smolkin
	Sheryl Smolkin LLB., LLM is a retired pension lawyer and President of Sheryl Smolkin & Associates Ltd. For over a decade, she has enjoyed a successful encore career as a freelance writer specializing in retirement, employee benefits and workplace issues. Sheryl and her husband Joel are empty-nesters, residing in Toronto with their cockapoo Rufus.