1957: The Personal Finance Legend Who Stopped Talking About Money

So Money with Farnoosh Torabi

Farnoosh Torabi

Business, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

or as long as I’ve known him — which is now more than fifteen years — he’s had the same signature look: a sharp mohawk and an even sharper perspective on money.

Today on So Money, we welcome back one of the original voices of the personal finance internet: J. Money, the longtime blogger behind Budgets Are Sexy and the founder of Budgets Are Sexy, a platform that helped shape the early personal finance blogging community. When this podcast first launched more than a decade ago, J. Money was one of my earliest guests — back when sharing your net worth online was considered radical and the idea of building a career from a blog about money was still pretty new.

In this conversation, we catch up on what’s changed — and what hasn’t. The mohawk is still there, thankfully. But J.’s life looks very different these days. He’s stepped away from blogging full-time, sold his site to The Motley Fool and later bought it back, and now spends much of his time running something called a “Free Closet,” giving away thousands of clothing items every week to people in need in his community.

We talk about the early days of the money-blogging world — when transparency about debt, savings, and net worth helped motivate an entire generation to take control of their finances. We also talk about what happens when you actually reach financial independence. Does money stop mattering? What motivates you next?

J. shares why the blogging magic eventually faded for him, how social media changed the tone of personal finance conversations, the surprising lessons he’s learned from working closely with unhoused communities, and why he believes the real power of money is simply the freedom not to think about it anymore.

Learn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So Money episode 1957, the personal finance legend who stopped talking about money.
0:07.7	You're listening to So Money with award-winning money guru Farnush Karabi.
0:12.6	Each day, get a 30-minute dose of financial inspiration from the world's top business minds,
0:17.9	authors, influencers, and from Farnoose yourself.
0:21.9	Looking for ways to save on gas or double your double coupons?
0:25.6	Sorry, you're in the wrong place.
0:27.9	Seeking profound ways to live a richer, happier life.
0:31.1	Welcome to So Money.
0:34.3	It's the unfiltered part, I think, that makes things special, like real life. And again,
0:40.1	and I knew I was like misspelling and even like the way I was writing, I was like,
0:44.2	I should go back and polish it up. But it's like just, it's who exactly I was at the time. And
0:50.2	just being able to say things, just free without, you know, stuff, I think is what drew people in. I know for me personally, if I had to start a financial blog from the beginning, it wouldn't take off. It's just because I can't. I've already lost the magic. But moving that into something else, if you told me I had to start a cologne thing like my son is doing, like'd be like all right i don't know what i'm doing
1:11.3	i'm just going to go in raw have fun and i'll try and see if i can beat his views like as a challenge
1:16.2	like if it's new and i think that's the key when you're new into something and you're passionate
1:21.0	and you're learning like you just give all of your effort and it's just authentic it just feels good
1:26.6	and again you don't know anything.
1:27.8	You're doing stupid stuff. But even stupid stuff, man, people love when I make financial mistakes and I blog about it. They're like, thank you. Yeah, like this is great. Like they, it would get way more traffic. I feel so. Welcome to So Money, everybody. I'm Farnoogneesh Tarabi. For as long as I've known him, which is now about 15 years, my guest today has
1:45.4	had the same signature look, a sharp mohawk and an even sharper perspective on money.
1:51.1	We're welcoming back one of the original voices of the personal finance internet, J. Money,
1:56.8	the longtime blogger behind Budgets Are Sexy, and the founder of Rockstar Finance, a platform that
2:02.7	helped shape the early personal finance blogging community. When this podcast first launched more than a
2:07.7	decade ago, Jay Money was one of my earliest guests. Back when sharing your net worth online was
	...

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