Faith and Finance
Today’s featured blogger is Peter Anderson from Bible Money Matters. This is the first of the featured blog series and I hope you enjoy learning a little more about the bloggers behind these great sites.
I visit Bible Money Matters almost every day and really enjoy how Pete takes financial issues and simplifies them. He presents the issues with a Christian perspective, and I really appreciate how he’s not afraid to talk about economic issues either.
Some of the most popular articles on Bible Money Matters have included:
Ways to Watch TV Without Paying an Arm and a Leg for Cable or Satellite
How to Have a Healthy Marriage
10 Things I learned About Money
You might also catch me on Bible Money Matters – I’m one of the staff writers.
1. Why did you start Bible Money Matters?
Back in 2007 I had started reading a variety of personal finance blogs in my free time – among them thesimpledollar.com, getrichslowly.org and christianpf.com. I found the personal finance topic to be extremely interesting, and continued reading a variety of pf blogs for several months. Sometime around the beginning of 2008 I started to think about launching my own site. I wasn’t really sure where it would lead, so I didn’t invest a lot in it. I just went to blogger.com and started one of their free blogs – without my own domain at first.
I launched my blog on January 28th, 2008 to zero fanfare. Over the coming months I became more passionate about the topic as I went through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, and learned a lot more about money than I had ever known before. Through God’s blessing here we are 3 years later and I’ve had almost 2.7 million page views – more than I could have ever imagined my site would get. I feel extremely blessed and humbled that it has grown to where it has.
2. What are some sites that you follow?
There are too many good sites to list here, but some of my favorites are:
thesimpledollar.com
consumerismcommentary.com
debtfreeadventure.com
3. What’s your favorite money tip?
My favorite money tip? I like to keep to the basics because I think they’re ignored far too often. My favorite tip – to live well below what your income would allow. If you can live on less than your income when you don’t need to, when times get tough you’ll be ready.
4. Do you have a favorite Bible verse about money?
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
I like this verse because it reminds me that we need to remain focused on Christ and following him in our daily lives – and we can’t let money become an idol in our lives. It is so easy for that to happen, and I think we all need to be on guard against it.
5. What are your goals for Bible Money Matters in the next year?
Goals for my site in the next year include diversifying (and improving?) the content on the site through the variety of staff writers I’ve hired, extending my “extra income article series” that I launched last year, updating and re-launching my ebook on blogging for money, and in general just extending the reach of the site so that I can help more people to get out of debt bondage, all while reaching them for Christ.
*Tim’s side note – I’ve read Pete’s ebooks and they’re excellent!
6. Besides blogging, what do you like to do for fun?
Blogging is my hobby and my passion, but I do have outside interests. I love all the Minnesota sports teams (I live in the Minneapolis area), love playing tennis, mountain biking, and the occasional pickup basketball game. I also love playing with my little 7 month old son, playing board games with family and friends, video games of all sorts and worshipping at our church!
7. Fill in the blank:
If I broke my _________ I’d probably cry myself to sleep for a week.
Answer: DSL modem
Our DSL modem died last year and for 4 days we had no internet. It wasn’t easy – and I believe I cried myself to sleep until we bought the new one and got it working.
8. Give us 2 truths and a 1 lie about yourself.
(We’ll reveal the truth at the end of the article)
1. In high school I was the captain of our tennis team and went to the State tournament my senior year.
2. I played violin from the age of 3 up until 14 years of age. While I don’t play as much as I used to, I still find when I’m sitting around listening to music that my left hand will start fingering out the music as if I was playing a violin.
3. After college I backpacked through Europe for 6 months, and met my future wife at a youth hostel in Amsterdam.
9. What’s your hidden talent?
My hidden talent might be the ability to write about the same topic day in and day out for years on end while still delivering a high quality product. (At least I hope!)
10. What’s the latest book you’ve read?
I’m currently reading Christ Centered Contentment from author and PF blogger Rob Kuban. Highly recommended.
11. If you could leave to go on your dream vacation tomorrow, where would you go?
I would probably go somewhere warm like Maui. My wife and I went there for our Honeymoon, and it remains one of my favorite vacations ever. Beautiful scenery, wonderful swimming and snorkeling and a ton of fun just relaxing in the sun.
12. If you were an ice cream flavor, what would it be and why?
I would be Ben & Jerry’s “Everything But The…” flavor ice cream, which has a little bit of everything you could imagine in it. I’m kind of like the ice cream in that I’m a bit of a jack of all trades – doing a little bit of everything.
13. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
The power of persuasion, so that I could lead others to Christ!
Well, there you have it! Thanks for letting us get to know you a little better Pete! Oh, and if you guessed #3 to be false…you were correct!
Be sure to follow Bible Money Matters on Twitter (@MoneyMatters) and Facebook
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In