Weekly Roundup

Blog Roundup: Week of March 17, 2014

Blog Roundup

I can’t believe how quickly we’re moving through March. It’s been beautiful weather here, so no complaints about the weather but I can complain about SPAM. It’s a little off topic, but we’ve been doing some spring cleaning on the website, and Tanya shared with me that I received nearly 4,000 spam comments in about 7 days. I feel so popular (or not), although a part of me wishes it had been 4,000 new visitors!

I shockingly (not really) get a ton of spam comments for fake purses. Louis Vuitton. Gucci. Prada. You name it. If you want a fake designer purse, I know someone who wants to sell one to you. I guess when your name is The Heavy Purse, then purse-related SPAM comes with the territory, although promoting fake purses really isn’t my goal. 😉

Weekly Recap

This week I debunked a popular Money Myth: Kids Don’t Care about Money. It’s been my experience that they care deeply because they recognize the power of money. Unfortunately, they don’t always understand how to wield that power properly. Many times when I speak to children, they all want lots of money, but they have no idea why. The “why” is the most important part, which every parent needs to help their children understand. And in all fairness, some parents need to learn that lesson as well.

I also highlighted some of my favorite inspirational personal finance bloggers as part of Women’s Power Wednesday. If you’re not following these wonderful ladies, you are missing out! Be sure to tune in next Wednesday to meet some more phenomenal women.

The Heavy Purse was mentioned this week at Enemy of Debt, The Frugal Farmer, RockStar Finance, Money Aware and I’m Every Woman Weekly. I appreciate your support and if I missed you, please let me know.

A Few Good Reads

This are my top five favorite posts from the past week. Enjoy!

Stefanie and The Broke and Beautiful Life had a thought-provoking post on Breaking Through Your Own Glass Ceiling. Without a doubt, glass ceilings do exist, but the one we set for ourselves is the most dangerous one in my opinion.

Laurie at The Frugal Farmer proudly proclaimed Your Debt Does Not Define You. I agree wholeheartedly and I’m glad Laurie is not giving her power to her debt any longer. Every day she is triumphing over it as a Mom, wife, sister, friend … you get the idea.

Wendy at Girl Meets Debt was on the same wavelength as Laurie and she reminded us to Ditch that Debt Guilt. Instead of wallowing in what could have been, Wendy is focused on doing everything she can right now to lower her debt. And guilt is not part of the deal. Love it!

Shannon from Financially Blonde had a great two-part series on conquering fear of investing. In Music Mondays: Don’t Fear the Reaper Shannon shared 3 reasons why you shouldn’t fear investing and in Investing Fear Factors she debunked some common investment fears. And if you still need a reason to check out her series, do it for the GIFs.

Matt at Mom and Dad Money shared When It comes to Investing, ‘Good Enough’ is Good Enough. He had a wonderful analogy comparing investing to refrigerators and I love his focus on goals first. People always want to focus on investments, when setting goals should be your first priority.

Shannon

The Heavy Purse Store is now open! My new downloadable Money Club Workbooks are now on sale. Each workbook provides five targeted lessons to help you raise Financially Confident Kids. Please check them out in The Heavy Purse Store.

March 21, 2014  •  27 Comments  •  Weekly Roundup

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Comments

  1. Friday, March 21st, 2014
    Thank you so much for including me in your Roundup this week!! I had fun writing the investing fears series, but more fun finding the gifs. :-) And I was actually getting a ton of Tory Burch and Christian Louboutin spams to my blog. I finally put my hubby on fixing it this week, and it has mostly stopped, but yes I knew my blog was getting more popular when the spams were.
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      You're welcome, Shannon. The posts were great and the GIFs were hilarious! It's funny that the amount of SPAM we receive correlates to how popular our blogs are becoming. :)
  2. Friday, March 21st, 2014
    Wow that's a lot of spam comments! Having livefyre means I get very few spam comments because it's harder to program a spam bot that works with livefyre. With that being said, it is more difficult to comment and I'll probably change it eventually. Hope you have a great weekend!
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      I bet livefyre makes it harder for SPAM to get through, which is nice, but I admit when I first start commenting on blogs, I didn't initially comment on people with livefyre. It seem too complicated. Obviously, I got over. it. :)
  3. Friday, March 21st, 2014
    It sounds like you get as much spam as I do Shannon. You know it's bad when WP asks you if you want to translate the page into English because it's all in another language. I also get the fake purses, but the fake Nike Air Jordans and fake Oakleys too, lol! Have a great weekend Shannon!
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      I always got SPAM but lately it's been a lot more! And I've never had WP ask me if I wanted to translate a page, although I do get plenty of SPAM in Chinese. I hope you had a great weekend too, John!
  4. Friday, March 21st, 2014
    Are you using any kind of spam filter? I use the askimet plug in which helps. Thanks for the shout out. Have a lovely weekend!
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      You're welcome, Stefanie! Yes, I use askimet to which really helps. I don't think I've ever had an SPAM actually appear live on the blog. Sometimes an occasional SPAM comment makes to my get approved stage but most go directly to the SPAM section, which is nice. Hope you had a fantastic weekend too!
  5. Friday, March 21st, 2014
    Wow! That's a lot of spam! Maybe that's why my comment on "Money Myth: Kids Don’t Care about Money" never got approved? I'm a real person, I promise! :)
    • Friday, March 21st, 2014
      My bad! It did get approved and you even responded :) Have a great weekend!
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      No worries. I have had legitimate comments get caught by my SPAM filter. :) I hope you had a great weekend too!
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      I'll be honest, I did have to double-check. I was slow to do this myself but adding a gravatar associated with your email address helps other bloggers recognize you. And hopefully keeps you from getting caught by the SPAM filter. :)
  6. Girl Meets Debt
    Friday, March 21st, 2014
    I use this plug-in call En Spam that keeps those bad boys away. With a name like Girl Meets Debt, you can only use your imagination to guess the kind of spam I always got lol. I'm so happy you enjoyed my post. Thank you Shannon. Have a wonderful weekend! xo
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      I bet you get a ton of SPAM, trying to tempt you with all their products. LOL! I use askimet which does a nice job of filtering out the SPAM, even when it's thousands in a week! I hope you had a wonderful weekend too!
  7. Friday, March 21st, 2014
    Yes, it has definitely been warm! Have a wonderful weekend, Shannon :)
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      It's been a crazy weather week. Warm, than cold. It's hard to know how to dress! LOL! I hope you had a great weekend too, Mackenzie!
  8. Friday, March 21st, 2014
    You're not the only one getting those spam comments. Andrea put something on BATB so that one is good, but HFF is getting a TON! I have to ask her what plugin she used for it to stop. Have a great weekend!
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      I use askimet and it does a great job of filtering out the SPAM comments. Only rarely does a SPAM comment make into the queue to be approved. I hope you had a great weekend and got a chance to recuperate from your vacation! :)
  9. Friday, March 21st, 2014
    Some kids do care about money. I taught my friends 7-year old kid how to use his 5-year old brother as a sub-contractor to shovel the snow off the sidewalk.

    The 7-year old had chores and a $5 payment to shovel. I told him he should pay his brother $3 and just watch. It worked. The mom was not sure if it was a good lesson or not...
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      LOL! Hopefully, it will encourage his entrepreneurial spirit!
  10. Saturday, March 22nd, 2014
    I thought I was the only one who had to deal with all those spammer commenters every day. Fake purses, fake shoes, fake sun glasses, help to increase my blog traffic and a few very adult products and services that would make a trucker blush need to be deleted every day.
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      Nope. SPAM loves all of us, unfortunately. Sometimes I have almost been fooled by some SPAM comments because they were actually very well-written. Such a pain. I use askimet and it really does help out.
  11. Saturday, March 22nd, 2014
    Just found your site, which I think is awesome BTW.

    I'm new to PFB and learning fast.

    What I feel most bad about is perhaps not setting such a great example for my kids.
    They are doing surprisingly well, some better than others. I plan to do it right with my grandson though!

    Keep up the great work and have a great weekend!
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      Aweeee…. thank you. I appreciate your kind words. Well, you couldn't find a more supportive community than personal finance bloggers. Don't feel bad about not setting a great example for your kids. Most parents simply don't realize the importance of demonstrating good financial behavior. Focus on setting a good example to them and your grandchildren now. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you had a great weekend too!
  12. Saturday, March 22nd, 2014
    That's lame about all the spam, but kind of funny about fake purses. :) Great links, Shannon, I'll have to look into them! Hope you're enjoying the weather in SoCal - it's autumn in South America, so the weather is starting to get cooler (well, for SoCal standards ;)).
    • Shannon Ryan
      Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
      Honestly, I prefer the fake purse SPAM over some of the other SPAM I get. :) I can't wait to hear about your South American adventure. I hope you had/are having a great time!
Shannon Ryan SHANNON RYAN, CFP®
  • Meet Shannon

    "As a Certified Financial Planner, it is my passion to help individuals and families build a healthy relationship with money. I look forward to helping you raise financially confident kids.” - Shannon Ryan