6 Personal Finance Blog Ideas, Absolutely Free for You to Take

Fact: I started Ringgit Oh Ringgit blog because the content I wanted to read did not exist.

What I mean by that is I wanted to read personal finance content that is:

• Preferably Malaysia-specific 
• Relatable – I want to read a person’s POV, not a company. I want to see personality!
• Not too jargon-heavy – that eliminates a lot of articles that appear on The Edge and stuff
• Not too ‘sales-y’ – we can tell when you’re pushing a credit card, loan, etc on us you know
• Not too generic – It’s important to save money, they said, without telling you how
• Not too ‘advice-y’ – Some of the materials can be really condescending

It turns out that many of you felt the same way, judging by the way Ringgit Oh Ringgit took off. I honestly didn’t expect it. I was so shocked, I wrote this article:[PERSONAL] What It’s Like to be a Personal Finance Blogger in Malaysia

The good thing is, as of time of writing, more and more Malaysians are sharing personal finance content online! I keep an updated list at Recommended personal finance websites in Malaysia page.

Some of you may be long-time readers and may contemplate starting your own personal finance blogs. In fact, I did get a couple of queries about this very topic.

In this article, I’m going to compile some personal finance blog ideas. Take them, absolutely free of charge, no consultation fee needed.

#1 – Anything food-related

I had to put this as #1. Saying Malaysians love food is like saying we breathe from our nose. It’s common sense.

Some personal finance blog ideas for food topic:

• Recipes with the cost breakdown
• Grocery hauls
• Bargain bin hauls
• Healthy eating – vegan, meat-free, organic etc
• Eating lifestyles – intermittent fasting, keto, meal-prep
• Restaurant hacking – eating well with vouchers, special deals, etc

The only content creator who I know does this (but not often) is Sara Khong of Jewelpie. She wrote a comprehensive guide when she built her edible garden.

#2 – Anything accommodation-related

Having read that Malaysians are rated as the fourth most ‘obsessed with properties’ in the world, you’d think there would be more personal finance bloggers who concentrate on properties. But no, not really.

(I’m not talking about property gurus or speakers by the way. Just us normal folks)

Some personal finance blog ideas for property topic:

• Attending and reviewing open houses organised by developers
• Building own house
• Alternative housing (see: Affordable Housing in Malaysia: 6 Alternatives to Consider)
• Adventures of a landlord/landlady/AirbnB owner
• Hotel hacking – trying out different hotels with vouchers, special deals etc
• Home organisation/Interior Design

Right now, I’m keenly following Atiqah’s tiny home building series. She doesn’t update very often but whatever she has is top quality stuff.

I also enjoyed Renovation Logs posted by Ringgit Velvet

#3 – Anything hobby-related

I kind of do this with one hobby of mine – travel. My Travel Series breaks down how much I spend on my travels and for what. I used to be a budget traveller, but now shifted to a value-for-money traveller – I don’t mind paying more for comfort and convenience. You can do this too.

Some personal finance blog ideas for hobby topics:

• Tech & Gadget – Setting up PCs for under RMx000, smart home-ing on a budget, etc
• Fashion – thrift finds, sewing projects with cost breakdown, capsule wardrobe, etc
• Beauty – DIY makeup and skincare with cost breakdown, etc
• Travel – airline points hacking, etc

There are so many different types of hobbies that I can’t possibly list them all here. But you get the drift 🙂

I don’t know anyone who does this type of personal finance blogs. Sometimes I would see creative professionals dedicating one post to explain the business side of their craft, but it’s quite rare.

I could be wrong. It’s possible they’re simply not on my radar yet. If you know any, please share them in the comments section.

#4 – Debt-free journeys OR Financial Independence/Retire Early

Debt-free and FI/RE communities are like two sides of the same coin – they have the same goals (accumulate a bunch of money as fast as possible) and similar methodologies too.

Many highly successful international personal finance bloggers belong to this category too. I love it a lot – the narrative is something that companies can never, ever replicate.

Some personal finance blog ideas for debt-free journeys or FI/RE topic:

• Frugal living
• Earning side income / freelancing
• Doing lifestyle changes
• Investments
• Minimalism

For some reason, Malaysians are more keen to share their debt-free journeys on Instagram rather than blog. That’s cool too. The images below were all tagged #debtfreemalaysia, check them out.

Related: 21 Malaysia-Based Personal Finance Instagrammers You Should Follow

#5 – Business journeys

A whopping 98.5% of all companies in Malaysia are SMEs, but how come we never really hear about them? I understand day-to-day operations must be busy, but (1) this helps so much with your personal branding, and (2) might be really good for inbound marketing.

Some personal finance blog ideas for business journey topic:

• Behind the scenes of fund-raising processes
• The highlights and lowlights of a particular month
• Challenges in business operations

I think the trick here is to separate ‘business you’ from ‘personal you’. For example, ‘business me’ is most of the articles I write on Ringgit Oh Ringgit, while ‘personal me’ is all my posts tagged as [PERSONAL] and my monthly budget updates.

Alternative: using LinkedIn to publish them. I’m personally not that active on LinkedIn, but I know some people are regarded as thought leaders there because they do this.

Anyone here are regular LinkedIn users? Any business thought leaders to recommend? Please share them in the comments 🙂

#6 – The finance professionals

Okay to be fair there are a lot of these types of blogs. Finance professionals exist for most types of financial tools or vehicles.

For example,

• Kopiandproperty.com only talks about properties
• GenXGenYGenZ.com is known for credit card tips
• PelhamBlue shares their warrants trading
• DividendMagic writes about dividend investing
• StockMonger analyses stocks

I like the above folks because their articles are a lot more easy to understand than the rest. That’s what we lack. The best experts are the ones who don’t have to rely on big words to carry their message across.

Some personal finance blog ideas for finance professional:

• Mutual funds and unit trusts – what is in each fund? Who is it for?
• Margin-trading  experiments
• Forex entries
• Anonymous banker/venture capital

Last words

Oh cool you read this far. That must mean you are interested in at least one of the topics above, right? You’d want to read it too, right?

Here’s an idea – why not start your own personal finance blog?

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the skills – writing, website management or otherwise. No one was born with the knowledge, everyone starts somewhere.

If you want to try out this blogging thing – it doesn’t even have to cost money in the beginning, just time – then read Steps 1-3 in my The Exact Steps I Use to Earn Money from Blogging article.

What do you want to read from the above personal finance blog suggestions? What other topics would you suggest? List them in the comments, who knows someone might be up for the challenge!