The 30 Fastest Growing Personal Finance Blogs Of 2019 (2024)

In 2017 and 2018, I made a study of the fastest growing personal finance blogs in the world. This year is no different.

I love making this list because I discover so many interesting blogs doing it. I hope the same will be the case for you 🙂

The study is based on data – and lots of it! I don’t have any say in how the list turns out. I just let the data speak.

Every year, I make two different lists. I make a list showing the fastest growing blogs (all the rising stars in the personal finance blogosphere – the one you are reading now) and I make a list of the biggest personal finance blogs too. The latter I’ll release later this year 🙂

Before we get into the actual list, let me tell you how I found the 30 fastest growing personal finance blogs of 2019.

My methodology to determine the fastest growing personal finance blogs

The methodology is nearly the same I used in 2017 and 2018. It takes roughly two days to gather and analyze the data.

I have used the full list of personal finance blogs from the Rockstar Finance directory as a starting point. In case you are wondering, the directory contains 2,192 personal finance blogs at the time of writing. All of them are part of the data used in the list.

Using the list, I extract data from different sources to find out how quickly the blogs have been growing.

I use a mix of old and new tools giving me observations for nine variables for each personal finance blog:

• Alexa rank
• Number of domains linking to blog (historic and fresh)
• Number of backlinks to blog
• Number of .Edu/.Gov links to blog
• Citation Flow (historic and fresh)
• Trust Flow (historic and fresh)

When I have the raw data, I look at the difference between the 2018 and 2019 data.

I analyze both the relative and absolute change from the prior year.

Finally, I score the blogs based on the percentile they are within for both the relative and absolute change.

For example, if a blog is in the 80th percentile for an absolute or relative change for one of the variables it gets one point. The same is the case if the blog is also within the 90th percentile.

Therefore, the maximum amount of points a blog can get is 9 variables * 2 types of changes * 2 percentiles = 36 points.

In case of a tie, the blog with the highest Trust Flow will be given the highest rank.

As previous years, there are many ways you can question the methodology I use. In fact, I have just scraped a new dataset I will use for the 2020 version of this. It will be more precise and easier to compile.

That being said, I believe the methodology gives a great picture of the popularity and growth of more than 2,000 personal finance blogs.

To be honest, the most important thing for me is getting great blogs out there for you to discover – and not inventing the best methodology around. I hope I have succeeded in doing that 🙂

Alright, enough talking, let’s get down to business.

The 30 fastest growing personal finance blogs of 2019

The 30 fastest growing blogs were chosen out of 2,192 blogs and received between 14-31 points out of the maximum 36 points. The winner of this year got 31 points as the only blog!

Ladies and gentlemen, the fastest growing personal finance blogs of 2019 are…

1. JL Collins NH (31 points)
   1. “The Simple Path to Wealth.”
2. Financial Panther (30 points)
   1. “I’m a lawyer that paid off $87000 in student loans in 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.”
3. The Escape Artist (28 points)
   1. “You can escape to financial freedom.”
4. ChooseFI (25 points)
   1. “Join a global community of people that are pursuing Financial Independence through Investing, Real Estate and Business creation.”
5. A Wealth Of Common Sense (24 points)
   1. “The main reason I started this website is to try to explain the complexities of the various aspects of finance in a way that everyone could understand them.”
6. NZ Muse (23 points)
   1. “Real talk on money and life.”
7. Tub Of Cash (21 points)
   1. “Tub of Cash is a place to learn for free about money, life, career, stocks, real estate, cryptocurrency; and how to become financially independent and live a stable and secure millionaire lifestyle.”
8. Family Budgeting (20 points)
   1. “Top UK parenting and budget blog written by Becky Goddard Hill award winning thrifty blogger, It covers all aspects of frugal family life.“
9. The Deep Dish (20 points)
   1. “A blog about deliberate living: taking a few steps off the beaten path, and making better trade-offs around wealth, health, and personal freedom.”
10. Whitney Hansen (20 points)
    1. “The best millennial money coaching, blog, and podcast to help you free up your income by paying off debt.”
11. Keep Thrifty (20 points)
    1. “Create the freedom you’ve been missing by living a thrifty life.”
12. Miked Up Blog (19 points)
    1. “Hi, Team! I’m Mike, current 30-ish CEO, Blogger, and Forensic Scientist. I write Financial insights for Family, Business, and Fitness tips for all! We’re growing our family-owned Business while I’m focusing on staying Fit and being a solid Family man… and writing about all the highs and lows on MikedUp Blog!”
13. She Picks Up Pennies (18 points)
    1. “Living a More Purposeful Life One Cent at a Time.”
14. Moneylogue (18 points)
    1. “Knowledge is not enough to make money and grow your money. It is important to have self-discipline and the right money mindset to achieve financial freedom.”
15. Michelle Is Money Hungry (18 points)
    1. “My name is Michelle Jackson, personal finance influencer, blogger, and podcaster. I love empowering financially single women with their money, own their authority, and grow their best lives personally and professionally. Money doesn’t have to be scary!”
16. Credit Logon (18 points)
    1. “Access Your Money Your Way.”
17. The Physician Philosopher (17 points)
    1. “My name is Jimmy. I am an academic physician (Go DEACS!) who went through bankruptcy as a kid and had a rough introduction to the financial industry that led to my inability to get personal disability insurance to this day.”
18. Flea Market Flipper (17 points)
    1. “Last year we made $42K buying and reselling used items from flea markets, thrift stores and yard sales. Now we are helping others fill the financial gaps!”
19. HALT CATCH FIRE (17 points)
    1. “INSPECT | DEBUG | REFACTOR | OPTIMIZE”
20. My Money Blog (16 points)
    1. “Personal Finance and Investing Blog.”
21. Four Pillar Freedom (16 points)
    1. “Four Pillar Freedom is a website that uses the fields of philosophy, psychology, work ethic, and personal finance to teach you how to live your best life.”
22. Physician on FIRE (16 points)
    1. “Physician on FIRE is a personal finance website devoted to helping high-income professionals achieve financial independence and the option to retire early.”
23. Abandoned Cubicle (16 points – #10 last year)
    1. “A blog about achieving a purpose-driven retirement, through smart personal finance, real estate investing (including Airbnb vacation rentals), and minimalism.”
24. Boomer and Echo (15 points)
    1. “A Canadian personal finance blog with smart ideas on how you can achieve financial freedom at any age.”
25. Fiery Millennials (15 points – #18 last year)
    1. “Hi, I’m Gwen. I’m a 28 year old on the path to Financial Independence. I recently experimented with solopreneurship but decided it wasn’t for me and went back to work in the corporate world.”
26. Coach Carson (15 points)
    1. “Chad “Coach” Carson writes about using real estate investing to win with money, retire early, and do what matters in life.”
27. The Frugal Gene (15 points)
    1. “The online money diary of Ms. Lily. Our family scrimps and saves over $150,000 a year in the grandest pursuit of financial independence. We choose to live car-free and moonlight as your pillow fluffing hosts on Airbnb. Follow along if you like a little spark in your morning money read.”
28. The Mastermind Within (15 points)
    1. “The Mastermind Within is a blog focused on providing you the tools to be more successful in personal finance, self-improvement and entrepreneurship.”
29. Passive Income M.D. (14 points – #26 last year)
    1. “Financial Freedom Through Passive Income – Ideas, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Real Estate, Side Hustles, Family, and Medicine.”
30. Cheesy Finance (14 points)
    1. “A journey of a Dutch Family with one kid to Financial Independence and Retire Early or “FIRE”.”

There you go! The list of the 30 fastest growing personal finance blogs of 2019 – based on data. I hope you found a few new blogs to follow 🙂

Final words

As you can see, only three blogs from 2018 showed up again in 2019. This is because many of the blogs from last year are now well-established, large blogs that might not be growing as much year-on-year anymore.

There are probably many ways to question and improve my methodology. In fact, I am changing the methodology for the 2020 version as I have found better, more accurate data that is faster to gather and analyze. However, I still believe the methodology works to analyze relative popularity and show some of the fastest growing personal finance blogs out there 🙂

In case you are interested, MoneyMow was #141 on the list making it part of the top 7% fastest growing blogs (up from top 11% last year). If you are curious about your blog’s position, let me know, and I’ll dive into the data for you.

If you liked the list, consider sharing with your friends or fellow bloggers. If you didn’t, let me know how I can improve the list for 2020 🙂

Your turn: Which blogs are your favorite? Did I miss any?