10 Questions With Stoj Finance

Today’s 10 Questions submission comes all the way from The Land Down Under, Australia! I’ve never been, but it’s a bucket list vacation item for me. Take it away StojFinance!

There are approximately 476,492,692,958 personal finance blogs last time I checked. Why should we read yours?

Good question. What sets me apart is my unbiased view into investing and wealth building. 

My favourite investment vehicles are securities e.g. stocks and bonds. And I have dedicated hundreds of hours to read the best investing books available. 

Including books like The Intelligent Investor, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, One Up On Wall Street, and The Warren Buffett Way—to name a few.

Consequently, I have observed all sorts of investing styles and strategies such as value investing, growth stock investing, dividend investing, index fund investing and more! 

My job is to provide you with the best source of investing information—in a concise and unbiased form!

What has surprised you about blogging?

Blogging is a lot more competitive than I first thought. This would have to be the thing that surprised me most about blogging.

I thought that anyone could setup a blog, spend a few hours writing a post and show up on the first page of Google. Allowing everyone to benefit from the content they have provided.

I was wrong—very wrong.

Starting a profitable blog is as difficult as starting any other business. 

And you have to spend as much time marketing your content, as you do writing it—in an effort to get your name out there and voice heard.

Nonetheless, I love blogging and helping others—and I won’t stop writing because of the slow growth that I, and many other new bloggers are experiencing. 

Why did you start your blog?

I found the idea of starting my own website exciting, and I felt that I had something to offer. 

I didn’t spend a whole lot of time planning before I launched the site, I simply wanted to get it up and going!

I began by writing a bunch of long-form posts and designing the website. 

Soon after launching the blog I began to take it very seriously. Consequently, buying a premium theme to give stojfinance.com a professional feel—and purchased WPRocket to decrease my page loading time significantly. Along with many other small tweaks and plugin upgrades.

Is there anything else you’d like to promote?

I’m glad you asked! Here are three of my best performing posts to date:

How to Become a Millionaire from Nothing

How to Invest 1000 Dollars

Best Personal Finance Books

Where do you live? Do you love it, hate it or just meh.

I live in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It’s a nice place and I live just 15 minutes out of town. 

Geelong is the gateway to the Great Ocean Road—home to some of the most famous surf beaches in the world (Bells Beach), although I’m not much of a surfer myself.

I was born 45 minutes down the road (In Werribee) but have lived in Geelong for over 15 years. 

I have traveled all over the world including places like Hawaii, Africa, Fiji, and Tasmania—but I feel like Geelong is home for me. 

The weather is nice here and Melbourne is only an hour down the road!

What do you do for a living?

I am studying accounting full-time (roughly 35 hours a week of classes).  

I am looking to complete a Bachelor of Commerce after I complete my 6-month accounting course. 

I would like to become a Portfolio Manager someday and perhaps manage my own investment fund.

Evil genies aside, what is your investing strategy? Stocks? Index funds?? Real estate??? Crypto????

I prefer stock market investing—as I mentioned above. I am primarily a value investor but will purchase a growth stock if I like the stock. 

I generally don’t single stocks out. I normally do a “scan” of the biggest index in my country. Which is the ASX 200. Featuring 200 of the largest stocks on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). 

I will look through all the stocks on the index and decide from there—based on data, which stock is worth looking into further.

Transportation (how do you get around): car, train, bus, bike or VTOL.

I drive around in my 2008 Kia Rio most of the time and get the train to my accounting classes. I’d like to be able to drive straight to class—but there is NOWHERE to park in the CBD! 

I’d love to drive a Tesla one day and I can really see that being a possibility in the next 10 years or so.

What is something you read that changed your life?

The book that had the biggest impact on my life would have to be The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy.

Reading this book has led me to look at money in an entirely new light.

This book taught me that many of the people you see in public who look “rich” are NOT.

Many of them are actually living paycheck to paycheck—and have a very low net worth.

I highly recommend reading the book if you’re looking to build wealth and become financially independent!

Mr. 1500 note: This book was an epiphany for me too. I thought rich people drove BMWs and lived in mansions. It turns out that they drive Camrys and live next to you. Who knew?

Question 10 – Elon Musk: Crazy megalomaniac or a brilliant guy who is changing the world?

I believe Elon Musk is one of the most amazing people alive today.

He learned how to program at age 10, and by age 12—had sold a video game for $500 so he could “buy more video games”.

He is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX—and owns SolarCity and The Boring Company through the two preceding companies.

I read his biography in a matter of days—and cannot wait to see what he does next!

Thank you so much for reading! Check out StojFinance.com and learn how to save money, invest money and build wealth!