Interview : Gabe maysfinancial.com

1. Tell us a bit about your childhood and how it affects your today's practice on personal finance?

My family wasn’t quite poor, but money was tight growing up.  Through those struggles I’ve learned to save and manage money well.  I’ve learned that while money may not necessarily bring happiness, it is important to be able to afford the basics and opportunities for children to help enrich their lives.

2. Answer this question without checking or asking for references : If you can remember, what is your Zodiac and Astrology signs ?

I’m not really into that stuff, but I think I’m a Libra.

3. What are the things you like to do during your free time, ie. your hobbies ? And what do you most dislike about?

I enjoy programming, writing, weight lifting, running and hanging out with my wife.

4. What is your favorite food ? What do you hate most ?

My favorite food is pizza…definitely pizza.

5. What is the last thing you do before go to sleep ?

Kiss my wife.

6. What is the first thing you do when you wake up ?

Brush my teeth.

7. If you were to build a personal finance portfolio for a young man who has similar life path as yours, what will it be ?

For a young guy I’d recommend index funds in a Roth IRA.  Easy to manage, but still has control over fund choice and allocation.

8. You met someone in a social party, describe what you do in 2 to 3 sentences.

I’d talk to them, ask them what they do, tell a few jokes…the usual.

9. If you are not doing what you are doing now, what would you be doing ?

I’m doing exactly what I want to do, I love my career.

10. How much time do you spend on your personal finance blog ?

It really depends, anywhere from 5-30hrs per week depending on my schedule and what I’m working on for the site.

11. What is the main objective of your blog, is it initially profit oriented and who are your targeted blog readers ?

It is not profit oriented, I have no ads on the site and I do not sell anything.  The purpose is to provide useful, unbiased information to readers and help them improve their financial decision making.  Eventually I’d like to at least offset the operational costs of running the site, but I haven’t looked into it much yet and would not want to compromise the value the site provides to readers.

12. What is the biggest achievement your blog so far ?

I think it’s well designed, intuitive and very easy to use.  Usability is huge.

13. Tell us one URL other than your own that your readers should read about ?

Ted.com is a great site.  It’s not personal finance related, but it’s about people doing big things to make our world a better place.

14. How many more years do you think your blog will exist for and how do you plan to finance your blog forever if planned to at all?

I plan on keeping the site going indefinitely.  I currently fund the site myself since I do not sell anything or have any ads up.  I assume I’d keep doing that, though I wouldn’t mind turning it into a career after I retire from my current line of work.

15. The world is big, many people have different point of views and emotions. If you met someone who called you geek, liar, cheaters because you yourself didn't do what you preach, how would you handle them ?

Things like that don’t bother me much, I’d keep doing whatever I was doing.  You can never make everyone happy.

16. Would you be interested to meet other finance bloggers in person ?

Possibly, it depends on my schedule, though I don’t consider my personal finance site much of a blog in the typical sense.

• Do you smoke ? I don’t smoke.
• Do you drink liquor socially ? I don’t drink alcohol..
• Are you a coffee lover ? I don’t drink coffee.
• Where do you stay and work ? ( Country, State, Region etc.) United States, California, San Diego