“Why do you blog?“, asked my 8 year old son. After some time I saw a reply to my mail from a fellow personal finance blogger,Manshu of onemint.com who has taken a break from blogging (I miss his daily updates). These made me wonder,curious about why other personal finance bloggers blog, so I decided to find out about it by shooting off mail to Manshu and a IIT Physics Professor who writes Financial calculators in excel and  is so full of life , M. Pattabiraman aka pattu. Within 15 minutes I had answers to my questions from Prof. Pattu which I present to you in this article.

About Prof Pattu of FreeFinCal

M. Pattabiraman aka pattu is physicist working at IIT, Madras. He teaches undergraduate engineering physics and postgraduate physics students and works in experimental quantum optics. He has interest in personal finance calculations.  On his personal finance blog, FreeFinCal, he provides excel based calculators for financial planning free of cost such as :

• Step-by-Step Guide to Selecting a Mutual Fund,
• Mutual Fund Returns Comparison: Direct Plan vs. Regular Plan,
• Insurance Policy Surrender Value & Paid-up Value Calculator Cost of Postponement Calculator !

To know more about him read his About Me and his personal finance journey in The Financial Arrow of Time

Imagine someone in their early 20s who understands the importance of leading a frugal life, power of compounding power of passive income and financial freedom. He was not .

• In the 4th year of his PhD he got a scholarship to spend 3 months in the Swiss city of Lausanne. He blew it all
• When he worked as ‘K S Krishnan research fellow’ at IGCAR Kalpakkam. he travelled from Chennai each day. A journey of more than 150 Kms both ways. He lost his health and blew his entire pay in travel expenses for about 1.5 years!
• Exactly 5 days after he received his first proper salary his life changed forever. His father was diagnosed with cancer and soon the treatment cost started spiraling up. He got an interest free loan of Rs. 3 lakhs from his brother-in-law .

In his own words

I was terribly depressed. I hated debt and wanted to get out of it. Thankfully my pay shot up by about 45% and I got a pretty huge lump sum (for my standards!) as arrears from the govt (sixth pay commission). I paid off my brother-in-law.

The day I was debt free I felt great. It was a cathartic experience. I felt free and in control. I told myself that I am going to do everything I can to feel this way, at least wrt my finances, each and every day. So started the journey out of the hole. This was about 5 years ago. The journey continues …

So dear readers share some moments with wizard of excel M. Pattabiraman aka pattu of FreeFinCal . As I am excited about Shahrukh’s Chennai Express (which released this weekend) , let me rephrase the sentence as, board on to Chennai Express to meet the Thalaiva of Excel Calculators M. Pattabiraman aka pattu.

What do you do besides your blog – professionally? How do you find the time to blog with your day job?

I teach and research in physics for a living at IIT, Madras. As an academic my work schedule is flexible. So I can manage to squeeze this in. Truth be told, I made time for blogging by cutting down movie-watching (I earlier averaged close to one a day!).

Why is there a need for personal finance blog when there is so much personal finance information available- newspapers, magazines, mutual fund sites, even TV?

Fantastic question. If the blogs provide the same kind of perspective the other mediums do then there is no need for them. Many blogs are guilty of this.

If you make a list of top 10 personal finance blogs, you will not notice not many in that list are by financial planners! What I want from a blog is a more personal perspective. How is the blogger handling his/her finances.

The other thing is most bloggers shy away from math and advanced concepts. If there is enough of both these factors then blogs will make a much bigger difference.

What sparked your interest in personal finance blogging? How did you start blogging?

I am a bit of nomad when it comes to interests (professional and otherwise). I once started a blog on comics about 6-7 years. Just as it got popular I abruptly shut down the blog and stopped following comic blogs. Soon I started following personal finance blogs as I needed to get my financial life in order.I suffer from neural diarrhea and am strongly opinionated. I have had differences will almost all top personal finance bloggers.

I had always wanted to write but never had the disciple to follow it through. Soon I realized that if could shape my opinions in the form of calculators and blog posts I will get a sense of accomplishment and of course recognition.

What have you learned from blogging – how this has improved your life?

My original intention was to use a website as a storehouse for my calculators. After I did this, I fell sick and my life turned upside down. So I needed a project to keep me away from depression. Blogging was perfect for this. It gave me something to focus on. So as I was recuperating I spent quite a bit of time finding ways to promote the blog and of course write and make calculators. It is so exciting to learn more about blogging.

 How do you choose your blog articles? Where do you get the inspiration for writing the blog?

It is so easy when you are on drugs! Prescription drugs that is! I am on a course of steroid medication which makes my mind race. Some days I just need to get an idea into action, else I will become restless.

Jokes apart, Physics or finance, inspiration comes from thought. When we read something, it is one thing to appreciate an article. It is quite another to think about what is missing in a useful article and how we can we make it better. I guess ideas come from reading and thought. No drug will help you there!

What is your favourite post you have ever written? Why?

If we come up with something that is not there anywhere else then it gives you a sense of immense satisfaction. I made a Step-by-Step Guide to Selecting a Mutual Fund. It is my favourite because it has been received by readers exactly the way I intended. It was also one of the first things I did, after feeling better. So I have good memories of that.

What are the biggest challenges you have faced as a blogger?

Nothing much really. My blog is not a typical blog. As you know I offer calculators free. This serves as a natural carrot for the reader. It is also the reason why I was promoted by popular bloggers. This increased my visibility quickly.

My point is that my USP was clear even before freefincal became a blog. Many bloggers have trouble finding their niche. If you don’t offer something unique no one will be interested.

Bemoneyaware is popular because of its content. It is like a readers digest in personal finance. That is what draws a audience: unique content. Everything else is gimmickry.

Does blogging esp personal finance blogging pay or will pay in future?

It certainly will. It will make a blogger so much better in handling their own finances. It will make a blogger a better person overall.

Do you practice what you preach? How do you manage your own finances?

Let me put it this way: If I preach what I practice, I will turn away many readers -especially the young(er) ones!

I strongly believe in frugality. Before I started blogging, I did not have a FB or twitter account. I still know nothing about smart phones, Android, touch devices etc. It has been years since I ate in a restaurant or even cafeteria food etc.

I strongly believe that one should spend time/money on ‘wants’ as infrequently as possible. Although I have mentioned this in the blog, personally I can be a bit extreme for most people. To keep it brief: each month, I spend as little as I can and invest as much as I can.

What has been your biggest financial blunder, and what did you learn from it?

I got my first steady job when I was 30 (typical for Ph. Ds). So I never made any of the mistakes young people do: buy a ULIP for tax saving, invest in FDs etc. I had the maturity to make informed decisions.

My biggest financial blunder was not realizing the time value of money when I was making good tax-free money as a student. If I had, I could be retired by now. I guess I learnt quite a bit of financial math as a result!

What are your top three tips in personal finance that you think everyone should know?

• Recognise the importance of spending less and investing early.
• Imagine all kinds of bizarre emergencies/contingencies and prepare for them as much as possible.
• Recognise the need for discipline.

Recognise that knowledge of financial instruments is not in the top 3!

Who are your favourite Bloggers / Authorities you follow online?

There are many. I especially like people who are very secure about their abilities and consider themselves students of the subject.

• Ranjan Varma of ranjanvarma.com, author and founder of rupeemanager.com is one such person.
• I am full of admiration for Manish Chauhan. As one the earliest readers of Jagoinvestor I know how Manish has built the blog. His earlier articles were awesome and were like diamonds in the rough. I have not seen any other blogger handle criticism more gracefully. I am not a big fan of JI after he started financial advisory. I still admire how he and Nandish think of innovative ways to make money!
• P V Subramanyam of Subramoney. For saying it like it is.
• Then there is this lady, a career woman and mother of two. She writes extraordinarily detailed articles on all topics of personal finance. She does not have a finance background nor is she part of the financial industry. I am told that she is popular on twitter, followed by the who’s who of the finance industry. If I am not wrong her blog is called, Beware of money or something like that!

What makes you continue blogging?

I don’t know about the future. As of now, blogging excites me.

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Hope you enjoyed meeting Pattu, man behind FreeFinCal. Have you been in debt? What financial mistakes have you committed? What should one do or not do w.r.t to finances when  in 20’s? Which personal finance blog do you follow and why?