Bargaineering in the News

I am a full-time professional blogger who spends many hours a week consuming and producing personal finance content. My academic background is not in personal finance (B.S. Computer Science & Economics, M.S. Software Engineering, & an MBA) but I do have the rare opportunity to interact with people interested in personal finance on a daily basis (this site gets gets over half a million unique visitors a month). This site has given me a good perspective on how the effects of money, having it and not having it, has on people’s lives. Whether it’s figuring out how to budget for the first time or where you should be investing your 401(k), readers come to Bargaineering because I am able to explain personal finance in everyday terms they can understand.

I have had the pleasure of appearing in numerous media publications and radio broadcasts to bring a “regular person’s” perspective, to bring insight into a complicated process, or to provide a look at what concerns the typical personal finance blog visitor. If you would like to contact me, even if only for an informal chat, please send me an email and I’ll respond within a few hours. I am located between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, MD.

• Television Appearances
• Print Appearances
• Radio Appearances

Television Appearances

ABC Money Matters: Credit Reports Money Matters, June 2nd, 2009 Jim Wang discusses credit reports with Tanya Rivero on ABC News Now’s Money Matters program.

Print Media Appearances

	Psst: Want to Know My Net Worth? Elizabeth Harris, New York Times, Sept. 18, 2005 Jim headlines this article about blogging and transparency in the personal finance niche. He discusses the idea of openly sharing various parts of his financial life including his budget, his net worth, and how much he paid for his car.
	Credit Care: How to use credit cards to their fullest advantage–without getting buried in interest and debt J.D. Roth, Entrepreneur Magazine, March 2011 “Jim Wang, for instance, loves his credit cards. The entrepreneur from Columbia, Md., writes about personal finance at Bargaineering.com. He controls his credit cards instead of letting them control him. ‘I carry three cards,’ he says. ‘They’re all cash-back or rewards cards. One card’s for business; one offers rewards at restaurants, movie theaters and bookstores; and one offers cash back on everything else.’”
	Best Blogs for the Young and Broke Karyn McCormack, Business Week & Yahoo! Finance, Aug. 22, 2006 Jim is featured as one of the best young personal finance bloggers yet to get noticed.
	Fatherly advice that pays off Gregory Karp, Chicago Tribune, May 27, 2010 Jim is quoted in a story sharing his father’s advice. “‘Save for your future.’ This is difficult for new grads, who often feel retirement is a lifetime away. “One thing my dad impressed on me was that I shouldn’t waste my money on the latest gadget or gizmo; that I should save it so I could benefit from compounding returns,” said Jim Wang, creator of a personal finance blog at Bargaineering.com.”
	How to Avoid the Marriage Tax Kimberly Palmer, U.S. News & World Report, Mar. 24, 2010 “Jim Wang, founder of the website www.bargaineering.com, found himself paying the so-called marriage penalty after marrying his wife, Martha, who worked in biomedical engineering at the time. Wang … says part of the couple’s income got bumped into a higher tax bracket–so instead of paying a 28 percent rate, they were suddenly paying 33 percent.”
	Moneybloggers share the wealth Eileen Ambrose, The Baltimore Sun, Mar. 15, 2009 Unlike some blogging peers, Wang wasn’t mired in debt and didn’t grow up in a household clueless about money. (His father persuaded him to open a Roth IRA when Wang was a teen.) He started the blog to learn about finances. His blog “follows the things that I do in my life,” he says. So lessons he learned buying a house and getting married are blog fodder.
	Keep cost per use in mind when shopping Gregory Karp, Chicago Tribune, Mar. 14, 2010 Jim is quoted in a story about calculating the value of the things you buy by tracking each time you use it. “‘Tracking or estimating use is the best first step,’ said Jim Wang, creator of personal finance site Bargaineering.com. It ‘puts hard numbers to something that’s qualitative in your mind.’”
	How to Earn Money as a Professional Blogger Kimberly Palmer, U.S. News & World Report, May 19, 2009 “When Jim Wang, 28, the Columbia, Md.-based author of the Bargaineering blog, … didn’t earn much money during the first two years of his blog. But now it gets around 850,000 page views a month, and he turns those eyeballs into $10,000 a month.”
	Know Your Rights: Credit Card Minimum Purchases David Seaman, TheStreet.com Main Street, Oct. 29, 2009 “According to Jim Wang, personal finance blogger at Bargaineering.com, this may be a lot of fuss over nothing: ‘I see this a lot, especially with the recession, and it doesn’t affect me at all. Stores need to protect their margins and this is just one of the ways they can prevent credit card transaction fees from eating into their profits.’”
	Ten tips for Marylanders filing taxes Clare Lochary, Baltimore Sun’s b magazine, Mar. 16, 2009 “With the installment agreement, you are requesting that you be given essentially a loan from the IRS to pay back the taxes owed over a period of three years or less. Fill out IRS Form 9465 and the IRS will respond in about 30 days,” says Columbia-based personal finance blogger Jim Wang on his Web site, bargaineering.com.
	Not-So-Personal Finance Alex Williams, New York Times, Apr. 27, 2008 Jim discusses how transparency in personal finance, specifically when discussing salary, can lead to benefits for all those involved.
	One Blogger’s Take on Costco David Leonhardt, New York Times, Sept. 13, 2006 Jim is featured in a brief article about how much you can expect to save by shopping at Costco, versus a grocery store where you can use coupons.
	Match coupons with sales for bigger savings Eileen Ambrose, The Baltimore Sun, Jan. 14, 2009 Jim briefly shares his thoughts on how coupons rarely apply to the items that you should be buying the most of, fresh produce.
	The Savvy Consumer: Saving can be lucrative Teresa McUsic, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Mar. 6, 2009 “Jim Wang, founder of the personal finance blog Bargaineering.com, recommended that I take a look at reward interest checking accounts. ‘They come from local community banks and credit unions and offer rates higher than CDs but offer more flexibility than CDs,’ Wang said.”
	‘Elderbloggers’ Shy Away From Money Talk Candice Novak, U.S. News & World Report, Jun. 30, 2008 Jim and Bargaineering.com is featured for its transparency in tracking Jim’s budget down to the penny, including all the details of the purchase of his first home.
	Stretching your dollars Eileen Ambrose, The Baltimore Sun, Jun. 22, 2008 Jim shares some of his money saving tips with the Baltimore Sun’s Eileen Ambrose including a leftover calendar to help reduce spoilage and the “hidden” benefits of some credit cards from extra warranty coverage to price protection.
	Money-saving tip: Snowflaking Sarah Lindner, Austin American-Statesman, Mar. 18, 2008 Bargaineering (formerly Blueprint for Financial Prosperity) is featured in a discussion about snowflaking, the idea that small irregular payments (in addition to regular payments) can help rapidly reduce debt.
	Consumers Have Allies on the Web Damon Darlin, New York Times, Feb. 3, 2008 Bargaineering (formerly Blueprint for Financial Prosperity) is listed as a resource for advice on a broad range of personal finance topics, including car leases, CFLs, and credit cards.
	Buying car online has perils (archived) The Chicago Tribune, Oct. 14, 2007 Jim discusses his experience buying a used car on eBay including how to research sellers, a brief overview of eBay purchase protection, and other considerations when buying a car online.
	The 1040 Is a Great Tool for Planning Will Swarts, Smart Money, Jun. 8, 2007 Jim talks about the lessons you can learn by looking at the IRS Form 1040, including the things the government will reward you for, such as saving for retirement.
	The Cheap Geek Column Ben Z. Gottesman, PC Magazine, Dec. 29, 2005 Bargaineering is listed as a resource for breaking news about Amazon’s little known price match policy.

Radio Appearances

	Personal Finance Bloggers Check In Tess Vigeland, Marketplace Money, June 12th, 2009 We last talked to personal finance bloggers Steve, Lynnae and Jim a year ago. We check back with them on the state of the financial climate and what commenters on their blogs are saying.
	Personal Finance Bloggers Check In Tess Vigeland, Marketplace Money, Feb. 6th, 2009 Jim discusses how the personal finance landscape has changed in the last few months, what people are worried about today, and what people need to focus on to help them through the recession.
	Blogging the volatile markets Tess Vigeland, Marketplace Money, Sept. 26, 2008 Jim discusses the topics that have been capturing the attention of the personal finance blogosphere, like the $700 billion bailout package, as well as recent topics, such as diversifying your savings across multiple banks and staying under the FDIC insurance limit.
	The world of personal finance bloggers Tess Vigeland, Marketplace Money, Aug. 8, 2008 Jim discusses how he began blogging about personal finance, some of the topics he’s written about (including credit card arbitrage), and his best money tip.

In addition to these publications, I’ve also had the great opportunity to have my content published on MSN Money, The Consumerist and Lifehacker.