Rockstar Rumble, Round 3, Posts 25-32

Here are the latest games in the third round of the 2018 Rockstar Rumble. We've listed each "game" (one post versus another) along with wording provided by the author when the post was submitted. Also listed is a keyword after each post title to make it easy to vote. Be sure to vote for your favorites since you will help determine the winner! Criteria for the best article is what makes Rockstar content which includes these factors:

  • Starts with an interesting title
  • Includes unique content — we like posts that are edgy, feisty, funny, failure-focused, and super helpful
  • Easy to read
  • Positive/uplifting (vs. negative)

The voting will run for 48 hours. At that point, a winner will be named and will advance. You can follow the results in the brackets here. Please note, there is ONE VOTE PER PERSON. To be sure you see all games, click on the Rumble category link and scroll down. If you like great posts like these featured, you can subscribe to the Rockstar Finance weekday email and get the best personal finance articles delivered to your inbox. Today's games are brought to you by Mediavine, a full-service ad management solution for digital content creators. Here are today's games: GAME 13

  • The Early Retirement Blog Movement Is A Big Mistake (Mistake) - Early retirement should not be your end goal! If you are intelligent enough to retire early, you are a ROCKSTAR! Work at finding what it is you love on your journey to financial independence. This way when you reach FI you can pivot into this field. You will be unstoppable and live a more fulfilling life then you could have ever imagined.

VERSUS

  • Hard Work Doesn't Pay (Pay) - The American Dream says that if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll be fairly rewarded with wealth and success. But is this still true? This article helps readers understand how the modern economy is different from our parents’ economy and how we can (and must!) follow new rules to succeed.

[poll id="113"]   GAME 14

  • The Stupidity of the Side Hustle (Hustle) - An honest take on the personal finance world's favorite thing...before cryptocurrency that is. Come for the post, stay for the comments!

VERSUS

  • How to Pay Off Debt When You Don't Know Where to Start (Start) - Many people feel stuck in their finances and will never get ahead with investments until they get their debt - or money management - under control. This post gives a step by step plan that will help them be intentional with their income.

[poll id="114"]   GAME 15

VERSUS

  • According to "Retirement Calculators" I'll Never Be Able to Retire (Never) - There are a LOT of "retirement calculators" on the web, a LOT. Most have so many flawed assumptions built into them that you end up being told you can't live off less than $500k/yr like one I stumbled across. This post evaluates different "retirement calculators" and compares them against our own numbers and assumptions to see how reasonable or just plain wack-a-doo those "calculators" really are.

[poll id="115"]   GAME 16

  • Second Generation FIRE (Second) - What do most parents want for their children, more than anything else? A better life than they had. What better way to give them that gift than to set them up to achieve early financial independence?

VERSUS

  • The Personal Finance Triple Constraint (Triple) - I belong to a lot of financial forums and there seems to be this constant competition between people who just want to figure out their money, people who really want to optimize, and people who are looking to get really wealthy. I wanted to highlight the inherent competition between these concepts and talk about the tradeoff - that it is virtually impossible to achieve all three at the same time. I'm hoping people use this post to think about what they really want and focus their effort on that!

[poll id="116"]