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Analyzing r/personalfinance as a Community

Reddit is a social media platform that consists of thousands of different communities, or ‘subreddits’ that focuses on the topics of conversation in each subreddit that consists of anonymous members that can post or comment in the realm of the topics and rules of each ‘sub’. After posting and analyzing the specific community r/personalfinance, I will reflect the dialogue and patterns I noticed throughout the past 4 weeks in my own posts and in the ‘sub’ as a whole.  Just like most Reddit communities, r/personalfinance expects all members to review the PFWiki, be civil and supportive to each other, avoid self-promotion, and remain active in the conversation once you have posted.

r/personalfinance is currently a 14 million member group that is managed by 10 moderators who and promotes financial practices such as budgeting,  starting an emergency fund, maxing out employs matching 401k and Roth IRA programs, and eliminating debt. It is also a place to learn about budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, credit, investing, and retirement planning. On the sub, there is a concise welcoming statement that says, ‘Join our community, read the PF Wiki, and get on top of your finances!’ that sums up the main goals of the page. Here is a link commonly referenced in the community that goes directly to the ‘common topics’ table of contents in the PFWiki.

As you can see, in this networked community, one has to be extremely focused on a specific idea or question regarding personal finance according to rules and guidelines to keep content specific in the “sub”. I notice that the users who get the most attention post rare personal situations such as how to handle life-changing situations such as significant debt, buying a home, financial advice surrounding marriage and legal situations such as a family member or employer wrongfully using their W2 forms, withhold funds, or legal matters that require in depth knowledge to recover from. It is commonly understood that if something is “above Reddits pay grade” then it will be shown in the comments from multiple users. Compared to other subreddits, there aren’t as many jokes between users in the comments, but more straight to the point, blunt, and detailed instructions and recommendations given in response to people requesting advice. Sometimes when a post is bordering on a similar subreddit page, the moderator will take down the post before it is shared with recommendations in order to keep the feed on topic and to keep discussions aligned with the communities goals.

Pre-existing rules can be found on the righthand side of the page feed:

The rules are certainly laid out in detail such as determining which content is expected on the site such these topics: taxes, debt, retirement, housing, auto, employment, saving, budgeting, and planning. When it comes to unwritten rules, it is safe to assume you are not supposed to give out personal financial info that could identify someone, ask or handouts, lie about your personal situation, and when posting on behalf of someone else, you need to state that in the original post.

The mission statement can be found on the r/personalfinance home page:

Our mission and standards:

Get your financial house in order, learn how to better manage your money, and invest for your future. Here, please treat others with respect, stay on-topic, and avoid self-promotion.

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/about/rules

One pattern the group displays in general is the expectation to become well acquainted with the ‘PF Wiki’ upon joining and before posting. The PF Wiki contains a detailed table of contents that includes links and descriptions of pertinent information about finances and frequently asked questions. It is commonly mentioned by moderators to “check out the PF Wifi and PF Directive” because many financial questions already have a proven solution.  Another way users craft their posts include ‘post flair’, wiki links, and outside links to relevant topics that categorizes and supports their comment or post.

Wikilinks are used to relevant topics to support claims and advice, and links within reddit to other subreddits that could be suitable for the user and relative to their post. It is not possible to embed photos in comments, but a user can post a comment with any outside link, make an original post with a photo, meme, video, and article, as long as the original post aligns with community rules and guidelines.

I am drawn to the table of contents of archived personal finance advice and the opportunity to learn from other people’s mistakes and success. Advice covering milestones like marriage, children, and buying a house for older young adults with age group brackets are extremely helpful.

Reddit as a whole makes for a unique experience because users generally want to conceal their identity and can ask a community of experts and caring individuals that like to give financial advice from personal experience. Each community page has rules in order to keep each community specific and beneficial to the members and differs from the regular ‘finance’ page that doesn’t allow personal finance posts. Moderators are subject to criticism but are beneficial to streamline content and posts and to make sure the community doesn’t break rules such as asking for handouts, advertising, legal discussions (there is a legal advice page to use instead), personal attacks, politicizing, or being disrespectful. Each user has “karma” flare and coins that represent good post and comment history in general, and people discuss among each other and upvote the best advice and state their experience.  

Aside from anonymity and moderators, Reddit is also unique as a platform because of the ability to reward others with awards and medals that users and mods can give to popular or worthy posts. This encourages a fun, creative atmosphere that gives a positive incentive to maintain engaging and meaningful discussion.

See some of the awards and medals available to purchase or receive below:

I noticed that awards are not as commonly given in the r/personalfinance community, probably because it is not consistent with sound finance practices to spend money on virtual medals. But on the rest of Reddit, it’s a common way to pay virtual respect for a user’s ingenuity or post content.

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Of the three posts I wrote for this Networked communities project, here is my first post on r/personalfinance:

As you can see, the post didn’t get a massive amount of upvotes or activity but the post generated 24 comments and resulted in valuable advice from the ones who commented. It probably gained the most attention because people feel triggered or opinionated to share their own reasoning to a highly debatable subject. Here are some of the comments from my first post:

Aside from the upvote count, 24 users commented with long, detailed responses and options to consider. Some responses were more opinionated than others, genuinely asking why some long term couples keep finances separate, while another one started off their post with:

“Since you don’t want to combine your lives together…” and commented ‘EDIT: I’m not trying to be snarky, just curious to why’, while others brought up extremely valid points that by not signing a prenup agreement, there’s no benefit in having separate accounts since it would be split 50/50 in the event of a divorce.

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Another user commented that it’s obvious we haven’t officially sat down and talked about finances (which is fairly true) and once we do, it is possible to get a postnuptial agreement once we decide on what works for my husband and I.

Here is a response that ties in much of the content that other users shared: 
” At the end of the day, situations like this are personal preference. All we can make are suggestions, but ultimately it’s up to the two of you to communicate and come to an agreement about what is most appropriate for you.
That being said, I think there are four options:

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• Continue to keep everything separate and do exactly what you’re doing. (The classic “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”) If this method still works, there’s no reason to change things up if it could potentially cause stress. That being said, if you’re asking, maybe you would like to switch it up.

• Combine everything. Completely commit to the “what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine” lifestyle.

• Create a checking account that you each contribute to equally with an agreement about what this fund goes towards. Maybe this fund is exclusively bills. Maybe it’s the bills+vacations+date nights. Whatever it is, communicate about it. At minimum, it should include all bills and essentials for the month. Then each of you keeps a separate checking and/or savings with your excess funds.

From the first post shown above, I received a wealth of feedback from members in r/personal finance that helped me stop and reflect on my current situation and how to move forward with financial decisions in the future in my marriage. I got a few upvotes, and then oddly downvoted (that’s Reddit for you!) To ‘0’ then back up to ‘4’ new upvotes. I didn’t categorize my with a post flair, so it defaulted to ‘other’, and I made sure to upvote and comment back to those who responded to my post (see the blue microphone that indicates the OP original poster in the comments section).

Through these posts I learned that this community is very straight to the point and not very emotionally driven, and they find joy in giving advice to strangers even if they don’t always agree. In the future, I will be more concise with my questions, change content and category within personal finance, and add post flair for it to be more organized in the feed.

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So, once I elaborated about my location and how rentals are in high demand and gave more details in the comments, users made a couple of edits. I also responded to someone that left me some good advice, warning me that owning a home comes with a lot of headache and extra repair surprises that might not be worth it.

Post 3 

Sadly, my third original post actually got bumped off my mods after only a few minutes.

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I actually tried to be more specific and post something relevant, but it was deemed as a “frequently asked question” and removed. It can be a bit discouraging but after it happens a couple of times it is easy to see to benefits of the selective posts and mods so that the content is managed and consistent. I realize that posting regularly to this subreddit is strange, and it is best to refer to the previously laid out information located in the wiki first to refresh the advice that is ready for all to read.

In the end, I notice the patterns that emerged across all posts reflected the value or lack of value that my posts brought to the community. The posts that did not get as much feedback were already covered in the Wiki or in other posts, and the first post received more feedback because it brought out a debatable, opinionated issue. Lengthy comments with links and advice are common, and extensive upvotes are not as important as the comments. Overall, I found a wealth of information in the educational Wiki table of contents and it directed me to a site called unbury.us that is a very user-friendly way to view your debt road map in a graph with payments and dates to look forward to being debt-free.

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Posts that have received more activity are usually more of a niche subject, those seeking ‘juicy’ details that require expertise, unique situations, scam warnings, and updates. Everyone appreciates a good ‘update’ or follow up post from a previous one to see how advice played out for the user, or how a user was able to navigate a stable financial sense. Whenever an underdog expresses need for help or is humbly expressing advice with a backstory, many users flock to help chime in their opinions and some may give the OP a reward. Rhetoric that fails is usually a success story, a post with no backstory and limited information, oversaturated content, reposted material, and those that post something with a fake backstory that doesn’t “add up” to Redditor’s intuition/BS meter or with the user’s reddit bio.  Here is an excellent example of a Timeshare Experience post that was so informative, specific, and valuable, that the post generated immense activity and medals:

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In conclusion, I learned that the r/personalfinance community is very logical, offers experienced-based advice that is not very emotionally driven, and one that finds joy in giving advice to strangers and keeping up to date on financial topics. Because I don’t have much experience with personal finances it is best for me to reflect or ask advice regarding situations I’ve been in and how I can avoid problems in the future, then follow up with an update. In the future, I plan to approach my questions with a more unilateral approach that contains pertinent detail, change content of posts, media, and add post flair for it to be more organized in the feed. In the event I come across a scam or situation that I’ve learned from, I will plan to use the information I’ve gathered from analyzing the patterns, trends, and guidelines in this community to choose content that adds value before posting.

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