Tips for covering personal finance

Kathy Lynn (left) is a reporter for The Record, Liz Weston (middle) is a columnist for MSN Money and Kathy Kristof (right) is a blogger for CBS Moneywatch

When tackling a personal finance story, there’s a lot more to consider than being frugal or shopping smart. At least that’s the consensus of a panel of veteran personal finance reporters who talked with the Reynolds Center recently.

The world of personal finance contains a wide spectrum of topics and is of interest to a variety of readers who look for stories or personal finance help at different stages in their lives.

Reporters who land on the personal finance beat can cover a range from smart ways to take out student loans to planning for a baby to refinancing a home. Different stories will apply to different people, and our panel reminds us that it’s important for a personal finance reporter to remember to write for each  audience.

STORY IDEAS

But where do you find the ideas? And after you get started, how did you keep those ideas coming?

A couple of things our veterans agree are useful include: reading as many publications as you can, talking to friends about their financial situations and being responsive to reader questions. Other tips they shared included taking classes on finance and using real life to generate good story ideas.

Personal finance reporters should be writing stories that are actually going to benefit an average reader, someone who knows a little bit about finance but not enough to make big decisions on their own. Complicated stories Stories about complicated processes that only someone with a PhD in finance would understand have no place in the personal finance world., they say.

TIPS FROM OUR EXPERTS:

KATHLEEN LYNN is a real estate reporter for The Record in New Jersey who covered personal finance for many years.

• Make things clear and simple. Delving into topics like hedge funds that few people will get into is not helpful to your readers. Personal finance is not overly complicated. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.
• Read every day, even your competition. I used to read Morningstar, Money, Kiplingers, Wall Street Journal and bankrate.com.
• A personal finance beat does not mean you have to report on every new product banks or financial institutions roll out. If something is ground-breaking, it might be worth checking out, but a promotion at your local bank is not worth coverage.
• Make things as simple and clear as possible. Even highly educated people are intimidated by managing their money. Break terms and procedures down for your readers to aid comprehension.

This artistic piggy bank was created to help teach about personal finance. Photo by Flickr user dbking

LIZ WESTON is a columnist for MSN Money and runs her own personal finance blog. She’s been covering personal finance for years and has been called the most-read personal finance columnist on the Internet.

• Weston’s first editor in personal finance used to joke that there were only about 12 personal finance stories and they were constantly recycled. But actually, she said, personal finance is such a broad area – encompassing budgeting, credit, elder-care, estate planning, insurance, investments, retirement planning, taxes and on and on – that it isn’t really tough to find something new going on somewhere.
• Feedback from readers on her blog and Facebook page helps Weston keep in touch with industry experts. She also stresses reading lots of other publications.
• Right now, reporters need to be writing about mortgage modifications, changes in the banking and credit card industries, student loan debt and financial advisers.
• The best thing she says she did was take the Certified Financial Planning training course at a local university. Next was to find sources among the fee-only financial planners who are members of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors.
• Finally, Weston said, read Bob Sullivan’s book “Stop Getting Ripped Off,” or at least the first part of it that talks about financial literacy and the fact that six out of 10 Americans can’t add together the cost of two menu items and figure a 10 percent tip. People struggle with the basics, so find a creative way to explain yourself.

KATHY KRISTOFF writes the blog Devil in the Details for CBS Moneywatch and is also a columnist for the LA Times. She said one of the best things for a personal finance writer to do is make lots of friends. That’s where the stories come from.

• Talk to friends, family, strangers or anybody with stuff on their minds. Use the Internet, too. It is a huge tool, but remember that much of it can be wrong. Also, answer all of your e-mail. People contacting you can be invaluable sources for stories.
• Personal finance is only interesting when it’s happening to you. Each story I write has a target market. You have to realize that one person is not going to read everything you write, but odds are everything will get read by multiple people
• Look beyond the obvious and report very carefully. Always make that extra phone call, you never know what things you’ll find by accident.
• There are no real tricks, succeeding is just a matter of working harder and smarter. It’s easy to think you already know something, but the world changes every day.

NEIL DOWNING is a personal finance reporter for the Providence Journal in Rhode Island. Finding story ideas for the past couple of years has not been difficult, he said. Sometimes story ideas just seem to fall in his lap.

• Choose a national issue, then find one or two local businesses or individuals that are affected.
• Limit the amount of time you spend in the newsroom. Interview real people and local experts.
• A few questions to help find stories: Who’s unemployed, and why? Will the jobs ever come back? Will federal unemployment benefits be extended? How about the federal subsidy for health insurance under COBRA? How are jobless people making ends meet? How are state labor agencies coping with the onslaught of calls and e-mails regarding unemployment benefits? How much will employers have to pay to bail out bankrupt state unemployment insurance trust funds?