Leif Dahleen on Muck Rack

Leif Dahleen

Michigan
Covers:  financial independence early retirement investing taxes charitable giving travel parenting
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Interview

What was your first job as a journalist?

Blogging

Have you ever used a typewriter?

Yes. I was born in 1975.

How is social media changing news?

Anyone can journal anything and be seen by the masses.

Who's your favorite fictional journalist?

Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes

What does it mean to be a journalist?

To document history as you see it.

What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?

How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?

emails that show you are familiar with my story or my site.

What tools and software do you use to do your job?

Wordpress, Tweetdeck, Moz, Slack, Zoom

What's your favorite social network?

Twitter

Who do you wish followed you?

Joel Stein

Why did you become a journalist?

Anesthesia became tiring (pun intended), and I realized that I enjoy writing.

Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?

No.

What story are you most proud of writing or working on?

What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?

Read Stephen King's "On Writing."

When's the best time to pitch you?

Email works day and night.

What's the best pitch you ever got?

When the USA Today contacted me for a story on FIRE & health insurance.

What's the worst pitch you ever got?

The generic pitches to put a spammy blog post on my site -- I get several of these per day.

What's your favorite drink?

IPA

When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?

Outdoors with my kids.

Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?

The White Coat Investor

What's the most common misperception about your beat?

That I have a team of people running the website. It's just me for the most part.

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