Adam Baker has been taking the personal finance community by storm. His blog, aptly named Man vs. Debt, has seen an unprecedented growth in popularity in its first two months of existence. His aggressive approach towards eliminating debt, coupled with his outgoing personality, make reading his blog both educational and entertaining.

The birth of his first child led him, along with his wife, to a series of decisions that included: selling their small business, leaving a stable career, declaring war on their debts (read his Declaration of War), selling all of their possessions, and heading off to Australia within 1 year. The plan has all come together and the move to Australia is set to take place this weekend. I had a chance to ask a few questions to better understand the man behind ManVsDebt. Here’s what he had to say just before heading out of the country:

Mike Smith: It seems as though the things that bring us the greatest success make us weak in the knees when we first consider them. Do you feel a healthy fear regarding your impending move?

Adam Baker: Actually, not really. I don't think it has actually set in yet. Plus we have been able to save up a $15k+ emergency fund (a lot for our lifestyle), so this really takes the edge off. Most importantly, we've done as best as we can to set our expectations and to have an open mindset. We are really viewing this as a stress-reliever more than anything! I'm thinking my tune will change after the long flight with the baby.

MS: Has selling your possessions been a sacrifice that feels limiting or a relief that feels liberating?

AB: On a small scale, it's been a sacrifice. There have been a couple things we've really struggled with parting with. However, once we got rolling the sacrifice "feeling" quickly got replaced with an overwhelming sense of liberation. Now it feels AWESOME! It's actually an addicting process. I continually want to eliminate more and more.

MS: Has downgrading your lifestyle been easy or hard? That is, are you making sacrifices that hurt or do the positive benefits make it seem worthwhile?

AB: Once again, the hardest part was really shifting our mindset early on. Luckily, the birth of our daughter gave us a ton of motivation to kick into high-gear. Unfortunately, it often times takes an event like this for us to overcome our "but we deserve it" attitude. Like eliminating our possessions, once we got rolling with a more limiting lifestyle it became easier and easier. It's almost like a game to us, seeing how minimal our lifestyle can be.

MS: Am I correct to assume that you have very few monthly bills, other than debt repayment? How can you live without the things most people consider 'necessary'?

AB: That would be a fairly accurate statement. Right now, I think people are really taking stock of what is necessary. For example, television. With so many online options it seems almost silly for computer-literate people to still pay these high cable bills, especially when they are eliminating debt. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but it comes down to your mindset. It only took me one week to get used to not having a TV. It went from "necessary" to "frivolous" in almost exactly 7 days.

MS: My year abroad brought me much more in life experiences than it did in financial success. Do you expect the same, or are you looking for a balance of the two (or a focus on financial success)?

AB: Well, we are certainly looking for a balance of some sort. Although, I will say we are much more concentrated on the life experience part of the equation. I'd like to eliminate the remainder of our student loan debt within a two-year time frame, which will still include us living on under 50% of our expected income. Frugal traveling is the name of the game for us right now! It's not an oxymoron!

MS: How will you manage your domestic obligations from abroad? Do you believe in automating your finances?

AB: We are almost exclusively online now. We've known the trip was coming up for nearly a year, so we've been minimizing our domestic obligations. Our mail will be going to a family member, which helps. We bank with ING Direct and do electronic payments for our student loan debt. Since we have no other U.S. bills, this system will be easy.

I believe in automation, but only to a point. I think often times people become too automated and thus lose touch with their finances. You should only be automated if you are completely in control and can maintain some intimacy.

In the conclusion of our interview, Adam will discuss the lessons he’s learned from his financial mistakes, his unconventional debt elimination strategy, and what the future holds.

In part 1 of this post, we met Pete from the spiritually-based personal finance blog, Bible Money Matters. He described why faith and finances go so well together, how his faith influences his finances, his use of the Bible and some financially relevant scripture. Today’s topics are somewhat more abstract, though the answers are equally interesting. Here’s the conclusion of the interview:

M: Do you believe in a world of scarcity, or a world of abundance? The former implies that for you to get ahead you'll need to take away from someone else, and the latter implies that we can all improve our lot in life.

P: Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" is a good one that mixes in some faith, while not being preachy - good for all audiences. Another good one that I read recently was called "Does Your Bag Have Holes" by Cameron C. Taylor. Anything by Jay Peroni is also good.

Again, thanks to Pete for sharing his thoughts on this subject. Interested readers can learn more at Bible Money Matters. Regardless of your own religious beliefs, sound financial principles, from any source, are worth integrating into your daily life.

Does your faith influence your financial decisions?

Many of our laws and customs have a spiritual basis, so it should come as no surprise that spiritual beliefs serve as a source for financial inspiration and guidance as well. To help understand the complex subject of spiritually-based financial advice, I enlisted the help of someone who deals in this niche topic every day.

Pete Anderson runs one of a growing number of spiritually-based personal finance blogs, Bible Money Matters. He started the site last year as a place to capture his thoughts on matters of his Christian faith and how it affects his finances. Pete graciously agreed to a question and answer session, which I’d like to share with you.

M: Why pair faith with finances?

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive [Acts 20:35].’ This reminds me that we are implored to help others, and that giving of ourselves and our money is of the utmost importance.

Now that we have a basic understanding of the topic, we’ll cover some more difficult subjects in the second part of this post. We’ll explore the world of scarcity versus world of abundance, the apparent conflict between spiritual advice and lofty financial goals, differences between spiritual and secular financial advice, and more.

How do you feel about the answers so far?

For some of the latest details on Lending Club including on the reactivated growth we’ve seen since reopening our platform last week (offering Notes by Prospectus), and thoughts on how our new secondary market now empowers people with even more ways to do things that previously only banks and other corporate financial entities could do, check out recent discussions Renaud’s had with Yahoo! Finance, The Wall Street Journal, NuWire Investor and Fox Business.

You recently wrote about saving up for a tank. I love tanks as much as the next guy, but would a tank really be a wise investment?

A friend challenged me six weeks ago to write something different and eye-catching. I have to admit that I can only read about Roth IRAs so many times before my eyes glaze over and I think, "I get it already." I decided to take the most outlandish "investment" idea and try to make a convincing argument for it. I was going to publish it on a normal Friday just for fun, but April Fools was too perfect to resist. For those that missed the post, read budgeting for a tank and let me know if it sounds like a bad "investment."

Each month, you report your "Alternative" Income. Do you have a real job, or is Lazy Man too lazy for that?

I had a real job until October of last year. The previous two years before that, I found that I was under-utilized as the software engineer. I wasn't valued for my business ideas - just by the amount of code that I could churn out. I realized that the "thinkers" (business development people) earned more money and got to go on great dinners with clients. The "doers" (software engineers) earned about 60-75% as much and were stuck working late hours and coming in on the weekends when the servers went down. It simply wasn't a life that I wanted for the next 35 years or more.

Lazy Man and Money gives me an opportunity to develop business skills like networking, marketing, and negotiation while taking advantage of my software engineering skills I already have. In fact I have a whole list of ways personal finance blogging has helped me. In the past month, I've taken a part time job consulting rather than developing software. It's something that I might do more of in the future as I become more of a "thinker."

I think it's great that your wife makes more than you. What do you think?

I'm all for it. We'd be in some serious financial trouble if she made less than me. (I'd simply go back to software engineering.)

On a serious note, before me, she dated some men that were very uncomfortable with her making more money than them. She bought a cheaper car than the one she really wanted because she didn't want to scare them off. If I can be even more serious for a minute, it does get more difficult when there's a large earnings gap. I don't think it's necessarily gender-based as many people would expect. Sometimes I think, "Does she think that I'm living it up all day when she's at work? What else can she think when she comes home and everything is exactly the same way she left it?" It's an insecurity that I'm working on because I don't think she really feels that way.

You don't really seem that Lazy. You've got a great finance blog going, lots of subscribers...tell the truth, are you really Lazy? What's the inspiration behind the LazyManandMoney name?

I'm Lazy in some areas, but not so much in others. I easily spend 50-60 hours a week on Lazy Man and Money and Lazy Man and Health. There's a lot more behind the scenes that you don't see - interacting with other bloggers, commenting on people's sites, reading about better ways to write, reading about new things in blogging - it never ends.

The inspiration behind the Lazy name comes from my lack of desire to do repetitive household chores. For instance, I would come home drape my coat over the couch instead of hanging it up in a closet because I'm just going to go back out in twelve hours. The other reason I took the name is that I wanted to explore easier ways to make money such as using compound interest to your advantage rather than working until you are 87.

What made you start blogging about your finances?

I read about Boston Gal's Open Wallet in a copy of Business Week while at the dentist's office. When I got a computer later on, I checked it out and it fascinated me that someone else would be so open with her finances. I got instantly hooked. I figured that since no one else is writing about this stuff, I could do it and share all the knowledge I have. I later found out that hundreds and maybe thousands of other people are writing their personal finances - I just didn't know it.

Jim Cramer or Suze Orman? Coke or Pepsi?

Cramer by a landslide. I think Judge Judy Suze Orman loses to just about every personal finance guru I can think of - except Dave Ramsey. If my choice was to listen to either of those two, I would probably rather be in $100,000 of debt. I know they are very popular and many people find a lot of value in what they say - there are just some things about them that clash with me personally.

Diet Coke is a solid choice because you can get it anywhere. Pepsi One is a better overall drink though. Sam's Choice Diet Soda from Wal-Mart usually wins because it's 67 cents a two-liter - 33% off of what I usually pay for the other two.

What are your thoughts on the future of peer-to-peer lending?

Hmmm, a couple of tough questions and then you serve me up this cream puff question - I can't figure you out. I wrote an article on that just last week. It's one of the few innovative areas in personal finance so I write about it quite often. I think more people should look at P2P lending as a way to diversify their investments. We've seen stock market and real estate bubbles in the last ten years. We might be in a commodity bubble now as oil, gold, and food prices have sky rocketed due to the falling dollar. The more "bubbles" I see, the more I realize the value of diversifying your investments and P2P seems to be an entirely new asset class. That said, I think people should be cautious with P2P lending - it's very, very new and we don't have an indicator of what the returns might be over the long-term.

What's one thing you could share with us that you've never shared with your readers? (Family friendly of course!)

Well the last four words got rid of all the juicy stuff I was going to write. I struggled to come up with a single thing, since I'm very open on my site. However, once I did, I came up with five:

1. The readers don't really know how much I want to help them. I see people paying high interest on their credit cards and keeping money in low-interest checking accounts and my stomach twists in knots.
2. The readers don't know how excited I get when they leave a thoughtful comment on my site. I do a little dance when someone actually sends me an e-mail. It's pretty funny. I should put it up on YouTube.
3. The readers don't know how I struggle choosing between A) writing about ideas that are unique to me and B) writing about basic ways to get out of debt and/or build wealth.
4. The readers don't know that I have someone very close to me who struggles with a huge amount of debt. I think about how my advice might turn that person's life around, but I'm paralyzed by the thought of a debt intervention. One thing that I've learned is that you can't force someone to take control of his/her finances if he/she is not ready to.
5. Sometimes I like to break the rules. Giving five answers to this question is proof of that.