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Choose from a great selection of digital coupons and use them up to five times in one transaction. Check our app for details. Ralph's, fresh for everyone. I'm back Welcome to the radical personal finance podcast. My name is Joshua sheets, and I'm your host today is Tuesday, September 30 2014 this is episode 72 of the show Today, it's gonna be a personal show.

I'm gonna tell you about FinCon 2014 my MSFS class and how I hacked a two-week 3,200 mile road trip for about 600 bucks Hope you like it There's been a couple of weeks now since I've been here sitting in front of the microphone So today I'm gonna catch you up on my lessons learned from the last couple of weeks If this is your first time listening to the show feel free to stick on stick here and join us But this is gonna be a somewhat personal show Trying to just share with some of my friends in the audience some of the lessons that I've learned over the last couple of weeks If you're if you're not interested in this kind of stuff check back tomorrow for some more of our kind of mainstream content I am bringing you this information.

However, though not just to talk to hear myself talk and hear myself Tell my stories I can do that with other people I'm gonna just share with you some of the lessons that I've learned over the last two two weeks and Because they are specifically related to finance. I think you'll find them interesting or at least I hope you find them interesting and So it's been a busy couple of weeks of travel And so I'm going to share with you the lessons from FinCon in New Orleans Which was two weeks ago Then the lessons from completing my residency requirement for my master's degree in financial planning From the American College up in Pennsylvania and then as a teaser to keep you with me I am going to share with you how I hacked this trip as kind of one of my personal fun Experiments to push the limits a little bit.

We don't call the show radical personal finance for nothing. So let's start with FinCon FinCon started off. I think it was four or five years ago as something called the financial bloggers conference I think I first became aware of it a couple of years ago and Pat excuse me, Philip Taylor who has who runs it has since changed it to be FinCon to kind of be more inclusive than just financial bloggers I Last year wanted very much to go because I've always felt a real affinity for the financial blogging world But I wasn't able to go simply because I was in them You know, I was working for a broker-dealer wasn't able to get out from behind that and there was no point in my going At that time.

So this year I was excited to be able to go and it was really it was really awesome It was really awesome. Now going into the trip. I was a little bit concerned about how it was gonna work out schedule wise. I Actually made a mistake when I was booking the trip and I didn't look at my calendar closely enough.

I had previously scheduled to be in Pennsylvania I was in a town called Bryn Mawr, which I guess is just on the outside of Philadelphia And I had scheduled to be there to you know I've been scheduled for this for six months that for this residency requirements only offered twice a year once in April once in September and so I've been scheduled to go to that and then I saw FinCon and I scheduled to go to that and it was only Then that I looked at my calendar after I'd you know purchased tickets for both of them and kind of made arrangements It was only then that I looked at my calendar and figured out that That they were one day apart.

So FinCon actually finished on Friday evening. Excuse me Saturday evening and Then at about seven o'clock or so, although there was an after-party that I didn't go to but it finished about Yeah, Saturday evening and then on Monday morning at 8 a.m I was scheduled to be in class in Pennsylvania and this is important because I had planned and wanted to drive.

I Could have flown obviously that's what most, you know, sane people would do but I particularly don't enjoy flying Not because I have any problem with flying. I actually like the flying part It's all the rest of it that I don't love and I like driving when it's a reasonable distance now my definition of reasonable Distance is different than many people's definitions of reasonable distance Most people would not consider Florida to Louisiana to Pennsylvania a reasonable distance for a road trip, but I considered it so and I'll give you more details on that in a minute when I talk about kind of how I Hacked this trip and in my own unique experimental way My wife and I have a constant ongoing Discussion over what is a reasonable distance to drive and what is a reasonable distance to fly?

She would almost always choose to fly and I would almost always choose to drive. So we we have to work that out But this was surprising to me because I had planned to take my family with me and I had planned to make an event out Of FinCon. I'd never been in New Orleans.

I figured I'd go a few days early I would you know get the lay of the land. We would do some tourist stuff. I'd hang out in Louisiana I eat some good Cajun food maybe go in the swamps or do something fun and and take my you know meander my way home again and Then I figured you know, I'd go to Pennsylvania haven't been to Philadelphia in a long time I figured I would make it into a fun trip and But when I looked at the schedule it just didn't happen so I wound up going by myself and and just simply Making it a quick trip mainly just focusing on business, but had an awesome experience at FinCon and it was really unique to me I've been to a lot of conferences.

I guess maybe that's a little bit Excessive I've been to some conferences. I've been to many conferences. I like going to conferences. I learn a lot I find they're very very valuable. I find they're just I always get a lot out of them But FinCon was one of the most unique where I felt It's hard to say figure out how to say it.

I felt more welcomed I felt like more of kind of like I belonged Because a bunch of oddball weird people who are all interested in finance and I like oddball weird people who are interested in finance That's my kind of gang. And so it really just felt incredibly comfortable right from the beginning It just felt like I fit in many ways with this weird oddball community of financial people Trying to figure out how to change the world basically one day at a time and that was a unique experience It's been a while since I was able to enjoy such a community of people And the most interesting thing about it was the sheer variety of people As the conference has grown if my memory is right It was something like 600 people maybe a little under 600 people this year as the conference has grown there have been There's been a development of Attendees so, you know started as financial bloggers and and financial bloggers, you know a few years ago There were just a few big ones and then some starting up and now the world of financial blogging is so massive and there's so many little niche blogs that that writers cover these little interesting topics and and So that's just interesting from the sheer variety, you know in the back in the day when I first started reading financial blogs I think maybe there was you know, here's some smart things to do with money I remember, you know lazy man and money and get rich slowly and The simple dollar I think those were the big big ones at that time the consumer commentary What were some of there were some other ones at that time back in the back in you know in those days?

That were just basically I would call them just mainstream financial blogs But now I mean it's hard to get a mainstream financial blog like that to really work now There's so many interesting niche blogs. You got guys and gals blogging about couponing and you got guys and gals blogging about You know getting out of getting out of debt and got guys and gals blogging about being multi millionaires You got all these interesting niches and so that makes for an interesting group of people But even better than that is now the financial media world is not Confined to just blogging so I'm there I don't really have a blog other than the fact that it's necessary to have you know To set up an RSS feed to distribute this show, but for me my entire focus is on audio I'm trying to serve you the audience who is perhaps listening to me as you commute or drive or out on a run or Doing something where maybe working on something where you're not able to look at a screen So I'm not really interested in doing a lot of writing right now.

I'm trying to serve you from an audio perspective That's why sometimes if you're wondering that's why sometimes I choose to read Lengthier passages then and not just say we'll go to the link it always annoys me when podcasters will say go to the link And I'm need to think don't you realize I'm driving down the road here And I can't just go to the link and I'm not gonna do it and then when I get home I'm gonna be busy, and I'm not gonna have time to sit at the computer So I don't know whether you like it or not but I always like it when a podcaster will actually read the article or read enough of a Selection that I can get the context for whatever it is that they're talking about So I'm trying to serve an audio audience and then you get into the world of video and YouTube And there's just so many people doing interesting things and it just makes for an awesome community of people.

I felt like I was continually sticking my hand out and doing my how are yous and who are yous and Feeling like wow what what an interesting person and what an interesting story look look how cool this person is setting out to change You know this person is changing the world what an awesome story, and I felt like it was that way for the whole week I went I started on Wednesday I was there for a total of four days because I went a little early for this camp thing they did and it just it Was awesome By the way if you're listening to this and you're interested in going to the camp in the future I thought camp would have been really helpful for bloggers, but since I don't really write a lot of it was about writing I didn't really I didn't really get much out of it from the perspective of writing I did really enjoy it however as far as having the opportunity to really connect with some people before the conference And I'm glad I went for that purpose because I made some really real friends those first couple days when there was only a hundred or so people around and Those friendships kind of carried on through the coming days, so I'm really glad I went really enjoyed it and if you're a writer if you're a financial writer or a blogger of some kind then go ahead and and Consider going in the future.

I'll probably I don't know maybe I'll go next time. Maybe I won't who knows I Had an opportunity just to meet so many people that I've read their work That was one of the most exciting things was just meeting somebody and looking at their name tag and recognizing that I knew their work And I really loved having the opportunity to tell them just face to face how much I've appreciated their work as a Podcaster I've only just recently realized the impact of the positive encouragement from an email I always have assumed people writing blogs and doing podcasts are busy enough without trying to read my email So I'm usually I in the past I never really reached out to people but now being on the other side of the microphone It's I've really learned to appreciate it It means a lot to get an email and to get a note from somebody so I was able to do that in a face-to-face Perspective I met some people for example I'm involved with a group called the XY planning network And I had the opportunity to meet about six or seven of those guys and gals We're trying to work together to build a new Model for financial planning which I'll go over at some point in a future show But it was nice because we've done so much work virtually we've talked to each other virtually and had Google Hangouts and things like that But it was fun to actually get to meet meet the people I learned a lot from doing the shows that I did while I was there.

I did a live show Which was they had a podcasting table set up up by the registration and that was where I recorded recorded the live show with the question from the listener who asked about should I get a CFP designation or some other financial planning designation for my own personal knowledge and Wow was that tough That was probably the toughest public event that I have ever done and I'd never been to one of these conferences I never I don't know I didn't know what I should expect and I wasn't expecting people to listen to me while I recorded the show But I underestimated how challenging it would be to speak to a crowded room of people that can hear me But aren't really listening to me looking back on it next time if I have an opportunity like that I'm doing doing an interview show.

I'm doing a conversation because it was just tough because I did that show by myself and it's weird There's in podcasting You know, I'm sitting here at my desk. I've got my computer screen in front of me I've got a notebook and a pen and and the calculator over to my side and a coffee cup and that's it And so when I'm speaking with you, I'm really you know, I don't look much at my notes I just kind of think about trying to communicate with you and No one can hear me other than the on the recording and so it's easy to really focus on trying to Do my best effort to communicate the concepts that I'm looking to communicate in a speech But speech is very different So if you're hot if you're giving a speech to a room and a room of people is standing there looking at you That is very different and the nice thing about a speech though is everyone is yet generally listening to you If they're not listening to you shut your speech down and go go on Which by the way tip for those of you I'm gonna interrupt myself before I make my point Tip for those of you who are faced with speaking to people and who are faced with introducing people One of the things that I think a lot about it in our society Is how challenging it is to keep people's attention now and there were several instances even at FinCon Where there was you know a lunch speech or something like that a lunch speech?

It was being delivered and the room of people wasn't really listening that closely First of all, if you're ever introducing somebody I think it is the person who is introducing a speaker It is our job to get the attention of the room. It's very difficult if you're a speaker to ask for attention So let's say that in a setting where which is very difficult to speak at it's something like a lunch crowd Or a breakfast crowd where people are eating and kind of paying attention We've all been to those events where people are eating they're gathered around their table They're not really looking at you, but they're kind of listening But they're sort of kind of talking with their neighbor or something like that If you're introducing somebody for a speech like that get the crowds attention and get the crowd quieted down When you are making the introduction you have the opportunity To ask for the attention of the audience and it's and it's able you're able to do it in a polite way But in a demanding way to tell them audience quiet down It's time for the speeches and you can wrap the glass.

You can tap the mic You can say hey shut up and listen to me. Whatever it is that you want to do. You can get the audience's attention It's very difficult as a speaker to be able to do that because generally as a speaker You're launching right into your talk and for you to have to stop and demand The attention of the crowd is more challenging because it's it's a little demeaning It's a little hard to demand the attention of the crowd.

You want the crowd to want to hear what you're saying So if you're introducing somebody Get the attention of the crowd do your job. It's not just about reading the script It's about taking control and command of the room so that you can Set up the Speaker to really have a strong start so just remember that if you're making the introduction if you're a speaker and I've been in this situation and I'm kind of reminding myself Get control of the room We are still polite enough in our society that you know If you're standing up front speaking you've been invited to be there get control of the room and a lot of times new public Speakers are scared to do this But even if you don't know how to do it in an elegant way At least just simply ask for the audience's attention and there are more elegant ways to do it Maybe you can make a study of that if you're if you are I don't want to go into that because it's something I'm interested In about I mean I made a note to kind of make a study of practicing what would I do if I'm having a room of people that's not really paying attention to me and But get control of the room It's really hard for those of us who are trying to listen to you to hear and we can't do anything in the crowd really To help you get control But if you take command of the stage and one simple and easy way to do it if there's a microphone pick it up most people when you watch them speak They're scared of the microphone And if and I used to when I was a kid I used to run an audio board at my school just kind of for fun mainly because I didn't like sitting in the crowd and Listening is easier to go run the audio sound system And people are scared to pick up the microphone and speak into it because they're concerned about being too loud now When I'm recording a show I need to learn some good mic usage so for example I usually don't get up here and talk like this because it was just a little bit too much and you can hear every sound I make I Usually pull back a little bit like this but if I sit back like this you can totally hear just the difference in the sound if I do something like this and The difference between this my normal speaking tone of voice is where I'm talking to you like this and this Where I'm right here That's a total difference of about eight inches and how I speak in the microphone and you can hear in your ears You can hear the difference so little rant here.

Just speak into the microphone Pretend you're kissing it frankly let the audio people cut your audio But if in several of these situations if you have a room where the people aren't really paying attention to you At least if you're loud those are the people who are those who are interested in hearing you can Can hear you they can hear you over the the roar of the crowd?

But if you're sitting back here like this, and there's just a general There's just a general noise in the room, then it's just the worst of both worlds So don't be scared of the microphone kiss the microphone while you're talking and let the sound people Adjust your volume and then finally just a tip like get control the room speak into the microphone be loud and have something Interesting to say is really the big thing make sure that you have something interesting to say that's going to be appropriate for The crowd know your crowd before you're going in and have something Interesting to say to say Sorry that just bothered me in the last one if you're in the crowd try to help the speaker I mean, I really think it's so tough to be a speaker and so many people are not accustomed to it We're not accustomed to How to do these things and you know when you're nervous about giving a speaker it's gonna be about giving a speech It's so much more challenging to take control of the room help the speaker out try to shush your table if you can be polite Just bothers me.

I know it's just personal pet peeve. So There's a rant I got off track. Let me get back on track Hopefully, that'll just be a helpful tip I don't mean it to be a Hopefully that will help some of you. I've been in that situation. I'm sure I'll be there again So hopefully that will help some of you back to recording the show.

So a speech is Really, even though one person is talking It's very much two-way communication. So when you're speaking to a crowd you're watching the Feedback you're watching how the crowd is engaging and you're adjusting your speech to how the crowd is responding and how the crowd is reacting So in a speech even though one person's talking it's two ways And so that's really great because you can see what's working.

What's not you can watch the crowd You can see whether you're having the effect that you want or whether you're not and and you can adjust accordingly but podcasting Because instead of me being able to visualize you in my head as listening I had to see the people in front of me, but instead of listening to Instead of listening.

They're not listening. They're kind of hear you but you're just part of the general noise so if you hated that show forgive me as far as the live show that was a tough show to record and I'm gonna do it totally different next time never been in that situation before I almost feel like I owe the Listener who asked the question a completely new answer and who knows maybe I'll do it because thinking back on it I was so struggling to say am I getting my point across?

I was distracted and all over the place even though I had careful notes It just didn't flow for me like it usually did so I enjoyed that very I mean it was challenging I enjoyed the challenge, but it was challenging So if you're a podcaster and you're listening to this that would be or you have the opportunity in the future Maybe that would be one tip that would be helpful for you The other show that I recorded that I released was the interview with Steve Stewart from the money plant SOS podcast and we talked about the Dave Ramsey show and Or we talked about financial broadcasting with a focus on Dave Ramsey I'll tell you I was very nervous about releasing that show, but I've received nothing but positive feedback on it And I thank you for those of you who have both commented on the show and who have sent me private emails I thank you for the feedback.

It has been very encouraging I was shocked at this conference and I spoke about this with several other people who are involved in the financial media I was shocked at the level of Not gonna say animosity but at the criticisms leveled towards Dave and Frankly after the fact I wonder if I wondered if he deserved it because I think Dave's a great guy He's probably a guy that he and I would get along famously if we knew each other Maybe we'll get the chance someday, but you know it I was it was like you're walking through the hallways and you constantly heard people being critical of of Dave and you constantly heard people Just making comments and making comments and making comments and I have this sense in this Impression that he has helped and inspired so many financial broadcasters whether that's again podcasters bloggers You know financial media.

He's inspired so many of us. I mean he inspired me to do the show I give him full credit for that not necessarily the the steps in the last couple of years But because of his work in financial media I got inspired by what I could do and tried to see what I could learn and But Wow was the criticism through the hallways of people that's always said man.

He does a great job He you know, he's really great at this but some of the personality so I was not expecting that I was expecting something different and it just it taught me a couple of lessons of a Be careful when you're on top Because you're only gonna be on top for a small amount of time and if I'm ever on top I'm not even sure if I want to be but if I'm ever on top If you're my friend remind me to be careful because man the weight of responsibility that comes on your shoulders in that situation And the number of people gunning for you is is is gonna be massive It also just reminded me that we don't teach people really well how to deal with fame and we don't teach people very well How to be disliked and to be judged and to be critical I often remind myself about president presidential candidates and presidents that they are You know some of the most hated people By half the country and some of the most loved people maybe by the other half of the country and how fickle the public opinion is so I'm you know, I've been nervous to go forward little by little by little and kind of becoming more in the public space But I've had to recognize to learn and observe and as I said in the Dave Ramsey show I have a level of respect for Dave that I never had before starting this podcast and it has made me really just Consider some of my opinions about many other things many other aspects for example politics things like that just recognizing that what my experience is as a An onlooker or bystander it's gonna be very different than the experience of somebody who's actually in the race working and That's a useful lesson to keep throughout my lifetime and I share that with you as well in case that may be useful for you Now I am NOT gonna go out there and be critical of other broadcasters or even be critical of Dave I'm done.

I don't care to be I have no interest in being negative or critical toward anybody My philosophy is just about all of us are probably doing the best that we can and if there's something that is dangerous Then I believe that we have a responsibility to point that out and that was why I felt that I could release that show but I'm done I've said my piece and I don't intend to to revisit it and Just because there's no need there's no need it's better to it's easier to just simply Lead with what you want to do rather than criticizing what other people are doing and if we would do more of that Someone coined the word one time Duocracy and I love that word that if more of us would just simply start correcting the wrongs that we see Whatever those wrongs would be That's what we need more of so less crit less critique of other people and more Just simply correcting the wrongs that we see I am Incredibly optimistic about the future of financial media.

I never realized I mean I Had realized this a little bit but just being at FinCon completely reinforced this Opinion that I have I am so optimistic about our ability to learn more in the future The the key change that's happening and I observed this A couple, you know, I've observed this in the abstract a few years ago, but it was just really reinforced.

Is that the walls are Obliterated the wall between person and person is obliterated so whether you look back at the media events whether it's the the the so-called Arab Spring with you know the connection of Twitter and Facebook and BlackBerry private messaging and just the ability for people to connect if you look at the ability of stars to connect with their fan base and to get discovered with their YouTube music and to Meet their fan base on Twitter.

If you just look at this the walls are obliterated and in the financial media This is the best trend of all time this is awesome because people you can now access people that are like you and You can find people that speak to you. You can find people that That are appropriate to that click with you, you know So like there are comments there were comments on that Dave Ramsey show about well, you know, I was he's His heart the hardcore conservative Christian, you know thing didn't work for me Fine, you know, there's a soft core liberal atheist Financial show just waiting somewhere on the internet for you to go listen to and that's what's so cool is that people can find people who are accessible to them and One of the things that might is my personal challenges one of my own personal moral challenges is I find it easy To be jealous of people.

I find it easy to be jealous of people who have experienced More success than I have who seem to be more capable and more gifted than I am Who seem to have things come more easily to them and even in the financial media space? it was the toughest thing for me was over the year of Kind of starting the show and recognizing that I liked it and then having to pull it off the air having to sit back and watch show after show after show after show get started and I was You know, it was tough for me because when I started I'm looking around and saying Wow, there's you know, there's not much great, you know, there's a couple good ones, but there's not anything really great here Maybe I could fit this need and then some people that are really admired and really respected fired up their shows and all of a Sudden I felt like wow, what do I have to contribute?

but what I the the different approach that is just reinforced in my mind is just to see how different people will speak to different hosts of podcasts different writers of blogs or of books will speak to different people at different points in their journey and That is the the awesome thing to To keep in mind it's so easy at a financial media event to see all of the Interconnections and and it seems sometimes like like you have the same speakers at the same events It's like if you write a book and if you're known in the online new media space You're all of a sudden booked for 15 conferences where you're gonna go speak and it's the same thing Well, that is so it's such a danger also for bloggers and podcasters and things like that that you know Everyone gloms on to the same person for an interview and you feel like you're in this just this tiny little circle and maybe there's Somebody who's a celebrity in this tiny little circle.

I mean most of you listening to to my voice it most of many of you will know who Jacob Lundfisker is or many of you will know who You know, mr. Money mustache is or many of you will know who? They're the big ones, but you know, JD Roth is things like that But the reality is is that the circle is so much bigger like these many celebrities within this little tiny niche It's awesome.

I love the work that they're doing all of them I admire all of them, but the circle needs to be so much wider and And the key thing is is that as different people from different backgrounds start the different shows They appeal to people at different stages of their journey, and I keep reminding myself, you know, frankly The reason why I'm doing the show right now I'm excited about it and the feedback has been awesome But I don't really expect it to be all that much of anything for at least a couple years Simply because of two things number one is I have to learn the skills that I've never before acquired To be really excellent at this and that takes time Hopefully I'm getting better those of you who have been around since the beginning or who've gone back and listened to shows I think I'm getting better, but I still view myself as giving it, you know, my goal in my mind I'm giving it a couple years and I've talked about the thousand shows, but I don't really expect to be good Until I don't show 500 And so I just view this as putting in my time practicing focusing learning reading You know going back and I listen to my shows and I think Joshua.

Why did you say that? How did you not tighten that up? Why did you repeat yourself? Why did you stumble there? Why didn't you think? Before you talked why did you stick your foot in your mouth that kind of thing? And so I just view this as partly just as preparation now I'm so honored that there are so many of you who are along on the journey with me and that is exciting but in many ways this is I view what I'm doing now as simply preparation for what I hope is the is the prime time in the future and You know what today that's what today is actually national podcast day today or yesterday or national podcasting day Somebody made up this holiday and you know, congratulations, whatever happy podcasting day But the reality is is that still almost nobody knows what a podcast is and almost nobody Can knows how to access one But that's gonna change and to me that is the key thing is that you know If you're a financial podcaster pay attention to the fact that the tiny little market of people who are listening to podcasts is valuable but the most valuable is to reach the general public who's not currently being reached and That week that's the that's the the audience that we can impact and think of how we can encourage Those people and educate the people who aren't listening today So thank you for being an early adopter and for being here if you're here if you're listening to this voice and if you're involved In the financial media space.

I would just say pay attention to the fact that that The the primary audience is going to be the audience that's going to find podcasting over the next five years That's where the audience is going to be So if you are feeling like I have felt you're jealous of somebody else's success or or you see someone else That seems to have an easier time.

Don't worry about that. Just simply focus on Doing your own thing and serving the the people that you are able to serve I would love it if my show Appealed to everyone I really would because that would feed my ego But I've recognized that my show is simply not going to appeal to everyone and there are some shows that I listen I've listened to recently.

I tried to break my not listening to financial podcasting Rule just to kind of get a lay of the land There are some shows that I listen to that I would never be interested in listening to but I've heard from some of the fans of those shows where the hosts just really speak to them and it's accessible and That really to me encourages me because all through our Society all through the world and this is not a US American thing this is all throughout the world the monopoly and stranglehold of Corporatism I'm not sure the right word I would say the monopoly and stranglehold of of Crony corporatism and that the big the big guns is steadily being broken Especially as generations grow up people often talk when I talk with generations that are older than me People often talk about the people that they know and that they that they always admired whether it was the in the US It was the NBC and the CBS and they the what's the other one ABC I guess is the third big network that would used to be around and Walter Cronkite Cronkite and Dan Rather and Peter was the guy that the I don't even know that the Peter What's his name Jennings?

I don't know those big broadcasters that everyone knew every night and You know, I don't even have any clearly Clearly I don't have any concept of those people don't pay any attention now part of that is due to my intentional isolation and insulation from TV But still the the big media outlets are quickly losing losing ground as as the independent small people Gain ground.

So this is just the best. This is the best trend in the world for freedom brings with it a whole host of problems But there is room for people who don't know a thing to just simply jump in and learn Again that's hard for me to take because I have this old-fashioned idea I got to go out and I got to become the expert and I'm gonna go and I'm gonna learn Boo boo boo boo boo and I'm gonna learn everything and then I'm gonna start and I think that is valuable I mean, obviously that's what I've done.

So, of course, I think it's valuable, but I think that's valuable But I'm just shocked by how there's room for people who don't know a thing to just start and that's why I think Frankly, all of us should have a financial blog. I should have a financial blog Just to track what we're learning and share our lessons and we can help We can help one another and the best way to learn is to teach and now you're gonna get some stuff wrong And that's where there's a whole host of problems with a lot of people who aren't real experts In sharing things, but then there's some of us who like to think we may have learned some hard lessons Who might want to step in and help?

so it's There's a bright day in the future. The future is incredibly incredibly bright one trend that I noticed in the FinCon however And I spent some time talking with a couple people who were at the conference it is getting tougher and tougher however for an individual to really on their own to kind of this this individualized approach to blogging financial blogging podcasting even I'm stretched to capacity.

I'll talk in a few minutes at the end about just you know, what's going on with my show and kind of what I'm working on, but it's tough to do it as an individual because what's happening is that the quote-unquote new media is being transformed and People are learning the benefits of collaboration Taking the team approach to really growing things more than as individuals.

So there are some massive changes going on Going on even in our industry Great some great speakers. I went to a few of the keynotes and a couple of the small Smaller breakout sessions and as usual all this into the sessions later when they release the recordings and Just was inspired again You know I went to go and see my friend money mustache his talk and I was struck again of how you got to just Do your own thing and ignore the competition ignore what other people are doing and do your own thing.

This is hard for me Because you know, I mean it's easy for me to go and scope out what other people are doing But if I say to see that someone is quote-unquote, you know stolen the topic that I had planned it makes me frustrated So I'm actually done with I'm going on the back under my rock and I'm just gonna work focus on my knitting and try to Serve all of you and in the interest of serving you I'm done talking about FinCon Hopefully there were some interesting lessons that was there I don't again I'm only sharing because I want you to have value from Some of what I'm learning because I feel like we're friends and so from time to time I'll do one of these shows where you're sharing what I'm learning MSFS the MSFS I went to was was awesome the MSFS if this is your first time is it stands for master Masters of science and financial services basically it's a master's degree in financial planning and it's hosted by the American College which is a small college primarily with distance learning opportunities that is exclusively focused on financial services education they host a number of advanced designations and and they have their master's degree program and I Was interested in doing it a I was halfway there with a bunch of the classes I'd taken for other designations B I just I've always thought it would be cool to go and teach college as as my retirement plan Well, even when I was a kid I always learned that I really enjoyed teaching and I viewed kind of the perfect life as being a college professor You know you teach what three four or five classes a week you know depending and you got to prep for those and you get to research stuff that you that you like to research and you Get to write about stuff that you're interested in and you have this awesome schedule with semesters and summers off and the pay is okay thus the PhD glut and the Underemployment in the in the college world because of that now I think those trends are changing and I'm gonna talk about them more in depth as far as some of the trends I see but But I always thought that was because I always think well at least do a master's degree And so just became it was easy for me.

I wanted to get it done I learned so much from doing the program and I learned so much from this residency and This residency we had two classes. We spent the first two days talking about advanced retirement strategies and this was Pretty hardcore pretty in-depth, you know real technical financial stuff.

It was we talked about Distribution strategies we talked about Social-security strategies pretty pretty hardcore pretty in-depth things and then the second two days was ethics and I was Shocked by how fun the ethics class was I expected ethics to be boring if you're in the financial services business You know what a compliance meeting is.

I expected it to be a two-day Compliance meeting basically where everyone is just done, you know after about 30 minutes, but it wasn't it was an awesome awesome class The best thing about it. However was the group in the academic terms They would call it the cohort and there were 15 other advisors there in addition to me I think there were a total of 16 of us in the class and It was some it was one of the most knowledgeable experienced group of financial advisors that I've ever had the the Privilege of being in a room with and we ranged from the oldest among us and with the most experience Was a gentleman from New York who was he said he was 75 years old and he had been working in financial services for 45 years There were a number of people there with 35 years of experience 30 years of experience many with 15 years of experience and then there was all the way down to one young man who had was two years out of college he had an undergraduate degree in financial planning and he was two years out of college and Was just finishing his master's degree and I was just so reminded that how different Adult learning is with X with people who were Experienced and knowledgeable and who want to be there versus some of the experiences in child education and child learning the adult learning was awesome and most of I wish actually for more of this in my life because most of my Education has been self self educated, you know, I've done I'm I'm I do better on just studying stuff on my own and You know all the classes I did just self study.

I get the book. I read the book, you know I get the get the book read the book and take the test. That's it that's the formula and that that comes easily to me, but the I was so benefited from the conversation and from the discussions and it really wound up being such a cool juxtaposition or I guess as they would say as we would say today a smash-up such a cool smash-up of Of these two worlds of the first week being in the personal finance world of super enthusiastic Personal finance bloggers talking about personal finance bloggers and podcasters Some of whom have had some experience in the financial with a formal quote-unquote financial world but many of whom have not and then to one day later be there with a group of Incredibly seasoned advisors and just to see how similar our conversation was in many ways, but then how different our Conversation was I learned so much and We talked a lot about trends.

What's it's interesting to me there are a lot of people in the financial blogging space who are very critical of Financial services and in many cases rightly so I'm very critical of the financial services industry in many ways and Rightly, so and what was interesting to me, however that all 16 of us Were very critical of the financial services industry So I'm sitting here saying we're on earth though I go find the people who are not critical or the people who were being critical of but I learned two important lessons is I learned lesson number one was the lesson of experience and qualifications I Am increasingly it's gonna sound a little bit silly since I've spent so much time studying I am increasingly convinced of the necessity of advanced financial planning knowledge and advanced financial planning designations in an advisor in your advisor All of us were from different companies there were only yet There wasn't one person actually who was from the same company of the 16 attend classmates of mine Or rather in the 15 classmates plus me the 16 of us we were all from different firms But all of us had advanced knowledge all I mean Everyone had at least two or three designations, you know CFP a CLU a CHFC.

What you know, we see ma we all had at least a couple designations and the caliber of advisor that it takes to be You know to study is very different It was interesting because all of us no matter the firm and many of us came from respected firms and some of us came from firms that frankly I've not had a high opinion of just because some of the reps that I've met and we all shared the same woes we the same criticism of young advisors who who are I'm not sure how to express it advisors who don't care enough about their job to actually learn something but rather it's just about how much money can I make in a short period of time and There are some major challenges in the business because we don't know how like how do you get those people out?

Well, well, the good thing is is that the market forces I believe are forcing them out I think we're gonna see some major changes in the professional world of financial advice and I think very soon Just because of the competition the best thing that's happened and this is actually my second point on what I wanted to share with you about a the common the common complaint of advisors, but be that the market forces that are going on in the industry the best thing that has happened to this industry my industry is the intense market competition and if you don't think market economics matters just look at the financial advice industry and if you look at the development of the financial markets in the financial industry The development of at first not really a very fragmented market, you know, very fragmented markets you were all everything was private investment the beautiful pastoral scene of Wall Street originally where traders came to to buy and sell shares of their company Under the tree that was there at the square or whatever There's a famous painting that if you pay any attention to financial history You see the development of the markets kind of the mania of the markets the stock brokerage business the stock brokerage business being decimated by the fund industry And then the stock brokerage business being decimated by technology online trading very few people these days have a stock broker Nobody even remembers that world then now you've seen the fund industry utterly decimated by indexing and In the last five years Vanguard has gone from this tiny not tiny they were Not tiny, excuse me.

They were like the number two or number three, you know largest firm, but a family of mutual funds like American funds was number one and they were on the hill for a long time and then completely decimated in the last few years and I mean Vanguard is this is this is this behemoth it is massive and it is hard to find It's hard to find any financial literature that doesn't just simply assume indexing is a fact And it's so interesting because that has that so so that's destroyed fund expenses.

You've seen a dramatic decrease if you study industry statistics of sales commission sales load internal expenses on funds just Dramatic dramatic decrease and that pressure is only continuing to intensify and so that's bringing down expenses and the margins Have become slimmer and slimmer and slimmer for advisors We talked a lot about this with some of the advisors that the pressure the intense pressure that is there on the margins For the average advisor is is it's intense.

The pressure is intense It's it's it's a strong strong pressure and this is great for the consumer because it's driving costs down Now the interesting thing however is while all of us agreed that I and so I'll just give you my opinion There has never been a time in the history of the world where I can imagine it being more difficult for an individual to navigate through the swampy waters filled with Alligators that is the financial business that is the choice the financial choices You know the tax code is more complex than it's ever been the investment options are more complex than they've ever been the insurance choices are more complex than they've ever been and The decisions are more complex than they've ever been now.

These can be dramatically simplified. They really can be I admire and want to venerate the people who talk about the simplest approaches to finance and I Am I'm a what's the word? Minimalist I'm a fan of simplicity and minimalism and I believe simplicity is is is key But the problem is is that the world that we live in generally there's this there's this difference between Simplicity is how it's expressed in a short article and the actual ability to be simple I mean sit down and read your homeowner's insurance contract.

Have any of you ever done that? That document is not simple and yet that's one of the most straightforward Simple types of insurance documents you can get sit down and read your your car insurance contract. We don't even get those Sit down and read we don't you know, think of what that's like So there are more room for mistakes than there has ever been and there are more options available than has ever been so the interesting thing however is I see this incredible change is that the the incredible pressure on mediocre financial advisors is Driving margins down and is driving people out of the business and I think that is wonderful Get the the scumbags out of the business now if you are a well-meaning person and you are willing to be Intellectually honest and you're willing to be a person of integrity then that's fine.

Stay in the business and learn but the price of good advice is the demand for good advice is Is going up it's going through the roof, you know, I thought frankly I thought that some of the ideas and the price levels that I think Financial planning should be should be billed at we're kind of high and I get a little bit nervous about how strongly I feel about good financial planning advice, but when I listen to some of the fees that that We talked about some of the fees that some of my classmates Charge, it was just it was amazing to me to just to think and I even had trouble just conceiving of myself ever Charging that much money for a plan and and just feeling like I was worth that much But once you see the value that you can make I mean, it's it's amazing.

So it's a very interesting world I'm thrilled with I'm thrilled with the developments. I'm thrilled with the competition. I'm thrilled with the transparency, I'm thrilled with the I'm thrilled with it. It's it's I mean, I believe in market economies. I hate saying I shouldn't have said that I don't like it when people say I believe in something I think that the market economy is the great equalizer and I like that You see that happening right now in the financial planning business.

I think it's an excellent excellent development and I see so many people really honing in on the great value that financial planners can provide and really learning how to Articulate that in a better way and I'm glad because there have been a lot of lies told by some people in the financial services businesses over the last few decades and yet that doesn't mean that everyone involved in financial services is a liar and a crook It just means that there are a lot of liars and crooks and there's a lot of people who are not.

I have a Newfound respect for the importance of advanced planning knowledge and advanced planning designations. Frankly I think I think my friend Michael Kitsis has it right in his writing I don't think that he is the one who pioneered this idea but he's probably one of the more well-known people within the financial services industry and very quickly the you know a certified financial planner designation is very quickly going to be a minimum standard and If your financial advisor does is not a CFP certificate You should be asking him why not if they don't have any letters behind their name You should be asking them why not and what they're studying for and the reason may be very simple For example, the CFP board will not let you will not allow you to use your designation until you've had three years of industry experience So the young man who is in the class who has an undergraduate degree in financial planning has passed the CFP exam But can't use the designation that would be the reason why not But and it takes time to do all this stuff.

It really does but if If your advisor doesn't isn't knowledgeable, I think you ought to be asking him why not And you ought to not saying fire him. I believe strongly there are some advisors who are incredibly knowledgeable Incredibly knowledgeable who have never you know, who never Never bothered just to go out and sit for an exam But I would encourage you as a consumer of financial advice pressure your providers because I do not want I'm a bit of a libertarian as you probably figured out by now I am I do not want to Have it forced that the government has to come in and and bring in more regulation because that is just is a disaster the market forces work We don't need more regulations the most over regulated business in the world and it doesn't the regulation doesn't do anything to reduce to reduce cheating It doesn't do anything.

It just smart people just work their way around laws But when the market forces come to bear that makes a difference really does It was interesting because I thought I was I thought I was done with studying I've said or I'm like, I don't want to read these boring financial planning books anymore but I got to talking with the the staff and the team at American College about their PhD program and and It's very interesting One of these days I may start working on that who knows I realized that I actually am very interested in the theoretical side of financial Planning and some of the work that some of the research side and that's the primary reason to get a PhD I think is is if you're interested in the research side but there is such some awesome research going on right now to really advance the science of financial planning and So who knows maybe one of these days I'll I'll start studying again I I don't know but it was interesting just to kind of look through and recognize how much I enjoy studying some of the Some of the content who knows we can get this show going Maybe I'll have the time to if we can get the show making me any money Maybe I'll have the time to do that a couple quick things on the show And I'm gonna tell you how I did this two-week road trip for 600 bucks.

I think you'll you'll find this a little bit Interesting. I was a little bit. I wasn't sure about about sharing it, but I decided you know what my podcast audience of my friends I'm gonna share it with you guys The fascinating thing about going to these two things was just simply the old max and that exposure creates opportunity I Had wound up with actually three distinct and different business opportunities that came out of simply this trip None of them expected all of them that could be awesome businesses can't do all three of them But it was just reminded me exposure creates opportunity if you're if you're not getting involved in your industry Just consider it because it's a lot better to have opportunities fall in your lap when you're not looking for them than to be out You know sending resumes off into the dead end You know into the trash bin that is the the address that you send those resumes off to As far as the show shows going well, I just reminded while I was While I was at FinCon that I've got to figure out an upgrade a little bit and figure out some of what I'm doing With the show and how to build it as far as build some of the you know to earn a little bit of money Off the show frankly.

I don't know how I'm gonna do that and I've not been I've not kept it a secret I'd like to earn a living from doing this show because I really enjoy doing it If I weren't able to if I'm not able to earn a living from the show it would have to I would have to reduce The amount of time that I put into preparing for it and I don't want to do that because I've received such an amazing feedback from you the audience and and just the emails and the comments about how much some of the Content has helped and I thank each and every one of you for those comments and those emails that really makes a huge difference So there are a few different models And I'm not sure exactly what I'm gonna do The as far as how to earn a little bit of revenue on the show at this point in time Let's see for September we wound up with about sixty four thousand downloads For the month of September total and wound up being I guess about we're up to about 2,500 downloads a day, which is pretty exciting That's awesome for the third month of the show That's really thrilling to know that there's a couple thousand of you guys listening to me And I'm hearing from many of you and I thank you for being there Thank you for those of you who are mentioning the show to other people.

I really appreciate that That has been awesome. My issues with some of the compensation models. I just don't like some of them For example, I could accept advertising But the problem is that I view advertising as a personal endorsement and it's so difficult to me I'm so skeptical and frankly suspicious of I Guess I'm a hard sell in a lot of the companies that are commonly advertising in the financial world And I know enough about the details of the financial world to be careful.

There are some companies I guess that could advertise That I could go and and I could feel really good about advertising Accepting them as an advertiser for the show But then I think well am I watering down the content? Do I really want to feel like I'm working for someone?

I want to be free to be able to express my opinion without fear of Controlling it once you've gotten free of having to worry about the corporate image I mean, it's it's hard to for me to consider going back. I do shows with tax cheats I mean, how awesome is that?

I sit here and I talk with people who you know, and I mean I specifically use the pejorative word tax cheat, you know to illustrate it's like how looked down are you? Oh, we don't pay my taxes. I think that's that's fascinating I do all these radical crazy nuts shows and if I had to worry about a certain advertiser being a you know Worried that I'm gonna do a show on dumpster diving You know, I like talking about that stuff.

So it's hard for me to figure out who would be willing to Sully their their corporate image Show The more common, you know way to make money off of a show like this would be What are they called referral fees and or? Affiliates affiliate commissions, but half of the affiliates that are commonly bandied about I got issues with half of them Do so I really don't do myself any favors in Ticking off everyone who listens to the show.

All right, not taking everyone who listens to show I don't do myself any favors by being as suspicious as I am of different companies So we'll figure it out as time goes on. I got a few ideas Pursuing a couple of options. I could just simply go with a listener support model but then I Can't stand it when NPR does their their like begging drives And so I could set up a model where if you enjoy the show you kick in a couple bucks a month something like that but I I just despise it when they go and beg for money on NPR and so that makes so I basically Sit here and I think huh?

What am I gonna do? I'm not exactly sure so we'll figure that it was out as time goes on All right wrap up here and I am going to share with you the weird Experiment that I did on this on this trip and share with you how I did this this trip for so cheap I was a little bit slow to talk about it because even just still dealing with the social stigma But I decided it would be fun to do an experiment.

I'll give you the backstory. I was when I wanted to go to I can't stand going to conferences and staying at the hotels because I just I've gone to so many of these conferences and you wind up spending a thousand bucks on hotel fees for the weekend and You know, you're there for three days and they completely just you know, they take advantage of the fact that there's a big conference I used to go to the Northwestern mutual annual meeting every year in Milwaukee and every hotel in the city is sold out and it's Like 300 bucks a night 200 200 300 bucks a night for a not very nice room And I just that bothers me so I never could quite figure it out one year I tried to find an Airbnb place to stay to avoid the hotel fees and that That didn't work out because I couldn't find an Airbnb place who would take me Couldn't figure out why I made my profile wasn't complete enough But like and also not having a car is problematic And so I mean the really the easiest thing to do is to stay at Stay at the hotel at the conferences at and so But this one when I originally planned to take my family with me, I thought it would be fun We would do a camping trip.

I like to I like to go car camping And so I thought it'd be fun. I would camp out there I looked and I found a really beautiful park near the college in Philadelphia I figured we'd be there for a couple extra days and then I found a really beautiful park in Louisiana So that was my original plan.

Well, then when I found out my scheduling kerfuffle Then I realized well, that's not gonna work. I can't my family I can't take stick my one-year-old son in the car and expect him to be able to get from New Orleans to Philadelphia in one day and force my you know My wife and son to do a 16 or 17 hour drive in about 30 hours, basically Because I had Friday night to Monday morning.

So I decided that wasn't fair So I decided to go alone Which I didn't want to do because one of the goals of my life is I would like to have my family Integrated in everything I'm doing so I'd like to take my kids with me to a conference and and I want to teach them how to I want to teach them how to Interact in the business world and interact with other people and how to learn and how to be exposed to different things I would much rather my 10 year old learn his social skills by being at a FinCon with me Than that he learn it from a you know, a bunch of other 10 year old monkeys in a classroom That's where you know people talk about socialization of kids.

That's that's how you teach social skills in my opinion the 10 year old in the classroom are guaranteed to doom your you know, your kid to a lifetime of you know being a kid but If you and he takes him 10 or 15 years to recover Maybe from that out of you know, when he finally hits the adult world and really learns how to be an adult I guess I don't need to be so inflammatory, but I do feel strongly about that So I want my family to be engaged with me and to be involved with me So I was disappointed when I recognized that it wasn't fair to to do that So I went ahead and I was gonna book a room for the for the hotel But by then I was gonna book a room and I was like, I don't want to pay this money For this for this thing.

So I decided I had such a good experience Staying in the Prius when I was on the where it was, Texas when I went to Texas I camped in the Prius on the way there then stayed with a friend and then camped in the Prius on the way back and I'd Read about that online and I thought I thought it was such a cool idea I tried it out.

It worked awesome And if you didn't hear that show the idea is basically that in the Prius you can put the seats flat So you put the passenger seat all the way back and then you flip the back seat forward and you've got basically a flat space that you can lie down in and You put your head at the back of the car and your feet at the front and it's not quite flat where your feet are but it's good enough and you put a little pad down like a thermo rest something like that and You put the pad down and it would And then you have a fairly comfortable Situation and because the Prius is a hybrid you can leave the AC on all night And it'll run the AC for you.

You can leave the car on with the AC on all night It'll run mainly off the battery But every 15 minutes 20 minutes something like that kicks the car on recharge the battery then turns itself off So I had tried it on the way to Texas worked awesome. So I said, I wonder if I could do it So I read that I read that book I'd never done it prior to with the exception of one camping trip where My wife and I camped in the back of a car because we didn't have a tent In the back of my SUV at that time and that was where it was nice and cold I'd never done it so I decided it would be fun to kind of try it and I was a little bit embarrassed about it because I felt like I didn't want to You know, I was worried about I Wasn't doing it because I didn't have the money to pay the hotels.

I was doing it because I'm just I Didn't want to pay the money for the hotels. I want to try something else So I didn't actually tell anyone I only told one person while I was in New Orleans that I was doing this But I tried it on the way out there and then when I got there it worked.

It worked awesome I stayed in the car and I felt like a total I felt I felt a little bit of empathy for you know, the people who live in their cars I read these books again by these people who live in their cars. I felt a little empathy and I And I I just but I tried it and it was awesome I stayed in the car and I actually wound up staying in the car for two weeks with the exception of one night in Washington DC on the way home With stayed with a friend and my rule was that I said I'm gonna do this as a fun experiment but if it becomes too much I'm going to immediately stop and I'm just gonna get you know, I didn't have a I didn't have a of a You know a time limit that I was committed to I was willing to go and get a hotel anytime I needed one So I thought okay.

I'll go ahead as long as I can go to get a hotel anytime I feel like this isn't work. I'll give it a shot and part of this was just wanted to try to stretch my boundaries I like the idea from I Guess it's probably more of stoic philosophy is probably the original originator of that It's as far back as I know to trace it But basically the idea of put yourself in difficult situations so that you don't need to be caught to be coddled Challenge yourself with difficult situations.

So I figured one of the for example, I've always done car camping. I've never done backpack camping So someday I'd like to go out and do ultra light backpack camping because I'm scared of it I don't I'm scared of what would I do if I didn't have all the equipment that I can carry in my car So I try to challenge myself with the stuff So I wound up doing that and I stayed in the car and the first first night was fine I stayed at a rest stop kind of got got comfortable with it second night.

I get to New Orleans I don't know what to do and and so here was how I kind of hacked the New Orleans parking I don't know if hacked. I don't know if I deserve the word hacked, but I thought it was a Good try I couldn't you know, basically in downtown, New Orleans.

There's you got to pay for parking like crazy It's like 40 bucks a day for parking. So I said I wonder if there is a another option So I asked some of the valets and one of the valets suggested the casino so to cut this short because we're at an hour and eight minutes six minutes here to cut this short at the casino they Have an option where if you play if you gamble for at least 30 minutes They give you 24 hours of free parking and this is plastered all over the place.

So I decided to try it so I went to the casino and I Signed up for their membership program and then I paid I figured out that you couldn't do card games table games I enjoy card games sometime but slots seem to be the most efficient way And so I would would play the penny slots as long as I paid the plenty penny penny slots for 30 minutes.

I saved my my $40 a day a parking fee and That was cool 80 bucks an hour. That's not a bad wage To save to save the money and then number two I wanted to stay in in the casino garage the whole time I found an out-of-the-way place to park and I stayed in the casino garage and I had it figured out to where It was fairly private and it worked great So then Pennsylvania was easier because instead of being in a downtown There was lots of great parking lots and things like that and I had you know I had a hotel lined up that was a lot cheaper in Pennsylvania that I was gonna stay at if I needed to but I Had so much fun doing it that I Just thought it'd be it was it was it was a fun adventure I don't know that I care that much to ever do it again I really don't because it was it was a little bit of a pain To not have the biggest pain of it was not having a place to go that you could just relax So if you have a hotel room, you can set up your computer You can get some work done.

You feel like you have a place that you belong When you're in the car because you you're so used to Being in the car and going places. It's kind of hard just to hang out in the car. That's a little weird So I wound up and I was working a lot while I was there So I wound up I went up hanging out with people or you know Go to the library and working from the library or something like that.

So it was an interesting social experiment I thought I learned a lot from you know with people There's a lot of news over the last few years of people losing their jobs and living in their cars I wondered what it would be like and now I think I have a little bit of a little more empathy for what it's like Really not that bad in many ways, but also a little different.

You definitely don't have quite the same sense of belonging I definitely if you were a single person Get man doing the Prius and getting 50 miles per gallon while you're driving across the country and camping in the car I think I can work awesome for a single person. I would have no Problem doing that again.

I think I would definitely if I were in certain, you know, beautiful locations I wouldn't want to be stuck in the car I want to have a tent to go out and you know set up in the Beautiful mountain stream next to the pat, you know, the beautiful pasture in the mountain valley but as far as getting there and having a place to stay just it takes all of the Hassle of finding a hotel while you're on the road right out of the picture knowing that you can just pull over anywhere any rest stop any truck stop any just Grocery store parking lot and spend the night takes a lot of hassle out of doing a road trip So it was a cool experience if I were single, excuse me, if you were a single person traveling alone I think it works awesome.

I saved at least See I was gone for two weeks. So let's call it 14 days minimum 100 bucks average So let's call it it was actually more like 150 probably because the places I was at was expensive So let's say I saved two grand doing it man. Put that two grand aside Let's run some math for you live on air 2,000 bucks.

Let's see how much money I wound up with present value Let's run a 40 years, you know, let's run 12% for fun. So, let's see that 2,000 bucks 40 years for now I have 186 thousand extra dollars because of camping in the car for two weeks Not gonna work with two people by the way, not nearly enough room You have no room for stuff if you were two people so don't think that this is gonna be I mean try it Maybe you can but at least do a minivan if you're gonna be two people So that's my report for you from my trip.

I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover. I Told you about FinCon told you what I learned I told you about my MSFS class told you some of the things I've learned I'm gonna be bringing some of the professors that I've worked with at the at The American College on the show here just to talk about some of the topics that we covered I mean, there's really really doing some excellent work tomorrow actually is an interview with dr.

Wade Fowell he is a retirement researcher there at the American College and really does some in-depth research on retirement. I think you'll enjoy that So I will release that show tomorrow and then Thursday. I will probably assuming that the the interview goes off I've got an interview lined up with a young couple they have a family and that he's actually living in a bus while they build a house and What I'm interested in talking with them is I've read their site their website And it sounds like some things about it are really great and some things about it are not so great So I'm excited about bringing you that interview and that would be should be Thursday I've received a bunch of questions from you a few on the voicemail line and a bunch of questions via email for Q&A shows So I will do that probably on Friday and then release some, you know, some more next week.

We'll see I haven't fully set out the agenda Thank you for listening to today's show. I'm not gonna close out with my normal music. I'm going to close out with a Fun song that I just want you to hear it's actually it's the FinCon 2014 official song probably it's called can't get enough and this song The background on it.

It was written as a rap It's a rap song is written by a man named Matt Giovannese And he is one of the guys that blogs and podcasts over at listen money matters Does a good job. They have a very different show than mine. Go check it out You'll see what I mean if you're interested They have a very different show than mine, but they do they do a good job with their with their stuff So he wrote this song produced it and then they did a crowd sourced rap video with it with some of the people at at FinCon Lip-syncing with this video and I thought he did an awesome job with it And so I'm gonna close with that song send you out with it.

Enjoy It's this this show is not gonna become all about the financial podcasting business But I thought you'd be interested in I know some of you listening are bloggers yourself. So I'm gonna send you out with that Thank you for listening. If you haven't done it if you like the show, please make sure that you subscribe I've learned recently a little bit more the science behind this stuff and and the reviews and Things that so many of you left really matters, but I learned that actually subscriptions make a big difference I never knew that cuz I figured everyone subscribe, but they all told me Joshua Make sure you encourage the audience to subscribe So if you haven't subscribed if you just come to the site site go ahead and subscribe on iTunes or whatever you do That'll help the show and I leave you with Can't get enough.

Yeah, Fink on 2014 jetlag tote bags down in New Orleans It's like a field of dreams and it seems that everybody networking try to make them green Yo, we all prolific about money specific. We've got a head spinning like we're doing with it. Uh, it's just what we do So let's tell them what we all go through.

Oh Wait, stop eight o'clock and I got writers block, but I'm on my fifth So, you know, I can't stop put my fingers to the keys and I start to write when I finish I can edit just to Make it tight then I hit submit. Yeah, that's legit sit back and watch all the shares I get I check Facebook and Twitter.

It's only getting bigger. I'm getting mad likes till I hit seven figures I'm gonna bring a more credible link to me thinks that after that I deserve some drinks celebrate till I'm wasted I spend all of my dough. I never worry about Like a cheetah straight chasing down these algorithms I'm not to give a normal nerd an aneurysm It's just a matter of time until I start to rank and laugh all the way to the back Cuz I check my stats like every day Hey, even though nothing ever goes my way cuz I can't get enough And I'm just obsessed gotta refresh Google Analytics, so he's got me stressed cuz I can't get enough Oh It used to be so easy spinning content now it sounds so sleazy Keeping up with my blog roll cuz that's how we roll We live in the four rooms cuz that's how we throw we used to cheat the system Hunting us down, but they always missing and ever since then in the way back when It's harder than it's ever been now I'm begging for my lips comments and various tweets and every time I sell a book I hear them calling me thief And when I see a new subscriber, it's a sign of relief But when I see that leave my lips, it's always causing me grief.

Oh, man Now I gotta tweet every day Facebook when I got nothing to say, you know It ain't that bad in a way cuz there's nothing that I'd rather be doing Cuz I check my stats like every day Hey, even though nothing ever goes my way cuz I can't get enough And I'm just obsessed gotta refresh Google Analytics, so he's got me stressed cuz I can't get enough Oh Cuz I check my stats like every day Hey, even though nothing ever goes my way cuz I can't get enough And I'm just obsessed gotta refresh Google Analytics, so he's got me stressed cuz I can't get enough Oh With Kroger brand products from Ralph's you can make all your favorite things this holiday season Because Kroger brands proven quality products come at exceptionally low prices and with a money-back quality guarantee Every dish is sure to be a favorite These are a few of my favorite things Whether you shop delivery pickup or in-store Kroger brand has all your favorite things Ralph's fresh for everyone (dramatic music)