First Ever Financial Blogger Conference Highlights

If you’re a financial blogger, you may have heard that the first ever personal finance blogging conference took place over this weekend (October 1-2, 2011) at the Marriott Hotel at Schaumburg, Illinois. I wish I had discussed it here before it actually transpired, but I had so much going on over the past few months that it was a miracle that I even got the tickets booked in time for it. So yes, I have no great excuse for being unable to communicate it effectively through online channels as I normally do when big events take place. But hopefully, I can make up for it a little by talking about how it turned out for me.

I’ll just come right out and say it: Phil Taylor and the organizers did an exceptional job putting it together. It was beyond my expectations and was extremely well organized for the size it was. I was running on adrenaline right off the bat that I ended up feeling zonked for part of the time. But allow me to share some of the highlights I experienced.

1. I was pleasantly shocked by how many financial bloggers showed up. Wow. There were around 275 bloggers, columnists, writers, media folks, financial experts and company representatives gathered together for this. For some reason, I couldn’t exactly fathom (or appreciate) the size of this group until after we were all assembled under one tent or ensconced in one conference room.

2. It was a thrill to meet so many people with whom I’ve only corresponded online or through email before: let’s see, there were Canadian bloggers, debt bloggers, coupon site publishers, frugal bloggers, lifestyle bloggers, freelance writers, general pf types, financial sponsors, affiliate networkers, advertisers, you name it. I enjoyed meeting with so many of you and shaking your hand! I got to meet some of the old timers and wish I had the chance to chat up one in particular (e.g. FMF). I rubbed elbows with the best of M-Network, shared a racy joke or two with Donna Freedman and broke bread with the Money Crashers. Some people stayed incognito and continued to hide their true identities, but I wasn’t one of them — I am taking baby steps towards revealing my true identity one day . I also caught up with a fairly controversial financial blogger named Rob Bennett, who struck me as the nicest guy around. There I said it.

3. The events were well organized and valuable. There was a bit of everything: we had the chance to help out with some wonderful causes (Phil’s Friends and Love Drop along with Adaptu), network with colleagues (speed networking for the win!), get some education (excellent sessions about branding, monetization and content production) and win prizes (those raffles were a great touch)! There were some stand out sessions — I caught a few, including the ones by Wisebread — check out this link for their awesome slides.

4. I was excited to meet four new personal finance bloggers from the Bay Area, whom I can now include in my growing list of contacts. I will be setting up a PF Blogging email and social group (SF Bay Area chapter) so we can get ourselves organized a bit better over here. A lot of financial sponsors are from my neighborhood so I was happy to see old friends from these companies as well!

5. There were also interviews galore, a lot of video taping and an award ceremony (the Plutus awards) which honored many names in commerce and the blogosphere. Congrats to Budgets Are Sexy who ran off with most of the honors .

6. The sponsors of this event really came through. I really appreciated having had a chance to meet some people in the advertising sector and to learn more about many new products in the financial space. I had a superb time at a dinner thrown by Savings.com where the conversation flew freely along with the food and wine. It was also lovely to chum around with friends from the credit and lending space. A big thank you!

7. It was inspiring to meet some big names. Sadly, I missed out on a few evening extravaganzas (got wasted early ) but was fortunate to have been able to catch up with JD Roth and Pat Flynn.

This conference was a whirlwind that lasted one weekend, but it felt like a lot longer. I can’t wait till the next one. Hopefully it will be in some entertainment hub (say Las Vegas or Hollywood) — if so, we can mix business and pleasure, which would be a good excuse to turn part of this into a family adventure.

For those financial bloggers who missed this one, I really hope to see you next year!

Created June 2, 2008. Updated October 4, 2011. Copyright © 2011 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.

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First Republican Debate Makes President Obama A Winner in 2012

Herman Cain

The September 7th Republican Presidential Debate makes it absolutely clear that President Obama will get re-elected in 2012.  If Texas Governor Rick Perry, who denies science is the Republican candidate, he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning.  He used an executive order to force vaccinations on 12 year old girls for HPV?  Wow, isn’t that big government and the use of science?  What about parental rights?  I do agree with Perry’s statement that Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme simply because if you suddenly stop contributing, the whole system falls apart.  The problem with Perry is that he is too far right.

If Governor Mitt Romney is the Republican candidate, maybe the Republicans have a 30% chance of winning.  Mitt Romney is much more center with his belief in universal health-care and a desire to fix social security.  As the ex head of Bain Capital, and not a career politician, he has the experience of making an organization profitable.  Mitt clearly held his own and showed he’s a leader who believes in fixing things, instead of simply abolishing everything.  I don’t understand what people have against modern day Mormons.

Michele Bachmann had a solid night, but the moderators didn’t focus on her and she had no memorable stances.  She was very intelligent with all her responses, however it definitely seems like her star has fallen.  Newt Gingrich was the great senior statesman who lashed back at the moderators for trying to pit the Republican candidates against each other.  While former US Ambassador to China John Huntsman just seemed too arrogant with his finger pointing.  Rick Santorum was refreshing, but nobody knows who he is.  Ron Paul reminded me of John McCain, but angrier and more frail!

The most interesting candidate was Hermain Cain with his “999 plan”.  His proposal is for a 9% personal income tax rate, 9% capital gains tax, and 9% sales tax.  I thought it was brilliant when he said that ,”If 10% is good enough for God, 9% is good enough for the Federal Government!”  Isn’t GE paying 9% corporate tax on its billions in profit better than 0%?  Hermain also proposed employing the Chilean system to fix Social Security by providing a personal retirement account with an option to contribute.  Cain is a former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, and former Chairman of the Board of The Federal Reserve Of Kansas City.  It’s nice to see that he’s had a track record of serving in the private and public sector just like Mitt.

I was surprised there wasn’t more bickering and undermining between the Republican Presidential Candidates, to help rocket President Obama further.  That said, I still believe President Obama is a shoe-in to win a second term.  Even though he hasn’t passed much legislation or created any jobs since he became President, the fact of the matter is that President Obama is more likely to be viewed as the savior of the American public in crisis than any Republican candidate, even Herman Cain.

Readers, what are your thoughts on the debate?  Who do you think will win the Presidency in 2012 and why?

If you didn’t watch the debate, why not?  Isn’t this one of the most important things we need to follow given how weak our country is?

Which party and/or candidate do you think will be best for your personal financial health over the next 4 years?

If you would like to bet against me and Obama by choosing the field, please comment below and I’ll take you up on it!

Regards,

Sam

Related posts:

Why Isn’t President Obama Considered White to The World?Even Lebron Doesn’t Listen To President Obama

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Financial Goal Setting: The First Step To Control Your Finances

When you embark on a trip, the first thing you do is map out your journey towards your destination. In the same way, when you begin the journey of taking control of your finances, you must figure out where you want to go. Financial goals are keys to determining this. There are three types of financial goals: short term, mid-term, and long term.

When mapping out your journey, you want to make a list of your various financial goals. Short–term goals are those that can be completed in one month to one year. Mid-term goals are those that can be completed in one to five years, while long-term goals are those that can be completed in five years and longer. After listing your goals, you want to set a date or deadline to achieve each target. This will assist you in integrating your goals into your monthly budget.

The following are examples of the three types of goals:

1. Short Term Goal – Pay off $500 credit card.
2. Mid-Term Goal – Save $10,000 for a new vehicle.
3. Long Term Goal – Save $500,000 for retirement.

In addition, you want to remember to be realistic and flexible with your goals and deadlines. Don’t get too attached to the date. In fact, it’s probably a good idea to review your targets after six months to see if working those goals into your budget is realistic and not too much of a financial strain on you and your budget.

First things first — do you have a budget? If not, make sure you set one up when you are in the process of setting your goals. Doing so will hopefully help you to become more watchful of your spending behaviors and will keep you mindful of the hard numbers you set down in print. If you haven’t done so yet, create a budget on pen and paper or develop one via a desktop tool like YNAB (You Need A Budget). Or use an online tool like Mint.com. Check out our review of YNAB personal budget software if you’d like to explore a great desktop budgeting tool.

A great strategy to take into account when budgeting for your goals is to open a separate high interest bearing account exclusively for saving for your goals. Many banks offer a savings account where you can create sub-categories within the account and allocate how much of your monthly deposit goes into each of those categories. With one glance, you can view your account and see how much is going towards each goal. This is excellent motivation for continuing to implement and stick to the goals that you have integrated into your budget. In addition, with high interest savings accounts, you have the benefit of compounding interest to build your savings as well.

Once you have implemented your goals into your monthly budget, you may need to curb your spending in certain areas to continue to contribute the monthly funds towards your goals. Many people do not realize how much they are spending for items such as food and transportation costs until they develop a monthly budget and attempt to stick to it. You may find that you will need to adjust some of your habits to cut certain expenses and meet your goals. Taking your lunch to work rather than eating out may be a great start. You can also attempt to find low cost or free entertainment venues within your community to cut down on money spent on entertainment and fun. The major key to working towards financial goals and sticking to your budget is to review your goals each month and to remind yourself why you are doing this.

Financial goals are important to your overall financial health because they determine where your money goes. Money is active and will continue to move regardless of where you decide to use it. The difference between those who are successful with managing their money and those who are not may just boil down to a commitment to financial goals and/or to budgeting. If you practice self-discipline and self-control with your finances, you are likely to live below your means. Those who are successful tell their money where to go each month. Do remember that the emotional and financial payoffs for setting goals can be significant.

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