We’re proud to announce the details of the #FinCon16 Community Service project, in partnership with NEFE. Here’s NEFE on the details of the project and how you can participate:

“NEFE is proud to partner with Monarch School for this year’s FinCon Service Project.

Monarch School is dedicated to helping San Diego’s homeless students break the cycle of poverty through education. Monarch is a K-12 public school providing more than 300 students with accredited education, after school program and college and career preparation as well as basic necessities.

Monarch school is a public-private partnership between the San Diego County Office of Education and the nonprofit Monarch School Project.

Students of Monarch School live in shelters, motels, double- or tripled-up with other families in small apartments, in parks, cars, or on the streets. Monarch removes barriers typically encountered by homeless students and provides programs and services not offered at traditional public schools. You can learn more about Monarch School at www.MonarchSchools.org.

Participants in the FinCon service project will be assembling drawstring backpacks for students with items to help meet their basic needs when they enroll at Monarch School. Participants will also be able to write a note of encouragement for the student who will receive the backpack and include a photo of themselves if they wish. These personal notes and photos and the backpack and supplies will make a big difference to each and every student who receives them.

Please join us on Saturday, September 24th from 8:00-10:00 AM in Grande A to participate. The regularly scheduled FinCon breakfast will be served in the room during the first hour. We are looking forward to joining FinCon attendees in this special service project!

In addition to the project, FinCon and NEFE will contribute $1,000 to Monarch Schools.

The post Join NEFE at #FinCon16 to Support San Diego’s Homeless Students – Community Service Project Details appeared first on FinCon Media.

Editor’s note: here’s a quick message from FinCon Ignite organizer, Eric Rosenberg.

Join us this Friday at 7:00pm for Ignite FinCon!

I am excited to bring this fun, exciting event back for its fifth year. Always a crowd favorite, Ignite FinCon features a series of 10 speakers who each get five minutes on stage, but it isn’t your regular old speaking event. There’s rules!

Talks are exactly 5 minutes

Each speaker has 20 slides… that run on a 15 second auto-advance
Ignite FinCon features a series of speakers who get 5 minutes to share a topic that is entertaining, educational, or inspiring. The five minute talks are called a “Spark.” Spark, Ignite, get it?

Think of it like Ted Talks on speed. If you don’t like the speaker or the topic, just wait four minutes and the next one will be up on stage! This year’s topics and speakers are fantastic, and thanks to our wonderful sponsor Centsai, this year’s Ignite is taking place in an underground nightclub in San Diego’s famed Gaslamp District!

But wait, there’s more!

We can’t hang out in a nightclub without a party! Thanks to Phllip Taylor, everyone can stick around with their FinCon friends for an exclusive after party featuring Klingande all the way from France!

It all starts at 7:00pm on Friday night. There are 500 seats, so get there on time to grab your seat, a free drink thanks to Centsai, and get settled in for FinCon’s most fun event!

Learn more about Ignite FinCon at the official Ignite FinCon website.

It’s happening at Bassmnt – 919 Fourth Ave #100. No RSVP required, just bring your badge to get in the door. See you there!

Eric Rosenberg
Personal Profitability

The post It’s Time to #Ignite #FinCon16 – Event (and After-Party) Details appeared first on FinCon Media.

It’s that time of year again.

When bloggers and bankers meet for a summit of the financial world’s brightest minds.

Yes, you guessed it, #FinCon16 has arrived. And as always, Ally will be right at the center of everything. You definitely don’t want to miss any of what we’ve got lined up – here’s a quick rundown of the events.

For #FinCon16, the Ally booth is looking to the future. Since everyone loves making predictions, we thought it’d be fun to play up this natural urge. At our booth, attendees will show off their knowledge by forecasting what the future will bring for the world of finance.

Hop in our video booth – a platform for FinCon attendees to showcase their insights by distilling predictions into brief, shareable content. And in order to add a little levity to this year’s event, we are bringing an exclusive “financial fortune-teller” to contribute some comedic insights. The financial future can seem a little foggy at times – but we know attendees envision it brightly – and we want to help share that vision.

#FinCon16 is sure to be the best one yet, and we’re excited to join you again this year. We hope to see you there.

The post Do the Financial Future Right With Ally at #FinCon16 appeared first on FinCon Media.

Congratulations to Kavout, winner of the 2nd annual FinCon FinTech Startup Competition!

Kavout applies big data technologies, artificial intelligence and machine learning to stock analysis to make finding, screening and analyzing investment opportunities efficient and intelligent.

The competition was held live at #FinCon16 on September 22, 2016 in San Diego, CA.

It’s the first ever early-stage business competition dedicated to technology products and solutions in the consumer-facing personal finance and investing verticals.

The competition was presented in partnership with SoFi, who generously contributed $5,000 in prize winnings.

Twelve startups were accepted into the competition:

• Pocket Change USA
• Kavout
• Stock TrendSpotter
• ProActive Budget
• Cash Crunch Games
• iConsumer
• Debitize
• iSow
• Envudu
• Tip Yourself
• DIY.FUND
• Pluto

Each competitor had three minutes in front of a live audience to present their business. A panel of judges (Dan Macklin, SoFi, Lauren Greutman, LaurenGreutman.com, Andrew Dietrich, Final, and Larry Ludwig, InvestorJunkie.com) awarded the top two competitors, and the audience voted on a “people’s choice”. See evaluation criteria.

View the videos of the ten presentations.

Kavout received $4,000 cash, a 10’x8′ exhibit space at #FinCon17 (Dallas, Oct 25-28, 2017), and a review on PTMoney.com.

Our runner-up winner was Debitize, who receives $1,000 in cash.

The “People’s Choice” vote went to iSow!

Thanks to SoFi for partnering with us on the event. Thanks to our judges. Thanks to all of our competitors. And a special thanks to Bobby Lee for coordinating the competition and bringing it all together!

The post Kavout Wins 2nd Annual FinCon FinTech Startup Competition appeared first on FinCon Media.

We’re absolutely thrilled to share the first of three big keynote announcements for #FinCon17 (Dallas, Oct 25-28)!

Quintessential blogger, author, podcaster, Darren Rowse will be in Dallas this Fall to deliver an inspirational and educational keynote address to the FinCon community.

That’s right! THE ProBlogger will be at FinCon!

Darren is the co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, a practical guide to creating and marketing a profitable blog. He is also the founder of Problogger.com and Digital-Photography-School.com which are read by close to 5 million visitors per month.

With over 8,000 articles, tips, tutorials, podcast episodes and case studies, Darren’s ProBlogger site has become a pivotal resource site for all things blogging.

We’re honored to have Darren involved in the event and we can’t wait to hear what he has to share with us.

Follow Darren on Twitter.

The post ProBlogger Darren Rowse will Keynote #FinCon17 in Dallas (October 25-28, 2017) appeared first on FinCon Media.

Would you like to win your way to #FinCon17?

We’ve partnered with the Center for Financial Services Innovation to put together a blog post contest so you can win your way to #FinCon17!

How to enter in three easy steps:

1. Write a short (about 500 words) blog post about financial health — it can take the form of a personal story, an anecdotal story, or a community story. (Check out these resources for data you can use to help frame your story, if desired.)
2. Post your story to your blog (or Medium if you don’t have a blog) on June 27, 2017. This *exact date* is important!
3. Submit a link to your blog post on June 27, 2017 here.

What will you win?

Five winners will receive a free ticket to #FinCon17, plus travel reimbursement of up to $1,500. Winners will also receive a ticket to an exclusive FinX workshop in Dallas on Wednesday, October 25, before the conference begins!

Four of the winners will be chosen by a panel of judges based upon the criteria set forth here.

The fifth winner will be chosen for the highest level of social engagement for his/her blog post on Twitter and Instagram measured between June 27, 2017, and July 6, 2017, so be sure to use the hashtag #FinHealthMatters! Here’s a Social Media Kit that might be useful.

Complete rules can be found here.

About CFSI

CFSI is the authority on consumer financial health, leading a network of committed financial services innovators to build better consumer products and practices. Our mission is to improve the financial health of Americans, especially the underserved, by shaping a robust and innovative financial services marketplace with increased access to higher quality products and practices. Through our Compass Principles and a lineup of proprietary research, insights and events, CFSI informs, advises, and connects members of its network to seed the innovation that will transform the financial services landscape.

Special Thanks

MetLife Foundation is a major sponsor of CFSI’s ongoing consumer financial health work.

See last year’s winners on the next page…

The post Win Your Way to #FinCon17: CFSI’s #FinHealthMatters Blog Post Contest is Back! appeared first on FinCon Media.

FinCon was created so that the entire community would have the opportunity to come together under one roof.

To make the conference more welcoming to new community members (those so new they may have missed our early bird offerings), we’re offering a few scholarships for upstart attendees.

APPLY HERE

Here’s a quote from a prior year winner:

[Thank] you for awarding me the scholarship to FinCon… It was such an awesome experience! I connected with so many people and my blog and business is doing well as a result of those connections. – Aja McClanahan, Principles of Increase

Who’s eligible? New* financial bloggers, podcasters, vloggers, and freelance writers who complete the application by August 15th, 2017.

*You started since January 2016 and you haven’t already registered to attend FinCon.

APPLY HERE

To see last year’s winners go to the next page.

The post Now Accepting #FinCon17 Scholarship Applications appeared first on FinCon Media.

We’re excited to share that David Bach, best-selling author and TV personality will keynote #FinCon17 in Dallas this Oct. 25th – 28th!

Editor’s note: David’s work has had a huge impact on my passion for (and success in) personal finance and so it’s a thrill to bring David to the FinCon stage.

David’s Bio:

David Bach has helped millions of people around the world take action to live and finish rich.

He is one of the most prolific and bestselling financial authors of our time with 9 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, with more than seven million books in print, translated into over nineteen languages. His runaway bestseller The Automatic Millionaire (completely revised and updated- 2017) spent thirty-one weeks on the New York Times bestseller and was simultaneously #1 on the New York Times, USA Today, Business Week and The Wall Street Journal lists.

He is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Smart Women Finish Rich, Smart Couples Finish Rich, Start Late, Finish Rich, Fight for Your Money; Go Green, Live Rich, Start Over Finish Rich; and The Automatic Homeowner and Debt Free For Life.

Bach regularly appears as a financial expert in the media on television, radio and in print. He has been a regular contributor to NBC’s Today Show, having appeared over one hundred times and has appeared a half dozen times on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

He has been featured in over three thousand media appearances including columns and articles on New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Huffington Post, Business Insider, AOL, Yahoo Finance, Smart Money Magazine, and Redbook and more.

The founder and chairman of FinishRich Media, a company dedicated to revolutionizing the way people learn about money. Bach is the creator of The FinishRich Seminars that over one million people have attended. Prior to founding FinishRich Media, he was a Senior Vice President of Morgan Stanley and a partner of The Bach Group, which during his tenure managed more than half a billion dollars for individual investors.

Today Bach is the Co-Founder of AE Wealth Management and the Director of Investor Education. Bach lives with his family in New York City.

The post David Bach, Best-Selling Author and TV Personality will Keynote #FinCon17 appeared first on FinCon Media.

It’s time for the 2nd round of #FinCon17 speakers announcements!

We’ve got a huge list of the top financial influencers around today sharing their knowledge on the stage at #FinCon17. The event is scheduled for October 25-28, 2017 in Dallas.

Some of the newly featured speakers, moderators, and panelists include:

• Ron Lieber, The New York Times
• Chelsea Fagan, The Financial Diet
• Natalie Sisson, Suitcase Entrepreneur
• J.D. Roth, MoneyBoss
• Joshua Sheats, Radical Personal Finance
• Farnoosh Torabi, farnoosh.tv
• Liz Weston, NerdWallet

And we’re happy to share that Joe Saul-Sehy from Stacking Benjamins (also host of the Money & Media Podcast) is back as Emcee!

View the full list of #FinCon17 speakers and panelists from the 1st and 2nd rounds.

What a fantastic program we’ve got shaping up. In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing the 3rd round of speakers as well as details about specific sessions and panels.

The post More than 100 Financial Influencers Included in 2nd Round of #FinCon17 Speakers Announcement appeared first on FinCon Media.

Let’s have some serious workshop fun, shall we?

We’re bringing bonus workshops to FinCon!

That’s right. Crack open the laptops and let’s get some work done.

These eight bonus workshops will take place Wednesday, October 25th at 3 PM and again at 4:30 PM. They will be completely free of charge (and pitch free too). They will be an hour and a half long, deep dive sessions on your favorite topics.

Your workshop leaders will spend some time addressing the subject at hand and then transition to walking you through specific steps where you actually get to work on your business. You’ll leave more informed about the subject AND have taken action in real-time.

Important Workshop Details:

What: #FinCon17 Bonus Workshops
When: October 25th, 2017 at 3 PM & 4:30 PM
Who: There’s something for everyone here: beginners to advanced.
How Much: Free to all #FinCon17 Attendees. No extra registration required.

Working Agenda & Titles

3:00 PM

Blogging 101: A Workshop for True Beginners; Grayson Bell & Charlotte Baker – Beginner

Grow Your Media Empire! Workshop; Josh Elledge – Intermediate

Digital Product Creation Workshop; TBD – Intermediate

Site Audit: Clean Up Your Big Site to Improve Experience and Search Traffic; Claudia Pennington – Advanced

4:30 PM

Social Media Plan Workshop; TBD – Beginner

Plan Your Year: Content Calendar Workshop; TBD – Intermediate

Outsource Things You Shouldn’t Be Doing & Hire Your First V.A.; TBD – Intermediate

Profit Automation 3.0: How to Make More By Working Less (i.e Email Funnels); Todd Tresidder & Brennan Dunn – Advanced

The final schedule of workshop sessions, times, and speakers will be released here on the main #FinCon17 schedule page.

The post Introducing Wednesday [Bonus] Workshops at #FinCon17 appeared first on FinCon Media.

Paula Pant is an award winning blogger and podcaster, and today we’re finding out the behind-the-scenes story of how she grew her brand, Afford Anything!

What’s important to her? How does she write her pieces? When did she decide to start a podcast, and why? What mistakes has she made along the way? We’ll ask her all of those things and more.

Of course, at the end of the show, we’ll share notes from Philip Taylor about this year’s amazing FinCon in Dallas, Texas. We’ve got important updates so make sure you stick around until the end of the show.

The post M&M 27: How Paula Pant Grew Afford Anything appeared first on FinCon Media.

Erin Chase found a way to cut down her grocery bills AND create an incredibly successful online business with her website 5dollardinners.com.

On today’s show she’ll tell you details behind some of the methods she used, how she networked, and the strategies she followed to build her operation.

We’ll talk about hiring people, outsourcing, and finding the right partners to be successful.

The post M&M 28: How Erin Chase Built an Empire on $5 Dinners appeared first on FinCon Media.

The Plutus Awards are back again and will be held at the conclusion of this year’s FinCon.

Harlan Landes, Executive Director of the Plutus Foundation, joins us to talk about what’s changed, how nominations and voting will work, and the non-profit aspect of the organization.

Then we talk with Eric Rosenberg about how you can improve your speaking skills in 5-minutes by presenting at Ignite.

The post M&M 29: Marketing Your Brand and Better Speaking (The Plutus Awards and Ignite FinCon) appeared first on FinCon Media.

David Bach is best known for his “latte factor” – but that’s not what got him started writing. After hosting a seminar for women, he found a need for a resource for women to learn how to manage money. Listen in.

The post M&M 30: How a Seminar Turned David Bach Into an Author appeared first on FinCon Media.

(Here’s a quick note from the Plutus Awards committee, who will present their awards at the 8th annual Plutus Awards ceremony being held live at #FinCon17)

“Plutus Awards nominations are open for just one more week!

If you haven’t nominated a blog, podcast, or person from the personal finance community who has impacted you, now is the time. Nominations close September 8, 2017.

We are excited to honor the best in independent financial media, and we need your help to do it!

Submit your nomination here: http://www.plutusawards.com/nominate/“

The post Nominate Your Favorite Blogger, Podcaster, Youtuber, Author, Freelancer, or Project for a Plutus Award appeared first on FinCon Media.

Paychecks and Balances wasn’t the first project Rich Jones and Marcus Garrett worked on. They tried blogging and had some success, but they found podcasting to be a much easier medium to create content for communicating their message: “To become Debt Free or Die Trying.”

Listen to more of their story in today’s Money & Media Podcast, presented by FinCon.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Paychecks and Balances (Twitter)
Rich Jones (Twitter)
Marcus Garrett (Twitter)
Marcus Garrett (Instagram)

The post M&M 31: The Making of a Hit Podcast with Rich Jones & Marcus Garrett appeared first on FinCon Media.

Bobbi Rebell, former columnist, correspondent, and anchor for Thomson Reuters joins the podcast to talk first-timer conference tips.

Bobbi attended her first FinCon in 2016 (San Diego) as she was publishing her book, How to be a Financial Grownup: Proven Advice from High Achievers on How to Live Your Dreams.

However, Bobbi didn’t go to FinCon to pitch her book. She went to make personal connections with others in the money & media genre. Here how she made the most of her time.

The post M&M 32: First Timer’s Guide to Conferences with Bobbi Rebell appeared first on FinCon Media.

Video is quickly becoming the king of content, right?!

We recently created our list of The Best Personal Finance and Investing Youtubers and Channels [Ranked!].

There’s some amazing work going in the Youtubes by some pretty talented money nerds. Including:

• The Financial Diet
• Bigger Pockets
• Rachel Cruze

With the help of Tai and Talaat McNeely (His and Her Money), Troy the Dollar Dude, and Sarah from Budget Girl, we’re preparing a live video booth at #FinCon17.

We’re inviting YOU to record a video (talking head or interview style) using the booth and our DSLR camera, lights, etc while at the event.

If you’re a video pro this will be a layup – show up, hit record, and go for it.

If you’re new to video, this will be the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Troy the Dollar Dude will be on-site to help you with the technical setup to ensure you get a quality recording.

Time slots will be 30 mins. We will try to give you as many as you want.

Interested in reserving a time slot in the video booth? See our interest form.

The post Join the Best Youtubers in Personal Finance at #FinCon17 at the Live Video Booth appeared first on FinCon Media.

PT checks in with our friends at XYPN LIVE conference 2017

Farnoosh, Eric Roberge, Kali Hawlk, Brian Bain and Kate Dore talk about their practice and what they gain from attending conferences. You will likely see them speaking at #FinCon17.

For more information on speakers and the FinCon schedule, go to http://finconexpo.com/schedule/

Watch Alan Moore‘s Ignite presentation https://youtu.be/6_yPy9kiqa4

For information about next year’s XYPN Live in St. Louis, go to http://info.xyplanningnetwork.com/xypn-live

Thanks to NAV for sponsoring this episode. NAV is the only place where you can see your personal AND business credit scores side by side for free, and get news and advice from reliable, unbiased experts. Bloggers and podcasters can partner with NAV for content, and join its affiliate program. Visit http://NAV.com/fincon to get started.

Photo credit: Kate Dore

The post M&M 33: Taking Financial Planning to the Next Level; PT Live from the XYPN Expo Hall appeared first on FinCon Media.

Did you miss #FinCon17? No worries. You can still watch all the breakout sessions, keynotes, and workshops over at www.FinConUniversity.com.

The post Re-Live the Magic that was #FinCon17: Official Recap Video appeared first on FinCon Media.