FinCon Nuggets That You Can Use

Last month, I attended FinCon, a conference that attracted about 1,700 personal finance content creators (e.g., authors, bloggers, podcasters). Below are three take-aways that resonated with me and might be useful to you:

 

¨     Author/speaker Farnoosh Torabi stated “Making more money is not a goal but an obligation.” By this she meant that, when people earn more money, they can give more back to others. Studies have found that women, especially, do this. A state of “enoughness” is a privileged place. When people achieve this state of financial well-being in their life, they have opportunities to make an impact on others.

 

¨     Author/speaker David Bach gave away free copies of an updated version of his book The Automatic Millionnaire. In this book, he uses the phrase “Latte Factor” as a metaphor for small expenses that add up over time. “It is not about taking away someone’s coffee,” he noted. Why pay attention to small expenses? The answer is very simple, Bach noted. “If you don’t save any money, you won’t have any money.”

 

¨     A reporter for a large city newspaper noted, in a small group discussion, that it is not yet known who hacked Equifax. There are some experts who believe that the stolen data will be used more for espionage purposes with high profile individuals than for identity theft of ordinary consumers. Time will tell. In the meantime, all we can do is be vigilant: check credit reports regularly, consider freezing our credit, carefully review bank and health care provider statements, and file federal and/or state income tax returns early during tax season.