What up, y’all! Just got back and sobered up from our financial blogging conference, and thought I’d share some of the highlights from it.
Namely, the handful of new financial companies that were part of our yearly fintech competition I helped judge! It’s always so interesting to see how people use technology to solve our problems out there, and just like last year’s competition this one did not disappoint.
But first, gotta give it up to PT Money for organizing this amazing event each and every year (it was my 7th one attending!), as well as to all the other bloggers who volunteered their time to make it happen. If you’re a $$$ blogger or podcaster or just plain obsessed with personal finance, you NEED to come out to it one year and experience what it’s all about! I promise you will leave incredibly motivated or I will shut down this blog forever ;) (Or at least buy you a beer to cry into – hah)
So what happened at FinCon 2017?
Here are a few of the more exciting highlights… Because good luck telling social media people that what happens at FinCon stays at FinCon! ;)
Rapper Dee-1 crowd surfed while rapping his hit song, Sally Mae Back (Crowd surfed! At a financial blogging conference!)
Best selling author David Bach (of Automatic Millionaire fame) popped in to share his wild story on getting on Oprah for the first time, and how the Latte Factor is “not about the damn lattes!” Haha… Rebuking the hate he so often gets when people say they will never give up their coffees no matter how sexy compound interest is ;) He may or may not have also dropped a few F bombs on stage showing that he is definitely not one of the more stuffier financial “experts” out there. Super cool to run into him around 1 am on the last night too to talk shop! (Interesting fact: he’s fairly short)
Darren Rowse shared his story of how he became one of the world’s first professional bloggers when one of his camera reviews went viral over night. He’d later go on to start two majorly successful blogs, including the one most bloggers are familiar with and learn from: ProBlogger.com
Chris Guillebeau of The $100 Startup and The Art of Non-Comformity talked about how it’s perfectly okay to let a side hustle be just that – a side hustle! There’s no rule that you need to turn it into a full-time job if you’re perfectly happy with your current one. Just let it be your creative outlet while you bring home some extra side money! (I agree with this 100%!! Not all of us are born to run companies!!)
Cait Flanders held a presentation on writing Rockstar content that was packed solid which we think/hope went over pretty well! Interweaving the back story of Rockstar Finance and how it’s evolved over the years as well. (Cait curates it with me, and is one of my favorite bloggers on the scene)
A bunch of people from our community created a parody of The Office called The Floor which was shown at our annual blogger award ceremony and was downright HILARIOUS. Then ended with a surprise live musical performance by American Idol contestant Dalton Rapattoni! (It was all about the music this year, haha… Thx for putting it together, Scott Alan Turner!)
And lastly – we had one pretty damn fun Halloween party to wrap up the conference! Erik from The Mastermind Within said it best: “it was hilarious to see people with $1 million+ net worth’s singing Sir Mix-a-lot’s “Baby Got Back”.” Haha… That’s how we roll! If you can’t live it up, what’s the point of all that money??
As for the best costume of the night? I gave it to this guy. Can you tell why? ;)
(full back story here – he totally shaved his head for this!!)
Other interesting gems pertaining to yours truly: I randomly got interviewed in the bathroom, and I was presented with the International Blogger of The Year award from UK’s SHOMO awards. Where I then made an acceptance speech that included “Long live the queen!” which I thought was pretty clever? ;)
Now to the Fintech Competition, and the 10 new financial companies to watch out for!
As I mentioned, I was one of the two judges for it again this year, where our ratings made up for 50% of the votes with the audiences’ making up the other 50%. We awarded two prizes for the night – $1,000 for first and $500 for 2nd – and below are my honest opinions of each, along with what they do. I’m not getting compensated by anyone listed here, and there are no affiliate links included at all.
Follow along and see if you can guess who won! :) In no particular order:
Agreeable (AgreeableApp.com) — Agreeable was one of my favorite apps who presented, and was built to help solve the problem of no shows whenever you go to meet someone off Craigslist or Facebook. Whereas currently you’re just $hit out of both luck and time when the buyer/seller doesn’t show up, with this app you’d actually get *paid* an agreed upon amount if anyone bails, ensuring that it’s in both parties’ interests to make the scheduled time. There were some privacy concerns I first had with this as it tracks both of your locations to confirm that the two sides made it to the meet-up okay, but after talking w/ one of the founders at a party afterwards I was impressed with their patent-pending solution to this. We’ll see if this puppy takes off, but I’m personally rooting for it to! (Also can be used for soooo many other areas in life too – imagine if Comcast or other services were forced to pay you if they never show up when they’re supposed to?? We’d all be rich! ;))
Birch Finance (BirchFinance.com) — This app was another killer idea, which I SWORE already existed but I guess not (a good sign that they’re onto something!). Basically, you tell Birch what credit cards you have and use, and then it’ll analyze them as you’re out shopping and tell you which ones to use to reap the *best* rewards, as well as *how much* you’ll get back by them, rather than you having to guess all the time. It’ll then show you other cards out in the market, and compare what would have happened had you used *those* cards instead of the ones you currently have. And since it’s all based on your specific transactions and spending patterns, you can see first hand exactly what your cards – or future cards – are worth to you. A pretty epic tool for any card hackers/lovers. (I’ll never use it since I’m a minimalist with just my one USAA card, but I’d be allll on it if I were in the rewards game!)
Budgit (BudgitApp.com) — Budgit is an automated budgeting and savings service that organizes your bills and spending so you can save for your goals. I tried real hard to figure out how these guys were different from all the other budgeting apps out there – and even posed the question during Q&A time – but even after doing so I was honestly still just as confused. They actually have this question posed word for word at the bottom of their website (“How is Budgit different?”) but the 3 answers given were “No ads ever”, “Hassle-free”, and “Secure and private.” Which I’m pretty sure most apps are?? All that said, as a budget guy I don’t think you can have *too many* apps out there spreading the good word, so I very much wish them all the luck and success as they can get. (PS: This app is not the same one as BudgIT)
College Backer (CollegeBacker.com) — These guys were pretty cool as they help get people to gift their child 529 contributions instead of more toys and “stuff.” Something I very much try to do every year too and rarely succeed! ;) And while like Budgit I couldn’t pin point how exactly this service is different than the others out there on the scene (there’s quite a few who let families and friends jump in to make this happen), I did like the general purpose of it and hope they take me up on my recommendation to pair these gifts with some sort of physical item too so the kids don’t totally hate opening up the gift of 529 funding, haha…
Honeyfi (Honeyfi.com) — Honeyfi is a new app *for couples* that makes sharing your budget and managing your money much easier together. Which I absolutely love! Honeyfi allows you to collaborate, link accounts, and even message each other at any time through the app so everyone in the relationship can be on the exact same page. There’s not many apps I can think of that focuses mainly on couples (actually, I can’t think of one?), so I’m really hoping this one takes off as I think they’re onto something good here… Budgets are even sexier when TWO people are involved!! ;)
KINFO (GoKINFO.com) — KINFO is an app for DIY investors that brings together information from hedge funds, insiders, analysts, bloggers and other private investors so you can see what everyone else is doing along side you. Particularly bloggers which the founder seems most excited about as it helps put all of our personal recommendations into one spot for people. Though as many of you know mine would look pretty boring as it would only show one fund: VTSAX :) I’m not sure if looking at what others are doing adds more or less noise into the decision making process (probably more?), but then again I was influenced to go All In with Vanguard from my peers so it could prove to be a pretty helpful resource.
Squeeze (Squeeze.com) — Squeeze is an app that helps you save by finding the best deals, promo codes, and coupons directly related to your current spending. It sounded a lot like the others in the field so I had a hard time putting them into their own special bucket, but needless to say you can’t have too many coupons in this hyper consumer world of ours… And as for branding, they absolutely NAILED it. Some of the other fintech names were pretty random!
Take Command Health (TakeCommandHealth.com) — These guys won my personal award for the best presentation, if only for the inclusion of photoshopped Trump and Obama pics littered throughout :) But their app was def. no joke. In a nutshell, Take Command helps you easily find the best option for health coverage by using big data to help source the best, and cheapest, health care options for you both on and off the exchange. They also shared the release of their small business feature which helps companies offer better and cheaper plans to their employees as well – something that many places are struggling hard with right now. So while the topic of health insurance typically doesn’t turn heads (at least for good reasons!), these guys had our immediate attention and I wouldn’t be surprised a bit if they hit a home run with this.
Qoins (Qoins.io) — Do these guys look familiar?? They should! I featured them here last year the second I came across them because they’re the FIRST to finally apply “rounding up” technology to debt!!! Which is something severely lacking in our industry… And while I had to recuse myself from voting on this one since I was definitely biased (they donated $$$ to our Community Fund over at Rockstar Finance), I was beyond pleased to see them here and thought they gave a great presentation. You can find my review of them here (I was the first ever blogger to share them!) but in a nutshell they round up all your transactions to the nearest dollar, and then uses the spare change to help pay off your debt every month. It won’t clear all of it, but every $30 or $40/mo helps!
WizeFi (Wizefi.com) — WizeFi is a paid app ($8/mo) that helps organize your finances, analyzing everything from your assets and liabilities to your insurance and spending habits. Once hooked up it’ll then estimate your future net worth if you continue spending the way you’re currently spending, and then compare it to your future net worth if you follow your custom WizeFi wealth-building plan. It comes with a super slick interface and the focus on net worth of course turned me on, but at the end of the day not too sure that alone is worth the $8. Especially since it doesn’t physically *move* the money for you like Digit or Acorns does and still requires you to take action (which most people won’t). I was also turned off by the mentions of an affiliate program for customers to make more money, both in the presentation as well as on their website (it’s prominently listed as the #3 reason to sign up?!), even though I’m sure the founder meant well. Overall would have been better if you had the chance to test out a free version, with an option to upgrade later to “pro” or something similar if interested…
Alright… Ready to guess who won?? Any really stand out to you??
Here were the 1st and 2nd place winners after all the votes were tallied up:
Honestly though, ALL of these guys came out winning as they not only got to pitch in front of tons of $$$ influencers and enthusiasts, but also landed on this illustrious blog here!!! Haha… Surely that’s worth at *least* $10.00 right? ;)
So congrats to everyone who participated. I wish I were smart enough to come up with my own money app! If you want to take a look at last year’s competition and results, you can find that here: Fintech Competition 2016
Next Year’s FinCon Event…
If you can believe it, plans are already in the works for next year’s conference! If you’ve always wanted to visit Orlando, Florida – now’s your chance. We’ll be partying it up with Mickey next year :) More info soon to come: finconexpo.com
So there we are – another great conference on the books :) THANK YOU thank you THANK YOU to everyone who came out and put up with me over the weekend! It was a blast hanging out with my 2nd family in the flesh, and I wish you all a most successful next year.
Special shout out to the following who really made me smile throughout: Chelsea Norton, Cait Flanders, Steve Adcock, Jim $, Shin, Bobby Lee, Pete McPherson, Latoya Scott, Fritz, Hélène, Hannah Rounds, the Tiller Team, Miss Mazuma, Optimal Finance Daily, John and Sharon Duffy, Shannon Austin, The Dumpster Dog, Miss Thrifty, Maria Nedeva, FIREcracker, and Romeo Jeremiah.
See y’all in another 11 months!
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Birch definitely looks like it would be helpful for me! I can never keep the 5% bonus categories straight across my credit cards.
Haha yeah – they’re def. onto something with it.
That sounds like an awesome week! I do believe the interview in the bathroom wins as the funniest for me :)
I really like the sound of the honeyfi app. I think something to make couples work together on finances is an awesome idea! Especially since there’s typically the free spirit who could care less, but wants to be all in with their spouse. This would keep them on the same page for sure!
Are you sure Mickey can handle all those finances party animals next year? :)
We’re about to find out! :)
Looks you had lots of fun. Your bathroom interview and Halloween twin pictures went pretty viral:-).
Just checked out that Sally Mae rap song, it’s hilarious. I can relate to every thing he said.
I checked out KINFO sometime ago and just like you, our portfolio would be boring. But once, we pay off our mortgage, we will be able to afford to take more risks and have a little more fun.
The random things in life are the best :)
Birch sounds awesome! I’ll have to check a few of these out.
It was great to meet you in Dallas… see you in Orlando!
You too!! I could LIVE in that library bar we were all hanging out in, haha…
Haha that’s an awesome summary! Short and informative. I’m glad you had a blast at the conference. Music and Halloween party sound like a great addition to FinCon.
It’s so cool someone dressed up like you. And congrats on the award!
These app ideas are great. For me personally, I would want to try the honeyfi app with my wife. As much as I love to manage our money and make most of the financial decisions, I would like my wife to be more involved in our family finance. To say that she’s not interested in personal finance is an understatement (guess how many time she snoozed off when we talk about family finance?)
Hopefully, with this app, it would motivate her to be more involved.
I think many of us here have spouses like that :) Hopefully the app sends texts or vibrations to the phone to tell people when budget changes/notes come so they actually OPEN IT UP!! I should have asked that during our judging, haha…
Ugh, I was SO happy to tell my husband yesterday that we were officially 3/4 millionaires! He literally replied, “Never mind that, it’s pizza night!” Lol, but at least he’s saving. But if the honeyfi app requires ANY input on his side, it would never happen. :o/
Hey TracyI5 – I’m one of the co-founders of Honeyfi. Fortunately, Honeyfi works even if your better half would rather focus on pizza night than finances :-)
But srsly, we’d love for you to sign up and check it out! We have lots of features that’ll hopefully get your husband more aware of your household finances. Don’t hesitate to reach out to support@honeyfi.com or message us in the app if you have any feedback! – Joe
Nice post, and thanks for sharing!
That’s hilarious about David Bach and the “…not about the damn lattes!”
A number of cool apps, too. It will be interesting to see which really take off. While there are so many out there (which is a good thing), it might be difficult to pick a few core apps without over doing it.
yeah – it was like the FIRST thing out of his mouth on stage haha… Guess he hears it a lot more than us finance bloggers/lovers :)
Glad I was able to say hello and Thank You in person down in Dallas. Those Rockstar Finance features were among the first signs that I was welcome in this blogging community. I think I still need to buy you a beer; I wasn’t about to drop $9 on a Shiner Bock, but I’ll hook you up with some Jai Alai or similarly good Floridian beer next year.
I’ve added your recap to my growing list of them at the end of my 2,500 word recap. I had to cut myself off or I could have easily ended up with 10,000 words.
Cheers!
-PoF
Haha, I hear ya brother…. and I shall most def. take you up on that beer offer later ;) In a moment of weakness I *did* shell out the $9 for a Shiner and quickly looked around to make sure no other bloggers saw it!
I missed the Fin Tech portion of the conference and am sorry I did.
It’s a must-see for me next year.
Great seeing you again and looking forward to it in 2018!
FinCon sounds amazing. I’m working my a$$ off so I can go next year. I think Honeyfi sounds really interesting. With every couple I talk to, one of them manages the money. I’m a fan of any way to keep both partners involved.
Awesome meeting you and your clone, J$! Thanks for the shoutout.
Def. a pleasure on my end too – you were one of the small handful I was really interested in meeting, and you did not disappoint :) I don’t think I ever saw you stop smiling?
As open enrollment hits and health insurance is slated to cost me $20k this year in premiums….I was hopeful for Take Command Health, but I’m out of the coverage area…. Hopefully they expand for the next year, seems like a great idea.
Seriously considering Health Shares this year though. I would love if there were more honest reviews on those out there. Its tough when every blog says buy this its awesome and you go to the bbb website and that same company has a B- rating. I’ve got 4 kids and who really can afford a potential catastrophe (which could potentially run into the 7 figure range) Just keep getting hung up on the fact that they are not actually obligated to pay…
Ugh… I hope you can figure it out, man – it’s no joke out there :(
Its not dude, its really not. Maryland doesn’t allow for companies with only common law employees to be considered for the business exchange, I have to shop individual… I have contractors that work for me but they are not employees, so….
I’m trying to see how I can jump on a group plan. Freelancers union doesn’t have the info up yet, well see if it makes any sort of difference at all.
FinConnnnn!! It’s not even a year away. :) I bought my ticket to Orlando and even persuaded hubster to come with me.
I LOVED Route To Retire’s J$ costume. I actually had to do a double-take because I thought you had shrunk about 12 inches.
You know, I did a review of Squeeze and I personally wasn’t a fan. I think they have a lot of bugs to work out. I’m also not sure if vendors pay to be suggested as “cheaper” alternatives by Squeeze, so I’m not sure how reliable their suggestions are.
Ahhhh good to know!!! Thanks for sharing your insight! I’d never heard of them before.
(And way to rope the husband in :) I swear there needs to be a “FinCon Spouses Party” or something, but so far it has not come to be…)
Birch sounds like the app I need! I constantly forget what cards I have and should be using so I bug my husband who needs to remember for me.
Aw I saw Route to Retire’s post – the photo of Amy helping him get ready and the rest of the pictures highlight what a community this is. Do this is what millionaires do with their spare time.
I wish I was there – it’s more party than a biz convention like I originally thought.
I’m sure you get this a lot J$…but your eye brows are sooooo pretty!!! Is that a girl thing to notice?…actually that sounds weird…but it is cool and you probably don’t do anything to maintain it. You look a wee bit like my hubby hehehe :)
Ow ow!!! haha…
Can’t say i’ve ever been told that before as usually I get “What’s UP with your eyebrows?!” because there’s always one or two hairs going in all kinds of directions :) So i actually DO trim them every now and then to help un-messy it up, so maybe all of that contributes to them looking decent from time to time? Either way, I gladly accept your compliment and thank you for sharing it with me :)
As long as there’s a dance party next year, I have no doubt that it will be better than this year’s event :)
Thanks for the mention J
Take Command health is something I will need to try with retirement ahead in 2018 and health care unbelievably confusing when not relying on a employer based plan.
FinTech must have been a blast. Just one question — Are those beers a business write-off?
They would be if they cost money!! Most beers were free throughout the weekend/evenings :)
Man, who knew PF nerds were such partiers? It looks like FinCon17 was a great time for everyone, I hope to join in the fun next year!
I would definitely use the Birch App. I’m also going to take a look at Take Command Health for my partner who doesn’t have coverage from an employer.
Man, those are definitely two good-looking dudes at the Halloween party! ;-) Awesome time hanging with you and all your peeps!
Thanks for this breakdown – I didn’t have time to squeeze in the FinTech stuff, so this is definitely helpful. Looks like there were some good ones out there.
We’re just a couple years away from quitting the 9-5, so services regarding healthcare (like Take Command Health) are definitely something I’m interested in learning more about!
— Jim
A damn good problem to have at that stage of $$$ :) maybe I’ll change my haircut to *yours* to help you celebrate on that fateful day!
That would be a jaw-dropper for people like my Mohawk was… we might need to make that happen! ;-)
— Jim
Awesome FinCon write-up and thanks for the shout-out, J! Meeting you was THE highlight of my entire FinCon :)
I vote for your clone for best Halloween costume and I’m glad Take Command Health was one of the app finalists because that’s my fav one too!
Thanks for making FinCon awesome for all of us by being your amazing self! Hope to see you again in the near future!
No YOU are awesome! (No YOU are awesome!) No YOU are awesome!!
HoneyFi sounds pretty cool. My wife and I currently print our credit card bill out each month and label each transaction by hand. For some of them, we don’t remember what the purchase was for. This can help solve that problem.
Oh yeah! Especially as HoneyFi allows you to record notes together in it so both parties can stay on top.
Fun hearing about things from your perspective. So incredibly awesome to meet you J. and if you’re ever interviewing for a hairstylist I’m your girl! ;)
That’s the word on the street! Haha…
Thanks for the shout out J$! It was great to meet you in person as well at FinCon!
I wouldn´t call a VTSAX portfolio boring, rather what´s working :)
The truth is that you and other PF bloggers with the 1-4 fund Vanguard portfolios are role models for sustainable wealth building!
Cheers!
KvD
Thanks man, very nice to meet you too :) Now when I read your messages I can picture your accent to go along with it!
Firstly: I’m booked for FinCon18 in Orlando. Helps that I’m only a 3 hour drive away, so I have no excuse this time!
Second: Birch seems similar to the TPG To Go app, although it can sometimes miss the correct card when it’s a limited-time (quarterly) offer. So you were right, when you thought it already existed.
Third: VTSAX is pretty much all you need. I just re-read that GCC is trying to get to 100% equities, and that’s the best fund I can think of to do that!
Rock on man – see you next year!
Nice meeting you J$!
Thanks for writing about us and recommending us to your readers <3
If anyone has any questions and would like to learn more, please reach out! We started Birch with the premise that rewards are confusing, even for those who try to stay on top. We're here to make it simple :)
– Alex
how does wizeFi compare to some free apps like Money clarity or Bill karma?
I haven’t gotten a chance to poke around it yet so I can’t tell you, but maybe the founder will pop in here and shed some light? WiseFi did look super clean and nice on the eyes though – I will give it that. Also seemed more web-based than an actual “app” but could have just been because it was featured that way in the presentation…
So awesome to finally get a chance to meet you in person at FinCon, J! I wish we’d had more time to talk together; for sure next time!
You too, sir! Was fun chatting a little about your mini-retirement stuff too – I hope you blog all about it later! See you in Orlando hopefully :)
The bit about side hustles reminded me of a conversation I had with our entrepreneurial center. I was starting a photography side hustle and stopped in for some business advice. The adviser (who I must point out is otherwise a very great resource and a wealth of business knowledge and provides free mentoring) upon hearing my idea immediately started talking about calculating how much business I would need to replace my current income. I stopped him mid-sentence to tell him “I think you’re jumping ahead, I never said I wanted to replace my income.” In all fairness, I’m sure most people who come to him for advice are looking to start full-time businesses, but for me photography is a great side hustle (and also part of my regular job, which is why I’m not that interested in replacing it – until I can replace it with FIRE that is!).
As for the apps, my pick would be the couples finance app – and I say that objectively as I’m not even close to being the target audience for that (I just started dating someone and our finances are as separate as they come!). It solves a major problem consumers have and doesn’t have a lot of duplication.
Haha yup – everyone does assume side hustles are steps to a larger hustle! Good for you for knowing what you want out of it and sticking to it :)
I really don’t do too much with credit card rewards, but Birch sounds very interesting and it could be beneficial to a lot of people. I liked Take Command Health but some others I talked to said there were some hiccups with the platform.
It was great to meet you (and Jim$)! See you next year in Orlando!
11 months to go!
Hey – thanks for the shoutout! It was so so great meeting you but much to my (and Nate’s) disappointment we didn’t get a whole lot of time to talk. Not to worry, I plan to hunt you down and hold you hostage at FInCon18 for a full 5 minutes of conversation. BE READY!! ;)
I WILL AWAIT WITH OPEN ARMS, MY DEAREST! That was one of my regrets as well from last week! :(
Hey J Money, I was Not able to attend his year’s event but I look forward to 2018. I will definitely be checking out these apps. as for birch it sounds a lot like Wallaby so not sure if that’s the one you were thinking of. I like the fact that Wallaby tells me which card to use based on all the benefits and I think it also suggests other cards in the market. However, I dont think it has the capability to do what if scenarios to show you what you missed had you use a different card. Anyways, appreciate all the info and perhaps I’ll get to meet you and all the crazy millionaires while dancing on the floor next year!
Sounds pretty similar indeed, and maybe that’s the part that stands out w/ Birch? The matching against other cards available that you currently don’t have?
Regardless, we’ll have to meet up at next year’s event :) Make sure to stop me when we cross paths!
Birch sounded familiar because Wallaby does the same thing.
Awesome seeing you man! I hope we get to meet again soon.
I love the idea of helping couples get on the same financial foot. Very interesting.