If you want to know how to get a finance job, pay close attention. This advice is from someone who has already done it. This is how you will get a finance job.

As a student, you might stress about tests, but once you get close to graduation you really just start to stress about how to get a job. And in this case more specifically: how to get a finance job.

 

In this episode, I interview Ryan Boutwell, a fellow grad of the UT Austin Master of Science in Finance program, about his experience attempting to secure a job while still in school. Ryan began the recruitment process before Day 1 of his masters program, which goes to show that you can never really start too early. He was able to land a job at Raymond James (an investment bank) doing equity research, which is exactly the same company and job as what I was doing before I resigned to start The Post Money Plan. With 6 months in the rear view mirror, Ryan reflects back on the recruitment process and his perspective shift on what his career trajectory might look like now that he’s entered the workforce.

 

We touch on:

-Ryan’s background

-His perspective on the recruitment process for UT Austin MSF students

-The young but growing reputation of the UT Austin MSF program

-Being aware of your school program’s recruitment pipelines into employers

-Ryan’s original recruitment game plan

-His reflections on what made for fruitful and wasted recruitment efforts

-Aggressive networking and ballsy recruitment strategy

-The impact that technology is having on the recruitment process and finance job opportunities

-How you really don’t need to stress because it will all work out in the end

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

Want to achieve goals? Everybody has goals. Or do we? A lot of people think they have goals, but they haven’t actually specified anything. They’re just pie in the sky ideas. In order to have real goals, you need to make it personal, purposeful, and motivating so that you actually know what you’re shooting for and execute on your goals.

 

*This episode is part of my summer re-run series of popular episodes*

 

In this episode we discuss:

* The value of planning and setting goals

* How to set goals

* How to achieve goals

* What goals to set

* Post Money Plan goals that I set for 2017

 

As always, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

Is solar power the way of the future or ahead of its skis?

 

In this episode, I interview Joaquin Altenburg, the CEO and founder of Vert Solar Finance, about the development and future of the solar power industry. Vert Solar is a solar investment and development company focused on the commercial and industrial sector that is involved in and promoting the progression of the solar industry. Herein, we discuss the status of solar in the U.S. and some of the economics behind what has brought it to where it is today.

 

 

We touch on:

-Joaquin’s background

-Resistance to solar from the oil industry

-A benefit of solar: production at the source

-The planned Saudi transition to solar power for domestic consumption

-Society having a balanced energy mix not completely reliant on any one energy source

-The upkeep and longevity of solar panels

-Solar power market sectors and market penetration of solar into the energy industry

-Government subsidization and “grid parity” cost economics

-The downward trajectory of the solar cost curve

-Potential advancements as investment and brainpower pour into the solar industry

-The vision, unique selling points, and ongoing projects of Vert Solar

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

 

In order to pay off debt, you have to set aside money to do so…

 

In this episode, I interview Kiley Summers, the CEO and co-founder of SpenDebt. SpenDebt is an app that helps you pay off debt by automating your debt repayment through micropayments that go towards your debt each time you spend money from your bank account. I heard about SpenDebt at a startup demo day and thought it would be great to get them on the podcast because I believe the app is extremely useful for those struggling to pay off their debts. Kiley shares his own story of coming from modest means, falling deep into debt after school, but emerging victorious and wanting to help others do the same.

 

We touch on:

-Kiley’s background

-The origins of SpenDebt

-The reasons to learn about money management

-How SpenDebt works

-How automating your behavior helps you pay down debt with discipline

-The objective of SpenDebt

-The current status, availability, and price of the SpenDebt app

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

New Years resolutions aren’t worth anything if no one is keeping you accountable, especially if you’re not even keeping yourself accountable. That’s what goals are for.

 

In this episode, I muse over my experience in 2017 as an entrepreneur completely out on my own and the goals that I set for myself with respect to The Post Money Plan. In this monologue, I speak to the reasoning and process I went through to identify and craft my goals for 2017 as well as my performance on them in the Professional/Financial category. If you’re interested in juicy personal details, you’ll especially appreciate that part. Afterwards, I reveal what I set as my new Professional/Financial goals for The Post Money Plan and myself in 2018.

Key Points in the Podcast:

-A key struggle for entrepreneurs

-My line of thinking for designing goals in 2017

-Goal 1: Increase Post Money Plan website traffic by 10% per month

-Goal 2: Begin generating revenue

-Goal 3: Take on a partner

-Goal 4: Raise $500,000 in funding

-Goal 5: Live on less than $33,000

-Goal 6: Gain 20% on my investment portfolio

 

-Updating and setting new goals for 2018

-Goal 1: Launch “Invest Pain Free” online course

-Goal 2: Generate $25,000 in sales

-Goal 3: Grow Post Money Plan website traffic by 7% per month

-Goal 4: Launch “How to Win Contests” online course

-Goal 5: Live on less than $30,000

-Goal 6: Pay off $20,000 of student debt

-Goal 7: Gain 20% on my investment portfolio

-Goal 8: Write 20 new pages in my Economics Treatise

-Goal 9: Create a Decision Making app

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

Nobody ever said flying solo was easy, but there might just be reward in striking out on your own through entrepreneurship.

 

In this episode, I talk entrepreneurship and Houston home renovations with Diego Grassano. Diego emigrated to the U.S. from Brazil over a decade ago, arriving with very little. Through fortunate circumstances, he was able to assume ownership of a friend’s home flooring business and slowly but surely build it up over time. We talk about his entrepreneurial journey and the road to where he is now dealing with the surge in home renovations in Houston post-Hurricane Harvey.

 

We touch on:

-Diego’s “stumble” into entrepreneurship

-Entrepreneurial opportunities for foreigners

-The hard work associated with running your own business

-Hurricane Harvey’s impact on home renovations in Houston

-Labor constraints in the market due to demand

-A 25% surge in pricing due to increased demand and labor constraints

-An expected 12-18 month time horizon for Harvey-related renovations to work through the market

 

Diego Grassano is the owner and manager of Top Gun Flooring, a Houston-based flooring company.

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

Just do it… Advertising is suggestive and powerful, isn’t it?

 

In this episode, I talk advertising from the wise consumer’s perspective with Brett. Companies take advantage of the holiday season and people buying gifts for Christmas by ramping up their efforts and exploiting your primed disposition to purchase things at this time of year, so its worth knowing how they go about it and what you can do to protect yourself from falling victim to it.

 

We touch on:

-The purpose of advertising

-People’s suggestibility and its effectiveness on a person

-Reasons to guard against it

-Buying without need

-Spending beyond your means

-What to guard against

-Subliminal messaging

-Product placement

-False claims

-False urgency

-False scarcity

-False discounts

-Strategy to prevent succumbing to traps

-Not believing the hype

-Prepping against your emotional responses

-Planning your purchases/making a list

-Taking an “accountabili-buddy” with you

-Shopping around, benchmarking prices

-Rewarding yourself for success in self-constraint

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Yet another Bitcoin podcast…

 

In this episode, I continue the discussion with Stephen Ngao and Murray Williams about the relationship between market bubbles and investor psychology, irrationality, and efficiency in markets. The meteoric rise of Bitcoin, Ether, and ICO’s in the cryptocurrency space is prompting many to draw parallels to the tech boom of the late 90’s and cry “bubble”. We go further into case studies of history where bubbles have occurred to see if true parallels to the present can be drawn.

 

We touch on:

-The Dot Com bubble

-Central bank contribution to bubbles

-The Chinese banking bubble

-The Roaring 1920’s bubble

-The South Sea bubble

-The Tulipmania bubble

-Bubbles being fueled by debt and the game of musical chairs

 

 

Stephen Ngao is a Research Financial Analyst at the University of California San Francisco and Murray Williams is a former bond broker and fund manager.

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Yet another Bitcoin podcast…

 

In this episode, I speak again with Stephen Ngao and bring in Murray Williams as a follow on to our discussion about investor psychology, irrationality, and efficiency in markets. The meteoric rise of Bitcoin, Ether, and ICO’s in the cryptocurrency space is prompting many to draw parallels to the tech boom of the late 90’s and cry “bubble”. We debate whether this is a case of the boy who cried wolf or a legitimate cause for concern.

 

We touch on:

-the greater fool theory

-history as an analog for the future

-defining what a bubble is

-our verdicts on the current state of the cryptocurrency market

-the mid 2000’s housing bubble

 

Stephen Ngao is a Research Financial Analyst at the University of California San Francisco and Murray Williams is a former bond broker and fund manager.

 

Lastly, you can subscribe to The Post Money Plan podcast here.

 

Can anyone beat the stock market? Can you time it?

 

In this episode, I speak with Stephen Ngao about the debate in the investing world between behavioral finance and the efficient market hypothesis. The efficient market hypothesis poses that the market is accurately priced at all times and that no investor can beat the market. Opponents argue that the irrationality of investors creates opportunities to benefit from temporary mispricing in markets.

 

We touch on:

-defining market efficiency

-assessing the current degree of efficiency in the stock market

-the allegory of Mr. Market

-the role of psychological biases in investors’ participation in the marketplace

-confirmation bias

-anchoring bias

-recency bias

-herding bias

-loss aversion bias

-cognitive dissonance between rationale and emotions

 

Stephen Ngao is a Research Financial Analyst at the University of California San Francisco.