Replace Your "W" Bumper with...

This actually made me laugh today, even though I will likely be crying tonight!

What Led to the Name

Well, here it goes. Not sure how much this will be read, but its pretty cool to know that people who have the time and are interested in what you have to say, now have a vehicle to do so. The evolution of social media is pretty awesome to witness.

Why am I interested in personal financial management. My parents have never forgotten one of my first experiences in the working world. It's really great to have supportive parents who remember certain things that you do or say. Even when you don't think they are all that important at the time. I had just graduated from Vanderbilt and had a very good job with Sun Trust Bank in Nashville, TN. I was part of the "managers program" and sent to local branches in the greater Nashville area to learn from the ground-up. Wow, how retail banking is now looking more attractive than ever!

One of my responsibilities was to try and sign-up bank customers when they came into the branch for a Sun Trust credit card. Nothing against Sun Trust here, as all banks do this type of activity. However, its typical that bank representatives receive a "finders fee" of sorts for each new credit card application that the bank receives. After a few interactions with bank customers, I began to get my groove in terms of ending our conversation with, "here's this great credit card offer which you can easily get approved for".

After about 20 of these conversations, I began to feel uncomfortable with the responsibility. Here were many customers who didn't need a credit card, but as a bank adviser of sorts, I was recommending it to them. I will post about the ethical sales debate another day, as we seem to see some of this with the mortgage meltdown. I was passionate about, and had many subsequent conversations with my parents, that it was wrong to sell a product to a consumer who (1) Really had no financial need for it and (2) Was prone to wracking up credit card debt which they might have difficulty paying off. I left the world of banking to move into Internet Software.

My end goal is to create a non-profit organization which helps the average consumer make better financial decisions. That's it. Hopefully, we will also share in common some other topics which we can debate and exchange ideas.