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A bunch of us just got back from Denver where the second annual Financial Blogger’s Conference was held. The event was a homerun and I encourage everyone to attend in 2013! Phil from PT Money and his team did a wonderful job putting the entire event together. I’ve probably attended around 20 conferences so far in my career, and this one is right up there in terms of fun, learning and professionalism!

There are so many topics to discuss:

* Maximizing the experience

* Relationship building

* How nobody can get along with everybody (upcoming post on Financial Samurai)

* Saving money, given all the travel, accommodation, and festivities

* Working with potential new customers

But for now, I want to focus on the topic of leadership.

LEADERSHIP COMES IN ALL FORMS Read More

Four years ago, the world was coming to an end. Bear Sterns blew up in the Spring of 2008 and on September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. I vividly remember the Dow Jones closing down 500 points or -4.4% on September 15 after the news to around 8,100. But things got much worse as the Dow plummeted to around 6,600 in February, 2009.

Four years later, the Dow Jones has doubled to ~13,000, the unemployment rate has risen to 8.2% from 7.0% (but off the 1/2010 highs of 10%), mortgage rates are at at all time lows, and the world is still spinning. We also have a massive national debt in the US, a European debt crisis, a slowdown in China, and soaring unemployment for those under 30 in South America.

I would think that most people over the age of 27 would objectively say that 2012 is a much better economic time than 2008. If you were still in school in 2008-2009, you missed how dire things were. I had friends getting laid off left and right. Instead of telling people they lost their jobs, proud colleagues would say they were going to graduate school as applications soared by 30% YoY. I was wondering every week when my last day would come. I certainly did not have any control over my employment destiny as I dictated this year.

WE WERE YOUNGER THEN Read More