Ending Personal Finance Delusions-Road To Recovery-Todd Rooker-Podcast 719

These days there’s a great deal of positive talk about ‘the economy’. Moreover, the focus is on government and big companies. Not a lot of realistic talk about our ‘personal economy’. We’ll talk about it in Ending Personal Finance Delusions-Road To Recovery-Todd Rooker-Podcast 719.

Unvarnished Observations Of Someone Who Knows

In Ending Personal Finance Delusions-Road To Recovery-Todd Rooker-Podcast 719 we hear the unvarnished observations of an experienced corporate and personal financial advisor.

Forget Wall Street. How Is Our Personal Economy?

What are the pitfalls for small business owners? How are families and individuals doing when it comes to personal finance? How is our personal economy these days?

Living The Dream. I Mean Delusion

When it comes to day to day financial management, it’s especially relevant to learn it’s pretty easy to live in a delusion, apparently. That goes for personal finance and business finance. Especially small businesses. This is just one of the key takeaways from our talk about why small businesses fail.

Spartan Lifestyle

To be sure financial advisors love to talk about retirement and living your dreams and passions. Thing is, living the dream requires a spartan lifestyle. When you’re living high on the hog, spartan is not something you want to do. So, business owners sometimes find it easier to avoid accounting for all expenses.

Todd Rooker’s observations are important for younger adults and small businesses. One of the most useful is a detailed explanation of how to account for all spending. I was surprised to learn some of the most knowledgeable and self aware see only what they want to see, when it comes to expenses. Delusions. There’s that word again!

Psychology 101. Our Own Worst Enemy

Human psychology determines what we’ll admit when we start totaling up the monthly budgets. Effective planning means short circuiting our own biases.

Following Our Passion

People want to follow their passion. How do you do that? Why doesn’t it always work out? Lots of great suggestions in Ending Personal Finance Delusions-Road To Recovery-Todd Rooker-Podcast 719 along these lines.

Day To Day

Truth is, most people are living day to day. Businesses started to serve a passion can fail. The root cause may be a surprise. Most noteworthy, is the idea it may be all about accounting for all the details and potential pitfalls when you first start out.

How do we plan and prevail?

Surviving and prospering is what it’s all about!

Sponsored by Reliafund Payment Processors and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul

Ending Personal Finance Delusions-Road To Recovery-Todd Rooker-Podcast 719

 

 

Value-Persuasion-Disruption-Live At The Mall-Podcast 687

These days we seldom think about what is valuable. We want the newest. The latest. Consume. Enjoy. Move on. Spending a day at the mall makes me wonder what has real value today. In Value-Persuasion-Disruption-Live At The Mall-Podcast 687.

At The Mall

We’re at certainly one of the oldest indoor malls. Southdale Mall, in Edina, Minnesota. I used to come to Southdale a lot. Not so much anymore. While malls in general have fallen on hard times, Southdale is still home base for me.

Things Change And Stay The Same

Shopping at the mall pretty much like it always was. While decorations have changed the idea stays the same. Especially relevant is the idea that all the stores are more closely defined. Seems like more clothing and accessories than back in the day of the JC Penny on one end of the mall, and Sears on the other. We’ll talk about it in Value-Persuasion-Disruption-Live At The Mall-Podcast 687.

If That’s All There Is My Friend Then Let’s Keep Dancing

What is valuable to us these days? Many things are disposable. Software and hardware upgrades feed buying the newest and latest. The idea of a waffle iron or heavy coat that lasted a lifetime is in the past. We discuss real value in Value-Persuasion-Disruption-Live At The Mall-Podcast 687.

Brand Names and Quality

Words like Value evoke brand images in every generation. For some it’s a car, or a consumer item. For others value triggers thoughts of clothing, an accessory or something that seemed to last forever. Real value though, can also be intangibles. Attributes attached to people. ‘Things’ we have to earn.

Missing Intangibles

Seems like these days so called intangibles are taking on a great deal more significance. We miss integrity, trustworthiness and respect. We crave time and forget the value of health and the people we care most about.

Beautiful Downtown Fill In The Blank

Malls are designed to evoke feelings and images of the old time markets. Walking through the mall is supposed to feel like the old time main street and its row of shops. The watchmaker and jeweler, tailor and shoe store, outdoor store and record shop. The texture and surfaces make us feel comfortable and somehow like we’re at home.

How Do You Spell Happy?

In conclusion I could suggest that the ‘things’ that make us feel secure and happy aren’t things at all. So, in Value-Persuasion-Disruption-Live At The Mall-Podcast 687, some thought starters for your Christmas and New Year’s season about what’s really important.

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Brush Studio In The West End Saint Louis Park

Value-Persuasion-Disruption-Live At The Mall-Podcast 687

Podcast 553-AgoraFest’s Nik Ludwig

Podcast 553-AgoraFest’s Nik Ludwig. ‘Agorism’ or being an ‘Agorist’ has been defined a few different ways. Samuel Edward Konkin III says Agorism is simply “thought and action consistent with freedom’. Konkin also says Agorism is an “ideology…but it is also a scientific and definitely materialist way of thinking”, as opposed to say, a religious system of thought. AgoraFest celebrates Market Anarchy. It is not for the faint of heart, but if you have a weekend and you enjoy camping, listening to music, eating, consuming your choice of beverage be it coffee or beer, and endless substantive conversation, then you’ll enjoy AgoraFest. At last year’s AgoraFest – my first – I sat down with founder Nik Ludwig for a free wheeling conversation about the event and Agorist ‘way of thinking’. This year I continue the tradition. For last year’s conversation, check out  Podcast 416. This year we delve a little deeper into the concept of what real liberty is, with little reverence to the things mainstream ‘liberty’ advocates hold dear, like the US Constitution, American Exceptionalism, and a system of government sometimes reverently referred to as a ‘Representative Republic’. Joined by a phalanx of ‘AgoraFesters’, Nik shreds virtually all the preconceived notions of what most people on the right, even and especially the far right, think they are fighting for, and yes, even the Libertarians take their share of criticism. This is why AgoraFest isn’t for the faint of heart. Agorists don’t shred these notions because they’re advocating for their point of view. In fact, they’re more likely to disagree with you just because you agree with them (my kind of people, by the way). The whole point is open minds, the joy of discussions about any topic under the sun as long as it isn’t what they call ‘political violence’; the same old crap you hear on CNN and Fox News about the two party’s mainline candidates this year. You’re likely to sit down to breakfast and before you’ve had your coffee someone will ask you whether you think it is possible for a person to legally sell themselves into slavery, and in the next breath start talking about longevity drugs or fusion reaction. I can tell you one thing; Not one person brought up the Vikings, the Republican Party, whether they’d pulled the dock in yet for winter, or when the deer hunting trip is scheduled for this fall. Everyone was full on engaged in substance; even the question of whether Angelina Jolie was more beautiful than Jennifer Anniston, because value is subjective. So next year I’d love to see you at AgoraFest. Thanks to Nick and Steve and everyone else for making it a great weekend. Sponsored by Hydrus Performance.