Wait, Why Am I Still On Facebook?

So I am 25, and I have been a member of Facebook since February 10, 2007. A strong eight years of patronage so far and I don’t see myself getting off the social media juice anytime soon. I recently read an article on why a person quit Facebook. An excellent read, and it got me thinking, why am I staying?

First and foremost I will say that there are some contacts that I am rightfully aware that I will never see person to person and that is okay. However, call it nosey, but I am interested in their lives and what they are doing. I can honestly say that I don’t really have any desire to go to my quickly approaching 10 year high school reunion because I have a better way into insight of your past 10 years than what you can tell me face to face in a two minute self-indulgent and rehearsed speech. Don’t get me wrong, I strongly value face to face interactions as it’s becoming less and less frequent in society. However, if I’m not interested in the conversation, I can’t say to your face that my Wi-Fi cut out and end the interaction. Not that I would, to most.

I will say that as I peruse through the past eight years of internet information disclosure I can see my evolution not only as a person, but what I want and how I use Facebook as a tool.

It starts with the, now quite embarrassing, test-like status’ saying things along the lines of, “I’m hung-over” or “I’m out golfing”. Oh the profundity of the 19 year old version of me and the naiveté of who I am sending these messages out to.

Only later do I find myself engaging in more proactive dealings such as creating study groups in university, asking questions to my network of connections, and expressing viewpoints on topics. Not until being in my most recent working position have I consciously assembled my online brand. I now make an effort to be constructive with almost everything I post on any social media. On what I call the big three (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.), I strive to create a type of online synergy. All three convey different tones to different types of connections, but I try to show consistency.

For me, I want this because in my last job, we were encouraged to utilise social media. Being that it was a financial institution, it was quite regimented with compliance. However, the underlining factor that I took away from it was consistency. You wouldn’t advertise one rate on one media site, only to conflict it with another on a different site. The same goes for your personal message as a brand.

This became an almost philosophical question to myself when it came to making the switch in becoming a serious social media presence rather than just another contact on someone’s list. I really started thinking about my values, and what I support. I want to be an advocate to those positions I have because I know that even if it is a total of 1500 people that can hear my digital call, it is still much more than what I can assemble to listen to my opinions if I just yelled them outside my front door.

So I have since put it to action. I see myself as a digital entity, whereby my reputation by means of what I post and who hears it, is a more calculated and directed process. And to be honest, I have never felt more efficient in my posting until now, however that may be a small bout of obsessive compulsiveness.

So now when I ask myself, why do I stay on social media? I have a much stronger answer than years past. Almost like a corporate mission statement to myself,

I am on social media to convey information that highlights and upholds my personal brand. I am not here to spam or discourage, but to entice and encourage my contacts to be ever more interested in the things I believe. I am here to promote but not push my opinions, and I will make an effort to be as compatible with as many people as I can by not limiting myself to just one platform.”

And that, is why I am still on Facebook.

Have You Been Thinking About More School?

A worn out topic? Probably. However, it’s an ever growing topic at the forefront of my mind daily. I’m going back to school to complete my Master of Business Administration (MBA) this fall, and in the wake of the wait to begin, I find myself increasingly researching forums, articles and discussions of the overall return on my investment once I finish. I have been searching for confirmation of my decision to make sure it will make me the most money and the most successful.

Now, since I'm about to start and not finished and back in the work force, I can’t speak objectively on the topic of how worthwhile it is, but I can speak on why someone might want to do it and what I know I will get from it.

While doing my stint in retail banking I brought the topic up with one of my colleagues in business banking. At the time, I was weighing my options between certifications, designations, and degrees that I might go for.

To be honest, the most pressing reason that originally sparked my thoughts on the topic of additional education after my undergraduate degree in finance, was a feeling of a theoretical glass ceiling that was ever closing in to, what I felt to be, a regimented pathway along a career I was not interested in pursuing. Additionally, my degree was from a school that I loved, but even 30 kilometers away in the big city of Vancouver, Canada, and I was sick of continually explaining which one it was. I knew I needed to make a change professionally and I’ll admit, I still don’t know exactly what I want to be when I grow up, but I want to be passionate about it or its cause if I am to look at it long term to any degree, but I digress.

My colleague said one line to me that resonated with me more than all of the internet threads I filtered through. He said to me:

Whatever you do, whether an MBA or anything, the reasoning behind it needs to be for your own personal achievement and not for the status, or paycheck it brings”.

Maybe to you it’s a given, or maybe not. But at that moment it almost gave me a small sense of clarity. Almost immediately it allowed some choices to just melt away and it gave me some perspective of who I wanted to be as a person, and not as an employee.

I chose the MBA, I didn't let a title choose me. Again, a seemingly menial statement, but one I am proud of. I understand that I haven’t even begun the program but at the very least, I know this choice was mine and it helps keep me accountable. I chose it for the leadership aspect, but also for the variety of learning. The saying “a jack of all trades but a master of none” comes to mind, where mastering something probably gets you paid, but knowing a little about a lot is more fun in my own opinion.

I know many of you will be putting pieces together and notice that I am doing an MBA after completing an undergraduate degree in business also. Well, I will say this, I am passionate about commerce. Many people take business courses or degrees in order to be versatile in the marketplace and have skills in multiple facets of business. At first this was the definition of myself too. I came fresh out of an unsuccessful go at civil engineering, only to find that I really do have a love for business; any business. It could be energy, medical, services, or widgets. The strategy of building a business internally or as an entrepreneur entices me. So yes, I will continue to do what I love instead of diversifying because I don’t want to hedge on my life.

I also don’t want to come off as an MBA advocate. For many people it isn't even close to the best option. Everyone has their own path. And maybe it won’t financially benefit me as much as the CFA or the CPA or CIM or any of the other million-and-one acronyms behind your name, but what it will do is fulfill my personal satisfaction. I know in my mind, I want to get the most out of this program. I want to let this be my “professional spirit journey” per say. For this, I think that I’ll be successful. I don’t just want an education, I want an experience. I don’t want a series of modules to complete, I want to meet other aspiring people daily, I want to get involved, I want to be challenged in multiple topics.

Maybe this is a “feel-good article” but my suggestion is if you are making that big choice to go back and get more education, to look up from your daily life and see where you are personally in addition to professionally. Stop and ask yourself are you happy where you are, and are you still passionate about the goals you have set for your life or do you want a change? I could sit here and ramble off figures and statistics on MBA post grads, and overall earnings comparisons of different higher education designations and from which schools. But I think in many cases there may be a disconnect among people of what they want to achieve in their lives instead of what their work wants. It took one simple line from a co-worker to instill a new set of educational values in my choices. I can only hope that this is my way of paying it forward to even one other person.

So no matter your path, science, medicine, community, politics, or non-profit, just take that simple moment to stop. To take that moment of contemplation, in your own goal set of educational pursuits to determine who you want to be. From a business perspective, you are your own brand in whatever career you pursue and how you build that brand should be a representation of you the person, not you the employee.

Good luck in your pursuit!

Making My Generation Work

In many articles that I've read, I continually hear the statement that my generation is one that's struck with a severe entitlement complex. Especially when it comes to getting a job. I have discussed this with colleagues and peers as well, both being in different generations and sharing the same. In my case I fall under "Generation Y", the "Echo Boomers", the "Millenniums". I was born in 1988 and yet I'm already sprouting grey hair. I have always been the "baby" of the work place, but felt a maturity past my peers. Do I personally feel that I have a strong sense of entitlement? Not really.

I believe this idea of entitlement is based on the person and the external circumstances that they are subjected to throughout their lives. I am going to go out on somewhat of a limb and connect the dots that the boomer generation was a generation that didn't go without. There is a high concentration of wealth in this cohort and we all know it. Of course this is a generalization of a massive group, but I talk in averages to this.

Additionally, there have been articles that state how the boomers felt they were to be the "new age parents" who wanted to provide anything and everything to they're kids. I am not a psychologist, nor claim to be, but there is something to be said for getting everything you want and then expecting the world outside of the family home to follow suit. Again I will iterate that this is a generalization since of course there will be different situations among groups.

Due to the large amount of kids in my generation, and these factors, would it be appropriate to say that there is a greater tendency to claim Gen Y's feel entitled? Personally, I feel that I have entitlements, just as anyone else would I assume. That said, I don't believe I am entitled to a high paying job simply because I have attended post-secondary, nor will I once I have finished my graduate studies. However, I do know that many people I talk to use this alone as argument to receive higher paying salaries.

I do believe that there is something to be said for having the dedication and drive to complete post-secondary studies, and this needs to be noted when looking at candidacy for position openings. However, I myself would feel almost insulted to be hired based primarily on my education and not at all on my persona. I know as a person, I have a great amount of drive and tenacity that can bring more to a position than a fellow applicant with just the same expensive degree on their resume. I use education as an example, whereby it could easily be supplemented by a few years of experience, or even just simply having expectations based on your Mom always telling you that you're amazing, but I digress.

Now I can't speak for my large cohort, all I can do is be a strong ambassador. I value my education and I value the privilege it has been (and will be) to be able to receive it. I absolutely do not see it as a ticket into a job, I see it as a great personal achievement that I can be proud of for life. That said, I also do see it as another tool in my tool belt. A tool to help differentiate and leverage myself where I can, and just like any tool belt, I hold multiple things to help me get the job done. To see it as an entitlement to work is not appropriate, as you need to earn the respect of any employer, and show that you will be worth their investment in you.

On the flip side, I can empathize in the uphill battle that my generation and generations to come have in terms of prosperity in this world. Many strong career paths won't even consider you without post-secondary education. This coupled with the exponentially increasing costs of returning to school creating a barrier to entry resulting in either starting your life in the red, or not having higher education presents a dilemma in terms of the future health of countries' middle class. But that is another question for another conversation.

Additionally, the cost of living, the cost of buying your first home, the cost of raising a child, are all becoming much more unattainable in order to live a comfortable life. I know that at my age, my parents were having me, had already owned a house and were upgrading to a bigger one and had strong career paths to run with. My mom never went to post-secondary and my dad is just now completing accreditation now at 50, both of which never really required them in order to have a successful career. I myself am looking to still define myself, going back to school, taking on copious amounts of student debt, and still rent. Of course, that is my choice as I had a perfectly fine career in finance up until now. However, I consider myself to have good fortune, as I don't have debt from my undergrad whereas many of my colleagues are paying off, in some instances, $50,000+ in undergrad loans and working as a teller for a bank at $13.00 per hour.

So yes, I will say that there may be an entitlement complex in my generation. We may feel that we deserve the world in a hand basket. However, with the financial barriers to prosperity that we face, it may be hard to understand how we are supposed to make it otherwise. I myself will continue to work my ass off, as I fully understand that things are never just handed to you. As for my fellow Gen Y's out there, I suggest we all come to that realization if we haven't already, because the hill won't get any smaller just by waiting for handouts we'll have to climb it either way, or be left behind.

Let's Start Making Money in the Classroom

I am going to start off by noting that I am not an education professional, nor have I ever worked with kids and their development. I will also note, as with any field, there are some excellent educators and some that are not so great. I assume we have all had that teacher who should have retired years ago leading us to feel little to no engagement towards the class or its content. Well I find there to be a serious lack of financial education in the school systems, where it really needs to become the “cool class” in schools along with shop, computer studies, and PE.

Education, from my perspective, is the privilege among children to be taught the ever so important information and life skills to help develop the mind and prepare you for the world. This may include information based on future potential work opportunities, continued education into post-secondary, or simply just day to day knowledge and understanding.

There is a strong debate among people with regards to the accountability of who is to teach children through grade school in the subject of personal finance. Many feel that the responsibility lies on the shoulders of the parents. I don’t object to this statement as I feel that parents are rightfully in control of the life skills their children obtain. The hole in this argument is the fact that not all parents are good with their money, or just simply fail to have this learning opportunity with their kids.

Personally, I feel that if Sexual Education is a mandated course among primary and high school kids, then personal finance should be as well.

Now I do understand that some schools implement programs to assist in this area, I actually helped with some of these programs in my short career in banking. That said, do you really want a banker talking to your kids about finance? It isn't horrible, don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of knowledge among bankers and I thoroughly enjoyed spreading the knowledge, so to speak. However, there was also generally a hidden agenda to gain more business starting with young new clients.

My thought is why not just give all students the opportunity learn the basics to finance. I myself find courses such as Home Economics to be a waste of everyone’s time. Why not have more pressing information be explained in that class rather than sewing a pillow? I have heard some educator’s state that they aren't financial professionals, and use this as justification to argue the implementation to current curriculum. This is ridiculous. You can’t tell me there isn't a teacher that doesn't understand how to work a budget, or how to teach compounding interest to a high school student for loans. I am not saying that you need to start explaining derivatives trading in foreign markets, I am saying show them how to live within their means, how to open a bank account, how to count money! (Might I add, no child under 18 years old that came to see me in banking knew how to sign their name, so teach them cursive too!)

The fact of the matter is this, children deserve the leg up in life to understand the powers of debt. With the cost of post-secondary education increasing exponentially and the pressure to take on debt early through institutions by means of “student credit cards”, they will learn it one way or another. So why not teach the concept of saving young so we can teach a future generation that in order to buy something you want, you need to have the money to buy it first.

To build on my previous sentiments about parents being responsible, well not all parents are financially savvy enough to even understand the basics. So why should the burden flow into the next generation? I don’t mean that in an attack towards parents. You are not expected to be your child’s CFO, but unfortunately, I have heard some very WRONG information conveyed to their kids while sitting in my office opening accounts.

So in reality let’s bring it to the classrooms. We’re starting to teach computer coding for these new tech savvy kids which I find to be amazing, but we aren't teaching them not to finance the computer they buy at 20% interest. I know there is growing concerns of class sizes, wages for teachers, and other bureaucratic issues that need to be addressed. But as they say, "think of the children".

I understand that many feel that kids grow up much to fast today, and by forcing this concept on kid’s only enables that fact. However, answer me this, would you rather they be oblivious to the content, or ready to take on the inevitable challenges that are coming for them whether we like it or not? We as a society need to be thinking ever forward when it comes to the future educational requirements of children. This goes further than just curriculum, but also the way we test and the ways we determine success in the classroom. Educators play an integral role in child skill development and, I believe, need to become time travelers to foresee not what is important today but important two decades from now. But, as I said before about those teacher’s that lack engagement, maybe they need some new course material to re-energize the passion they had when they first got into the field.

The Back End of Banking

Alright, so I just quit my job in retail banking to go back to University to complete my Master’s degree. I have done three years with a few different banks, but I think I got the gist of what it was about; At least on the ground level.

First off, I would like to note that I went into retail banking straight out of University after completion of my Business degree. I worked as a junior advisor and moved to a financial advisor position and then onto a relationship manager. I was lucky enough to be able to skip the teller step in my career, and to this day I am grateful due to the flack and disrespect they take on a daily basis, in most cases it would have lead me to jumping over the counter at some people.

My clients were, for the most part, great to deal with. It was definitely fulfilling to be able to set out a plan for someone in order to better their financial situation whether it be a business or retirement plan (if they stuck to it was another story). I will say, just as any person in a retail based business would agree, that every day my faith in humanity was tested by the sense of entitlement and superiority of some clients who felt you owed them the world.

As for my colleagues, many of my fellow bankers were excellent at their jobs. They were most definitely looking out for the client. However, throughout my time, I felt like I was being pushed to be more of a cell phone salesperson instead of what our training department so eloquently named us as, “financial professionals”. Now don’t misunderstand this; of course a bank is a business, and profits are a major factor so we need to sell just as such. Hell, we are in the business of making money! But there is something to be said about the level of adverse selection leading to moral hazard within a bank that needs further discussion. In every training or coaching session, it is ingrained in our minds that the natural order of banking priority goes:

1.       Clients

2.       Banks

3.       Your own

However, there was definitely a reversal of those priorities among many of the advisors due to incentives. Excessive amounts of debt was being sold to clients strictly because it was the banks "flavour of the week". There was a sheer disregard in most cases as to the financial well being of the client being sold the product, since there may be an internal competition to sell the most, or management pressure to sell.

Might I add, more often than not, the person selling you that product in a bank has no financial background and truly doesn't understand how many of the products effect you as a client. It is a bit disconcerting when I talk with colleagues at the same level as me who don't understand the meaning of risk and return, how interest rates move, how a mutual fund works (and they sell mutual funds!), opportunity costs of debt repayment versus investment, or other BASIC financial information. I personally would like the peace of mind that the person giving me advise knows their own product. Most often there is just a scripted way to sell these things whereby most have no interest to pursue further knowledge allowing the quick sell. I put emphasis on this so much since we aren't selling lumber for a DIY project. We are dealing with your life savings and financial well being. Advisor's need to be held to a much higher standard by our clients at the branch level but don't seem to be.

This brings me to adverse selection causing moral hazard. This, put simply in this situation, is the bank and the client having different information, and moral hazard is acting unethically on that asymmetric information. Advisor's know the advantages and disadvantages of different products, and they also know which will benefit themselves more in the form of praise or bonus structure. This plays a major role in the advise given to each customer. Unnecessary products are sold to clients all the time, strictly to benefit the banker. There is always a great story to go along in order to justify it, but in reality there is no good reason for the client having it. Not only that, but I've encountered many people who were never even told that things were being opened, let alone what they were or how they worked!

I draw on my previous statement of feeling like nothing more than a salesperson. There is a deceptive name placed on you as an “Advisor” or whatever jargon is put onto your business cards. The reality and truth should be that we are very much salespeople. Our job is to bring you in, poach your business from other institutions, and are told to manage your relationship with the bank going forward. Most likely we won’t; we will be gone in six months to a year into another position leaving the next person to wait for you to walk through the door instead of following up with you, starting the entire process again. Sound familiar?

Now I will say, this is more of a consistency problem than a normality. It usually comes down to a crap shoot as to which branch you go into and who you sit down with. Some are ready and willing to work their asses off for you and give you the best advice, but some are just looking for a paycheck or a boost up to the next level.

This is where I flip the table onto the consumer, and say that there are too many people that don't understand the basics of personal finance. I am not saying a lack of banking knowledge, as there's way to much know. I just mean a working knowledge of where their money is coming from, and where it is going each month. This is one of the reasons why the average Canadian is sitting on debt levels that equate to around 150% of their annual income, not including mortgages, along with greed and the perceived "need" for instant gratification. Of course I am guilty of this, I mean, we're all human.

It is quite the perfect storm though; unethical advisory mixed with a sense of consumer naivety towards finance. So how do we fix it? Self-education, it seems obvious but there are too many trusting people that believe that the person smiling, conveying empathy with the fancy title is working in their best interest. I’ll be honest, my hardest days in banking were when people questioned my judgement, however, those people were the ones I wanted to deal with and prove my knowledge to, because they understood the value in not being another sheep.

Whether it be a simple budget, or creating a full financial plan, just dedicate a small portion of your time to simply identifying your financial weaknesses and addressing them head on. Ask questions, and don't feel bad for saying NO! Advisors are there to fill the gaps that you are not expected to know. They are there to act as a fiduciary that works on your behalf. But do not forget that they also have a duty to their employer as well.

Thinking objectively in finance is a key factor in your overall future success; do your own due diligence to come up with your own decisions, because you are the only one that has your best interests in mind.