A FinCon13 Roundup

With FinCon13 still fresh in my mind, please let me share my fellow blogger’s observation on this amazing conference.

Most conferences will have some kind of SWAG. I had no idea this was an acronym, Stuff We All Get, and aren’t sure if that’s even right. But that’s what it is, and this year, there were some great give aways. Best booths of FinCon 2013 is a post at Bargaineering giving credit to the sponsors who gave away items to remind of of their company long after the weekend passed. Both Ally Bank and Chase Bank were giving away portable USB chargers, a rechargeable battery that you can use to power up your phone or tablet device. This was first conference I’ve gone to where I didn’t grab a shirt, although there were many to be had.

Erin, at Red Debted Stepchild, offered #FinCon13 Recap & Spending, a look at both what she learned and what she spent. Interesting to see her tab, $1115. My ticket and hotel bill added to $500. I used miles to get the plane ticket, and avoided the shuttle. St Louis has a Metro that cost $2.50 each way, and a short walk. Erin lists a number of things we learned, and even if you blog on non-finance topics, there’s some great advice here. (Note to self, fix your 404 page)

Time to get this out of the way. There was a repeat of a contest I missed last year. Pullups. When I was younger, I was good for ten pullups. Now, I can do one on a good day. The tradition was started, and it presented itself again this year. All went well, the winner was at nearly 20, if I got it right. But. Someone then tweeted, “and for the ladies, the swimsuit contest is next.” I missed this, but soon heard about it. You can get the whole story at Beating a Sexist One Chin-Up at a Time and #Fincon13 Pictures and My Reaction to a Sexist Comment. No, Kathleen, you didn’t overreact. Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan wrote, “If you see fraud, but do not say fraud, then you are a fraud.” You see, I can’t get into your head, we each react to things we hear in a different way, but recalling this quote, just substitute “sexism” or “racism” for “fraud” and you see how simple it is for me to acknowledge that you were compelled to react, and had I been there at that moment, I would have too.

CFP Sophia Bera shared Why I Love Hanging Out with Financial Bloggers (Over Financial Planners). It seems we are a fun, welcoming group. Even though she mentions the age clusters at around 30, no one there made this 51 year old feel too old to be welcome. And no, most of us aren’t bragging about our expensive cars, just the opposite, the ten year old car is a badge of honor. Sophia also wrote 10 things I learned at #FinCon13.

US News Money reporter Stephanie Steinberg was there and reported on 10 Things Consumers Don’t Understand About Credit Scores. This was the topic at one of the sessions that focused on Credit. A panel of experts, their advice alone was worth the cost of admission.

Peter Anderson offered a day-by-day recap at The Financial Blogger Conference 2013 Recap: Seeing Old Friends, Meeting New People And Learning. If you think we’re a boring bunch, just listen to Ashley rapping some blogging advice to the tune of Thrift Shop.

At Eyes on the Dollar (A blog I just discovered) Kim wrote Fincon 13: Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone and Loving It. For Kim, it was about meeting new people, and finding how welcoming the FinCon community is.

With 500 attendees, this post can really go on, but let’s close with another blogger I just discovered, Budget & the Beach who posted Fincon13: Inspired and Overwhelmed! The post actually took on the form of a top ten list, which was pretty interesting. Her list and mine, if I would write one, would overlap quite a bit. Except for that 6:30 AM run. Not when I was up till 2 am every night.

That’s it for FinCon. I may refer to it on occasion in future posts and you may see some changes here over the next few months, but that’s it for the reminiscing.