We’re bringing together 100+ of the best digital content creators and experts in personal finance and investing to help you learn in a variety of formats. Get ready for inspiring keynotes, breakout sessions, and panels with real takeaways. Plus, expert roundtables and one-on-one mentoring, where you’ll be able to get those specific questions answered.

Speaker submissions will open in early Spring 2017.

Alumni Speakers

2016 Keynote Speakers

Clark Howard

Clark Howard

Clark Howard is a consumer expert whose goal is to help you keep more of the money you make. His national radio show and site, ClarkHoward.com, show you ways to keep money in your pocket.

As a successful lifelong entrepreneur, media star and best-selling author of ten books, the Atlanta-based “consumer champion” is dedicated to helping Americans of all means get ahead in life.

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Kim Garst

Kim Garst is the best-selling author Will The Real You Please Stand Up: Show, Up, Be Authentic and Prosper in Social Media. She is also the CEO of Boom! Social.

She is internationally recognized as a thought leader in the social media space. Forbes named her as one of the Top 10 Social Media Power Influencers and she regularly contributes to Entrepreneur.com and Huffington Post. Her own blog, kimgarst.com, is one of the top social media resources in the world.

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Kim Garst Keynote FinCon16

Noah Kagan Keynote FinCon16

Noah Kagan

Noah Kagan is the Chief Sumo at AppSumo, which helps business professionals kick more ass. He specializes in making things, eating burritos, and disc golf. Previously, he founded Gambit, a payment engine for virtual games. Before that, he helped launch Mint.com.

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2016 Speakers

2015 Keynotes

Carl Richards

Carl Richards Speaker Headshot FinCon15

www.behaviorgap.com

Tess Vigeland

Tess Vigeland Speaker Headshot FinCon15

www.tessvigeland.com

Kabir Sehgal

CoinedSehgal

www.coinedbook.com

Grant Baldwin

Grant Baldwin

www.grantbaldwin.com

2015 Speakers


Alumni Speakers

#FinCon14 Keynote Speakers

Farnoosh Torabi

Farnoosh is a personal finance expert, author, speaker and TV personality. Her work and advice has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Time and Money magazines.

Her television credits include The Today Show, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, Live! With Kelly and Michael, Dr .Oz and The View. She was the host of the Webby-nominated show Financially Fit on Yahoo!, the #1 personal finance series on the web.

Her latest book, When She Makes More: 10 Rules for Breadwinning hits shelves May 1. Learn more about Farnoosh at Farnoosh.TV.

Chris Ducker

A serial entrepreneur, virtual staffing expert, blogger, podcaster and author, Chris helps other entrepreneurs catapult their businesses into the 21st century utilizing what he calls the ‘New Business’ style of marketing.

Chris’ new book, Virtual Freedom: How to Work with Virtual Staff to Buy More Time, Become More Productive, and Build Your Dream Business, hit shelves April 1st, 2014. Learn more about Chris at www.chrisducker.com.

Jeff Goins

Jeff is a full-time author, blogger, and speaker. He frequently speaks and writes about how to make a difference in the world through our words and actions. You can follow him online at goinswriter.com.

Jeff is the former Communications Director of Adventures in Missions, an international nonprofit organization. Originally from Chicago, Goins graduated from Illinois College and spent the next year on the road with a band. Since studying abroad in Spain, he has always had a passion for travel, missions, and making a difference in the world. His first book, Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into Your Comfortable Life, addresses the issue of how we live purpose-filled lives by serving the needs of others.

Jeff’s blog, GoinsWriter.com, is one of the fastest-growing blogs on the web and a well-respected resource for writers, artists, and entrepreneurs. In 2011 and 2012, it won the Top 10 Blogs for Writers award on WritetoDone.com. Each month, he receives over 100,000 visitors to his website.

Jeff’s work has been published online and offline in a variety of publications, including RELEVANT Magazine, Copyblogger.com, and ZenHabits.net (voted one of Time Magazine’s Top 50 Websites). His forthcoming work, The In-Between, is a memoir about the lessons we learn while waiting.

Jeff and his wife, Ashley, live just outside of Nashville, TN with their son and dog.

Dr. Daniel Crosby

Educated at Brigham Young and Emory Universities, Dr. Daniel Crosby is a psychologist and behavioral finance expert who helps organizations understand the intersection of mind and markets.

His clients include Brinker Capital, Guardian Life, Eaton Vance, Stadion and NASA. Dr. Crosby is a two time TEDx presenter, was recently named one of AARP’s “Financial Bloggers You Should Be Reading” and speaks at 35 to 40 industry events each year.

Daniel is the creator of the “Crosby Irrationality Index“, a measure of market sanity that is a combination of fundamental and technical indicators.

Dr. Crosby’s well-reviewed book, “You’re Not That Great” applies elements of behavioral finance such as loss aversion and availability heuristic to the pursuit of a meaningful life.

When he is not consulting around market psychology, Daniel enjoys independent films, fanatically following St. Louis Cardinals baseball and spending time with his wife and two children.

Jennifer Roberts

Jennifer Roberts, a veteran in the financial services industry, currently serves as President of the Affluent / High Net Worth Card business, a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co. Roberts is responsible for the Sapphire, and JP Morgan card portfolios, as well as the affluent portions of Freedom and Slate.

In addition, she leads the Pricing and Ultimate Rewards Centers of Excellence. These responsibilities include oversight for the key financial aspects of the card business, as well as developing differentiated features and benefits for the UR program, and working with strategic travel and retail partners to enhance value for Chase cardholders.

Roberts joined Chase in 1996 and has held various positions, including senior marketing director, leading the Ultimate Rewards and Acquisitions centers of excellence. Prior to that, she was a leader in Card Services’ portfolio marketing team, managing a broad spectrum of key sales and engagement initiatives. Her broad experience includes co-branded partner management, bank-branded rewards management, product development, existing customer marketing and new account marketing.

Prior to her tenure at Chase, Roberts worked in marketing and portfolio management roles for several other card issuers.

Jennifer earned a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of North Texas and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and minor in French from Towson State University. Jennifer lives in Avondale, PA with her husband and three children.

Ben Johnson

As the Director of Consumer Social Media at Ally, Ben is responsible for developing social strategy to grow and engage the consumer audience for Ally’s bank and auto social channels. With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing, product management, and program management within the financial services industry, he specializes in targeted content creation for social platforms such as Ally’s Straight Talk and Road Map blogs.

Jessica Pate

Jessica oversees enterprise brand strategy and execution for Ally including Ally Bank and Ally Auto. She is passionate about keeping the brand experience authentic and straightforward across all consumer and customer engagements. Jessica has over 12 years of experience in developing Consumer Value Propositions, brand, and marketing programs within the financial services industry.

More #FinCon14 Speakers

 

Alex McAdams – Alex is a member of NerdWallet’s Personal Finance team and is passionate about helping people make better, more informed financial decisions. He writes on a variety of financial topics including digital currencies, taxes, and financial hacks. Alex also helps curate NerdWallet’s consumer community and is dedicated to giving visitors to NerdWallet a great experience. Before joining NerdWallet, Alex was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, where he worked across a variety of industries, including financial services, pharmaceuticals and global manufacturing. He studied philosophy and neurobiology at Harvard University.

Shiyan Koh – Shiyan leads NerdWallet’s Personal Finance products. Before NerdWallet, she was an investment professional at Bridgewater Associates. Shiyan was also a Senior Investment Associate at Institutional Venture Partners, and began her career as an Investment Banking Analyst at JPMorgan, serving technology and healthcare clients. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Business School.

Mr. Money Mustache – Mr. Money Mustache grew up as a small-town Canadian kid, graduated from school to become an engineer, saved and invested early and retired at age 30. Now nine years into retirement, he writes a self-titled blog that has grown to gather over a million pageviews per week. Through Fincon, he hopes to swap ideas with other bloggers on what works (and what does not) in attracting and keeping a loyal audience.

Mrs. Money Mustache – Mrs. Money Mustache adds a much needed female perspective to the Mr. Money Mustache blog. Besides working behind the scenes at MMM, she is also an occasional writer, web site designer, financial consultant, and real estate agent.

Jason Steele – Since 2008, Jason Steele has been a freelance contributor to many of the leading personal finance sites including Credit.com, Wise Bread, and Money Crashers. In addition, his work is regularly features at mainstream outlets such as MSN Money, Yahoo! Finance, and Business Insider.

Jim Wang – Jim founded Bargaineering.com, a successful personal finance blog, in 2008 and now teaches readers who to build their own small blogging empire at Microblogger.com. Jim helped create the financial blogging community and has become a solid resource for those looking to follow in his footsteps.

Patrice C. Washington – In 2009 Patrice C. Washington didn’t even know what a blog was, but she did know she was passionate about helping others WIN in their finances so she figured it out. Today as a nationally recognized speaker, #1 best- selling author, featured columnist and media personality, she’s focused on moving the masses from debt management to money mastery. Patrice’s wisdom on money matters has been a recurring feature by national brands such as NBC, Black Enterprise, The Huffington Post, Geico, Experian, Quizzle.com and she’s the newest member of the nationally syndicated, Steve Harvey Saturday Show.

AJ Smith – AJ Smith is the Managing Editor at SmartAsset and is an award-winning journalist with more than a decade of experience in television, radio, newspapers, magazines and online content. Her work has appeared in outlets such as CNN, CBS and The Weather Channel. She has a passion for meeting new people, sharing stories and helping others. She has degrees from Princeton University and Mississippi State University. AJ and her husband also write and illustrate children’s books.

Andrea Deckard – Andrea Deckard is an accidental entrepreneur. As a professional blogger at SavingsLifestyle.com, Andrea has learned many ways to earn through diversified revenue streams. As a consultant, she has advised brands, including Favado and 94Fifty, how to create a more meaningful experience for consumers. Andrea is also a co-founder of Digital CoLab, where she and her partners share ways to build a profitable brand. In her free time, you will find Andrea and her husband in the stands cheering at one of her three boys’ sporting events. She is a proud #sportsmom.

Andrew Meadows – Andrew Meadows is an award-winning public speaker, broadcast personality and advocate for all things retirement. He has worked primarily in the 401(k) and personal finance industry for the past 12 years, weighing heavily on his experience in marketing and media to spread the word and motivate others to plan for their futures.

Beverly Harzog – Beverly Harzog is a nationally recognized credit card expert, consumer advocate, and the author of Confessions of a Credit Junkie: Everything You Need to Know to Avoid the Mistakes I Made (Career Press, November 2013). She runs a popular credit card blog on her website, www.BeverlyHarzog.com. She’s appeared on Fox News, ABC News Now, FoxNews.com Live, CNN Newsource, and is a frequent guest on syndicated radio shows. Her advice can also be found in print and on major websites, including The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney.com, The New York Times, USA Today, Money, Kiplinger, Time.com, New York Daily News, and more.

Bill Loundy – Bill is the Director of Talent Management at Contently. Contently helps brands create great stories, engage audiences, and deliver business results — at scale. They do so with powerful software, world-class creative talent, and patent-pending technology that ties content performance to business goals. The Contently talent network is made up of over 40,000 professional writers and journalists, visual designers, award-winning video producers, and elite photographers.

Cait Flanders – Cait Flanders is a personal finance blogger from Vancouver, Canada. In 2011, she found herself completely maxed out with more than $28,000 of consumer and student debt. Cait started her blog, Blonde on a Budget, to chronicle her debt repayment journey and never dreamt of the career opportunities it would lead to. Cait is now a contributor at The Globe and Mail and Huffington Post Canada, and she writes a weekly post on personal finance expert Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s site. In 2013, Cait was the recipient of the Plutus Award for Best Canadian Personal Finance Blog.

Cameron Huddleston – Cameron Huddleston writes the daily “Kip Tips” column for Kiplinger.com. She joined Kiplinger in 2001 after graduating from American University with an MA in economic journalism. Prior to that, she worked for Dow Jones Newswires, covering convertible securities and junk bonds. She has a BA in journalism and Russian studies from Washington & Lee University.

Carrie Smith – Carrie Smith is the financial writer and founder of carefulcents.com, a site that helps creative freelancers discover the art of making a living from what they love. In May 2013 she quit her full-time accounting job to pursue entrepreneurship and blogging. Since then she’s been featured in sites like The Huffington Post, Glamour Magazine, and Kiplinger Finance. In her spare time she enjoys painting, sketching, making food with her chef husband, and browsing Instagram.

Chad Parks – Chad Parks is Executive Producer for the independently produced documentary, Broken Eggs. He was a born entrepreneur who stumbled upon the film world by being the black sheep of the retirement industry. And with visionary beginnings.

Constantine Anastasakis – Constantine heads up business development at Fiverr, the world’s largest marketplace for services. In this role, he creates partnerships, develops new lines of business, manages the payments infrastructure, and explores corporate development opportunities. Previously, he has lead business development at venture funded ecommerce and social commerce startups and continues to advise early-stage technology companies in New York and LA. He began his career as a risk management analyst for the wealth management team at Merrill Lynch. He is a Georgetown University and Fordham Law graduate.

Donna Freedman – Donna Freedman spent almost seven years writing for MSN Money and a couple of years as a staff writer for Get Rich Slowly. She now works for Money Talks News and writes for various other websites and magazines, and blogs about intentional spending and lifeitsownself at DonnaFreedman.com

Ellie Kay – Ellie Kay is the best-selling author of fifteen books including Lean Body, Fat Wallet, and Living Rich for Less. She is a popular international speaker and a media veteran who has given over 1200 media interviews including appearances on ABC, CNBC, CNN and Fox News. Her work has a corporate spokesperson has garnered over 50 SMTs (Satellite Media Tours). As a popular columnist she writes for six national magazines & has been a SME (Subject Matter Expert) for the WSJ, New York Times and Washington Post. Ellie is married to LTC Bob Kay and they have seven children.

Emma Johnson – Longtime personal finance journalist (former AP business reporter, MSN Money columnist, credits in NYT, WSJ, Forbes, Men’s Health, WIRED, WORTH, etc.), launched in August, 2012 WealthySingleMommy.com about thriving as a professional single mother. Within the first year I was named to NYT Motherlode’s blogroll and invited to write op-eds for Opinionator, made appearances on HLN, HuffPoLive, Ryan Seacrest Radio, Fox News, TODAY and landed a nationally syndicated AM radio show.

Erin Chase – Erin Chase is the author of The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook series and founder of $5 Dinners.com. She is a frugal home chef trying to help others spend less on groceries, while still eating healthy and delicious meals. She has appeared on the Rachael Ray Show, The View, Fox & Friends and countless other media outlets. She lives in San Antonio, TX with her husband Steve and their 4 boys.

Grant Baldwin – Grant Baldwin is a nationally recognized speaker and author. His book and curriculum “Reality Check” is used in over 500 high schools around the country. He has given hundreds of presentations and has spoken to over 400,000 people in 47 states through leadership conferences, conventions, and other events. He is also host of the podcast “How Did You Get Into That?” which interviews people doing interview and inspiring work. As much as he enjoys speaking, his favorite roles are being a husband to his high school sweetheart and daddy to three little girls.

J.D. Roth – J.D. Roth founded the award-winning Get Rich Slowly in 2006. He’s also the author of Your Money: The Missing Manual and writes the monthly “Your Money” column for Entrepreneur magazine. Earlier this year, he released the Get Rich Slowly course, which can be found at MoneyToolbox.com. His non-financial writing lives at jdroth.com. J.D. is rather fond of bacon.

James Kinson – I recently started the Cash Car Convert podcast where I teach listeners how to buy a cash car and “kick auto debt to the curb!” While I learned about the danger of debt recently, I learned about how to buy good used cars through nearly 40 years of trial and error. I believe I know how to find good inexpensive used cars and can help others do the same. Freeing them to kick auto debt to the curb. My goal is to create a cash car revolutions one indebted car at a time!

Jared Easley – Jared Easley is the co-founder of the Podcast Movement which is the only National Conference for Podcasting. He is also the co-founder of PodMov University which is an innovative online university for Podcasters by Podcasters. Jared is the host of the Starve the Doubts podcast where he interviews high achievers about how the have overcome self doubt on their journey to success (previous guests include: Philip ‘PT’ Taylor, Pat Flynn, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Jeffrey Gitomer, David Allen, Michael Hyatt & Amy Porterfield).

Jeff Rose, CFP® – Jesus & family lover, financial planner, Iraqi Combat Veteran, Author of Soldier of Finance, In-N-Out Burger addict, Crossfitter

Jennifer Barrett – Jennifer is the Personal Finance Editor for CNBC Digital. An award-winning financial journalist and digital strategist with more than 15 years of media experience, she was previously Sr. Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at DailyWorth. Jennifer has co-authored 2 personal finance books and has written about financial topics for several publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Worth, Money, and Newsweek, where she was a staff writer and editor from 2001 until 2008. Before joining DailyWorth in 2013, she was GM of Hearst’s Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Seventeen sites, which reached a combined 18 million visitors a month.

Jesse Mecham – Jesse is the founder of YouNeedABudget.com and two-time Fincon Pullup Champion. When he’s not speaking on, writing about, fine-tuning software for, or doing his own budgeting, he enjoys playing the piano, working in the garden, CrossFit, marksmanship, and honing his golf swing. Jesse graduated from Brigham Young University with a Masters of Accountancy degree. Immediately after he obtained his CPA license, he let it lapse so he could work on “You Need A Budget” full-time. Jesse lives in Utah, is married to Julie, and has five children.

Joe Saul-Sehy – Before creating Stacking Benjamins, Joe was a 16 year financial planning veteran and media specialist. His advice has appeared in wide-ranging places such as the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, and Detroit News. He’s been featured in magazines such as Bride, Child and Best Life. Joe was the Detroit WXYZ TV “Money Man” for nine years. Stacking Benjamins offers readers and listeners relaxed financial tips and commentary on current events.

John Egan – John Egan is editor in chief at SpareFoot, which operates the country’s largest online marketplace for self-storage units. He is former editor and managing editor of the Austin Business Journal, and former editor in chief at Bankrate Insurance.

Joseph Michael – Joseph Michael is a top-notch Scrivener coach who helps people become world-class writers by mastering Scrivener. His online course, Learn Scrivener Fast, has helped even best-selling authors and full-time writers like Michael Hyatt and Joanna Penn create their best work. The course reveals Scrivener’s untapped powers and hidden benefits, which is why writers like to say that he’s their secret weapon. His course helps them become published authors, novelists, and even professional bloggers who literally wake up delighted to write every morning.

Josh Elledge – Josh Elledge is on a mission to help Americans save money to increase giving. He is Founder and Chief Executive Angel of SavingsAngel.com, which bolsters the buying power of the average U.S. family by combining technology, coupons and smart thinking for extreme savings on everyday items. Elledge has emerged as one of the nation’s leading experts on consumer savings — sharing his successful money savings expertise with millions of families in his syndicated newspaper column, radio, and TV segments. Passionate about his family, fitness, and performing improv comedy, Elledge now resides in Orlando with his wife and three children.

Karyn Fleeting – Better known as the popular British blogger Miss Thrifty, Karyn Fleeting is a regular speaker at digital and search conferences in the UK. Miss Thrifty, her personal finance blog, has won awards including a Plutus Award for Best International Personal Finance Blog, plus a Cosmopolitan Blog Award for Lifestyle Blog of the Year.

Kelly Whalen – Kelly Whalen is the founder of The Centsible Life, a blog where motherhood and money meet. Her goal is to help readers live well on less. Kelly is a mom to 4, and loves that she can stay at home with her kids, and still pursue her passions for writing, personal finance, and social media. You can often find her on twitter and Facebook talking money and motherhood.

Kim Peterson – Kim Peterson has been a writer and editor with MSN Money for six years. She also writes blog posts for CBS MoneyWatch. Before that, she was a newspaper reporter for more than a decade, working at The Seattle Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Korrena Bailie – Korrena is current managing editor at Bankrate Insurance. She has been an editor for 5 years and also holds a master’s degree in creative writing.

LaTisha Styles – LaTisha Styles is an author and motivational speaker specializing in simple and fun finance for millennials. She focuses on building wealth the smart way: through savvy investing and excellent money management. As one of a handful of video bloggers in her niche, she produces funny, insightful videos on the basics of personal finance. Investment firms, banks, and insurance companies have featured her videos that cover the basics of personal finance. Her goal is to help the college student and recent college graduate budget, invest and achieve success!

Lauren Greutman – Lauren Greutman is a mom of 4 kids under the age of 8, she started blogging at iamthatlady.com in 2010 to share her tips on saving people money. Her blog has since grown to be one of the largest personal finance blogs in New York State. She is a regular guest on both CNY Central News Channel 3 & 5, as well as 9-WSYR in Syracuse and is known as the go-to contact for all money related stories. She is a back-up co-host of News Channel’s 9′s Bridge Street Show and has also had her blog featured nationally in All You Magazine, Oprah.com, and MSNmoney.com. Most recently she was featured on MarloThomas.com, which landed her video on the front page of aol.com.

Lauren Moyer – Lauren Moyer is half of the vlogging duo at mikeandlauren.com. On their YouTube channel Mike and Lauren focus on personal finance, DIY projects, travel, and homesteading. They have plans to become financial independent at the age of 30.

Linsey Knerl – Linsey is a freelance blogger, author, and public speaker, with experience managing online communities, including her first social role as the Community Manager of Wise Bread. Her company, Knerl Family Media, provides digital content, including video, copy, and photography, for a variety of brands, such as ConAgra, Walmart, and American Express.

Luke Landes – Luke Landes is the founder of premiere personal finance blog Consumerism Commentary and is a renowned writer covering personal finance and money management. With experience building online communities since 1990, Luke founded Consumerism Commentary to hold himself publicly but anonymously accountable for his decisions with money. Consumerism Commentary has received accolades from Money Magazine, the New York Times, and BusinessWeek for being the top personal finance blog. In promotion of blogging as a medium and to increase the mainstream legitimacy of personal finance bloggers in particular, Luke created projects such as the Carnival of Personal Finance and The Plutus Awards.

Mandy Rose – You can typically find me chasing my children around with my Canon 70D trying to capture the next epic Instagram moment. I’m a boy mom, fountain coke addict and DIY wanna-be. I’m the founder of HouseofRoseBlog.com, a lifestyle blog where I share my love of home decor, DIY tutorials, mommy mishaps and my favorite fashion tips. I am also the co-founder of HappyMommyBox.com which is a care package service for moms to help brighten their day.

Matt Schulz – CreditCards.com Senior Industry Analyst Matt Schulz has spent much of the last decade helping people make smart decisions about their money. He has been quoted in or had his work appear in major media outlets such as NBCNews.com, MarketWatch, U.S. News and World Report and Huffington Post. Matt earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas. When he’s not working, he’s obsessing over Texas Longhorn football, searching for a new restaurant to visit on his next date night with his wife and spending as much time as possible with his awesome little boy.

Megan Dougherty – Megan Dougherty is the Education Lead for Firepole Marketing, and over the past 4 years has taught hundreds of entrepreneurs how to build and grow their online businesses. With a passion for Instructional Design and Gamification, Megan is fascinated by the different models people can use to increase the size of their audiences and the thickness of their wallets – always built upon a strong foundation of integrity and relationship building. Along with her husband, Megan co-founded Dr Sugarbottom’s Chocolates, Candies and Confections, home of the Chocolate of the Month Club.

Michael Schreiber – Editor in Chief & Chief Content Officer at Credit.com – Michael Schreiber leads the editorial and content team, which consists of more than 30 credit experts. Credit.com’s content is syndicated daily across major news and media outlets including Yahoo, MSN, AOL, NBC and others. Michael is an Emmy and DuPont award winning journalist & producer, with more than 15 years of experience and has worked in print, television and online. Previously, He was Managing Editor of MainStreet.com, the personal finance site owned by TheStreet.com. He is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he also served as an adjunct professor in the multimedia department.

Mike Moyer – Mike Moyer is half of the vlogging duo at mikeandlauren.com. On their YouTube channel Mike and Lauren focus on personal finance, DIY projects, travel, and homesteading. They have plans to become financial independent at the age of 30.

Mike Delgado – Mike is a community shepherd, digital marketer, and educator. He serves as the social media community manager for Experian, North America and teaches social media strategy courses at the University of California, Irvine Extension. He writes for Social Media Examiner and blogs about how businesses can build thriving communities at MikeDelgado.org. He is tweeting @mikedelgado and hosts Experian’s weekly #CreditChat and #MarketingChat.

Miranda Marquit – Miranda is a freelance journalist, professional blogger, and author. She provides content to numerous publications, online and offline, including U.S. News & World Report, Huffington Post, Wise Bread, Discover magazine, and her local newspaper. Her latest book, Confessions of a Professional Blogger, was self-published with money raised from a successful crowdfunding campaign (Miranda’s other two books were handled by publishers). Miranda works from her home office in Utah, and enjoys travel, the outdoors, and reading.

Morgan Quinn – Morgan is an editor, content marketer, and social media strategist. She is the current Managing Editor and Social Media Manager for Mint.com, an Intuit company. She is recognized as a prominent San Diego blogger, content marketer, and social media specialist and is considered a leader in her industry and among her professional networks. Before she became a marketer and social media strategist, Morgan worked in the personal finance industry with a background in mortgage lending and consumer banking. She also has experience with raising backyard chickens but, unfortunately, she was never financially compensated for that endeavor. You can read more about her at morganmariequinn.com.

Paula Pant – Paula Pant ditched her 9-to-5 job in 2008 and never looked back. She’s traveled to more than 30 countries, runs a business through her laptop from anywhere on earth, and she owns a half-dozen rental properties. Her blog, AffordAnything.com, is dedicated to becoming money-savvy, crushing limits, and maximizing life. It’s the new gathering spot for a tribe of people who refuse to say, “I’d love to do that … but I can’t afford it.”

Rob Berger – Rob is a trial attorney in Washington, D.C. and the founder of DoughRoller.net. Through his blog, newsletter, and podcast, he helps people get out of debt, manage their money, and build wealth.

Ruth Soukup – Ruth Soukup is a writer, entrepreneur, & semi-frazzled thrifty mama of two. She is the author of the bestselling eBook, How to Blog for Profit (Without Selling Your Soul) and the founder of Living Well Spending Less, one of the most popular frugal lifestyle blogs on the web, receiving more than 1.4 million unique visitors and 3.4 million page views each month, where she writes about her ongoing adventure of finding the Good Life on a budget. Her next book, Living Well Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life (Zondervan) is scheduled for release in January 2015.

Shannyn Allan – I’ve been blogging about frugality and wellness since 2011 to help women live financially and physically fit! This year I’ll be featured on TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates.

Stephanie Halligan – Stephanie Halligan is the founder and chief cartoonist at The Empowered Dollar and the author and illustrator of the Crush Your Debt Comics. She is a financial empowerment consultant, helping companies come up with creative curriculum to teach smart money habits to teens and twenty-somethings. Stephanie believes that positivity, empowerment and humor are the best ways to help people crush debt and create freedom, and tries to infuse doodles and laughter into all of her work.

Stephanie Sammons – Stephanie is a digital entrepreneur and the founder of Wired Advisor, a professional financial advisor digital marketing platform. She also teaches entrepreneurs how to build and grow a successful business in a wired world at www.stephaniesammons.com.

Steve Chou – Steve runs the popular blog MyWifeQuitHerJob.com where he blogs about his experiences running his various online businesses. He strongly believes that entrepreneurship should be about providing you with the freedom to do what you enjoy and to spend more time with the people you love.

Sylvia Flores – With over 20 years in marketing and advertising, Flores has worked with mega clients including Intel, Microsoft, Carbon Audio, and Apple. Flores has also worked on projects with Jack Johnson, Mariah Carey, Denise Richards and YMCMB’s Lil’ Wayne and Birdman. In the last few years, Flores has made the move into the retirement financial arena based upon her passion to demystify the subject to the masses. Flores is also a prolific writer in the blogosphere and burgeoning novelist.

Thomas Bright – Thomas Bright handles the digital content strategy at ClearPoint, a national non-profit credit counseling agency. He’s pretty knowledgeable about best web practices and fired up about SEO, but writing remains his passion. His favorite topic in personal finance is student loans, and he enjoys sharing his tips on how to pay them off most efficiently. When he isn’t working, he’s exploring Richmond, Virginia with his wife and friends and soaking up all the history, nature, and good food the city has to offer.

Todd Tresidder – Todd is a former hedge fund manager who “retired” at age 35 to become a financial educator and consumer advocate. He began FinancialMentor.Com on the premise that quality financial education must be separated from investment product sales to reduce conflict of interest. He is the author of 5 books including the best seller “How Much Money Do I Need To Retire” and is now creating the (soon to be) industry standard wealth building curriculum “7 Steps To 7 Figures”.

Tom Drake – Tom Drake started blogging in 2009 when he started Canadian Finance Blog, which is recognized as one of the top personal finance blogs in Canada. Since then, he founded Drake Media Inc., where he manages over a dozen blogs and more than 40 websites overall.

Toni Anderson – Toni Anderson is the owner of The Happy Housewife and co-founder of Digital CoLab. She’s leveraged her experience in running a successful business into numerous consulting opportunities including managing the Blogger/ Brand program for Cox Target Media, app marketing for Wine4.me, and user experience for Favado. She’s passionate about helping others, spending time with her family, and fitness.

Vernon Ross – Vernon Ross is Founder & CEO, Ross Public Relations & Marketing. Entrepreneur, Podcast host and Social Media Strategist. His marketing career has spanned across several industries from medical, to video games marketing. He’s also the host of a popular, and top ranked podcast fittingly named “The Social Strategy Podcast” where he interviews top business leaders about social media, online business strategies and networking. In addition Vernon is a board member of the Social Media Club of St. Louis and was recently quoted in the book “Interview Like Yourself…No Really” by author, speaker Jezra Kaye

Victoria Araj – Victoria Araj leads the Quicken Loans Zing Blog and held roles in mortgage banking, public relations and more in her nine years with the company. Previously, she worked with and for notable politicians Congressman John Dingell and former Michigan Governor, Jennifer Granholm. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in political science from Michigan State University, and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Michigan. She was a guest speaker at New Media Expo in Las Vegas on the topic of corporate blogging. Her content has appeared on many sites including Allstate, HomeInsurance.com, Military.com and MoneyTips.

#FinCon13 Keynote Speakers


Jean Chatzky, the financial editor for NBC’s TODAY show, will be giving a keynote address at #FinCon13. Jean is an award-winning personal finance journalist, AARP’s personal finance ambassador, and the host of “Money Matters with Jean Chatzky” on RLTV. Jean is a best-selling author, a longtime magazine columnist, and her eighth and most recent book is Money Rules: The Simple Path to Lifelong Security. Jean believes knowing how to manage our money is one of the most important life skills for people at every age and has made it her mission to help simplify money matters, increasing financial literacy both now and for the future. To that end, she recently launched Jean Chatzky’s Money School — online classes on crucial financial topics like saving, budgeting, getting out of debt and planning for retirement — that she teaches herself at JeanChatzky.com.


Pat Flynn, creator of the ultra-popular (and helpful) Smart Passive Income brand, will be the opening keynote speaker at #FinCon13. If you’re not already familiar with Pat, you should know that he’s one of the most successful and most transparent online entrepreneurs (something that Forbes recently pointed out). Pat’s YouTube channel is a wealth of information and his podcast, recently featured in the New York Times, has been downloaded over 2.5 million times.


Derek Halpern, the creator of “Social Triggers,” is one of the most in-demand experts on using new media to attract customers. His breakthrough science-based approach to social media, blogging, and online marketing has changed the way tens of thousands of people use the web to grow their business. In addition to the wildly popular resource at SocialTriggers.com, Derek Halpern is also the host of one of the top marketing podcasts on iTunes, “Social Triggers Insider.”


Frank Trotter is President of EverBank Direct. A founding partner of EverBank in 1998, he has acquired more than 30 years of experience in the banking industry. Frank has served as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Mercantile Bank Capital Markets and as Director of the International Markets Division of Mark Twain Bank, where he created the WorldCurrencyTM family of deposits and directed the global launch of eCashTM. Frank graduated from St. Olaf College and holds an MBA in Finance and International Finance from Washington University.


Tom O’Donnell is the Senior Vice President, Quality, for JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s credit-card division in Wilmington, DE. O’Donnell has more than 20 years of financial services experience, and has recently led some of the industry’s most important innovations. Currently, O’Donnell is responsible for leading C
hase Card Services’ quality assurance efforts. 
In this role, he works with the business and operational units across Chase Card to ensure that products, processes, policies, and customer interactions meet regulatory, procedural, and customer impact standards. O’Donnell recently oversaw the Slate business, as well as the launch of Chase Blueprint, an industry-first set of features that dramatically improve the way customers can manage their spending and borrowing.

Our excellent speakers for #FinCon12:


Adam Baker – “Baker” is the creator of Man vs Debt, a popular site dedicated to helping you sell your crap, pay off your debt, and do what you love. That’s not an empty tagline. Baker is living that life. On his blog, Man vs Debt, he’s chronicled his minimalist, travel-anywhere-you-want, financially free lifestyle. His travels have taken he and his family through Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand. Last year the Baker family was on an RV journey across North America. His last stop was essentially be the Financial Blogger Conference. This year he’s traveling the U.S. again making a documentary. Baker is the author of Unautomate Your Finances, Sell Your Crap, and You Vs. Debt.


J.D. Roth – J.D. Roth is an accidental personal-finance expert, a regular guy who found himself deep in debt. After deciding to turn his life around, he read everything he could about money and finance. In 2006, he started the award-winning website Get Rich Slowly, which Money Magazine named the Web’s most inspiring personal-finance blog. Over the past four years, Get Rich Slowly has grown into an active community where 500,000 readers each month share ideas on how to improve their financial lives. He’s the author of Your Money: The Missing Manual.


Liz Weston – Liz Weston is the most-read personal finance columnist on the Internet, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. She’s an award-winning, nationally-syndicated personal finance columnist who can make the most complex money topics understandable to the average reader. She’s authored several books, including The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy and “Your Credit Score“, a national best-seller. Liz’s columns run twice a week on MSN Money while her question-and-answer column “Money Talk” appears in newspapers throughout the country, including the Los Angeles Times, the Palm Beach Post, the Portland Oregonian, Stars & Stripes and others. She also writes a money column, “My Two Cents,” for AARP the Magazine, the largest-circulation magazine in the world with 22 million subscribers. Read more about Liz.


Laura Adams – Laura is host of the Money Girl podcast, a top-10 business show on iTunes with over 500,000 downloads per month that she writes and produces each week. She is also the author of Money Girl’s Smart Moves to Grow Rich (St. Martin’s Press) which won the 2011 Excellence in Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Award. Laura is also a personal finance blogger, contributor, freelance writer, and MBA who is frequently quoted as an expert and featured in media like FOX News, HuffPost Money, USA Today, US News & World Report, Time, Consumer Reports, and All You Magazine.


Shannyn Allan – Shannyn started out blogging on Frugalbeautiful.com but has since expanded to TheFrugalPreneur.com and BeautifulGiveaways.com to capture her various interests. She has been notoriously dubbed “The Giveaway Queen,” and will be speaking this year on how to partner up with companies for sponsorships, reviews and giveaways without selling your soul (and have a lot of fun getting free stuff!).


Andrea Amir – Andrea is the President of SmartMoneyChicks.com, a financial coaching and education company teaching women and business owners how to make personal finance and small business rewarding, manageable, and profitable. She is also the Founder of Worth It! The Money Conference for Women and Organizer of the largest Meetup group on the topic of Women’s Personal Finance in the Region. Andrea has over 15 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry including positions as a Mortgage Banker and Certified Financial Educator.


Rob Bennett – Rob writes the “A Rich Life” blog. He developed the Valuation-Informed Indexing investing strategy, which updates the Buy-and-Hold strategy to reflect the research of Yale Economics Professor Robert Shiller. The new strategy calls for investors to increase their stock allocations when valuations are low and to decrease them when valuations are high. The academic research shows that Rob’s approach would permit millions of middle-class people to earn far higher returns while taking on dramatically reduced risk. Rob believes that the Personal Finance Blogosphere can repeat in the investing realm the huge success it has had promoting effective saving and frugality strategies.


Will Chen – Will is the co-founder and marketing director for the award-winning blog Wise Bread and the Top Personal Finance Blogs Chart—a leaderboard that showcases the best personal finance blogs. He has shared his blog marketing experience at conferences such as SXSW, Blog World EXPO, and the New York Times Small Business Summit; his blogging and business insights have also been featured and quoted by Forbes, USA Today, Nielsen’s Media, among others. In his free time Will enjoys sharing viral news on social media sites such as Reddit and Digg (where he was a top 30 contributor).


Ben Edwards – Ben has been addicted to personal finance since he was 12 years old. After asking for shares of Wal-Mart stock for birthday gifts as a kid, it was inevitable he’d end up running the personal finance site Money Smart Life. Ben’s a software engineer by day and a money nut by night, so Money Smart Life turned out to be the perfect place to share his personal finance adventures and work his programming magic behind the scenes.


Tracie Fobes, mom to 3 kids ( ages 3 – 8 ) is the Mom behind Penny Pinchin’ Mom. She and her husband began their journey to financial independence in November 2007. Together with her husband, they eradicated more than $37,000 in debt in 27 months. As she began paying down their debts, she found ways to save money and began to share her tips with family and friends. After much encouragement, she branched out and started her website to help families save on everything from groceries to tires. Not only does she share money saving tips, she helps her readers learn how they can eliminate their own debt through her annual Debt Free Challenge. In just 15 months, her readers have eliminated more than $350,000 in debt. Not only does she share her money saving tips on her site, but she is featured weekly on her local CBS affiliate in Kansas City.


Donna Freedman – Donna is an award-winning journalist who writes MSN Money’s frugality/intentional living site, Frugal Cool. She is also a staff writer at Get Rich Slowly and has her own site, Surviving and Thriving. She has been a college dropout, a single mom, a newspaper reporter in Chicago and Alaska, and a late-in-life university student. She has also picked tomatoes, worked on a chicken farm, managed an apartment building, inspected and packed bottles in a glass factory, babysat, cleaned houses, mystery-shopped, set type, and sold doughnuts, movie tickets, fresh Jersey produce and, when things got bad, her own blood. Donna has freelanced for numerous magazines and newspapers. Her work has won awards from organizations such as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Women’s Sports Foundation, the Association for Women in Communications and the Society of American Travel Writers.


Greg Go – Greg is the co-founder and CTO of Wise Bread and its industry-leading Top Personal Finance Blog Chart. His team develops and implements technical solutions in support of Wise Bread’s mission. Greg served as the About.com Guide to Online Business in ‘07-08, covering e-commerce, SEM/SEO, and social media. His business insights have been featured by US News and World Report, MSN, Web Pro News, and Blogworld Expo. Prior to Wise Bread, Greg was a systems administrator for two-time Academy-Award winning visual effects firm Rhythm & Hues Studios (LOTR, X-Men, Narnia). For fun, Greg practices “financially responsible gambling”. Ask him what it’s like to make a World Series of Poker final table.


Ryan Guina – Ryan is an Air Force veteran and the founder of Cash Money Life and The Military Wallet. He has traveled to over 30 countries, served as a consultant to the Department of Defense, and loves helping people make better financial decisions. His writing has been featured in US News & World Report and Yahoo Finance, and his websites have been mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, MSN News, and more.


Mitchel Harad – Mitchel is vice president of marketing for Lending Club, the leading platform for investing in and obtaining personal loans. Mitchel leads the borrower marketing efforts at Lending Club, which includes a multi-million-dollar partner marketing program and a substantial affiliate program on the Commission Junction network. Lending Club has experienced unprecedented growth, surpassing $600 million in cumulative loan originations and is issuing over $40 million in new loans each month. Prior to joining Lending Club, Mitchel was president of Broderick Street Partners LLC, a financial services marketing firm that was the #1 affiliate for Chase Student Loans, Intuit’s online business products, Experian Auto, and other major financial services companies.


Kelly Kinkaid — who happens to come from a long line of penny pinchers, super savers, and frau frugals – is a professional blogger and freelance writer specializing in topics that explore personal finance, social media, diet and fitness, and generally living a life well lived. She is the founder and creator of Kellyology, created in 2006, and has written recently for The Centsible Life, Kidworth, and Blissfully Domestic. Kelly, married to her C.P.A. husband for forever and a day, is very active within her local community as a runner and as a soccer, swimming, basketball, band and piano parent. She especially enjoys talking about herself in third person.


Jeff from Sustainable Life Blog – Jeff started writing Sustainable Life Blog in 2009, and has been writing about helping readers improve their health, their finances and their earth ever since. Jeff has been a member of the Yakezie network since its inception and has learned a great deal about blogging, network building and finances from the Yakezie. Being one of the original members of the network has given Jeff a front row seat to many of the benefits and challenges of the Yakezie network, for both new and established bloggers. In the non-blogging world, Jeff enjoys spending time with his fiancee and their dog in the mountains.


Linsey Knerl – Linsey is a homeschooling mom of 5, the founder of Knerl Family Media, and a full-time freelance blogger, social media consultant, and writer. In addition to her work past work as the Community Manager for Wise Bread, she has had formal brand partnerships with companies like Walmart, ConAgra, MegaBloks, Energizer, and Sharpie. You can find her tips for creating work-at-home success for women at 1099Mom.com.


Luke Landes “Flexo” – After coming to the realization his own finances were on a dangerous path, Luke Landes embarked on a journey to improve his own life. With this goal, in 2003 he created Consumerism Commentary, a blog using the name Flexo to protect his identity, where he could share the intimate details of his bank accounts, engaging readers on a journey from debt to financial success. Today, Consumerism Commentary boasts an active community of hundreds of thousands of readers every month, the top-rated weekly financial podcast, and the Carnival of Personal Finance, a weekly traveling showcase identifying the best personal finance articles. Through the Carnival of Personal Finance and other efforts supporting personal finance bloggers, Luke encouraged the community to grow. From less than ten “personal finance blogs” in 2003, there are now thousands of web sites in this niche. In addition to Consumerism Commentary, he has written about money as Flexo or Luke Landes for US News, Currency from American Express, Yahoo Finance, TurboTax, and PC World Magazine.


Alex Matjanic – Alex’ mission is to help bridge the gap between financial institutions and the emerging needs of younger consumers.. In 2008, Alex and his team developed MyBankTracker.com — a banking-information portal aimed at young adults. Combining a clutter-free, easy-to-read interface with social integration, including peer bank ratings, reviews and a community Q&A forum, MyBankTracker.com marries consumers’ desire for transparency with informative data and insightful writing. The core belief of MyBankTracker is that young consumers and entrepreneurs, empowered by information, can transform finance.


Jesse Mecham – In 2003, Jesse married his sweetheart, Julie. With seven semesters to go in the Accountancy graduate program at Brigham Young University, Jesse knew their meager earnings would have to do some serious stretching. As a result, he created a unique money management system. It worked so well, he officially founded YouNeedaBudget.com in 2004, and began selling his program as a way to earn extra income for his growing family. After graduation, Jesse worked as a certified public accountant, but continued to sell YNAB on the side. Eventually he left the day job in order to focus on his business full-time. YNAB is used world-wide and can be found on Amazon.com, the Intel App-Up store, and the Apple store. In September, 2010, Jesse wrote a companion book to the software, also titled “You Need a Budget.” The program was named winner for Best Windows Personal Finance Software in About.com’s Reader’s Choice Awards for 2011 and Best Desktop Personal Finance tool on Lifehacker.com. Jesse enjoys working from home, golfing, taking his wife on weekly dates, and keeping up with their five kids.


Jesse Michelsen – Jesse blogs at Personal Finance Firewall and is the Community Manager for Money Crashers. He’s a serial entrepreneurial with way too many interests to count. His online ventures include businesses in Technical Service, SaaS, Social Networks and blogging/copy writing to name a few. He approaches life like a kid does a candy store and just can’t get enough.


Mr. Money Mustache – Mr. Money Mustache is a new financial blogger who retired, financially independent, from an average engineering job shortly after turning 30 in order to start a family. With no punches pulled, he attacks the mindless consumerism that defines America’s middle-class today, while re-teaching the traditional values of hard work and honesty as they apply to becoming wealthy in the modern world. His goal is nothing short of a complete revolution of society, although continuing to run his growing blog is an acceptable substitute for now.


Melanie Nelson – If you want to know how to build community around your business using Facebook, Melanie’s your gal. She literally wrote the book on it: Facebook All-In-One for Dummies is available in stores now. Melanie has been working with business websites since 1995 (it’s true — she remembers Mosaic). And, although she wrote HTML in Notepad before CSS was a twinkle in your eye, now she focuses on social media strategy and implementation. Melanie also owns Blogging Basics 101 which was listed in Hubspot’s list of “10 Amazing Blogs About Blogging to Start Reading NOW.”


Kylie Ofiu set herself a goal to be a millionaire by 30 and decided to blog about what she was doing to make and save money at KylieOfiu.Com. This decision changed her life. She went from being a hairdressing mum of 2 to an author, blogger, freelance writer, international public speaker and creating a variety of income streams both online and off.


Paula Pant – Paula is an award-winning mul­ti­me­dia jour­nal­ist and the founder of Afford Anything, a site dedicated to the idea that smart money moves can fuel your wildest dreams. She started the site after she traveled to 27 countries across the Mid­dle East, Asia and Europe on a shoestring budget. She is the former deputy news editor of a daily newspaper in Colorado, where her work won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, and her writing is now featured on per­sonal finance web­sites such as MSN Money’s Smart Spending blog and the Motley Fool Blog Network. She is also the Guide to Budgeting and Personal Finance for About.com, a site owned by the New York Times. She lives in Atlanta and owns three rental properties.


Len Penzo – At his eponymous off-beat personal finance blog, Len Penzo definitely marches to the beat of his own drummer. Len covers a broad array of money topics in a uniquely irreverent and highly-entertaining style, usually with a clever twist, and always with an emphasis on personal responsibility. Political Calculations remarked that “Reading Len is like reading what Dave Barry might be able to achieve if Dave Barry wrote about personal finance.” Len Penzo dot Com has been twice-honored as a top money blog by Kiplinger, and Len’s articles have been featured on MSN, Yahoo! and other major financial websites.


Mike Piper – Mike is a Missouri licensed CPA and the author of 7 personal finance books. He also writes the popular blog Oblivious Investor, which was recommended by Money Magazine in their “100 Best Money Moves” series. At his blog, Mike writes brief, plain-English articles about tax planning, retirement planning, and low-maintenance investing.


Travis Pizel – In 2009, after 13 years of financial irresponsibility, Travis and his family found themselves with over $100,000 of credit card debt and on the brink of financial disaster. He found blogging as an outlet to help cope with the stress of completely changing his family’s lifestyle while learning to live within their means. As a compensated customer blogger for CareOne Debt Relief ServicesSM, contributing to their Our Journey Out of Debt blog since 2010, he shares his family’s experiences, struggles and successes as they fight their way to financial freedom. As a father and husband he also provides a unique perspective on balancing debt, finances, and family through his personal blog, Our Journey To Zero.


Justin Premick – Justin is an award-winning email and content marketer and Director of Education Marketing for AWeber, the leading small business email marketing software. Tens of thousands of businesses have learned how to increase sales, profits and retention by reading Justin’s articles or by watching his presentations. His advice on email marketing has been featured by INC, BtoB, Target Marketing and numerous other business and marketing publications. Justin’s strength lies in ensuring that his teachings “have practical relevancy to the busy marketer and go into the necessary detail that many information sources do not or will not cover,” according to Mark Brownlow of email-marketing-reports.com. (source: LinkedIn) For more email marketing advice from Justin, read the AWeber blog. You can also connect with Justin via LinkedIn and Twitter.


Jason Price – Jason started blogging in 2009 when he created his personal finance blog, One Money Design, to share practical financial tips and his perspective on money management with others. Since then it has grown into a group of writers with unique personalities and a common goal of helping people make progress along their financial journeys. Jason is an IT project manager by day, but you’ll find him blogging about personal finance and exploring web entrepreneurship late at night and the early hours of the morning. He’s also actively involved in a financial coaching ministry in his community where he shares principles of biblical stewardship and helps people learn to manage their money wisely. Jason enjoys spending time with his wonderful wife and two awesome children and lives in north Dallas.


Carrie Rocha – In June 2006 Carrie Rocha and her husband, Marco, made a decision to get out of debt and to stay out of debt forever. In 2 ½ years they accomplished their first goal by paying off more than $50,000 in debts (they are still working on their mortgage, their only remaining debt). Radical change happened as they revamped their attitude toward money, organized their finances and reduced expenses in a million creative ways. Carrie launched PocketYourDollars.com in March 2009 to share money-saving tips with others. Ten months after launching her blog, Pocket Your Dollars became her full-time vocation with affiliate marketing, advertising and public speaking as her business model. She’s been featured on Wall Street Journal Radio, Yahoo! Finance, MSN.com, Ladies Home Journal and more. She’s currently working on her first book which will be released in January 2013.


Jeff Rose – Jeff is a Certified Financial Planner™ recently founding his own investment advisory firm Alliance Wealth Management, LLC. He is the founder of Good Financial Cents (a top 25 finance blog according to Wisebread) and Soldier of Finance – his upcoming book project that combines his military background with his financial planning knowledge. He currently writes for US News and Equifax and has been featured in major sites such as Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Kiplingers, and Fox Business. In his free time, he loves hanging with his family, tortures himself with Crossit workouts, and daydreams frequently when he can chow down on an In-N-Out Burger again.


Matt Schulz – Matt is an award-winning journalist who is the VP of Content for InvestingAnswers.com, a site devoted to helping readers build and protect wealth through education. Previously, he’s helped lead editorial teams at CreditCards.com — where he once worked on an online town hall with the White House and even blogged about Dr. Seuss — KXAN.com and Austin360.com. Many years ago, he was a sportswriter, covering NFL training camps, March Madness and college football, but now his work is focused on helping consumers make smart decisions with their money.


Ramit Sethi – Ramit Sethi is the author of the New York Times best-selling book, “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” which focuses on personal finance for people in their 20s and 30s by weaving together threads from health & fitness, social psychology, and personal finance. His blog, iwillteachyoutoberich.com, hosts over 300,000 readers per month. He occasionally writes for the New York Times and has appeared on The Today Show, ABC, PBS, NPR, and most major media. Previously, he co-founded PBwiki, a Silicon Valley collaboration company, where he helped drive the user acquisition of millions of users. Ramit was the keynote speaker at #FinCon11.


Janet Stauble — Janet is the Social Media Community Manager for Bankrate.com. She helped Bankrate tone down the broadcasting on social networks and turn up the conversation, collaboration and curation. She believes social media has done wonders for content discovery, community building … and even competing with search engines.


Jon Stein – Jon is the founder and CEO of Betterment. Passionate about helping people make smart decisions with their money, he founded the online brokerage in 2008. Jon is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Business School. His interests lie at the intersection of behavior, psychology, and economics. What excites him most about his work is making everyday activities and products more efficient, accessible, and easy to use.


Jason Steele – Jason Steele read that you can’t make a living writing online about personal finance and said, “Yeah, we’ll see about that.” Since 2008, Jason has been breaking new ground as freelancer extraordinaire specializing in credit cards and loyalty travel programs. He is a regular contributor to many of the top personal finance sites, including Money Talks News, Wise Bread, Money Crashers and his work has been carried at mainstream sites such as MSN, Yahoo, and The Consumerist. Read more about Jason’s latest work.


Kasey Steinbrinck – After seven years working as a TV news producer and newspaper reporter, Kasey left the world of daily deadlines behind and now enjoys the freedom of creating web content for CheckAdvantage. He blogs on personal finances, economic news and consumer tips at the CheckAdvantage Blog. Featuring free content that people can use has helped CheckAdvantage sales grow more than 50% each year since Kasey joined the marketing team. He still uses the news to create compelling stories that drive traffic and boost rankings.


Crystal Stemberger – Crystal started blogging in February 2010 with Budgeting in the Fun Stuff. She thought she had simply found the perfect hobby for a personal finance geek like herself, but then it grew. A couple of hours a day turned into a second full time job. It only got busier in April 2011 when she started running the advertising for other bloggers along with her own sites. By July 2011, Crystal was able to make the leap to full time self employment. In January 2012, her husband made the leap too. Crystal now spends her week days working on the ad business and her weekends catching up with the blog that started it all.


Todd Tresidder – Todd came from the financial side of the business as a former hedge fund manager who “retired” at age 35 (16 years ago). He launched FinancialMentor.Com to provide a resource for quality financial advice that is separate from (and unbiased by) investment product sales. His unconventional writing on traditional financial topics is analytical, lengthy, detailed, infrequent, and basically violates every rule of traditional blogging. He is the author of several books including How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?, The Smart Consumer’s Guide To Variable Annuities, and The Smart Consumer’s Guide To Money Coaching and Financial Education.


David Weliver – David founded Money Under 30 in 2006 at the age of 25 as he struggled to conquer post-college debt on entry level paychecks. Today, Money Under 30 helps over 150,000 monthly readers jump start their financial lives with free resources like Richer By The Week, a five-day workbook designed to uncover users’ values and prioritize financial goals accordingly.


Kelly Whalen – Kelly is the author of The Centsible Life, a blog designed to help you live the life of your dreams on a budget. She started her blog 4 years ago, and has since become both a well known mom blogger and a respected voice in the personal finance realm. Kelly and her blog have been featured on The Today Show, local networks in Philadelphia, and she has been featured in magazines and print in both national and local publications including Money magazine, Kiplinger’s, and Women’s Day. Kelly is a mom to 4, and loves that she can stay at home with her kids, and still pursue her passions for writing, personal finance, and social media. Kelly is also a founding member of the Splash Creative Media team, a digital marketing agency.


Jim Yih – Jim Yih is a successful entrepreneur that started in the financial industry 20 years ago as an investment marketing manager for one of the biggest insurance companies in Canada. He quickly realized he did not like the bureaucracy of a large company and followed his entrepreneurial spirit by starting a retirement planning practice. He grew this practice to over $100 million in assets in 10 years and sold the business in 2007 at the age of 37. Today Jim is busy applying his strong business principles by growing new businesses to new successes including his Retire Happy Blog, which was recently awarded the distinction of being the BEST Personal Finance Blog in Canada by the Globe and Mail. Jim believes that the principles of business success are universal to any business and is showing this to be true with his blogging endeavors. Jim is excited to share with you his insights on growing a business to success.


Jim Wang – Jim is the creator of Bargaineering.com, a personal finance site that he created in 2005 to help him navigate the confusing and complex world of personal finance.

Adam Baker Likes FinCon

Adam Baker from ManVsDebt.com, 2011 Speaker

Thanks to our excellent speakers from the 2011 Financial Blogger Conference.


Vinoo Vijay – Vinoo joined Ally Financial in March 2008 to lead the Global Brand & Product Marketing function. In this role, he is responsible for directing the activity of a team of world-class marketers who set Ally’s brand strategy and successfully bring its products to market. Vinoo developed and launched the Ally brand, and completed the rebranding of GMAC Financial Services to Ally Financial in May 2010. He is responsible for all Marketing, Brand, CRM and Social Media activities across the portfolio of Ally Financial businesses (including the Ally Bank, GMAC, and Ditech brands). He joined Ally following a 7 year career at Bank of America where he most recently served as the eCommerce Marketing Executive during which time Bank of America became the #1 Online Bank in the country. Vinoo began his career at Federal Express, working his way up the marketing ladder, and was responsible for developing their global small business loyalty program.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Advertising from Syracuse University, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Illinois.


Ramit Sethi – Ramit Sethi will be giving the keynote address on Saturday morning at the 2011 Financial Blogger Conference. The success Ramit has seen with his blog, best-selling book, multiple digital products, impressive media exposure, and speaking career make him the ideal person to give the first ever keynote address. Ramit is sure to educate, inspire, and challenge each of us to do more with our blogs and businesses.

Here’s more about Ramit. Ramit Sethi graduated from Stanford University in 2005 with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in technology, psychology, and sociology. He is the founder and author of IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com, a blog on personal finance and personal entrepreneurship, which hosts hundreds of thousands of readers per month and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and NPR. In addition to his blog, he speaks on personal finance and entrepreneurship across the country. His book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, was a New York Times best seller. Ramit is also the co-founder and vice president of community marketing for PBwiki, a venture-backed Silicon Valley startup.

Others who will be speaking at the 2011 Financial Blogger Conference:


Laura Adams – Laura is host of the Money Girl podcast, a top-10 business show on iTunes with over 500,000 downloads per month that she writes and produces each week. She is also the author of Money Girl’s Smart Moves to Grow Rich, which was published by Macmillan in January and won the 2011 Excellence in Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Award. Laura is also a personal finance blogger and freelance writer frequently featured in the media and quoted as an expert. Lastly, she is a Certified Personal Finance Counselor and MBA and works one-on-one with clients as a coach and mentor.


Adam Baker – “Baker” is the creator of Man vs Debt, a popular site dedicated to helping you sell your crap, pay off your debt, and do what you love. That’s not an empty tagline. Baker is living that life. On his blog, Man vs Debt, he’s chronicled his minimalist, travel-anywhere-you-want, financially free lifestyle. His travels have taken he and his family through Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand. This year the Baker family is on an RV journey across North America. His last stop will essentially be the Financial Blogger Conference. Baker is the author of Unautomate Your Finances, Sell Your Crap, and the soon to be released You Vs. Debt.


Will Chen – Will is the co-founder and marketing director for the award-winning blog Wise Bread and the Top Personal Finance Blogs Chart—a leaderboard that showcases the best personal finance blogs. He has shared his blog marketing experience at conferences such as SXSW, Blog World EXPO, and the New York Times Small Business Summit; his blogging and business insights have also been featured and quoted by Forbes, USA Today, Nielsen’s Media, among others. In his free time Will enjoys sharing viral news on social media sites such as Reddit and Digg (where he was a top 30 contributor).


Ben Edwards – Ben has been addicted to personal finance since he was 12 years old. After asking for shares of Wal-Mart stock for birthday gifts as a kid, it was inevitable he’d end up running the personal finance site Money Smart Life. Ben’s a software engineer by day and a money nut by night, so Money Smart Life turned out to be the perfect place to share his personal finance adventures and work his programming magic behind the scenes.


Pat Flynn – Pat is the mastermind behind the Smart Passive Income blog, podcast, and video tutorials. It was just a few years ago that Pat got laid off from his job as an Architect. He took the opportunity to create an online business designed around the lifestyle that he wanted for his young family. Since that time he’s built several online income streams and garnered a huge following due to his willingness to teach others his valuable strategies for running successful online businesses.


Donna Freedman – Donna is an award-winning journalist who writes a personal finance column for MSN Money and contributes to MSN’s Smart Spending blog. She is also a staff writer at Get Rich Slowly and has her own site, Surviving and Thriving. She has been a college dropout, a single mom, a newspaper reporter in Chicago and Alaska, and a late-in-life university student. She has also picked tomatoes, worked on a chicken farm, managed an apartment building, inspected and packed bottles in a glass factory, babysat, cleaned houses, mystery-shopped, set type, and sold doughnuts, movie tickets, fresh Jersey produce and, when things got bad, her own blood. Donna has freelanced for numerous magazines and newspapers. Her work has won awards from organizations such as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Women’s Sports Foundation, the Association for Women in Communications and the Society of American Travel Writers.


Greg Go – Greg is the co-founder and CTO of Wise Bread and its industry-leading Top Personal Finance Blog Chart. His team develops and implements technical solutions in support of Wise Bread’s mission. Greg served as the About.com Guide to Online Business in ‘07-08, covering e-commerce, SEM/SEO, and social media. His business insights have been featured by US News and World Report, MSN, Web Pro News, and Blogworld Expo. Prior to Wise Bread, Greg was a systems administrator for two-time Academy-Award winning visual effects firm Rhythm & Hues Studios (LOTR, X-Men, Narnia). For fun, Greg practices “financially responsible gambling”. Ask him what it’s like to make a World Series of Poker final table.


Ryan Guina – Ryan is an Air Force veteran and the founder of Cash Money Life and The Military Wallet. He has traveled to over 30 countries, served as a consultant to the Department of Defense, and loves helping people make better financial decisions. His writing has been featured in US News & World Report and Yahoo Finance, and his websites have been mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, MSN News, and more. He is currently working on his first book.


Trent Hamm – In April 2006, Trent went through a complete financial meltdown. He then threw himself head first into trying to figure out every nuance of fixing his financial situation, and after a few months he began to get the picture. Within eight months, he had paid off all of his credit card debt, paid off his vehicle, and also established an emergency fund. Since he has a passion for writing and had learned so much about how personal finance really works, he established a blog, The Simple Dollar, near the end of 2006 to tell the world about what he had learned and to help people who were struggling with the same things. Trent is the author of 365 Ways to Live Cheap and The Simple Dollar.


Stacy Johnson – Stacy has been a CPA since 1980 and has also earned licenses in stocks, commodities, options, mutual funds, life insurance and real estate. He spent 10 years working for three Wall Street firms (EF Hutton, Shearson and Prudential) and has been investing in both stocks and real estate for more than 30 years. In 1991, Stacy founded Money Talks News, a consumer/personal finance television news feature. Now in its 20th year of continuous production, Money Talks airs three times weekly within the local newscasts of more than 80 network affiliates nationwide as well as on many websites, including MSN Money and Yahoo Finance. Stacy has written, produced and hosted more than 3,000 personal finance videos, and has written three books: Life or Debt, Money Made Simple and Life or Debt 2010.


Linsey Knerl – Linsey is a homeschooling mom of 5, the founder of Lille Punkin’ Reviews, and a full-time freelance blogger and writer. In addition to her work past work as the Community Manager for Wise Bread and a Blog manager for Financial Highway, she is a Walmart Mom and the co-author of the recent 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget. You can find her personal finance writing at Investopedia, MSN Money, Forbes, and Today.com and her tips for creating work-at-home success for women at the newly-launched 1099Mom.com.


Luke Landes “Flexo” – After coming to the realization his own finances were on a dangerous path, Luke Landes embarked on a journey to improve his own life. With this goal, in 2003 he created Consumerism Commentary, a blog using the name Flexo to protect his identity, where he could share the intimate details of his bank accounts, engaging readers on a journey from debt to financial success. Today, Consumerism Commentary boasts an active community of hundreds of thousands of readers every month, the top-rated weekly financial podcast, and the Carnival of Personal Finance, a weekly traveling showcase identifying the best personal finance articles. Through the Carnival of Personal Finance and other efforts supporting personal finance bloggers, Luke encouraged the community to grow. From less than ten “personal finance blogs” in 2003, there are now thousands of web sites in this niche. In addition to Consumerism Commentary, he has written about money as Flexo or Luke Landes for US News, Currency from American Express, Yahoo Finance, TurboTax, and PC World Magazine.


Danielle Liss – Danielle is a lawyer in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her practice focuses on corporate litigation and social media law. Danielle’s personal money story has been featured on numerous websites, television and in Marie Claire. Danielle’s blog is currently named Kittenagogo.com (and was known as The Frugal Lawyer for a brief period). You can find her on Twitter @danielleliss. In addition to her legal practice, she is also the Influence Broker & Campaign Architect for FitFluential, a social media company that connects brands with fitness bloggers.


Kylie Ofiu – At the end of 2009, after another week of barely seeing her husband because of his work, Kylie decided enough is enough and set a goal to become a millionaire. She uses blogging as a way to share her journey. As she blogged, she discovered a real passion for finances and a desire to help others make more money and sort out their finances. Her journey to create wealth and eliminate debt resulted in her blog being discovered by an editor who wanted to turn one of her posts, 1001 ways to make money, into a book, resulting in 365 Ways To Make Money and her new blog at KylieOfiu.com.


Mark J. Patterson – Mark is an attorney with Waddey & Patterson, a Nashville firm that Mark founded in 1980 to practice exclusively in intellectual property law. Mark also teaches IP law at Vanderbilt University where he has been an adjunct professor since 1986. In 2008, Mark started writing at Tough Money Love, a personal finance blog with a hard truth attitude. Mark is also a baby boomer and in 2009, launched Go To Retirement, where he writes about retirement planning and retirement living. Mark also created and publishes the Failsafe Retirement System to help him and others design a more financially secure retirement.


Justin Premick – Justin is an award-winning email and content marketer and Director of Education Marketing for AWeber, the leading small business email marketing software. Tens of thousands of businesses have learned how to increase sales, profits and retention by reading Justin’s articles or by watching his presentations. His advice on email marketing has been featured by INC, BtoB, Target Marketing and numerous other business and marketing publications. Justin’s strength lies in ensuring that his teachings “have practical relevancy to the busy marketer and go into the necessary detail that many information sources do not or will not cover,” according to Mark Brownlow of email-marketing-reports.com. (source: LinkedIn) For more email marketing advice from Justin, read the AWeber blog. You can also connect with Justin via LinkedIn and Twitter.


Cliff Ravenscraft – In December of 2005, Cliff Ravenscraft started a hobby that, over time, had radically changed his life. He and his wife began podcasting about their favorite television show, Lost. By mid 2007, Cliff had become consumed with passion for not only creating content, but also building relationships with the individuals who listened to the shows he produced. He spent hours each day connecting with the their community of listeners and finding ways to connect them with each other. It was through these community building efforts and sharing his life and heart through the podcasts that Cliff realized that his true calling in life was to Entertain, Educate, Encourage, and Inspire others. In January 2008, Cliff left his career in insurance, after 11 years, to pursue his passion in podcasting full-time. Today, Cliff makes a decent living as a podcast producer, consultant, and coach. Cliff and his wife Stephanie have produced well over 2,000 individual podcast episodes of more than 20 different shows, and are effectively sharing their lives and ministering to tens of thousands of people around the world on a daily basis. Check out list of shows produced at GSPN.tv and check out Cliff’s consulting/coaching site at http://PodcastAnswerMan.com.


J.D. Roth – J.D. Roth is an accidental personal-finance expert, a regular guy who found himself deep in debt. After deciding to turn his life around, he read everything he could about money and finance. In 2006, he started the award-winning website Get Rich Slowly, which Money Magazine named the Web’s most inspiring personal-finance blog. Over the past four years, Get Rich Slowly has grown into an active community where 500,000 readers each month share ideas on how to improve their financial lives. J.D. lives with his wife and four cats in a hundred-year-old house in Portland, Oregon. He’s the author of Your Money: The Missing Manual.


Julia Scott – Former reporter/blogger/columnist for the LA Daily News, Julia Scott launched the savvy-spending blog BargainBabe.com back in 2009. Bargain Babe is a money-saving blog that offers daily strategies, coupons, and inspiration to save on everyday expenses. Julia has used her prior “big media” experience and passion for helping other save to quickly grow her blog. Julia is a featured contributor at AOL’s WalletPop and has been seen on Good Morning America, NBC, ABC News, Better Homes & Gardens, The Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, Chicago Tribune, AM NY, the Jewish Journal, Detroit News, the LA Times, and on Martha Stewart Living radio.


Amanda Steinberg – Amanda started DailyWorth.com as a way to give women key insights into building real net worth. DailyWorth stands out as the go-to source about personal finance for smart, ambitious women. Since its inception in January 2009, DailyWorth has garnered 100,000+ subscribers and a stream of media appearances, including New York Times, Forbes, and USA Today. A graduate of Columbia University, Steinberg also runs a Web consultancy called Soapbxx, and contributes to ForbesWoman.com. Amanda lives in Philadelphia with her two children, and her iPhone.


Farnoosh Torabi – Farnoosh is a personal finance expert, author and TV personality. The New York Times calls her advice “perfectly practical.” She is the author of the new book, Psych Yourself Rich: Get The Mindset & Discipline You Need to Build Your Financial Life. Watch her book interview with Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today Show. She is a highly sought-after speaker and frequent financial contributor to Credit.com, Yahoo! Finance, MoneyWatch.com, AM New York, and The Nate Berkus Show.


Lynn Truong – Lynn left the corporate ladder behind in search for a shorter commute and more creative atmosphere. She co-founded Wise Bread in 2007. Being a co-founder, she wears different hats for the company. As editor-in-chief she manages an editorial staff of over 50 writers and editors. As sales director, she manages all aspects of sales and advertising for the site, drawing on her years of agency experience at CBS/King World where she created national ad campaigns for The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy. She has spoken at blogging conferences like BlogHer and Blog World Expo, and has appeared on CNN, ABC News, and KGO.


Kelly Whalen – Kelly is the author of The Centsible Life, a blog designed to help you live the life of your dreams on a budget. She started her blog 2 1/2 years ago, and has since become both a well known mom blogger and a respected voice in the personal finance realm. Kelly and her blog have been featured on The Today Show, local networks in Philadelphia, and she has been featured in magazines and print in both national and local publications including Money magazine, Kiplinger’s, and Women’s Day. Kelly is a mom to 4, and loves that she can stay at home with her kids, and still pursue her passions for writing, personal finance, and social media. You can often find her on twitter and Facebook talking money and motherhood. Kelly runs a social media consulting firm with partner Julie Pron, Just Centsible. She is also a founding member of the Splash Creative Media team, a group that creates and implements blog campaigns surrounding a topic, and their work always includes a charitable twist.

Philip