An accomplished professional, Saly A. Glassman has spent almost 30 years within Merrill Lynch. Her all-female team manages over $2 billion for high net worth individuals, corporations, and institutions. Recognized for her performance, she’s been ranked as: #1 Top Women Financial Advisor and Nation’s Top 100 Financial Advisor by Barron’s Winner’s Circle, along with other recognitions.

Her recently published book, It’s About More Than Money, was passed along to Engineer Your Finances by Goldberg McDuffie Communications. Along with the book, they offered us the opportunity to ask Ms. Glassman a few questions. Here’s what we got from the back and forth. Enjoy the interview and make sure to check out her new book!

FE: Alright, let’s start with the acknowledgments. You noted how you came to write the book, but what really sparked the decision to produce this work? Was it simply those who thought you had great stories, or is there more behind it? After publishing your first book, do you foresee yourself continuing to write and publish?

SG: As the economic downturn of 2008 unfolded, investors were suffering, and yet there was little acknowledgment or sympathetic outreach from the financial community. I felt that this was a huge mistake, and a lost opportunity. I openly campaigned for enhanced dialogue between Wall Street and the public, but I experienced great resistance. After all, if we said we were “sorry,” would that mean it was our fault? Finally, I just had to take matters into my own hands, by speaking out for the long term benefit of investors and advisors everywhere. I felt that by sharing the experiences of over 30 years of real client stories, readers could become stronger and more responsible. Writing a book is like giving birth out of your head! You might not recommend it to someone, but when it is happening to you, it can’t be stopped!! Since this book, I’ve authored related articles and op-editorials, and I’ve been hearing from readers who are asking for more. So, I think it is likely that I will continue to write!

FE: By and large, the style of the book held the most appeal to me. Making it more thought-provoking, you provided bullet-point ideas for me to think about and “fill in the blanks”. You also offered tons of compare & contrast case studies. Were all of these examples previous clients? And all were willing to contribute to the book?

SG: Yes, these cases were all real, from existing clients. In the process of writing the book, I spent hours interviewing investors, to provide texture to each history. This process was a wonderful experience, as clients and I shared memories of our mistakes and successes together. I think there was also a sort of healing that took place, as subjects recognized that they could play an important role in helping others to avoid common pitfalls and take responsibility for the future. Later, I asked clients to “find themselves” in the text, and they enjoyed a bit of a “treasure hunt” in locating their stories.

FE: Maybe a little dangerous, how did you decide on the chapter title – “Crises Are Like Little Gifts”? It’s a great lesson although I’m sure some people will grumble. This wasn’t your first financial “crisis” either was it? You began working during the Savings & Loan Crisis. How did that time shape your financial outlook and subsequent financial decisions?

SG: My first real crisis was in October of 1980, when I started my job at Merrill Lynch! Interest rates were skyrocketing, inflation was out of control, and the stock market was a on rough ride, and going down. Investors everywhere were discouraged and fearful. I learned rather quickly that crises are a part of life, and you can’t stop the really big tidal waves from happening! What you can do is examine how you behave, in anticipation of these crises, or afterwards, in how you learn and change your behavior. It’s what you do with the crisis that counts. I had plenty of opportunities to practice this, through the S and L crisis, the stock market crash of 1987, the Iraq war, tech bubble of 2000, and of course, the most recent downturn of the last few years. Each crisis is an opportunity to reevaluate your behavior and carve out a new path. What better gift could you be given, than another chance to do better next time?

FE: Throughout the book we see a common trend: don’t blame others, accept responsibility for your actions, understand what you don’t know, etc. There seems an underlying theme hidden beneath all of these – honesty. Is that primarily what’s lacking from the financial industry? Could we attribute the push towards transparency as an attempt to regulate and control this?

SG: The problem is not a lack of honesty, it is a lack of courage and integrity, and it’s not just in the financial industry! Yes, it is true that legislating transparency is a step in the right direction, and ultimately, there will be much more legislation of many more things. This will all be driven by the philosophy of the times, that we can’t “leave people alone” (i.e., trust them,) and assume they will “do what is right.” The deeper, more meaningful solution is for every one of us to ask what we can do to sustain humankind and all life here on earth. That leads to tougher questions and choices. For now, we can start by asking “what can I do to take responsibility for my life?” before blaming someone else or trying to get the hard work done for you.

To Be Continued…

©2010 Engineer Your Finances. All Rights Reserved.

Without forewarning, I disappeared for several weeks and now the readers deserve an explanation.

If you’ve followed my trail on this site or other financial blogs, you may have surmised that I was in the process of getting married. Well, now there’s officially a Mrs. FinEngr!

The event came off flawlessly and many guests are still raving about the great time they had. Then after a long and relaxing honeymoon in Belize, it’s back to the real world.

Of course, life revved up to full speed as soon as we returned. Housing move, job obligations, a technical paper deadline, and figuring out this whole marriage bit (check out Little House’s Bliss Boxes) – the blogging took a backseat. Also, not having internet yet can be a hindrance (thanks for the delay Verizon).

While I may get in trouble for admitting this, I was working behind the scenes. A few emails were sent the day of the wedding and during the honeymoon, and even my airport reading was the next book on the review list (The Corporate Lattice).

Originally planning to write a farewell post, there was simply not enough time. Right before leaving, the answers to the previous book review and interview (It’s About More Than the Money) were received. Be on the lookout, it will be posted in the next few days.

A lot has happened since my disappearance. A few more offers were made on new books, the site’s direction and eventual redesign was decided upon, possible change in business model is under consideration, and hopefully an interview with on Delivering Happiness will be forthcoming.

Other cool news includes the Yakezie site is officially up and running. Bad news is my Alexa ranking suffered dramatically by jumping ship without telling anyone. The site has dropped significantly from its high around around 90k. But, the site did get approved for NewsTex which is good. Engineer Your Finances is officially syndicated.

So to close, thanks to all those who continue to read and support the site. Sorry again for the mysterious disappearance, but I’m looking forward to continue providing you the readers with quality, entertaining, and informative writings.

Warmest Regards,

FinEngr

©2010 Engineer Your Finances. All Rights Reserved.

When financing a home, one of the biggest hurdles is often coming up with enough cash to make a down payment on your loan. But with a USDA loan, you don’t have to worry about this.  USDA loans are the only non-military loans that offer $0 down payment even with 100% financing, so you don’t have to wait to start looking for a home.

In addition to no down payments, USDA loans save you money in other ways as well. While conventional loans require PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) that can cost a few hundred dollars every month, USDA loans do not. USDA loans also have lower interest rates than conventional loans, as well as lower closing costs that you can include in your loan amount. As 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, they’re easy to manage as well.

To qualify for a USDA loan, you don’t have to worry too much about your credit history. Even if you’ve had some credit trouble in the past, as long as you’ve recovered you’ll probably be okay. The main thing to keep an eye on is the population of where you’re looking to buy your home; because USDA loans are meant for rural areas, population must be under 10,000 (although sometimes this limit is raised to 25,000 if you’re in a town or small city).  There are income limits as well, but they vary depending on where you are in the country.

A USDA loan may your golden ticket to finally owning your own home. With no down payments and plenty of money-saving benefits, there’s no reason not to look and see if they’re an option for you. Thanks to a government-backed mortgage program specifically for service members, eligible veterans can breathe easy and buy a new home with less hassle.

©2010 Engineer Your Finances. All Rights Reserved.

The following is a guest post by Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff.  Her blog covers living expenses, saving for your future, and the fun stuff in between.  Quickly gaining popularity and a strong following, make sure to check out her other great articles before she goes big-time!

I don’t hit on parental subjects very often since I only have dogs, but I liked these tips in the Yahoo Finance article, The Six Mistakes Young Families Make.  I think these are mistakes made by lots of people, not just young families.  Here’s their six mistakes and my view on them:

1. What’s Wrong With a Little Debt?

Debt makes it so hard to achieve any financial goal.  That’s what is wrong with debt.  How can anyone save for their future if they’re working so hard to pay for their past?

If you just don’t know where to start, check out this past post.  It boils down to making a prioritized list of your debts and attacking them one at a time.  Mr. BFS and I have one big debt left - our mortgage.  We’ve been overpaying it since we bought our home in 2007 and are on track to pay it off no later than 2017.  I’ll be sure to let you know of any other tips I find along the way that could help, but I really think the key is just buckling down and paying up.

2. Flying Without a Budget.

Okay, putting the name of my blog aside, budgets are very useful.  If people want to know if they can afford something, they first need to know what they’re spending.  They probably also need to know what they are spending on exactly so they can prioritize the expense they wanted to add in the first place.  What’s a great tool for tracking spending?  That’s right, budgets are awesome!

Creating a budget is a little time consuming, but worth it.  Start by making a list of all of your spending categories.  Then set your goal for each category and your overall monthly goal.  Follow that up by keeping up with all your expenses for a month, making sure to plug them into the correct categories.  You may need to add a few categories that you forgot.  Don’t worry, that happens to everyone in the beginning.

Once you have a successful budget for a month or two, you will be able to quickly see what goals you need to work on or even categories that you’d like to get rid of completely (memberships you don’t use, subscriptions you don’t need, etc).

Mr. BFS and I operate on a zero-based monthly budget that takes into account all of our normal take-home pay.  Any extra money at the end of the month is divided between savings goals and fun money.  Please email me if I could be of any help when you get started.  I LOVE budgeting.

3. Retirement Is Decades Away, Right?

Yes, retirement may be years and years away, but 30 years can sneak up on a person really fast.  If we don’t save now, when will we start and how can we be sure to have our future covered?

You can check out this post for retirement suggestions, but to make it easy, simply auto-save a target amount every month and you’ll be ready to go.  Even if you don’t have “enough” right now, every little bit is a great start.  Gradually build the contribution amount until you’re hitting you overall target every time. 

We save for retirement by automatically contributing to my 401(k), a Roth IRA, and a pension.  We also invest at least $2500 a year in high dividend stocks.  We’re also hoping to open another Roth IRA by the beginning of 2011.  Our biggest financial goal is retirement by age 52, which is less than 25 years away, so we have to save as much as we can.

4. Who Needs Insurance?

Unless you have millions and millions of dollars that can cover your death or disability, you need insurance.  If you have kids or any dependent that relies on your income, you need A LOT of insurance.  You can check out this post for an idea of what you would be looking for.  I’d suggest health insurance, car insurance, life insurance and disability insurance for almost everybody.  Any self-insured millionaires reading this that would disagree?

5. College Tuition Is How Much?

The article said that college tuition in 18 years could be about $300,000.  Ouch.  I’d personally save for retirement before saving for my kid’s education (as I stated here), but if you can and want to cover both, save early and save a lot.  Make annual or even monthly goals to keep yourself motivated.  Also, I’d pray to the college gods for my kid to get a full scholarship. 

6. What Rainy Day?

Emergency funds aren’t just logical, they make you feel better.  As I’ve suggested before, save enough to feel secure.  Most people suggest 3-6 months of living expenses and one year has become pretty popular too.  My husband and I are shooting to rebuild our emergency fund to 6 months of bare-minimum living expenses ($15,000).  We also have sub-accounts for the house, cars, taxes, vacations, fun money, and stock investments.  In short, we are aiming for a lot.  I like the secure feeling of cash on hand.  This is definitely a subjective personal finance subject, so make your goals based on your specific situation.  Good luck!

Do you agree that these would be financial mistakes for almost anyone?

Can you think of any other suggestions for anybody in their 20′s-30′s?

©2010 Engineer Your Finances. All Rights Reserved.

Probably one of the more fun articles I’ve written, I was ecstatic when Budgeting in the Fun Stuff let me reprint this article.  The original link is included, so check out all the great comments!  I’d been on a string of career-type articles, being added to a few Wisebread listings courtesy of Linsey Knerl.  ENJOY…

Parallels are all around us. Browsing the site, you may have already come across Financial Lessons From Engineering or Financial Lessons from Running, which made relationships to personal finance from other experiences.

Making the connections can be a lot of fun, and the more adventures we have in life – the more overlapping themes we’ll notice. The funniest part is, you’ll be surprised at where they pop up!

During a random thought session (i.e. waiting around for public transit), I was pondering my career history and future. A few simple keywords set off an explosion of brainwaves and, before I knew it, parallels to dating were drawn.

A lot of the story is still unwritten, but would guess most people will find similarities, and hopefully contribute even more!

First Love

Ahhh – remember those puppy love feelings? That first quick peck, bravely holding hands, and the thought “this is the one”. When we first start out, whether in our career or in love, we don’t know what quite to expect, so we cherish every moment. We’re idealistic, naïve, and content.

While its not impossible for careers to jump from First Love to True Love, eventually most of us realize “there’s more out there”. Probably some older, wiser employee educated us on the cruel, self-serving world of business and grand illusions of retirement send-offs faded away.

Before moving on, there’s an important point to think about. Not many people realize, but initially we are all trapped by convenience.

How many people’s first relationship was long distance? Or how many dated someone from another school? Good chance we all started out dating someone within biking distance of our school or house.

Thinking of career fairs at college, would it be realistic to think we’ll find our True Love company among the 100 or so there? Especially when there are 100s of 1,000s out there!? And what about our criteria for selection – name brand & salary? What about something more substantial, like company ethics or employee satisfaction?

Heartbreak

After our First Love, we’re hot stuff right? The bars been set and now it’s time to reach higher. For whatever reason, there always seems to be this feeling of “doing better” – especially when we’re young.

The world is our oyster as they say. We think we’re experienced, think we know what we’re after, and reach for the sky. Who cares about the substance mentioned above. Let’s get the hottest, flashiest person/job out there!

In cases like this, we typically make concessions. We’re more willing to overlook faults because this is what we dreamed – and we want those dreams to match reality.

If we lie about our expertise, we’ll get the project and I’ll be flying 1^st class for the next year. If we don’t, there may be negative repercussions on next month’s review.

Unfortunately, the reality eventually catches up with our dreams and we’re left with Heartbreak. And now we’re at a critical fork – do we maintain our fantasy, ignoring the reality or adjust our expectations and move on?

Rebound

Instead of introversion and reflection, there’s this need to fill the void with whatever comes our way. Not quite your First Love, but better than your Heartbreak – the Rebound person/job is a peculiar thing.

We know the person/job isn’t forever, we’re only biding time until that “something better” comes along. We’ll most likely think about the good times from our First Love and what went wrong with our Heartbreak. We vow to never make the same mistakes.

Hopefully, no matter how long it lasts – we’re still learning from the experience and gaining more valuable knowledge.

True Love

If you’ve made it this far, I’ll take a stab and say most are agreeing with the similarities. But True Love is the summit not all of us have reached yet – I know I haven’t. We maintain the belief that after all these ups and downs, “the one” is out there waiting for us. It could be that we already have “the one” and don’t know it.

What makes this stage so special is we regain those feelings from our First Love, but at a much deeper level. The reality from Heartbreak helped us grow beyond superficial interests.

This stage could be described by piecing together the best parts of the earlier stages: First Love, Heartbreak, & Rebound. Each step provided us with a necessary experience, and we take the information gathered along the way to help us grow. We end up learning more about ourselves in the process, and eventually find exactly what we’re looking for.

©2010 Engineer Your Finances. All Rights Reserved.

Today, we’ve got a quick guest post from one of the community members over at Credit Magic. Still on autopilot, will get back to regular writing after The Big Day.

Repairing your credit report and removing negative items can make your financial life much easier. The reason? Because good credit is required to get home mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, and more. Credit repair thus, becomes very essential. To repair your credit record, you can get help from a credit repair company or do it on your own.

These are a few steps that you can follow in order to repair your credit record. This, in turn, will improve your credit score.

1. Evaluation of credit report

The first step in credit repair would be the evaluation of your credit record. Before you start repairing your credit, you must first know what you need to repair. You can order your credit reports from any of the three bureaus: Equifax, Experian, or Trans Union. Remember, the only free credit reports are found at AnnualCreditReport.

2. Review your reports

Go through your reports and highlight what needs repairing. These could include: any past due or charged off accounts, accounts sent to collections, or any incorrect information. All of these will then need to be disputed with the credit bureaus.

3. Dispute inaccurate information

You have the right to dispute any negative items contained in your credit report. The credit bureau has 30 days to verify the information; if this cannot be done the information must be deleted.

4. Past due accounts must be tackled

Past due accounts have a negative impact on your score. Try to repay charge offs. A charge off is a debt assumed to be noncollectable, by debt collectors. However, it is still legally valid and the creditor can attempt to collect the full amount.

5. New credit

You may need to establish new credit by opening up a new account. Try to get positive items added to your credit history. Keep your balances at a reasonable level and make payments on time.

In case you cannot handle the credit repair yourself, seek the help of a qualified credit repair company. Accepting professional help may also be worthwhile if you have a particularly difficult credit history.

©2010 Engineer Your Finances. All Rights Reserved.

Following the earlier post on Asset Aggregation, we’re continuing to run guest posts which were featured on other sites. This time around, we’re re-posting an article which appeared on Sweating The Big Stuff. Daniel has gone through a lot of great changes, so make sure to check out his other articles.

If you’ve been keeping up with Sweating the Big Stuff, you’ll know Daniel’s been hard at work funding his Roth IRA. He’s done a great job of adjusting his lifestyle to accommodate his aggressive investing goals, which leads in nicely to the topic at hand.

Most people understand the concept of compound interest and the benefits of starting sooner rather than later, but did you know you can squeeze EVEN MORE out of your investments by starting EVEN EARLIER?

That doesn’t make sense?

How can someone so young start any earlier?

ANSWER: FRONT-LOADING

Plenty of friends ring in the New Year by starting on their resolutions or recovering from hangovers, but my big excitement is fully-funding my Roth IRA. While this may seem a bit much, it’s a preplanned event much like what was discussed in the defense is a calculated defense.

I recently had this conversation with a financial advisor whom I respect, partially because he’s an ex-engineer, but primarily because he doesn’t mind taking time out of his day to help young investors. I’m not even under his employer’s plan anymore, and we still trade emails now and then. Too bad there aren’t more like this in the industry.

He agreed, noting that it “should give your contributions a (generalized) 4% bump over time”. That’s pretty considerable. Especially since it involves no special investment knowledge.

Of course, it makes perfect sense applying the principles of compounding. Consider investments paying monthly or quarterly dividends. If you’re reinvesting those dividends, then the shares received are calculated based on the shares already owned. The earlier you have that money invested, the more shares you’ll receive. And the cycle continues each month, quarter, or year.

Although you’re not “spreading” your investments throughout the year, single years seem almost negligible when you’re considering decades, or half-centuries in Daniel’s case, of investing. There are plenty of (decent) articles out there refuting the idea. Actually, Warren Buffett has even been known to remark on the pitfalls of dollar-cost averaging.

There’s no set strategy either. Maybe it’s too nerve-wracking or simply unfeasible to get everything in all at once. Instead, maybe you shoot to get everything in before the first declaration date or semi-annual dividend.

Just to illustrate the benefits of front-loading, I went over to Dinkytown and plugged in some different scenarios into their Future Value Calculator. To “prove” the point, the only variable I changed was whether there were periodic deposits or a single lump sum.

I’m not sure why, but I spend the time making these different graphs and then scrap them anyway. At any rate, here are the parameters used:

Case A = $5,000 initial deposit

Case B = $416.67 monthly deposit ($5,000 yearly deposit / 12 months)

Drum-roll please… And the FV results were:

These were my own concoctions so I urge anyone to go over and plug in their own numbers. What you will find is that any value, over time, should return more through front-loading than periodic deposits. Now, I believe that the advisor noted “(generalized)” because you need to factor in the positive AND NEGATIVE fluctuations of investments.

If the better return isn’t enough to entice you, let me offer a few other benefits in closing.

Being One-Year Ahead

Like I mentioned, the contribution is a planned event. The year prior is spent saving for that January deposit. As a side effect, holding yourself to this standard will help develop more savings discipline.

Other Opportunities

Checking anything off your financial to-do list allows you to explore other investments. Or spend more time with friends and family. Or whatever else it is that you enjoy. Point is, It’s just one little thing off your back that you won’t have to worry about.

Alright readers, your turn. What do you think of the idea? A worthwhile effort or too many holes in my assumptions? Do you think that “training” for this goal, whether it be your IRAs or 401ks, will better prepare you for other saving goals?

©2010 Engineer Your Finances. All Rights Reserved.

Originally published over at My Journey to Millions, Evan’s letting me re-print the material on my own site.  The benefit for me?  More time to spend on wedding planning, but keeping the site fresh.  Tonight was a rip-roaring good time at the local alcohol wholesaler.  The benefit for Evan?  More time being a new father, and getting link backs.  It’s a win-win for all!  Enjoy the post.

A while back, the local supermarket ran a promotion with Cuisinart. Collecting “points” with each purchase, customers traded their stickers in for various products. At the time, I was bouncing between two stores, but switched to focus all my grocery efforts on this promotion. The store got a regular customer and I got a sweet 8-cup coffee maker and not-so-sweet waffle maker (either its broken or I’m just that bad at making waffles).

If asked for your own example of customer loyalty, what would you give? Free months of phone service, flight upgrades to first-class, special hotel accommodations?

Most would probably think along the lines of a consumer, yet investments are an often overlooked area. Many of the same benefits for becoming a loyal customer in the consumer arena apply to the world of finance. Just as the grocery store was hungry for my purchases, so are financial institutions hungry for your investments.

More of a long-term plan, “Asset Aggregation” doesn’t get the same amount of discussion as say, Asset Diversification or Asset Allocation. Plus, it’s probably not the first thing to come to mind unless you’ve got a few extra zeroes in your account.

Let me clarify. There’s really two camps: private wealth management and discount brokerage

preferred clients. Private wealth management refers to the full-service operations within organizations like: UBS, Deutsche Bank, & Morgan Stanley, who cater to families/individuals with assets of $20 million or greater. Premium client status offered by discount brokerages fall within bands ranging from $100,000 to $1+ million in assets.

For the purpose of this article, we’re going to look specifically at the discount brokerage services. Nevertheless, there are still 3 primary benefits to asset aggregation as I see it: savings, privileges, and throwing your weight around.

Savings

Would you believe Vanguard’s already rock-bottom fees could get even lower? For an easy example, the expense ratio is HALF as much for the 500 Index Admiral shares (0.09%) than the 500 Index Investor shares (0.18%).

Looking at Vanguard’s service breakdown, you’ll notice the words “free” a lot more moving farther right on the chart. For a personal investor, a financial plan will run you $1,000. If in one of the top-two tiers, that service is free to you.

Of course, they’re trading fees aren’t the cheapest – you can still see how they drastically reduce through asset aggregation ($25 vs. $8 per trade).

Privileges

Sometimes it may not be about the money directly, but indirectly. T. Rowe Price offers free memberships to Morningstar and Wall Street Journal. Those can be hefty subscriptions on the open market!

More interestingly, you’re granted special access to funds currently closed or stocks not yet on the market. Fidelity offers its select clients the ability to purchase initial public offerings (IPOs) that it, or any of its affiliates, underwrites.

Many of the organizations offer dedicated representatives. Having your own “bat phone” to call your broker directly could be useful, but I think it’s a somewhat inflated privilege. I would think firms aim to provide exemplary service at all service levels.

Throwing Your Weight Around

It’s always important to remember that you own your own money. Sounds silly right? About how often do people gripe about fees they pay and end up sticking with the institution?

One of the best stories of weight being thrown around was a friend from high school. After a car accident and during the phone call with the insurance company, the rates were going to skyrocket due to the accident, my friend’s gender, and relative age. The family had been with the insurer for many years and had all of their insurance with the group. The dad, a lawyer nonetheless, bluntly explained that he would promptly be leaving (along with all of his business) if his son’s rates increased.

While every account closed means less business, companies will shed a few extra tears if a big fish leaves their pond and will try to do whatever they can to retain them. This is where the empowering feeling of wealth comes in – you can finally appreciate that these companies need you, not the other way around.

In closing, asset aggregation can still be a consideration even if the assets aren’t there yet. When researching new institutions, look beyond the specific product you’re after and see what other services are offered. Will they afford you opportunities to grow within the company, or like the hermit crab, will you have to leave the old shell to find a bigger, better one?

©2010 Engineer Your Finances. All Rights Reserved.

Continued from Part I…

FE: On to How to Be a Fierce Competitor, the book’s focus is on sales and marketing. However, I think there’s applicability beyond this field. If you think about it, we are all managers of ourselves, so we could apply the same principles if we wanted to become stronger employees. What’s your take? Does the book’s theme cover all areas of professional fierceness?

JF: Yes, the book’s applicable to all disciplines, but in context. There are two main competencies – marketing & innovation. All employees, 100% of them, are responsible for acquiring and retaining profitable revenues. That could be the engineers creating new product lines or the marketing team bringing in new clients. While each employee draws from the company’s bottom line, they each contribute in some way.

One of the chapters touches on how to conduct sales meetings with laser beam focus. Too many meetings are a waste of time and resources, so any industry that has meetings (that is, all of them) could benefit from what’s in the book.

FE: I noticed something very interesting about your book. Taking a more realistic approach, you highlight actionable traits beyond the intangibles. Many other books in this genre get trapped in the “believing” of becoming better, not in the “doing”. Do you think these characteristics set the book apart?

JF:  I use a phrase in How to Become CEO – WACADAD – Words Are Cheap And Deeds Are Dear (sounds like something a Muppet would say). Leadership needs to come from the CEO. It shows that everyone within the organization could be doing something because the CEO is.

Whenever you hear buzzwords like “synergy”…. RUN! Buzzwords are the language of non-doers. They are used to disguise what those who aren’t doing, aren’t doing.

FE: Along the same lines, what’s your opinion – unlimited possibilities in a limited world or limited possibilities in an unlimited world? Meaning, there’s a limited number of Fortune 500 CEO positions (500 to be exact), but anyone can start their own business and become CEO. Are we predestined to a certain ceiling of success or is the adage “you can become anything you set your mind to” hold true?

JF:  Absolutely not! A stalemated company only reflects stale managers. Here’s my take. Successful companies: create markets, create their own economy, & create industry. There are many examples whereby companies had no market, but they created their own and the truly innovative ones ultimately go on to create an industry.

This has to be the most successful form of marketing – creating a product that everybody needs, but nobody has. Think of a simple technology like email. Nowadays, people are crippled without a connection! Yet everyone communicated easily enough before it.

FE: Speaking of CEOs, you are the founder of your own marketing consultancy, Fox & Company. Before that, you acted in various vice president and director roles such as the wine division of The Pillsbury Co. What catalyst led you to starting your own firm? Was it a home run from the get-go, or were the early years patchy? Did you end up learning more about your industry once you branched out on your own?

JF:  Of course it wasn’t rosy, but we’ve been successful since the beginning. We’re constantly adopting and growing the service. While very hard to consistently produce, it can be very easy to lose. Every day I work myself out of a job. That’s the goal within marketing. You have to in order to become good at it, and that constant pressure helps maintain the focus.

I always knew that I’d start my own firm and even noted this in my Harvard application. Actually, I started a few in college and was even written up in the book, How to Succeed in Business Before Graduating From College.

Have you seen business school ranking? Harvard and Stanford are consistently ranked 19^th or 20^th. Following graduation the majority of students, really 50% or more, go into family businesses, working for small start-up firms, or starting their own businesses.

FE: One of your firm’s strategies is a proprietary technique known as “Dollarization”. From your website, “Dollarizing is the act of assessing the differences between your products and competitive products and calculating the financial impact those differences have on your customer.” Can you explain how this process came to be and how successful it has been for your clients?

JF:  Truly believe in Dollarization as one of the most critical business principles. A relatively simple concept, companies never buy anything – they invest. If you think of the core functions of a company, you can break it down to: reducing current costs, increasing revenue, and stopping future costs. Many people confuse cheapness with value. Whatever is cheapest now, usually will be most expensive in the long term.

*We went on to discuss how this concept plagues engineering. Many times projects are optimized for longevity, but typically derailed by funding shortcomings. It becomes a “what can we get for this much now”.

FE: Wrapping up, let’s find out something a little more personal about you. It appears you purchased an old home, then proceeded to move it 3 miles next to a brook. Care to elaborate? Did you literally have the home picked up and moved? Was that site something you always envisioned having a home next to?

JF:  Oh yes! This was another “defining moment” for me. One day, I walked into the local drugstore and the owner offered me thei house FOR FREE. A large complex was being built and they were going to tear down everything in that area. The only stipulation was I had to “move” it.

So I started researching how to move a home, started calculating the costs, and organized the team (movers, police, etc). I also found this plot of land by a creek that was owned by an older lady. I simply asked if she would sell a segemented part of it, and that I’d pay cash.

She agreed, so I needed then get the financing. I found a Harvard graduate banker and pitched my approach. Explained that because of the low cost for moving the home and the location it was being moved to – it would be twice what it was worth once in place.

He agreed and I was right! The entire relocation cost $27,250 and it was valued at $50,000 after the move so the difference was my equity. It was a nice little start after graduation for my new family.

FE: Now for my own benefit as I’ll be reading Don’t Send a Resume next. After pursuing my own dream job and landing flat on my face, there’s this lost sense of feeling. This seems to be a common theme many people are experiencing right now. What are your suggestions as far as: reassessing your interests, realigning your expectations, and getting back on track?

*We ended up talking predominantly about my own experience. Mr. Fox definitely bolstered my confidence and reassured me that he saw ZERO mistake with the risk I took. It was an incredible opportunity for someone as young as myself, and there was nothing to regret.

Alright folks! That concludes the interview with Jeffrey Fox for How to Be a Fierce Competitor. If you enjoyed the write-up, make sure to check out the book along with the other dozen he’s written.

©2010 Engineer Your Finances. All Rights Reserved.

While performing my due diligence, I learned more about Mr. Fox’s impressive (and extensive) accomplishments. Following the submission of my questions, I was equally caught off guard when he replied, “Your interview questions are very good. So good that I think the best way to do the interview is via phone”. He graciously gave me over an hour of his time. I jotted down notes while we spoke, so his responses are paraphrased below.

FE: Looking back on your career, you’ve created quite the legacy. Under the belief that all our experiences build on each other, there’s still those 1 or 2 “defining moments” that set our course for better or worse. Can you recall what those were for you? Was it graduating from Harvard, starting your own firm, authoring your first book, or something more out of the ordinary?

JF: Yes, there were two distinct instances I recall. The first was back in high school.

Collaborating with my good friend, we went on to win 4 or 5 science fairs at the regional level and I think even at the national level. My friend had all the mechanical abilities, and figured out how to make these projects actually work. I was the one to come up with the ideas. We created a camera to photo snow for $14, we ran wheels through brine at different speeds to show corrosion rates, and we created an optical illusion using convex lenses.

Through these I began to understand positioning and realized it’s importance. I think a lot of the reason we won wasn’t just the projects, but our presentation. For example, we were supposed to be doing a biology project. While everyone else was growing plants, we created an illusion were an image was inverted through lenses. This had absolutely nothing to do with biology until I realized the resemblance to our eyes and the similarity to the process they perform (converging lenses).

The second was my application to Harvard Business School. I had the grades, but knew I needed something to stand out. After a presentation at our school, I went up and asked the representative, “How do you get in”. He replied, “All these years I’ve been doing this, no one has ever asked me”. He went on to explain that grabbing the attention of admissions and getting them to read your essay was a big component.

During that time, there was an ad campaign with the slogan, “Keyed up executives unwind at the Sheraton”. The ad had a businessman with one of those giant keys in their back. So I got a Ken doll and wind-up toy. Dressing the Ken doll up to look like the businessman, pasting a photo of my face on the doll, and attaching the key part from the other toy, I sent the makeshift doll along with the note “Wind me up at Harvard” to the director of admissions (Anthony Athos).

All my friends had told me it was too gimmicky, too much of a risk, and I shouldn’t do it. But I disregarded all of their advice, and went on to attend Harvard Business School. So it wasn’t simply winning those science fairs, but learning how to understand your market. Nor was it graduating from Harvard, but the process of getting in.

FE: You’ve authored an impressive 11 books in the past 12 years. That’s almost 1 book per year! What prompted the decision to pursue writing in the first place, and how were you able to maintain that explosive growth? If I had to guess, I’d say the books were already written in your head and it was simply getting pen to paper.

JF: Purely by luck. I’d been putting together ideas for kids of friends as a favor. Being asked to speak to a graduating class as a trustee at Trinity College, I gave a spiral-bound collection of these ideas as a gift. Very simple, nothing fancy – something you’d make at Kinko’s. Without my knowing, these kids began making copies and distributing to their friends. The little book made it all the way from Connecticut to California, and a publisher contacted me saying, “I think I have a copy of your book”. It was the first time I found out it was being copied.

Giving it the title, “How to Become CEO” – we made it look like an actual book. It got bumped up to a publisher who offered $50k. I asked them if that was good and they said for a “non-celebrity, no-name” it was very good. I told them I’d think about it. Then another publisher came in with a pre-emptive offer of $125k. I asked them what that meant, they said the offer was only good until 3pm that day. I said I’d think about it, then told them let’s do it. The book went on to become New York Times bestseller and was published in over 35 languages.

Yes, you’re right. Most of these ideas were already in my mind and it simply was getting pen to paper. None of these are based on research, only my observations and intuition.

Many of the books are well acclaimed. How to Become a Rainmaker was on the Business Week and Wall Street Journal best seller list along with being voted “1 of the best 100 business books ever written”. How to Become a Great Boss is required reading at large corporations like General Electric and Perot Systems.

FE: While we were introduced through your most recent book, How to Be a Fierce Competitor, your first book, How to Become CEO, was published in 1998. Do you ever take the time to review those earlier works and see how the information has changed with time? From what I read, I’d say the information is timeless – but maybe you’ve noticed a few tweaks here and there?

JF: To be immodest, I think they are both timeless and timely. That’s a very distinct characteristic not many authors can achieve. It just happened this book was written before the professional landscape changed. Not sure about tweaks yet, but again that’s because I believe the information is timeless.

*Started discussing social media & advertising.* Like when people were buying technology stock, it seemed like more people were buying into the projections versus the actual revenue.

The convergence of algorithmic and hardware technology have brought about this tsunami of information. Personally, it seems to be wasted time, and I’m not wholeheartedly convinced on viability of information and feel people are missing the message, which is most information.

TO BE CONTINUED…

©2010 Engineer Your Finances. All Rights Reserved.