Recap of the Canadian Personal Finance Conference 2013

It’s been quite an eventful launch weekend. In the interest of full disclosure, we initially scheduled our blog to start later in the year but scored a wait listed ticket to the Canadian Personal Finance Conference 2013 for this past weekend. We threw a hail Mary and rushed to go live (bear with us as we continue to smooth out some of the rough edges) to capitalize on the fortuitous occasion. It was an amazing opportunity to put some faces to some of the sites in that we’ve been visiting regularly. What a whirlwind couple of days!

The enticing lineup of speakers included some of the pillars of personal finance in Canada. My pen was trying to keep up with the knowledge being spewed from the likes of MoneySense editor Jonathan Chevreau, and Globe and Mail Columnist Rob Carrick. As if that wasn’t enough, Ellen Roseman of the Toronto Star shared her passion in the continued fight for consumers’ rights and I sure will be looking to keep Kerry K. Taylor of SquawkFox’s advice on how not to kill our blog. Other topics covered practical aspects of blogging including run downs on potential tax and legal implications.

As much as the speakers were engaging and informative, I most enjoyed the interactions with the seasoned veterans such as Boomer & Echo and Krystal Yee of Give Me Back My Five Bucks. It’s nice to see how far their blogs have come, but it’s another thing to understand the motivation behind the personal journeys and realities that have led to their successes.

If there was only one thing that I will retain from CPFC13, it will be from a question I asked Rob Carrick and Canadian Couch Potato Dan Bortolotti in the hallway during a snack break. “What’s the best way for someone with a limited financial background to become effective in managing their financial future?” While a part of me somewhat expected a three point lesson plan available online at a limited-time promotional rate of $9.99, I got instead a much simpler answer:

“Time in.”

Like with any talent or skill, how well you develop and perform is in direct correlation with the amount of time and effort you spend to hone your craft. The same approach should be taken when wanting to sort out any financial situation. Only when you take the time to care about the state of your finances will you understand the direction in which you are headed. Once you have a sense of where you’re going, you can make adjustments along the way. While that may seem glaringly obvious, why is it then that so few apply the concept to their lives?

After a weekend with the personal finance community, it’s hard to ignore their underlying desire to empower everyday people with financial literacy. As an everyday young family with career ambitions, family plans and individual interests, we are going to have to find the time to understand the concepts if we want to set our financial house in order.

One thing is for certain, “You have much to learn, grasshopper.”