The Tech Money Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Tech Money Podcast
Long gone are the days of investing solely for the bottom line. A growing percentage of investors want to put their hard-earned money behind organizations that align with their personal values. Some want to move away from a one-size fits all basket of blue-chip stocks, for one that supports initiatives that actually matter to them. While some may strictly invest in this manner as an outward expression of their values, others believe this is a winning formula for people and the planet.
Are the supply chains ethically developed? Do the employees receive fair compensation? What is the background of C-Suite executives and the board of directors? When investors base financial decisions on these factors, it is known as ESG investing. ESG Investing is a strategy that takes into account the Environmental, Social, and Governance factors of an organization. How a company affects the environment, how it treats its employees and communities, and how leadership governs the organization all contribute to a company’s ESG profile. But from a financial standpoint, are these initiatives really worth the hype?
In this episode, Malcolm Ethridge sits down with Daniel Naim, founder and CEO of Fennel, an ESG investing platform created to empower retail investors with the knowledge required to advance the “engaged shareholder movement”. Daniel shares how after beginning his own personal investing journey, he observed the ways in which traditional investment platform models fail to encourage the alignment of customer and company values. Daniel shares the key ESG metrics he believes investors should pay attention to, as well his personal mission to promote shareholder activism across the industry.
Daniel Naim discusses:
- The importance of voting your shares as an investor
- How to look underneath the hood and find a company’s true social and environmental impact
- Ways that retail investors can come together to help force companies to become more environmentally conscious
- The lesser known dangers of payment for order flow and securities lending
Connect With Daniel:
- LinkedIn: Daniel Naim
- Get Fennel
Connect With Malcolm Ethridge:
- The Tech Money Podcast
- LinkedIn: Malcolm Ethridge
- Connect with Malcolm
- @MalcolmOnMoney
About Our Guest:
Daniel Naim is a physics PhD who grew up in Beirut Lebanon and went to university at Berkeley. He is intent on making the world a better place.He also developed an anti-neutrino detector that could be used to measure the plutonium production of nuclear reactors from over 100 miles away. This detector simultaneously pushed the frontier of dark matter detection in the WIMP candidate space by over 3 orders of magnitude.
In this episode, Malcolm Ethridge sits down with friend of the show, Chris Hill, to discuss ways to identify and develop your own investor personality. Chris reflects on some of his best and worst investing decisions over the years. And the pair share some of their own rules for determining which stocks to buy and when.
Chris Hill discusses:
- The difference between being a value or growth investor
- How to determine when it’s time to buy or sell a stock
- The importance of dividends and whether you consider a stock that doesn’t offer one
- How his investing preferences have changed as he has gotten older and become a more experienced investor
Resources:
Quartr Insights
Connect With [GUEST]:
- LinkedIn: Chris Hill
- Twitter: Chris Hill
- Motley Fool Money Podcast
Connect With Malcolm Ethridge:
- The Tech Money Podcast
- LinkedIn: Malcolm Ethridge
- Connect with Malcolm
- @MalcolmOnMoney
About Our Guest:
Chris Hill hosts "Motley Fool Money", a daily podcast. He also oversees The Motley Fool's growing network of podcasts and audio programming. A graduate of Boston College and The American University, Chris lives and works in Alexandria, Virginia.
According to a recent survey conducted by Bankrate dot com, Americans’ biggest financial regret is not saving enough for emergencies. In fact, 20% of respondents gave this answer - even topping the reigning top response related to saving too little for retirement. And when broken down further, older millennials (36 percent) were more than twice as likely than baby boomers (14 percent) to say they regret not having a strong enough emergency fund. And when asked what they intend to do with their money going forward, 26% of respondents said they will save more for emergencies, while another 21% said they will spend less.
Of course, this poll was administered in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic and all of the financial disruption that has come along with it. But it got my attention that when asked about financial regrets, the answer had nothing to do with saving for the long term. It was about the here and now.
In this episode, Malcolm sits down with Aja Evans, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who specializes in financial therapy, to discuss the concept of financial regret, how to recognize it when you feel it, and how to move past it once you do. Aja and Malcolm share some of their own personal stories, and Aja remembers the very moment she realized she wanted to work with people to take control of their emotions around money.
Aja Evans discusses:
- Why it is so difficult for us to talk about money in an open and honest setting with friends and family
- The importance of focusing on your own financial situation rather than comparing yourself to others
- How to go a few layers deep and identify the true reason for the feelings we have about our money
- Some exercises she recommends to clients to help them identify them moments when they feel anxious about money
Connect with Aja Evans:
- Aja Evans Counseling
- LinkedIn: Aja Evans
- aevans@ajaevanscounseling.com
About the Guest:
Aja Evans is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who specializes in financial therapy. She likes to say that she is on a mission to get more individuals engaged in living their best life, while attuning to their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors around money. In January 2015, she launched Aja Evans Counseling, a New York-based financial therapy practice where she supports clients to begin working towards a better version of themselves. In addition to her work as a financial therapist, Aja is a speaker, writer, and fintech consultant, focusing on the intersection of mental health and money. She believes that whether you are struggling with anxiety, self-esteem, relationships, or regret, gaining control of your finances will help you live the life you want.
As a founder, it can be challenging to know when to make the shift from pouring every dollar you have into getting your startup off the ground to taking a few chips off the table to eventually paying yourself first. However, every business owner should begin to separate their own personal finances from the business as soon as possible for a few different reasons.
In this episode, Malcolm Ethridge sits down to discuss best financial practices for founders and how to know when it is time to begin to allocate your revenue to more personal goals. Malcolm runs through tools and tricks to grow your business and build sustainable financial habits for you and your business.
Malcolm discusses:
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How to invest in your own business and build funds for your long-term goals
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Counterbalancing your business’s high burn rate with low personal expenses
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Reinvesting extra cash flow into retirement and diverse investments
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Protecting what you have built and your loved ones through insurance
Connect With Malcolm Ethridge:
-
The Tech Money Podcast
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LinkedIn: Malcolm Ethridge
-
Connect with Malcolm
-
@MalcolmOnMoney
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If you are a person who is paid in restricted stock units each year, it’s important that you develop a plan for how and when you will convert those shares into actual dollars well before they actually vest.
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If there’s one thing we all have in common, regardless of age, gender, profession, or socio-economic status, it’s a good deal. And one thing many of us love to be able to say that we got a good deal on is travel. In fact,
Receiving a financial windfall, such as winning the lottery, may seem glamorous to those of us who never have. Still, even if half of the news articles or TV shows covering lottery winners are accurate, it may not be all that it’s cracked up to be.
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You’ll often hear about companies and their founders who made the decision to pivot from their initial big idea that wasn’t quite working right, to something else that ended up being the best thing that ever happened to them.
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In the past couple of years, much has been made of the so-called Great Resignation, and workers of all ages, demographics, and geography leaving their company for greener pastures, in the form of a substantial raise, signing bonus,