Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

Label:  Interview

(I think you get an idea of this is about mentorship.)

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

• At this stage in my project I am not spending as much time with my mentor as I would like. One of the main reasons for this are the legal issues of being exposed to his clients information. I am going to try and devise a plan to try and work around this, so I can become more familiar with how he works and see if I can work on some of his daily tasks. There are additional experts in his office who may be able to assist me in addition to my mentor. Whatever help I am able to get will be under the supervision of my mentor.

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?

• My parents knew my mentor since they have worked together before. They then told me about him when helping me come up with my topic. My mom told him about my senior project and my topic of becoming a millionaire was all about. She told him that we were looking for a person who was skilled in his field and who has worked with other millionaires and she though of him. My mom then made an appointment with him so that he and I could meet to discuss my project in more detail. We met at his office in Corona and I explained to him what my goals were with my topic and senior project. After listening to my presentation and asking me more questions about why I wanted to do this topic, he agreed to be my mentor.

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person?

• While I feel I have a good relationship with my mentor, I need to have more face to face time with him. I am comfortable talking to him about many financial issues as he has a every easy going personality. When I conduct interviews with him over the phone, I am still a little too formal. I believe more face to face time will help me develop a closer understanding of how he helps people become millionaires.   

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

• The interview went very well because I was able to find out more information about him on a more personal basis. Before this point I had no idea of what my mentor did. All I knew about him was that he was a financial adviser, worked at Trilogy Financial, and his name was Eric Myre. Now I know he was into sports, liked mathematics and wanted to help people. I still need to improve upon developing follow-up questions. While I am listening and paying attention to what my mentor is saying, I still find it difficult to come up with follow up questions. I believe the reason for this is that I am being too formal in my approach to the interview. I end up not knowing what to say and just move on to my next question. To try and over come this I plan on putting more focus on conducting my future interviews on a more informal basis. Since my mentor has a easy going personality, trying this approach may make it easier for me to come up with additional questions.

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

Label:  Blogs

(The sign for advice is here, if they were made.)

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person (I have completed the interview, I have scheduled the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc).

• I do have a mentor, and I have scheduled the interview.

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.

• One area I am most interested in is minimizing debt and developing a plan to become wealthy. I have chosen these two areas because everyone doesn't want debt, and knowing how to minimise debt before you get it is extremely helpful. For developing a plan to become wealthy, it was mostly due to that without a plan, people will spend money like crazy and won't know how much money they really have.

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

• I think the kind of sources that will help me to gain more research depth, are subjects dealing with debt and learning self control of money. Debt is one topic that I need to understand more for the area i am interested in. For learning self control of money is mostly for teaching people hey here is how to teach yourself to be more reserved with your money. I plan to get these sources from the Cal Poly Library since they have a vast amount of resources that I can look at.

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process.

• How to become a millionaire, without gambling and winning the lottery?

Blog 8: Independent Component 1 Proposal

Label: Independent Component

(This is where I will be making the website from.)

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

• I plan on develop a live website that will describe and educate visitors on how to become a millionaire. I will create several pages that will outline specific areas that people should learn to know how to become wealthy. Specific areas such as avoiding debt, investing, budgeting, and insurance are some of the topics I will cover. I will utilize my mentor's experience and information contained in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University book to develop the web pages.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

• Every time I create pages and or updates to the live website, I will document those on my Senior Blog. All updates and or pages created can be seen in real time. Links to the updated work will be included in each Senior Project Hours Log update.

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

• This process will help me research and organize the specific topics I believe people should know when learning how to become wealthy. By looking at each topic in greater detail, it will help me understand the reasons behind the guidance my mentor and Dave Ramsey are providing.

4.  Update your Senior Project Hours log.

• Done.

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

Label: Interviews

(Good advice, coming from a guy who ruined an entire ecosystem.)

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

• My mentor's name is Eric Myre, who is the Senior Vice President of Investments and a Partner at Trilogy Financial Services, Inc. This company helps people with their finances and how to be better with their finances.

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

• What made you want to become a financial planner?
• When you wanted to become a financial planner, what was it like working to get your degrees and licenses?
• What was it like working at Trilogy Financial for the first time?
• Did you ever have problems dealing with clients, if so how did you deal with them?
• How has Trilogy Financial changed from when you started working till now?

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

Label:  Blogs

(I just find this hilarious. The two characters are called Mimi and Eunice.)

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?

• What has worked well is working with my mentor, since he is nice and fun to talk to. Another thing that has worked well is learning about my topic. It's interesting to see how there is so much to take in about my topic and how people fool you into doing terrible things with your money. This information has opened my eyes on being careful with my money.

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

• Honestly I have two problems, one is finding more sources since I have found many already on different subjects, but trying to find more good sources on them is a bit difficult. I could solve this by spreading my search area more, but it would be nice to see some examples of what my research should be for senior project. The other thing is coming up with independent component 1 ideas, since I have no idea what I really should do. I really need to brainstorm more ideas to help me see What I really could do. The senior team can help me with brainstorming these ideas that are still out of my grasp.

Blog 5: Interview 1 Reflection

Title: Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection
Label:  Interview

(The end of the interview is here.)

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

• I learned that there is still a lot of learning when it comes to this subject since there are ways where it can go bad. I would ask follow up questions since I know I didn't make any. 

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

• No, since I had the resource and contact already before the interview. The most useful was the resource since it's a book called The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. This has helped me get a general idea of how to use money well and what to watch out for.

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me?

• My interviewee is my mentor who knows a lot about my topic. He has been working at his job for 8 years, and has had clients that I can interview myself.

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep 1

Label:  House Advisory

Be careful of the debt monster, everyone is afraid of him.

Write a short explanation of what you are hoping to accomplish through your senior project topic.

• I have always wanted to stay out of debt as far back as I can remember. The idea of having no money and being in the street is just awful. This is why learning to become a millionaire will not only help me stay out of debt, but to live a comfortable life. I also want to use the knowledge I will learn, and show other people how they can become millionaires and to hopefully not be forever in debt.