I'll write a blog post on this topic, but let me start it here first.
Some of us ERs talk about "giving back" or "paying it forward" by teaching financial planning and ER skills to the next generation-- whether that's at a high school, a college, or an adult-education program.
I think we military have done a pretty fair job of that with "The Military Guide". The contributors handed me their advice (a few even wrote big parts of the chapters) and I organized the curriculum. It's pretty straightforward and I'm told it's highly readable. However "giving back" and "paying it forward" happens every day in the military-- we just call it training. It's done in a variety of ways, but mostly in small groups with a speaker who teaches, demonstrates, and then leads the group in their own hands-on performance. Nuggets of knowledge are dispensed in 50-minute doses. I personally did it almost daily at two training commands for nearly eight years, and also several times a week on two submarines for over five years. I'm good at it.
So far the book's marketing has been in print or online, and it's spread largely by search engine or social networking. I've handed out lots of review copies to personal-finance bloggers, journalists, and "influential posters" on discussion boards, but there's no personal contact during the sales decision. (Although a few of you readers have taken the initiative to pass out the pocket guide at your commands.) The sales decision is totally in the reader's hands, and I have no idea who that is unless they e-mail me or post a comment.
But now I have a chance to do some of that paying-it-forward in front of a crowd. In the next month or two I'll actually talk about ER face-to-face with my first group of military. It'll probably be 10-20 servicemembers, veterans, and spouses at one of Oahu's local libraries. I plan to talk for 10-20 minutes and then take questions.
I have part-time support from the library's publicist. I have plenty of time to market this through military websites, base newspapers, flyers at military exchanges, and maybe even a radio PSA. In the entrepreneurial world it's known as an elevator pitch-- a random customer with whom you only have 30 seconds to set your hook and invite to a longer presentation.
Some of the advertising is straightforward:
- "ALL royalties support the troops through Wounded Warrior Project and Fisher House, the first two charities chosen by the book's contributors."
- "FREE copies of the book for the first five military servicemembers, veterans, or family members who sign up. $15 value."
- "FREE copies of the 4"x5" 64-page pocket guide for the next 10 people. Not in stores, these are only available from Impact Publications at $2.95/copy +S&H."
- "25 copies of the book will be on sale for $10 cash. $5 of each sale will be donated to Wounded Warrior Project and Fisher House."
If I hop up in front of the crowd with a PowerPoint presentation or a flip chart, they'll shoot me. We get enough of that in the military. (I'm referring to the PPTs and flip charts.) Instead I'm just going to hand out a page of bullet points. These are discussion topics, and the audience could take notes. Or they could flip through the book while I'm flapping my jaws and make their decision that way.
Here's the curriculum:
- The military's biggest drawdown in two decades is about to begin. Get ready by making yourself financially independent.
- Think about what you want to do after the military: bridge career, part-time work, or full-time retirement. Would you like to be financially independent when you leave the service? It typically takes 10-20 years but can happen as quickly as five years.
- The top three worries of all retirees are inflation, healthcare, and "But what will I DO all day?!?" The military retirement system takes care of the first two. You'll have no problem figuring out the third. Even if you don't retire from the military, you still have benefits.
- Track your spending for a few months.
- Develop your budget from what you've learned.
- Decide what's valuable to you, and allocate your spending accordingly. Save as much as possible. Max out the TSP and IRA(s) and put the rest in taxable accounts.
- Develop your retirement budget. What would you like to do all day?
- Calculate your savings goal, your savings rate, your asset allocation, and your financial independence date. The book shows you how.
- Frugality vs deprivation
- The fog of work
I'm going to dress for success: aloha shirt (untucked, of course), a nice pair of shorts, and slippers. Hey, I have an image to maintain.
The fun part of this will be selling the lifestyle while people think that I'm trying to sell them a book. Ha! I'm just there to pay it forward and talk story for a while. I enjoy that whether I sell books or not.
Maybe we should have ClifP plant himself in the audience to [-]heckle[/-] ask the "tough questions".
If you had 10-20 minutes in front of an ER-curious crowd, what points would you like to make?
Some of us ERs talk about "giving back" or "paying it forward" by teaching financial planning and ER skills to the next generation-- whether that's at a high school, a college, or an adult-education program.
I think we military have done a pretty fair job of that with "The Military Guide". The contributors handed me their advice (a few even wrote big parts of the chapters) and I organized the curriculum. It's pretty straightforward and I'm told it's highly readable. However "giving back" and "paying it forward" happens every day in the military-- we just call it training. It's done in a variety of ways, but mostly in small groups with a speaker who teaches, demonstrates, and then leads the group in their own hands-on performance. Nuggets of knowledge are dispensed in 50-minute doses. I personally did it almost daily at two training commands for nearly eight years, and also several times a week on two submarines for over five years. I'm good at it.
So far the book's marketing has been in print or online, and it's spread largely by search engine or social networking. I've handed out lots of review copies to personal-finance bloggers, journalists, and "influential posters" on discussion boards, but there's no personal contact during the sales decision. (Although a few of you readers have taken the initiative to pass out the pocket guide at your commands.) The sales decision is totally in the reader's hands, and I have no idea who that is unless they e-mail me or post a comment.
But now I have a chance to do some of that paying-it-forward in front of a crowd. In the next month or two I'll actually talk about ER face-to-face with my first group of military. It'll probably be 10-20 servicemembers, veterans, and spouses at one of Oahu's local libraries. I plan to talk for 10-20 minutes and then take questions.
I have part-time support from the library's publicist. I have plenty of time to market this through military websites, base newspapers, flyers at military exchanges, and maybe even a radio PSA. In the entrepreneurial world it's known as an elevator pitch-- a random customer with whom you only have 30 seconds to set your hook and invite to a longer presentation.
Some of the advertising is straightforward:
- "ALL royalties support the troops through Wounded Warrior Project and Fisher House, the first two charities chosen by the book's contributors."
- "FREE copies of the book for the first five military servicemembers, veterans, or family members who sign up. $15 value."
- "FREE copies of the 4"x5" 64-page pocket guide for the next 10 people. Not in stores, these are only available from Impact Publications at $2.95/copy +S&H."
- "25 copies of the book will be on sale for $10 cash. $5 of each sale will be donated to Wounded Warrior Project and Fisher House."
If I hop up in front of the crowd with a PowerPoint presentation or a flip chart, they'll shoot me. We get enough of that in the military. (I'm referring to the PPTs and flip charts.) Instead I'm just going to hand out a page of bullet points. These are discussion topics, and the audience could take notes. Or they could flip through the book while I'm flapping my jaws and make their decision that way.
Here's the curriculum:
- The military's biggest drawdown in two decades is about to begin. Get ready by making yourself financially independent.
- Think about what you want to do after the military: bridge career, part-time work, or full-time retirement. Would you like to be financially independent when you leave the service? It typically takes 10-20 years but can happen as quickly as five years.
- The top three worries of all retirees are inflation, healthcare, and "But what will I DO all day?!?" The military retirement system takes care of the first two. You'll have no problem figuring out the third. Even if you don't retire from the military, you still have benefits.
- Track your spending for a few months.
- Develop your budget from what you've learned.
- Decide what's valuable to you, and allocate your spending accordingly. Save as much as possible. Max out the TSP and IRA(s) and put the rest in taxable accounts.
- Develop your retirement budget. What would you like to do all day?
- Calculate your savings goal, your savings rate, your asset allocation, and your financial independence date. The book shows you how.
- Frugality vs deprivation
- The fog of work
I'm going to dress for success: aloha shirt (untucked, of course), a nice pair of shorts, and slippers. Hey, I have an image to maintain.
The fun part of this will be selling the lifestyle while people think that I'm trying to sell them a book. Ha! I'm just there to pay it forward and talk story for a while. I enjoy that whether I sell books or not.
Maybe we should have ClifP plant himself in the audience to [-]heckle[/-] ask the "tough questions".
If you had 10-20 minutes in front of an ER-curious crowd, what points would you like to make?