

Should I build a personal finance site for engineers? - rhopen

Before I transform my live financial education class to an online product, I&#x27;m trying to determine if engineers would use an online product that helps them develop a financial plan.  The plan lays out timeline to pay debts, improve credit score, budget expenses, save money, and build wealth through owning rental properties (property managed by third party).  We&#x27;re doing this successfully now, but want to scale it online.  I think engineers would be a terrific initial segment.  Am I right or wrong?
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yen223
I'd certainly like a good personal finance site, but there's one challenging
aspect: personal finance works differently depending on which country you are
located. Example: Where I'm from, we don't have 401k's, we have something
called the EPF. Overcome this, and the world is your oyster.

Also, why limit this to engineers? Is there something about the way we
engineers handle our finances that's different from the general population?

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rhopen
I really hadn't thought about making the material relevant across borders.
I've been helping people in the US and the issues here are pretty complicated,
e.g., taxes, federal student loans, and social security. Given that 95% need
help, I figured this is a huge market.

Like all "lean startups," I'm in search of early adopters and my hypothesis is
that engineers would fit nicely - smart, problem-solvers, analytical, solid
income, and detail oriented.

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matthewjames
I think that you could scale this idea better. Setup a Google Docs workflow,
start with defing your abstract and key features and continue from there.

They key is to differentiate, how will you become different and provide more
value, than say a service like Mint?

Do you have any other team members or are you flying solo?

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rhopen
A key part of the "product" I'm envisioning will be education (video,
documents, workbooks, webinars). With our current students, we have been
educating them about the financial issues in the US (macro issues like the
federal debt, shift from employers bearing the risk of funding retirement to
employees, taxes, rising cost of college, social security running...) and
personal financial issues (credit card debt, budgeting, improving credit
score).

And then we take a completely different approach to building wealth and that
is to invest in rental properties. The appeal here is you leverage your money
through mortgages. And investment is securitized with the physical asset.

Essentially we've set up a timeline showing our students how to get on track
financially (pay off bad debt, live within their means, increase their income,
increase savings, and acquire properties). We show them how to take cash flow
from property 1 and add that to their savings to get property 2 and so on. And
then there is a date in the future when cash flow = monthly expenses. It's a
shockingly short timeframe that inspires them to implement the plan.

It's working and it's really inspirational. My challenge and frustration is
scaling this. btw, i have some info on my site at www.FiRevolution.com.

So, to answer your other questions. Very different approach than other
personal finance sites. And right now flying solo with a few advisors. All
self funded to date.

