what's trending (right now!) in personal finance
TRANSCRIPT
Trends in Personal Finance
Presenter: Karin Kane, Chief Operating Officer, evolve24
Karin is the COO of evolve24, an analytics firm that specializes in audience perception. Her career includes work at Sherpa Analytics, a big data analytics firm; Thomson Reuters, a media company; Georgeson, a financial consulting firm; and the Carson Group, a financial services firm. She holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and a BS from the University of Notre Dame.
Karin lives with her family in Chicago, Illinois. She has mostly learned to ignore dubious stock tips shared by friends and relatives.
Trends in Personal Finance
May 2015
According to the Wall Street Journal:• Battles over money between couples
are frequent and brutal (4/12/15)
• College grads should plan for retirement NOW (5/7/15)
• 66% of households headed by someone
aged 65 to 74% are in debt (5/7/2015)
• Nearly one in three Americans are behind on their student debt payments (4/14/2015)
• Most people get an F on 529 Plan knowledge (05/19/15)
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But according to real people:
• Healthcare awareness and disease prevention is the most important financial issue!
• People are also worried about:– Saving money– Doing more for charity– Earning more money– And planning for college and post-
college life4#e24Insights
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HOW CAN THIS BE RIGHT?
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We are a big data analytics and insights
company that measures audience perception,
and uses that understanding to help
our clients change behavior.
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In other words…
We look at what people are actually talking
about, not what we think they should be talking
about!
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Broad Search returns MILLIONS of articles
Here’s How:
First, we search for personal finance conversations.
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Broad Search returns MILLIONS of articles
Filter out the JUNK
Insights Using a Big Data Approach
Goodbye, junk!
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10evolve24 2015. All Rights Reserved.
Broad Search returns MILLIONS of articles
Filter out the JUNK
Insights Using a Big Data Approach
Goodbye, junk!
Remove IRRELEVANT material
Goodbye, nonsense!
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11evolve24 2015. All Rights Reserved.
Broad Search returns MILLIONS of articles
Filter out the JUNK
Insights Using a Big Data Approach
Goodbye, junk!
Remove IRRELEVANT material
Goodbye, nonsense!
Then, we IDENTIFY TOPICS using a proprietary machine learning technique
evolve24 2015. All Rights Reserved.
Insights Using a Big Data ApproachThis leaves us with clean, precise topics around what people are discussing.
Our last step is to rank them in order of importance, by their ability to change behaviors.
Goodbye, nonsense!
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*** Each of these topics that we’re sharing is made up of hundreds of thousands (and for the first few, millions) of articles. We’ve examined the volume, impressions, share of voice, and sentiment for each one, and then looked at the topics within each topic to get a better sense of what the main sub-conversations are, or how it varies by audience group. We don’t show that data here, but it is available and you can contact us after this presentation if you’re interested.And full disclaimer: we are not investment professionals and this information should not be construed as offering investment advice. ***
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#1: Healthcare costs are a major concern.
“The lifetime cost to care for a child with
autism is estimated to be as great as $2.4
million.”Carnegie Mellon
University, April 1
Healthy eating really does give you more energy and saves you
money. Eating out becomes money guzzling. Plus you pickup
a good habit cooking
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The best way to save money in your lifetime, is to eat healthy in your mealtimes.
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#2. Trouble Saving Money is an issue for Everyone (but Millennials are most
open about it).
"I was at Target earlier this week and they have so many
cute items available right now! I picked up a few things that weren’t on sale and now I’m wishing that I had held out to
take advantage of this promotion!”
Shop Girl Daisy, April 3
“You ever bought something and regretted
it after? And you were just like damn.. That was a lot of money wasted...”
Twitter, April 2
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#3. Most people would like to do more for charity.
i have no money im so sad i rlly want this not only bc of jack but the
fact its for a good cause and i fully support
We raised over $10,000 to support the Bullhead
City/Laughlin @RelayForLife race on Saturday May 2.
#visitlaughlin
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#4. Earning more is important to most people – and talk is growing along with talk of increasing the minimum wage.
I'm just trying to make minimum wage and I'm
honestly feeling so attacked right now I NEED TO EARN
MORE MONEY WTH
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#5. Grads – and their families – are planning for post-college life. It won’t
be easy.
“One in three Americans required to pay down student
debt is a month or more behind on payments
http://on.wsj.com/1NDI8X5” Twitter, April 18
“Student loan companies will apply your payments
to principal amount owed LAST, so that as
much interest can accrue as possible.”
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What Are Recent Graduates Talking About?We looked at all topics of conversation from recent graduates, and then ranked them across two metrics: volume and emotion (behavior change).
Remember this is still personal finance conversations.
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What Are Recent Graduates Talking About?Highest volume conversations:1. Life After College2. Obama & Fed
Interest Rates3. Student Loan Help &
Advice4. Repayment Mistakes5. Gainful Employment
Restrictions (Loans)
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What Are Recent Graduates Talking About?Highest emotion conversations (most likely to change behavior):1. After College
Aspirations2. Student Loan Debt
for Young & Old3. Young Adult
(Financial) Planning4. Colleges Offer
Bonus For On Time Graduation
5. For-Profit Colleges Forced To Close
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It’s amazing what you can
learn when you listen!
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But now: what do I do with
this?
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So what can I do with these insights?
•Improve content marketing
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So what can I do with these insights?
• Inform your brand planning, strategy & creative work
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So what can I do with these insights?
•Avoid emerging risks
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So what can I do with these insights?
•Aid product development
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So what can I do with these insights?
•Adapt market research
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Summary
• This past month, by examining tens of millions of actual conversations, you can see that people are most concerned by:– Avoiding costly health issues – Saving money: ideally by not paying taxes, putting away
for retirement, or paying student loan debt– Doing more for charity, in small ways– Earning more money (especially as the minimum wage
increases)– And planning for college and post-college life
• You can use these in a variety of ways, from informing your brand planning through avoiding emerging risks
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