I was visiting a friend of mine at his office in downtown Baltimore, and prior to lunching, he introduced me to a few folks at his office. When we poked our head into the first office, he turned to me and said, “Well, you’re involved in so many different things…how do you introduce yourself?” I answered with the first thing that came to mind:
“I’m a husband and a father.”
Isn’t it interesting that when most people ask who we are, we answer with what we do?
My vocation—as a financial planner, educator and author—is to help clients, students and readers (you) connect who you are to what you do…with your life, in your family, in your career and through the commodity with which you interact constantly, your money.
My philosophy surrounding money is that personal finance is more personal than it is finance and that money has novalue other than that which we give it.
The company I am proud to call my vocational home is the Financial Consulate. We’re a fee-only, comprehensive financial management company. I am a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) practitioner working with individuals, families and organizations. A graduate of Towson University, I now enjoy (immensely) teaching financial planning at my alma mater. And a couple years ago, I was able to fulfill a dream of mine to write and publish a book. The best-selling author of The Ultimate Gift, Jim Stovall, helped make that possible, and our now our second collaboration, published through John Wiley & Sons, will be released in September of 2011 as The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life.
I love the art of communication, and I’ve had the privilege to hone it in a number of forums. I’ve been put under the hot lights of a television studio hoping something other than gibberish came out, including appearances on CNBC, ABC’s Nightline, WUSA Channel 9 (CBS in DC), WBAL-TV (NBC in Baltimore) and Fox 45 (in Baltimore). Some of the most fun I have each week is joining my friend and colleague, Drew Tignanelli as the co-host of Money, Riches & Wealth, a financial radio program on WCBM 680 AM in Baltimore each Wednesday at 6:00pm, and I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to one of my other favorite financial shows, the NPR program, Marketplace. In the most traditional of media forums, I’ve been humbled to see my name in papers and
periodicals I’ve admired for years, like The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, U.S. News & World Report and Money magazine, among others.
Although it took me several years to get on board, I’m now totally smitten by the realm of social media. Yes, I’m now Tweeting, Facebooking and active on LinkedIn. And after a friend of mine challenged to summarize a bunch of complex financial topics in under 90 seconds (if you haven’t noticed, I’m a little wordy), 90 Second Finance was born. (By the way, if you’re having trouble seeing the value in social media, I’d be happy to give you a couple of the tips that helped me see its value. Shoot me an email…)
The central home for all of my communication is my blog, simply named www.TimMaurer.com. I try to post something new each week—often enough to maintain a relationship, but not so often I’m clogging your information pipeline.
But as I mentioned at the very beginning of this bio turned book, my primary aim in life is improve who I am as a person, a husband and a father. It is those responsibilities with which I am charged, first and foremost, and it is to them who I owe my very best. My wife, Andrea, and I are the proud parents of two boys, Kieran and Connor, and attempt to be positively active members of our community. Outside of personal finance, my favorite pursuit is music, and I’m lucky to play the drums and sing in the indie-bluesy-jazzy-rock band, the Jon Maurer Band. I also serve on the board of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Maryland chapter, a cause near and dear to me, and on the advisory board of the charitably inclined ice cream company, Taharka Bros., whose Honey Graham ice cream you must try.
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Hi Tim:
I hope all is well with you and your family.
It was great to see you here at Towson teaching Personal Financial Planning. Things are the same for me here at Towson.
I have a friend, Kevin Davenport, who is also a former student. He Series 65 liscensed and I think has a great future in the industry.
He is currently tied up with a guy named Pete Schenk in Annapolis and making no money!!!
This didn’t seem right to me (he has a family) so I thought I would tell him to get in touch with you. You might be able to give him some career guidence or even a job!
I do think the world of Kevin. He is distinguished by both his work ethic and very ethical approach to personal finance issues. He is bringing in Pete good money, but his commissions are being used to defray marketing expenses. Morever, Pete has Kevin set up so he won’t get a positive cash flow for a year or so.
Dan
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I read your book a couple of years ago and try to catch your blog; thanks for your approach. Since in this bio you offered, I’d love to read what you say about using social media. There are so many options.
Thanks for your comments, Rick. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the book and blog. There are many options–almost assuredly, too many. That means you’re looking for the right one(s) that work for you. The three that I’ve found useful are as follows: LinkedIn has become the new business card. It’s less of a regular communication platform and more of an information collector, and one on which I think just about everybody in any business should have a presence. I do use Facebook for personal communication. I find its greatest value is in staying in touch with people I care about through pictures of our kids, but I’m not a big fan of business-oriented communication on Facebook. Twitter is the venue through which I do the most communication these days. It’s a great conduit for sending information about new blog posts and sharing the work of others I appreciate. It can also be a fun personal communication outlet. Although it’s a little outdated, here’s a post I wrote on the value I’ve found in Twitter: http://timmaurer.com/2011/08/24/twitter-a-resource/
There are some other great outlets that may work better for you. Google+, for example, has some great features–almost as a FB/Twitter hybrid–but I just decided that three was enough for me, so I haven’t been active on G+ for months. I hope this info is helpful! Let me know.
Tim
I appreciate the reply.
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Hi Tim
Heard your comments on NPR – your clients who work for Home Depot may be changing their tune about it being a great place to work. Benefits have been cut – new hires are getting paid less – hours are being cut & the new scheduling system leaves departments completley unstaffed at times & understaffed quite often. It was a great part time retirement job at one time – when your skills were respected and valued – not anymore. Corporate has realized customer service is not as important as pleasing your investors.
Debbie,
Thanks so much for your input. I’m disappointed to hear that the situation at Home Depot may have devolved for part-time workers. These have been tough times, indeed, and I hope that with the economy (and the housing sector) showing signs of swelling again, the situation might improve for HD workers. Of course, the big boom in home improvement was driven in large part by HELOCs (Home Equity Lines of Credit) that are no longer so readily available, so there may be a long-term hit in the DIY business as well. But, from my vantage point, the workers at Home Depot are still more numerous and seemingly happier than at the “other” big home improvement store.
Thanks again for your comments!
Tim
Hi Tim,
I heard your comments on NPR the other day with advice about how to make ends meet for retirement. As a REMAX broker here in Charlotte, NC, I was thrilled to hear that you recommended our city as a good place to chose for retirement living. Lately I have had more and more clients that moved here for the reasonable home prices and the quality of life. Thank you for putting us on the radar of your listeners,
Regards,
Helen Honeycutt