Category Archives: Toastmasters

What Is Financial Independence?

Here are my notes from a speech I gave yesterday at the Port Orange Toastmasters club contest. While I came in 2nd out of 3 contestants (Dr. Charles Carroll won with his speech on smiles), it was a great experience to compete in a club contest for the first time, and we had a larger audience than usual—about 25 people. I actually ended up speaking without the notes at all, though I set them on the table as a psychological device and could have looked at them at any time.

What Is Financial Independence?
Speech by Richard Thripp | 5–7 minutes
Port Orange Toastmasters Club Contest
February 22, 2017

How to FIRE yourself and never work another day in your life unless you absolutely want to.

Imagine never having to work another day in your life
When?
You might think at Age 65 or Age 70
What if it could be earlier?
FIRE yourself
That’s F-I-R-E
Financial Independence and Retire Early
Big online community: Reddit, blogs, et cetera
Many retiring at 40 or even 30
What do you need to FIRE yourself?
Ideally, about 20 times your annual cost-of-living
This is a lot
40 times a 6-month emergency fund
If your cost-of-living is $50,000 per year, you need to invest 20 times that = $1 million
Live off dividends
Invest where? Mostly whole-market or S&P 500 index funds [with Vanguard]
Max out 401(k) and IRAs for tax savings
NOT money market savings — must be stocks [Can put 401(k) + IRAs in stocks]
Whole market reduces risk
Long time horizon reduces risk
After maxing retirement accounts, use taxable investment accounts
Yield of whole-market index fund = Average 7%, INFLATION ADJUSTED, per year
Money doubles every 10 years
MUCH HARDER to achieve financial independence without stocks
Long-term (> 1 year) capital gains tax only 20% max, compared to 39.6% for earned income
What is financial independence?
The ability to not work another day in your life

It doesn’t mean you MUST not work
Many people enjoy working
If freelancing, et cetera, the 20× rule might become the 10× rule
HOW to become financially independent?
MUST save tons of money
Maybe 50% of income
Hard if you’re a “shop-a-holic”
Hard if you have kids
But, many tricks
Example: Moving to a lower cost-of-living area when retiring
MUST change your money mindset
More tools available than ever
Get online and start reading
FIRE yourself


Here are the notes I took on my speech performance immediately after giving the speech. Yes, I wrote them in third person, which is weird.

How do you become financially independent?
Save save save
Invest in stocks
Low-fee index funds
Told story about TIAA charging 14% management fees and making it very hard to get money out
Trump’s in; Stock market going “bonkers” — why was my TIAA money going down?
Richard engaged audience many times by asking them to raise their hand — how many know what financial independence is? How many believe a CD is a good vehicle (none)? How many believe all bonds is good (none)? Then, Richard joked how smart the audience was. He also joked about being able to leave a job where the boss is making inappropriate jokes requiring an uncomfortable smile to keep one’s job (referencing Charles’s speech).


A fellow Toastmaster approached me after the speech, incredulous that the stock market produces 7% annualized inflation-adjusted returns on average. Here is additional information I wrote for him:

Here is a source on the 7% annual average returns in whole-market or S&P 500 index mutual funds:

www.thesimpledollar.com/where-does-7-come-from-when-it-comes-to-long-term-stock-returns/

The FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) calculator at FIREcalc.com can show you projected returns based on all prior year periods based on how much money you intend to retire with and how many years the money needs to last.

If you have enough money, you can just live off the dividends of this index fund: personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0585&FundIntExt=INT

Of course, we are in an unusual time right now (market is up 22% in the past year). It’s hard to say whether investing now is a good idea (is the market in a bubble?), but generally, trying to time the market doesn’t work well, so most people advise investing now, or a little bit each month.


More thoughts:

Obviously, if you put your money in stocks just for one year, there is about a 25% chance you will lose money, and maybe a 40% chance you won’t earn 7% returns. But, if the money is in there 10 years, the odds of at least 7% annualized inflation-adjusted returns are higher (which means your money could double—1.07^10 is 1.97), and over 20, 30, or 40 years, even higher still. This is why a long time horizon is important, and why retiring early with hefty investments is not only psychologically powerful, but financially powerful.

For further reading, I suggest James Collins’s blog and the Financial Independence Reddit forum.

How to Use Toastmasters Club Central: A Guide for Club Officers [Presentation]

How to Use Toastmasters Club Central: A Guide for Club Officers from Richard Thripp on SlideShare

Presentation Summary: Learn how to use Club Central on www.toastmasters.org to add new members to a club, pay dues, and submit educational awards.


Additional material regarding updating club meeting information, submitting officer lists, searching club receipts, understanding club membership rosters, and understanding Addendums of Standard Club Options is provided below:

Please review the CLUB CENTRAL TIP SHEET [local mirror] from District 3 Toastmasters and/or the GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH CLUB CENTRAL guide [local mirror] by Debbie Hardy, DTM as noted below.

• The Addendum of Standard Club Options (“Club Bylaws”) can be adjusted online via Club Central. Significant changes should not be made without a majority vote of the officers at an officers’ meeting. Most of this is fairly self-explanatory. Note that the new member fee and dues INCLUDES International dues. I have uploaded Port Orange Toastmasters’ bylaws for reference. Our new member fee is $25 because $20 goes to TI and $5 goes to our club. Similarly, our dues are $48 per 6 months because $36 goes to TI and $12 goes to our club. See also: page 7 of Club Central Tip Sheet.

• Searching club receipts: See page 6 of Club Central Tip Sheet.

• Updating club meeting information—see page 3 of Club Central Tip Sheet or page 12 of Getting Comfortable with Club Central.

• Submitting officer lists—see page 1 of Club Central Tip Sheet or pages 13–15 of Getting Comfortable with Club Central.

• Understanding club membership rosters—see page 6 of Club Central Tip Sheet or page 19 of Getting Comfortable with Club Central. Additional notes: members in “grace” are late on paying their dues. After 2 months, they are removed from the roster. Members who are “active” are up-to-date on their dues.


Download slides in PDF format (4.5 MB)

Created by Richard Thripp and presented on 5/11/2016 at Port Orange Toastmasters to fulfill Project 5: Enhancing a Technical Talk with the Internet from the Technical Presentations manual in the Toastmasters Advanced Communication Series.

Tags: toastmasters, club central, toastmasters officers, public speaking, leadership, club administration, nonprofits, toastmasters clubs, toastmasters chapters, web guides

Calibrating Your Locus of Control [PowerPoint]

Calibrating Your Locus of Control from Richard Thripp on SlideShare

Presentation Summary: Listeners will be introduced to the topics of loci of control, attributions, and calibration. The speaker will use logical arguments to persuade the listener that internal and external loci of control are both appropriate in different situations, and will provide a framework for loci of control that considers calibration.

Download in Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 format (530 KB)
Download in PDF format (111 KB)

Created by Richard Thripp and presented on 5/04/2016 at Port Orange Toastmasters to fulfill Project 2: The Proposal from the Technical Presentations manual in the Toastmasters Advanced Communication Series.

Tags: locus of control, beliefs, mindsets, psychology, calibration, attributions, relativism, situationism, philosophy, personal development

The Components of Credit Scores [PowerPoint]

Presentation Summary: Learners will be informed of the components that make up their FICO credit scores and the factors that contribute to these components. Learners will come away with actionable steps they can take to improve their credit scores.

Download in Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 format (523 KB)
Download in PDF format (166 KB)

Created by Richard Thripp and presented on 4/27/2016 at Port Orange Toastmasters to fulfill Project 1: The Technical Briefing from the Technical Presentations manual in the Toastmasters Advanced Communication Series.

The word belvedere was incorporated into slide 16 because it was the Word of the Day selected by the WordMaster at the 4/27/2016 meeting of Port Orange Toastmasters.

Tags: financial literacy, credit scores, fico, credit cards, personal finance, money management, credit bureaus, toastmasters

Introduction to the Mindset Model [PowerPoint]

A presentation explaining fixed and growth mindsets including applications and implications.

Download in Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 format (1.3 MB)
Download in PDF format (1.1 MB)

Created by Richard Thripp and presented on 2/24/2016 at Port Orange Toastmasters to fulfill Project 3: The Nontechnical Audience from the Technical Presentations manual in the Toastmasters Advanced Communication Series.

References

Burnette, J. L., O’Boyle, E. H., VanEpps, E. M., Pollack, J. M., & Finkel, E. J. (2013). Mindsets matter: A meta-analytic review of implicit theories and self-regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 655–701. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029531

Dweck, C. S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American Psychologist, 41, 1040–1048. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.41.10.1040

Gunderson, E. A., Gripshover, S. J., Romero, C., Dweck, C. S., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Levine, S. C. (2013). Parent praise to 1- to 3-year-olds predicts children’s motivational frameworks 5 years later. Child Development, 84, 1526–1541. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12064

Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 33–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.33

Paunesku, D., Walton, G. M., Romero, C., Smith, E. N., Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2015). Mind-set interventions are a scalable treatment for academic underachievement. Psychological Science, 26, 784–793. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797615571017

Rattan, A., Good, C., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). “It’s ok — Not everyone can be good at math”: Instructors with an entity theory comfort (and demotivate) students. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 731–737. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.12.012

Tags: carol dweck, fixed-ability, growth, implicit theories of intelligence, mindsets, toastmasters