One Day, One Job » personal finance

BillShrink

Willy Franzen — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:55:32 +0000

We’re officially in the Christmas season, and that means lots of good things. One thing that isn’t so good is all of the spending that comes with buying people gifts (whether you enjoy the consumerist aspects of the holidays or not). It feels great to be generous, but only until you look at your credit card statement at the end of the month. Cutting back on gifts or making your own is one idea, but it’s a lot easier said than done. Your best bet is probably to find some other ways to save money so that you can buy everyone what you want to buy them. A great way to do that is BillShrink. They’re a Redwood City, CA based startup that offers “a free, personalized savings tool that helps you save money on your everyday bills.” If you can cut your cell phone, credit card, and gas bills, then you’ll be able to buy me (or someone you actually know) more gifts.

Shrinkage Is Good

The way that BillShrink works is pretty simple. You fill out a few forms and share some personal information with them (nothing too scary), and then they make recommendations that will save you money. Right now they focus mostly on credit card and cell phone bills, but they have plans to add more verticals in the future. The big question is: how does BillShrink pay their own bills? They have revenue sharing plans with their partners. That means that when they recommend that you change cell phone providers, they’re going to get some sort of payment for referring you. You’re still saving money, they’re making money, and their partner is also making money. The only loser is the company that was charging you too much. It’s a great business model, and it should continue to grow as people get more comfortable with using these kinds of services. If BillShrink sounds like something that you’d like to be a part of, you should check out their Jobs page. Although some of their internship offerings appear to be non-technical, the only entry level job they have right now is as a Front End Engineer. You can apply online and should also keep an eye out for other opportunities.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried BillShrink?

Wayne Hummer Wealth Management

Willy Franzen — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:03:39 +0000

Let’s be honest, as a new or recent college grad, you probably don’t have much wealth to manage. That’s why you’re looking for a job – so that you’ll be rich one day and have somebody else look after your finances. Wait! So, if wealthy people don’t manage their own money, then who does? Wealth management companies, of course. That means that you can get a job managing wealth without having any wealth of your own to manage. Ok, this is starting to sound like some too good to be true scam – my bad. Seriously, though, if you’re smart, have the drive, and are interested in all things financial, a career in wealth management could be worth a shot. Wealth managment is actually a pretty cool field – it pulls from a variety of disciplines that include banking, estate planning, tax advisory, investment management, legal advisory, and, of course, financial planning. If that sounds like something that you might like to do after graduation, then you should check out Wayne Hummer Wealth Management, a Chicago based firm that was founded in 1931.

Manage Your Way to Wealth

It’s hard to differentiate between wealth management firms when you don’t have much inside information to go on, so let’s jump right into entry level jobs with Wayne Hummer Wealth Management. Their Careers page includes a link to a PDF on their Wealth Manager Training and Development Program, which is targeted towards new grads. There’s a ton of information on what the program entails and what areas you’ll “rotate” into. There’s no need for me to repeat it, so check out their Training and Development Program, and if you like what you see, you can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to careers@whummer.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Wayne Hummer Wealth Management?

Thrive

Willy Franzen — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:49:49 +0000

Job searching is hard enough on it’s own. When you have to worry about not being able to feed yourself because you don’t have any income and your parents don’t want to support you anymore, the job search can become overwhelming. Obviously the best remedy is to get a job, but that’s easier said than done. No matter what, you can’t land a job in a single day unless you’re exceptionally lucky and good. What you can do to ease your financial fears is to start paying attention to personal finance (that’s a link to Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich, because he’s the go to guy for that kind of stuff). You can also start using Thrive, a website that “brings all your credit card, checking, savings, retirement, and investment accounts into one place so you can easily see what you have, what you owe, and where you can grow.” They’re based out of New York City, and as far as I can tell they’re offering a product that is extremely similar to Mint, which has been on my radar for well over a year now. Still, Thrive appears to have developed a great tool for monitoring your personal finances, and since they’re hiring, we thought we should take a look at them.

Thrive in Your First Job

Thrive is a start-up, but they’ve already secured funding and launched a product. Their team is small, but they seem keen on adding fresh talent to help them change the way 20 and 30-somethings manage their money. I’m already on board with the concept, but I have to admit that I’m using Mint (I love the iPhone app!). There’s a lot of competition in this space with Wesabe and Rudder also offering similar services. That means that differentiation and great features are going to be key to winning over users. Since Thrive’s Jobs page says that they’re looking for Junior and Senior Software Engineers, there’s a huge opportunity for you to help them build that point of differentiation. If you have a Software Development background and you’re fascinated by personal finance, this is a dream job for you. Right now all of the jobs at Thrive are on the software side, but you can check out their Team Bios to get a sense of what other types of jobs might be created as they grow. They do seem open to hearing from candidates who are interested in jobs that aren’t listed. Thrive lists two e-mail addresses on their site for people to apply to – jobs@justthrive.com and people@justthrive.com. We’ll guess that they both go to the same place, but you might want to send your resume and cover letter to both – just to be safe.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you using any online personal financial management tools like Thrive or Mint?