Final Summary of The Financial Planner

I remember sitting in IST class that day in January, it was the beginning of the spring semester, and I was taking notes on  my laptop and I remember the feeling of shock and fear that ran through me as I heard Professor Rubin announce the first project of the semester, a one which required you to start an entirely new business venture at that. For years, I'd thought that I was almost incapable of coming up with a business venture that was good, I'd decided that I had no creativity. Yet, the key which sparked my creative side and my interest in the financial planner was the ability to really sit there, sit back and really think for a minute as to what is something that many people are in dire need of or something that me and my family could have used that people could easily relate to and see a need for. And so I came up with the financial planner, but the key with this entrepreneurial idea, as is the case with any entrepreneurial idea there MUST be a desire and passion from you for the idea that you are presenting. If that is not there, then you will not be able to push past adversity and hard times that you encounter with your idea.

Initially, once I found out that this is what I wanted to for my project I figured that aside from just the realm of the classroom, this was something which I could maybe take further than the scope of the IST 195 class, because of the usefulness that it could have to many families that may not be very fiscally responsible. Initially, I had started the project only looking at things from a very small scale, not having too much of an idea as to the details and specifics of what this financial planner would have. But what helped me through week by week  were two very important things: the lessons I learned in IST 195 class, and simple brainstorming as to what the general public has a dire need for. Through these things I learned to not only put myself in the shoes of an average or low class American family who may not have the best financial planning or standing, but to also in what ways would this device has been helpful to me and my family growing up.

So, as the weeks went on I went from basic ideas as to what I would like to implement into the financial planner to the nitty gritty specifics. From a simple idea of a planner mounted on the wall, the size of an Ipad, to looking to connect with major companies to set up payment plans, to voice recognition, automated alarms and touchscreen. I have made major revisions to my entrepreneurial idea as the semester has gone on. IST 195 class has helped a great deal in letting me know the importance and necessity for many of the class topics, such as networking, knowing the inner workings of Excel, Spreadsheet, Social Media, RFID's, computer's, etc. Not being the most tech-savvy person in the world, Professor Rubin opened my eyes to the significance of these programs along with several others. In essence, any start-up, or  even somewhat successful business would not be able to survive without implementing some if not all of these things into the workings of their company.

All in all, I had a wonderful experience with the project, considering that it opened my eyes to the fact that everybody is creative and innovative in their own ways. I very much appreciated this project, and it has just made my experience with this class that much more enjoyable. The students' blogs which I commented on were Joseph Turuseta, Andre Sadler and Sam Cass.

Blog Review Post On Peter Rojas

A 36 year old man ,with various businesses valued at a couple billion and proclaimed the " best-compensated blogger in history". Yeah I'd say he's pretty successful. If one was to take a closer look at Peter Rojas' background, often times most would come to same conclusion, this guy's doing the stuff he loves! Starting as an Assistant Media Planner in 99', Rojas secured a number of jobs which in one way or another all relate to blogging or somehow informing the general public of new developments in technology and how they would affect us day in and day out, Rojas is in every sense of the word, an entrepreneur in the field of technology. A graduate of Harvard University, Rojas is the co-founder of Gizmodo, Engadget and gdgt, three of the most influential and cutting-edge technology websites in today's world.  Yet, even though Mr. Rojas has several extremely successful ventures the one which I would like to focus on here and which I would feel is most beneficial to our Information Studies class is, Engadget.

Founded in March of 2004, Engadget is one of the up and coming websites which focuses particularly on technology weblog and reviews and ratings of consumer electronics. Looking to expand and appeal to a wider range of people, not only including the U.S., Engadget services publish in seven languages including, English, Spanish, Polish, German, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. The main purpose of Engadget is to provide to the general public a review about new products in technology and to inform them of the shortcomings of the products, companies, as well as the positive things about the product, company,etc. This site is updated several times a day with blog posts about gadgets and consumer electronics. In addition, it stirs the pot by producing rumors about things in the technological world, which can provide a negative or positive buzz for the business presenting the product to the consumer.

Lastly, Engadget hosts a weekly podcast and shows which showcase a diverse range of products in technology which are not too often covered in the frequent blog posts. The Engadget podcast is a major success through its collaborations by subscription with companies such as Zune, Itunes, etc. The topic of discussion varies from week to week but is always oriented towards things pertaining to technology. The Engadget show also has major connections with Microsoft,HTC,Google, NASA,Adobe Systems, Samsung etc., all of these which give more notoriety to Rojas' blogs and his companies reviews. Overall, Engadget proves to be effective in one of its main purposes, which is to provide to tech-lovers through blogging, an in-depth but understandable review of products which the consumer(s) are interested in.

Link to Peter Rojas' Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/

The Financial Planner & How To Properly Handle Your Personal Information

For many of those whom have followed my past blog posts, then majority of them know of my entrepreneurial idea to start a financial planner of sorts. A very important part of making that happen is implementing vital personal information, such as passwords, email addresses, account numbers and maybe even valuable information about debit or credit cards. With all this information necessary for you to track your money and pay back bills and other monetary concerns in a timely manner, the protection of this information is very important to the safety of the user(s) of the product. What i'll be explaining to you guys today in this blog is exactly how major of a part that computer forensics & operating systems plays in the safety & running of the financial planner.

By nature, a good amount of personal information has to be put into the financial planner, so that it may be effective.And the last thing that we would want to do is to risk identity theft or have someone retrieve information that we would not want them seeing. Professor Rubin explains to us that in today's "tech-savvy" world, this is too often the case, where criminals are easily accessing and taking advantage of personal information at another person's expense. However, there are several ways as to how you can prevent someone from taking advantage of you. Some of these include putting a password on your financial planner, not providing vital personal information without a just cause, checking your bills to look for irregularities in charges and most importantly destroying all your important files and documents after you no longer have a need for them. If someone was to use the financial planner but neglect to protect themselves from criminals, then their identity could be stolen, credit could be ruined, money could be stolen, not to mention risking physical danger.

Multitasking, is an essential part of the basic functioning of a product such as the financial planner, and this is where the importance of having a good operating system comes in. Without a decent operating system, many of your usual everyday products, such as ipad's and itouch's wouldn't work.  It is necessary for a product that is going to be handling a vast array of things such as handling several bills at once and processing the management of money to be equipped with a system that can do it efficiently. Professor Rubin related directly back to this when he detailed for us the difference between types of multitasking, types of operating systems and most importantly which system is most fit for what you are trying to do.

Where Does Sound Factor In ?

In a product that seems so focused on and oriented towards helping families maintaining financial stability, sound and a clear understanding of it plays a major part in keeping this idea up & running. Many may read this and say, how, or in what way, but what I will show here is that in truth without the use of sound and audio implemented into this financial planner idea, then it wouldn't function nearly as efficiently as it should. Imagine if your alarm clock never rang as it was supposed to, or a fire alarm never sounded off as it should in a potential, life-threatening fire ? Of course the consequences of this could be very negative, and the same applies for the financial planner.

The financial planner idea which I have is not only meant for the sole purpose of telling families that they have bills to pay & how they should allocate their funds; but it also serves as a way to physically alert the members of the household that they have an expense that is coming up, overdue, or that they have incurred a  new or potentially suspicious charge. Suppose, you had a monumental charge that occurred on your account that you had forgot to pay and were gathering interest upon because of your negligence, or maybe acquired a charge that was unwarranted, if the alarm wasn't loud or clear enough to alert you, then you would be in a very bad situation. This relates to Professor Rubin's lecture in that he details for us the importance of having the proper audio.

If the type of sound that I want the financial planner to produce when an alert goes off is not compatible with the format of the device then a problem will occur which could lead to other potential problems. Also the audio level does play a major part in the overall device. If the device is not loud enough for any one to here, then it would be irrelevant to have and this could also problems, such as payment dates or personal, family monetary issues that need to be taken care of .

Why This Is A Necessity

Many whom are presented with this idea for improving their financial circumstances might say to themselves, whats the point ? Why do I need this, aren't there other ways I can manage my money without your product ?
 In response to them I say your right, there are multiple ways which you can try and manage your money without the use of this particular idea. Yet, the fact of the matter is, that majority of Americans have way too much things going on in their lives to physically sit down and tally and account for every possible charge they have by them-self. Few, if any Americans can say that they are capable of doing this, because even though we may account for a great majority of charges that we may incur, there is more than likely going to be the charges we overlook. My invention would be most efficient, in that it would account for all the charges that we overlook, even the seemingly trivial ones, which we neglect to take care of and incur interest and late fees for. This is the very specific problem which I am aiming to reach at through the use of my entrepreneurial idea.

Granted, my product wouldn't completely erase all the monetary issues that the average family faces in their everyday life, it would be a big start. Speaking from my own experiences, my own parents had many monetary issues mainly because they would mismanage money often. And so kids, whom can relate to my experiences, may also be able to relate to growing up not being taught the proper way to manage money. With the introduction of this tool into the mainstream market, then three monumental changes would occur. The first being the current generation of adults getting a firmer grasp on their monetary situations and improving on areas which they most need to improve on, in order to sure up their financial circumstances. The second being that the current generation of kids and youth, which are to be the adults of tomorrow, will have a easy, simple way to learn how to save money, know where to cutback,save energy costs, and to live in such a way that will prepare them for a more economically safe future as an adult in the world they will be apart of. The last field being affected, would be the economy in general, which would experience a greater amount of prosperity for better credit ratings, more loans going out, etc.

This topic relates back to Professor Rubin's lecture of input and output devices in many ways.With the new input and output devices, including RFID devices , there will be a chance to keep a track of where each and every individual product you put out is. This will help in terms of manufacturing on a large scale and running your business more smoothly and effectively.

A Little Insight As To How It Works

In the last blog post, I introduced to all of you my entrepreneurial idea. This was the idea for an advice in the household of an average American which would help them keep track of their money and help them budget better. What I can possibly envision happening, is that through the help of this device then people would be able to save energy in their houses and cut costs in areas where it would be feasible. The setup of the device would be much like that of a digital thermostat in your household.

This device would be attached to the wall just as a digital thermostat would be and would be touchscreen as well. However, instead of having numbers which told you the temperature, there would be a rundown of all the costs which you would have entered into the device. Also, there would be a way of linking, connecting the device up so that there would be a way to officially track whom you owed money and which way you could save money by conserving energy or doing an array of different things to make life financially easier for you. It would be a financial planner for your every day life, in a way combining the skills of an accountant, while being tech friendly and for your every day use. Further details are to be explained in future blogs.

In closing this post relates back to Professor Rubin's lesson in class this week in several ways. If I truly wish to make my dream a reality then digital video and advertising through it is a necessity. In today's world kids often learn the contents of a book through watching the YouTube video on it rather than read the novel. With the popularity of YouTube in the past 7 years or so, almost any somewhat productive business has some type of link to digital media whether it be positive or negative. So, the best thing to do would be to take it upon myself and make sure that I gain positive feedback. I could even make a page or two, showing the various upsides to my product and show the necessity of many average Americans to have it, in an effort to improve some of their financial standings. Through the use of digital media, my entrepreneurial idea could expand in ways, which I couldn't even imagine, but without it, my idea could severely be hindered and possibly even die.

"The Budget Plan for The Average Family"

If one was to take a look at the demographics of today's society, most of us would see that the majority of America consists of either a middle or lower class family. Based on this, its safe to assume that many of the families are either struggling to make ends meet or can not make ends meet at all without the support of borrowing money or resorting to other means of trying to take care of family needs. The point which im trying to make is this, although there are many average American household trying to make cutbacks and save in whichever way possible, there are a GREATER majority that either do not have the time to do this, or the means of doing it.

The idea which I would like to bring to the table is an entrepreneurial idea which wouldn't necessarily solve the budget problem that many middle class and lower class Americans have but would work in that direction. My idea would be to place a device in the household which would in essence track your budget by keeping track of your earnings, how much your expenses are, including your daily expenses and where you need to and want to be. It would at first work manually, but then with each family implementing different monetary figures, each household's financial security would be different. This is just the base layout of what my entrepreneurial idea is though, as the weeks go by, I will keep you updated and fill you in on the details and the finer points of my entrepreneurial idea.

This topic directly relates to relates back to Professor's Rubin lecture in regards to spreadsheets in several ways. Each and every business, no matter how incredibly small or large they are need to keep records as to how they are doing and areas they need to improve and which areas they need to continue to do well in.Often is the case that successful tracking of a company's metrics is just as important as the success of the product. If you dont have the correct figures then you will have no clue as to how to improve your revenue, where to cutback, but most importantly, if your entrepreneurial idea is even worth it.

First Blog

Hello Everyone,

Guess im part of the blogging world now. Hope to get great feedback from all those who check it out, with ideas, thoughts, concepts. Thank you everyone.