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Wealth Pilgrim – Best of the Best Blogger Series

by on January 24, 2012

Wealth Pilgrim - Best of The Best Blogger SeriesThe 40th edition of our popular Best of the Best Blogger series, we had the opportunity to interview Neal Frankle from Wealth Pilgrim.

Neal is another highly successful blogger who’s had a long and winding financial road.  As is so often the case, Neal’s financial foundation was forged at a young age. His father was a real estate speculator “who took big risks”.  As a result,  Neal’s family lived under the constant, looming threat of financial disaster, creating an environment of fear, stress and financial insecurity for everyone.

Eventually the family’s financial fears were, in fact, realized when Neal’s family “lost everything” and they had to move from a nice home in the suburbs to a “dinky apartment in a lousy part of town.”

Shortly before getting evicted from their cozy, suburban southern Californian home, Neal’s mother passed away suddenly.  And not long after his mother’s death, his father died tragically in an plane crash. Neal took a modest death benefit that he received from his father’s life insurance policy to an investment broker with his stated goal of getting a college education.  The broker “tried to churn [his] account”, which paved the way to Neal’s degree in accounting and, eventually, a career as a financial planner.

Neal’s experience as a financial adviser has given him a bird’s eye view of how “successful people invest and relate to money”.  The emotional component to investing and wealth building is a key concept that has significantly shaped Neal’s philosophy about money.  From Neal’s perspective, financial success requires foot work, but it also requires “emotional skill” to right-size your perception of money no matter how big or how small your bank balance or investment portfolio might be.

We sat down with Neal recently to talk about multi-millionaire clients, risk appetite and the perils and pratfalls of financial success.

Wealth PilgrimTell me about the genesis of Wealth Pilgrim and how you got started blogging.

I started Wealth Pilgrim because I was involved in a book project and the agent suggested that having a blog would be a great way to build an audience. I did not know what a blog was at the time and resisted the idea for 2 years. I finally gave in…but it took me another 2 years to really understand what a blog was.

The tragic passing of your parents as a teenager had an understandably huge impact on you. In what ways has losing your parents so young shaped your risk appetite personally and professionally?

Good question. Those events did make me risk averse. It sharpened my ability to hone in on what might go wrong versus the upsides of opportunities. At the same time, because I learned that life can be very short, I learned that it makes sense to take weighed risks.

You’ve been featured on sites like Consumer Reports, the Wall Street Journal and Smart Money. For all those aspiring personal finance bloggers out there, what’s the secret sauce for getting coverage from such big online media brands?

Ask. When I read something, I always ask how this applies to me, my family, my clients or my readers. When I think I have an interesting twist and it’s easy to contact the author, I do so. If I approach in a thoughtful and respectful way, I usually get a good response.

You talk about the “emotional skill” that’s required to have “true wealth”. How often do your clients overlook the emotional intelligence of wealth building?

Hard to tell. Sometimes people have the skill but may not like to discuss it. At the end of the day, I judge this by how happy the person seems to be. I have had multi-millionaire clients who were prisoners of their wealth. And I have clients with modest accounts yet they are just in love with their lives. These are the people who have true wealth in my opinion and I just love being around them.

You also talk about living in the “darkness of [your] own mind, even after achieving financial success”. While it might sound silly to some, has financial success been more challenging to deal with than being flat broke?

The darkness I refer to was fear. I became fearful after my parents died – maybe even before they died because my father was not very prudent. Money didn’t cure that problem because I was always waiting for the shoe to drop. Ultimately, emerging from that darkness wasn’t helped or impaired by financial success in my case. Having said all that, I can tell you unequivocally that financial success is far easier to deal with than poverty.

What’s surprised you the most about your blogging experience with Wealth Pilgrim?

First, I was amazed at how helpful other bloggers in the personal finance space were and continue to be. When I first started I asked a lot of questions and people fell all over themselves to help set me straight. That was surprising. I am also very surprised by how much there still is to learn.

I am continually surprised at how well educated many people are. I often get emails from readers suggesting a different viewpoint on a post that I never considered.

Once again, my thanks goes out to Neal Frankle from WealthPilgrim.com for sharing his story and his unique perspective about money and financial planning.

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