My first Blog

I've been writing a weekly financial column for the past 10 years but took a year off recently. I used the year productively but now it's time to ramp up my business again and I am very excited to get going. So what am I up to these days?

Since selling my client practice in 2007, I've lived a life of leisure and freedom spending a lot of time with my wife and 4 boys. Some called it retirement but I think it was more like a long period of transition. In some respects it was like the "New Retirement" I teach people about from the perspective that I had a lot of time freedom, I was in a good financial position to transition from full time work to part time work and I was very happy living life making my own choices. The only unusual part of it was the fact that I was not even 40 at the time and have 4 children under the age of 6.

What am I up to now?

Without question, that is the most popular question I get these days. So I'll try to keep it as to the point as possible. I continue to do all the things you would expect a financial expert to do except maintain a client base managing people's money. When my kids ask me what I do for work, I simply tell them "I help people when they do not know what to do with their money."

I do that through my life as a professional speaker delivering 1 and 2 day workshops to employees of corporations, organizations and government departments. They hire me and we deliver exceptional workshops without any pitches (which often happens at the end of retirement and financial workshops). People walk away from the workshop filled with light bulb moments inspired to make changes to their lives to become better, smarter, richer people. My big project and focus moving forward is to bring more financial education into the workplace to help both employers and employees enhance their traditional benefit programs with more financial education.

I have also delivered more keynote presentations for conferences and multi-speaker venues. I've got some great topics. I am speaking about 80 days of the year and looking to do more so if you know anyone that wants to hire a seasoned financial speaker let me know. You can find more information at RetireHappy.ca or JimYih.com.

In addition to the speaking, I continue to write articles, books and develop tools to help people make better decisions with their money. As you can see, I have started to blog and I am committed to financial education and helping as many people as I can to become better, smarter, and richer people. This can be seen with my WeathWebGurus.com website which has attracted a lot of attention. In fact, had over 3,000,000 visits since inception of the site. If I include the first version of the site we've had hundreds of thousands of unique visitors. That just floors me. So it is only proper thank everyone that has used the site. On this site, you can get FREE download like my first best selling book MUTUAL FUNDAMENTALS. You can also find my online store where you can find some of my product tools and resources including my software program My Estate Organizer and my other two books Seven Strategies to Guarantee Your Investments and Smart Tips for Estate Planning.

Why did I sell my client practice?

I had a great business with fantastic clients. The business provided me and my family a wonderful lifestyle and there is no question I miss aspects of the business. But if I had to do it over again, would still do what I did? the answer is yes. There were a few reasons I felt it was important to sell the business:

First was for lifestyle reasons. My business was a full time commitment. In addition to that, I had my other 'part-time' jobs like writing my column, writing books and my speaking gigs. Something had to suffer and it was my health and my family. With four young boys and a supportive wife as my priorities in life, selling the business was the opportunity to spend more quality time with my family. There is a old saying that "Children do not want presents as much as they want your presence."

The second reason is I became disillusioned with the investment industry because of the regulators. The regulators have handcuffed financial advisors and institutions with process, paperwork and red tape (with the right intentions I might add). Unfortunately, I was spending more time and money on paperwork, compliance and policies that I was on things that my clients would think are important. In fact, it was becoming more difficult to write my column, books and do my speaking because the regulators look at financial advisors as mutual fund sales peopleas opposed to planning professionals. Instead of looking at my role as a financial educator through writing and seminars, they felt it detracted from my role as a salesperson. I could go on but it was time to re-evaluate my professional life and focus on the tasks that gave me the most enjoyment. The thing I miss most is working with my clients.

Where do I go from here?

As much as I have enjoyed my kids and family, I am looking to spend more time working and building my new business the THINK BOX. In doing so I continue to develop new products and write more books. I am currently working on a retirement book with my colleagues Rein Selles and Tricia French called "10 Things I wish someone told me before I retired."

I'm also excited about developing my latest software project My Legacy Organizer, which is the follow up to My Estate Organizer. My Legacy Organizer is a tool to help people diarize their life story and share it with the people they love. I believe everyone has a story to tell and far too often the great stories and experiences are lost when people die. I believe we all have an obligation to teach other though our experiences, values, and past. I believe this so passionately that I have committed to writing my legacy in a book not because I think I am important but to serve as a sample of why it is important to diarize our legacy. My intention is to use this book solely for the the purpose of raising money for charity. My ulterior motive, of course, is to teach my kids about what I think is important.

I will continue to write my articles and post them on WealthWebGurus.com but will look to distribute them in various media publications. I also plan to continue to blog from time to time through this blog but soon, I plan to be blogging through my revamped website www.JimYih.com. I'm also committed to twittering (@jimyih) and updating facebook on a more regular basis. Someone once told me if you have good information that will help others, then share it with as many people as you can. That's something I will commit to and with new technology, there is no excuse. Lastly, with all the upcoming changes, if you would like to stay up to date with great information, financial tips and updates on what is happening with me, then you can sign up for my Bright Ideas Online Newlsetter.

Working in retirement is not unusual. In fact, it is becoming the norm. The key to my work as I teach it to others is to make sure you are having fun and doing what you want. I plan to work harder in the future but only doing the things that give me personal satisfaction. Freedom is about choice and being able to make the the right personal choices.

Thanks for getting re-aquainted with my professional life. I hope we will keep in touch one way or another