What's Trending (Right Now!) in Personal Finance

Trends in Personal Finance

Presenter: Karin Kane, Chief Operating Officer, evolve24

Karin is the COO of evolve24, an analytics firm that specializes in audience perception. Her career includes work at Sherpa Analytics, a big data analytics firm; Thomson Reuters, a media company; Georgeson, a financial consulting firm; and the Carson Group, a financial services firm. She holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and a BS from the University of Notre Dame.

Karin lives with her family in Chicago, Illinois. She has mostly learned to ignore dubious stock tips shared by friends and relatives.

http://104.236.34.30/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Karin_300.jpg

Trends in Personal Finance

May 2015

According to the Wall Street Journal:• Battles over money between couples

are frequent and brutal (4/12/15)

• College grads should plan for retirement NOW (5/7/15)

• 66% of households headed by someone

aged 65 to 74% are in debt (5/7/2015)

• Nearly one in three Americans are behind on their student debt payments (4/14/2015)

• Most people get an F on 529 Plan knowledge (05/19/15)

evolve24 2015. All Rights Reserved.

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But according to real people:

• Healthcare awareness and disease prevention is the most important financial issue!

• People are also worried about:– Saving money– Doing more for charity– Earning more money– And planning for college and post-

college life4#e24Insights


HOW CAN THIS BE RIGHT?

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We are a big data analytics and insights

company that measures audience perception,

and uses that understanding to help

our clients change behavior.

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In other words…

We look at what people are actually talking

about, not what we think they should be talking

about!

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Broad Search returns MILLIONS of articles

Here’s How:

First, we search for personal finance conversations.

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9evolve24 2015. All Rights Reserved.


Filter out the JUNK

Insights Using a Big Data Approach

Goodbye, junk!

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Filter out the JUNK


Goodbye, junk!

Remove IRRELEVANT material

Goodbye, nonsense!

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Filter out the JUNK


Goodbye, junk!

Remove IRRELEVANT material

Goodbye, nonsense!

Then, we IDENTIFY TOPICS using a proprietary machine learning technique


Insights Using a Big Data ApproachThis leaves us with clean, precise topics around what people are discussing.

Our last step is to rank them in order of importance, by their ability to change behaviors.

Goodbye, nonsense!

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*** Each of these topics that we’re sharing is made up of hundreds of thousands (and for the first few, millions) of articles. We’ve examined the volume, impressions, share of voice, and sentiment for each one, and then looked at the topics within each topic to get a better sense of what the main sub-conversations are, or how it varies by audience group. We don’t show that data here, but it is available and you can contact us after this presentation if you’re interested.And full disclaimer: we are not investment professionals and this information should not be construed as offering investment advice. ***

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#1: Healthcare costs are a major concern.

“The lifetime cost to care for a child with

autism is estimated to be as great as $2.4

million.”Carnegie Mellon

University, April 1

Healthy eating really does give you more energy and saves you

money. Eating out becomes money guzzling. Plus you pickup

a good habit cooking

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The best way to save money in your lifetime, is to eat healthy in your mealtimes.

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#2. Trouble Saving Money is an issue for Everyone (but Millennials are most

open about it).

"I was at Target earlier this week and they have so many

cute items available right now! I picked up a few things that weren’t on sale and now I’m wishing that I had held out to

take advantage of this promotion!”

Shop Girl Daisy, April 3

“You ever bought something and regretted

it after? And you were just like damn.. That was a lot of money wasted...”

Twitter, April 2

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#3. Most people would like to do more for charity.

i have no money im so sad i rlly want this not only bc of jack but the

fact its for a good cause and i fully support

We raised over $10,000 to support the Bullhead

City/Laughlin @RelayForLife race on Saturday May 2.

#visitlaughlin

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#4. Earning more is important to most people – and talk is growing along with talk of increasing the minimum wage.

I'm just trying to make minimum wage and I'm

honestly feeling so attacked right now I NEED TO EARN

MORE MONEY WTH

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#5. Grads – and their families – are planning for post-college life. It won’t

be easy.

“One in three Americans required to pay down student

debt is a month or more behind on payments

http://on.wsj.com/1NDI8X5” Twitter, April 18

“Student loan companies will apply your payments

to principal amount owed LAST, so that as

much interest can accrue as possible.”

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What Are Recent Graduates Talking About?We looked at all topics of conversation from recent graduates, and then ranked them across two metrics: volume and emotion (behavior change).

Remember this is still personal finance conversations.

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What Are Recent Graduates Talking About?Highest volume conversations:1. Life After College2. Obama & Fed

Interest Rates3. Student Loan Help &

Advice4. Repayment Mistakes5. Gainful Employment

Restrictions (Loans)

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What Are Recent Graduates Talking About?Highest emotion conversations (most likely to change behavior):1. After College

Aspirations2. Student Loan Debt

for Young & Old3. Young Adult

(Financial) Planning4. Colleges Offer

Bonus For On Time Graduation

5. For-Profit Colleges Forced To Close

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It’s amazing what you can

learn when you listen!

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But now: what do I do with

this?

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So what can I do with these insights?

•Improve content marketing

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• Inform your brand planning, strategy & creative work

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•Avoid emerging risks

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•Aid product development

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•Adapt market research

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Summary

• This past month, by examining tens of millions of actual conversations, you can see that people are most concerned by:– Avoiding costly health issues – Saving money: ideally by not paying taxes, putting away

for retirement, or paying student loan debt– Doing more for charity, in small ways– Earning more money (especially as the minimum wage

increases)– And planning for college and post-college life

• You can use these in a variety of ways, from informing your brand planning through avoiding emerging risks

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CONTACT US

www.evolve24.com

Karin [email protected]

www.evolve24.com@evolve24

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.evolve24.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/evolve24

https://twitter.com/evolve24

https://www.facebook.com/evolve24

http://www.evolve24.com/

What's Trending (Right Now!) in Personal Finance

Data & Analytics

Transcript of What's Trending (Right Now!) in Personal Finance