By How I came up with the idea.
(I wrote this whole idea in two different sessions, I made some changes, some parts may seem disjointed but it’ll make sense in the end!)
Sometimes, I can’t sleep at night. I was thinking tonight:
“I feel like I’m just getting by, but somehow still winning at life”.
I was not sure where this tangent thought was gonna go, but I felt like I had to write this down.
Yeah, I have my own business. Which means, I’m technically unemployed, hoping every day that my phone doesn’t stop ringing, I got bills to pay, and if you have a need I can scratch, we should talk. I’ve been in the financial / insurance industry for 21 years now. My insurance career can legally buy a drink!
Last year I celebrated the first time my income went over $100,000. Melanie, my wife works with me, she helps with all the tasks I’m not great at, like following up with clients, if they need to pay their bills, help with pre-underwriting, etcetera.
She does all this work, I realized, and I’m not even paying her. She’s a crucial help allowing us to earn a relatively comfortable income. So, we end up with an average of $50k. Each.
Thats less than what we used to make before covid, with corporate jobs.
Is it worth it?
Yeah! First of all, I noticed a vacuum of knowledge in the insurance and financial field and thought – there is help, there is knowledge that the public can rely on. Why aren’t people educating themselves? Then I remember all the stupid blogs and fake memes, chasing everyone for their hard earned money. Not all websites are scams, but even for the above average person the financial path, insurance options, riders, it can get complicated.
That’s when I came up with TheFinancialWiki.com
(i initially started this thought with TheInsuranceWIKI.ORG, but it wasn’t good enough, I wanted a .com)
I AM good at quite a few insurance types, like: life insurance with living benefits, disability income paid if you get sick, cancer reimbursement and, retirement, but I personally don’t touch home insurance or auto. As agents, we like to specialize in this industry. There is no “one knows all” in the insurance and financial industry. That’s why I will collaborate with various experts in their respective fields to help build a comprehensive Wikipedia of insurance and financial products.
Customers, readers, will be able to ask questions and get expert answers. If the answers are not here on the wiki, call us. Not all knowledge we have can be published, but we have additional advice to help you take the right financial steps. Drop us a line.
I still can’t believe that I snatched the .com !!! Crazy! 😎
To fund this, I hope to make The Financial Wiki a source of leads in everything insurance and financial services. An “a-la-carte” financial advice firm.
People can comment anonymously, but if they need help they can provide some form of contact, like phone, email, social media profile for an expert to respond.
Should I use AI at all in this project? It would help technically, but it may hurt instead. If you read about GPT and Bard hallucinations, harmful fake information given with so much confidence, I can’t risk allowing a ChatGPT to badly advise real people that may get hurt by using made-up advice that just sounds good to a bot.
Maybe that’s the angle I wanna press. We’re not Gpt, we’re TheFinancialWIKI. (brought to you by LifeGuy). Should I point out that LifeGuy is part of this project? Why not? After all, it’s me, it’s my brand. I worked hard to build it. I started LifeGuy in 2011, by myself.
Real insurance advice, not a soulless robot. (this excerpt goes back above, where I was pointing out “We’re no GPT.”
I envision this video intro / ad:
Financial questions? (A bunch of sharp & cool dressed – casual but still professional – people step forward, looking a bit upwards to the camera, and recite together: The Financial WIKI. As they say that, large blocks of 3d text drop above them, with the words: The Financial Wiki.
Ah, even better: the front row of Wikians pull up large cardboards – (or letters forming) the words: The Financial Wiki.
A big stamp drops over the whole image, leaving a large seal (. COM) in the bottom-center of the screen. (I may ditch the stamp idea, it first came to me as I was about to get the domain with .org, and in order to point out it wasn’t a dot com, I wanted emphasis on the domain ending, .org. Now that I switched to Financial, and I got the .com, TheFinancialWiki.com – I feel the stamp is too weird. Maybe also show .Com on a cardboard, and find some other scene to give stamp of approval on. I still like the stamp of approval idea somewhere in this video.
Someone in the middle of the group says, as the camera pans and zooms in: “Have any financial questions?” then, all answer: “We’re here to help”.
Maybe I redirect the phone for this website to 888-888-0188 which fortunately I already own. Very lucky break, that story. I am aware of the value of this easy number. I got it, might as well put it to good use.
I need a partner. Someone with ideas and potential to get funds, to help implement the infrastructure. A fair share of ownership will be granted.
Best if I find someone in the insurance business already, but on the P&C side as well as another one in investments, as I don’t deal with those. I only do retirement, life & health, Medicare, cancer insurance, mortgage protection, annuities, but no investing nor Property & Casualty.
Maybe a large P&C agency that can see the benefit of ownership, protected against competition due to licensure difference. I can’t sell property and casualty insurance, or investments without a proper license, and my focus is the rest of the insurance spectrum. I don’t intend to spread myself thin on investments or P&C.
I gotta make a business plan. Can I set this up while still working for LifeGuy / my other insurance website sales? If not,
We’ll need a minimum of $125k (to cover both me and Melanie, my wife) in operating expenses during the development and initial deployment of The Insurance Wiki.
I can do that initially with the help of a (approx) a $125k programmer budget.
So, need $250k first year. I realistically expect 12 months time-frame from inception to deployment.
For the initial visualization of the project, I can start with a WordPress or wiki type website template, to give a good visual to potential partners and customers. I feel like this is a 10 Million dollar idea! If no investors available, I could recruit annual partnerships to cover different products / parts of the Wiki, for advertising fees.
TheFinancialWiki-ans (contracted agents or call centers) will answer the phone as “Financial Wiki, I’m (agent’s name), how can I give you peace of mind today?”
This can be a call center type setup, or even potentially distributed on-the-fly to agents by phone, sms or email, like Angel Care, Open Care, Family Care Life.
TheInsuranceWIKI.org is a good idea.
(Haha, I already revised this and changed to TheFinancialWiki. Dot COM, boyyeee.)
I’ll sleep on it. If I read this tomorrow and I’m still keen on it, I’m buying the domain. (too late, I already bought the domain: TheFinancialWiki.com 😎
Then, I’ll ask friends to help with the video.
Clips like:
“Can life insurance really cost $7 per month? How do I know that I’m not getting scammed?”
TheInsuranceWIKI.org – wow, I just said it in my mind as .com … F#CK!
.(previous draft had the old idea with Insurance, and dot ORG, THEN I READ IT OUT LOUD AND READ IT AS DOT COM ANYWAY!!! That’s when I knew I gotta find something better, WITH com.
I NEED A .COM
I need an idea like this, and it’ll be my break. I’ll “make it”. If I write the mothafuckin BOOK ON FINANCES AND INSURANCE, literally, that would mean that I made it in this industry.
OK, a book? I can do that.
I’ll have chapters on each TYPE of insurance and financial products, then definitions of common and lesser known financial terms.
Structured as: first part, the description and details on each insurance/ financial branch is indexed, like:
Annuities
Automobile Insurance
Bail Insurance
Bonds
Cancer insurance
Disability insurance
Employee Benefits
Financing large purchases
G… Etc.
The financial alphabet soup.
At the end, there is a glossary of insurance and financial terms also in alphabetical order. I’ll have to find ways to break the monotony. Add “what if’s”, stories. Make it engaging and personal, otherwise insurance jargon can be dreadfully boring.
VIDEO IDEA:
“Of course you don’t know everything about finances and insurance. If you didn’t happen to read the The Financial Wiki, It’s THIS THICK! (Show a 400 page book, shoving it to the camera lens. Pull back and say, all together: We wrote it!
I can see a bunch of various people, from 20s to even a few in their early 80s. They all say in one voice: “We wrote it!”.
And, you can now get it free: call 888-888-0188 or email info@TheFinancialWiki.com
Yeah, this is doable. I can write the book, print and give it away free. I need something like FinancialWiKi.com I LOVE that name. I’m sure it’s taken. Ok, I’ll check, and make a deal with myself right now: If it’s taken, I’ll still write the book, keep thinking of a good name, but anyway I will write The Book On Insurance, or something like that.
(yeah, old note above- in the meantime I did grab the .com on TheFinancialWiki. Dot com
TheFinancialWIKI.com – that’ll also work. (aaannnddd got it!!!)
OK, imma shit my pants! Of course, Financial Wiki dot com is already taken, but thankfully there’s currently nothing there. No website. So if my readers forget to type THE in the website name, it’s not gonna confuse them.
But… Guess what!!! TheFinancialWiki.com is AVAILABLE!!! I JUST BOUGHT IT!
You were here when it happened. I know I’ll need help with this project. I’ll pay in financial and insurance advice. Hell, if you come up with measurable ideas or efforts that can increase business, I’ll give anyone who can help, stake in the business. Wanna be part of this project? What do you think you may be able to help with?
Or if you just wanna pitch with something really small but absolutely valuable – it would help me if you write down your questions about anything financial / insurance related. (I know a good one: I’ll show you how to get free insurance! For real, with a real, stable insurance company). Ask a question you’d like to know the answer to. Like: Where does the money for life insurance death benefit come from? Or, anything else you can think of. I will then put together an FAQ, glossary / index. The more questions you have, the better. No stupid questions. I mean: no question is considered stupid. Ask anything tangentially related to the insurance or financial field. Let’s write the book on finance and insurance, together. I’ll give you credit. We’ll crowd source this.
I’ll come up with a Google docs link to be open to everyone, to collab on it.
Maybe I’ll post it right at the web address: TheFinancialWiki.com
I still can’t believe I have this domain name now!
I’ll go now and make a quick mockup of a website, with my picture on it. I’ll be the guy that wrote “The Financial Wiki”. This is not just manifesting, this is safely and consciously predicting.
I’m ready for this.
How can I put your mind at ease today?
The Financial Wiki. Dot com. I’ll write the book shortly!
Thanks for reading.
I was just asking myself: what good does it do anyone to publish this thought process on my personal blog, rather than just write notes in a personal journal? It’s because I realize I need YOUR help! Help me write this. Give me any input on this idea. Honest opinions. Criticize my ideas. Why or why not would it work.
Now, be a sweetheart and peak at TheFinancialWiki.com to see the progress. (as I write this, it is currently 02:17 AM on Monday, July 3rd 2023 – yeah, I didn’t go to bed yet since Sunday AM).