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Stacking Benjamins

Start Ugly (with Chris Krimitsos)

66 min episode · 2 min read
·
Chris Krimitsos

Episode

66 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Career Growth, Productivity, Relationships

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Start Ugly Philosophy: Launch projects immediately without perfection by focusing on why over how. Krimitsos started his documentary seven days before announcing it at Podfest 2016, proving passion overrides technical concerns. Set check-in dates to assess whether to continue, pivot to hobby status, or quit without shame.
  • 529 College Savings Strategy: Save approximately $100 monthly per year of college per child starting at birth to fund public university costs. For four years of coverage, invest $400 monthly from birth. Turn investments conservative when child enters high school freshman year to protect accumulated funds from market volatility.
  • Finding the Right Feedback: Distinguish constructive criticism from negativity by evaluating the source's relationship and track record. Accept brutal honesty from people who love and support you, like literary editors who improve work. Ignore feedback from perpetually dissatisfied people who criticize everything without offering solutions or alternatives.
  • Pension Planning Caution: Never rely solely on employer pensions for retirement despite union contracts or company promises. Companies eliminate pensions violently during worst times. Build independent retirement savings through 401k and brokerage accounts, treating any pension received as bonus income enabling early retirement or additional security.
  • Diversification Across Accounts: Holding identical ETFs or mutual funds across 401k, Roth IRA, and brokerage accounts poses no problem. Avoid individual stock concentration like Microsoft or Apple across multiple accounts. Maintain four to five positions spanning large companies, small companies, international stocks, and real estate for adequate diversification.

What It Covers

Chris Krimitsos, creator of Podfest conference and documentary The Messengers, explains his Start Ugly philosophy for launching business ideas without waiting for perfection, plus discussion of 529 college savings plans and Merrill Lynch pausing advisor trainee hiring.

Key Questions Answered

  • Start Ugly Philosophy: Launch projects immediately without perfection by focusing on why over how. Krimitsos started his documentary seven days before announcing it at Podfest 2016, proving passion overrides technical concerns. Set check-in dates to assess whether to continue, pivot to hobby status, or quit without shame.
  • 529 College Savings Strategy: Save approximately $100 monthly per year of college per child starting at birth to fund public university costs. For four years of coverage, invest $400 monthly from birth. Turn investments conservative when child enters high school freshman year to protect accumulated funds from market volatility.
  • Finding the Right Feedback: Distinguish constructive criticism from negativity by evaluating the source's relationship and track record. Accept brutal honesty from people who love and support you, like literary editors who improve work. Ignore feedback from perpetually dissatisfied people who criticize everything without offering solutions or alternatives.
  • Pension Planning Caution: Never rely solely on employer pensions for retirement despite union contracts or company promises. Companies eliminate pensions violently during worst times. Build independent retirement savings through 401k and brokerage accounts, treating any pension received as bonus income enabling early retirement or additional security.
  • Diversification Across Accounts: Holding identical ETFs or mutual funds across 401k, Roth IRA, and brokerage accounts poses no problem. Avoid individual stock concentration like Microsoft or Apple across multiple accounts. Maintain four to five positions spanning large companies, small companies, international stocks, and real estate for adequate diversification.

Notable Moment

Krimitsos received first manuscript feedback starting with "please know that I love you" followed by "this is not good" and "you have that starting ugly thing down." He used the honest criticism about missing hero's journey structure to completely rewrite and improve the book.

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Episode Transcript

Hey. This is Jo's sister, Nikki. I think I might be the only girl in the world who has a brother who spends his entire day in the basement pretending he has an Internet radio show. Live from Joe's mom's basement. It's the Stacking Benjamin show. I'm Joe's mom's neighbor, Doug, and happy Earth Day. What a celebration to dolphins in the canals in Venice. Amazing air quality everywhere. People beginning to not hoard toilet paper. It's a miracle. Now, if only 22,000,000 of us had jobs. Well, if you have an idea to make the earth or your life better and you don't know where to start today, we're going to get you moving on the path to success. Don't wait to start. Go ahead and start ugly. Today, say hello to Chris Kremitzos, who's going to share how to get your business idea rolling. Plus, how much money does it cost to cover your children's education? We'll tackle five twenty nine college savings plans on our headline segment, and then we'll toss out the haven life to a lucky caller. Of course, I'll treat you to some earth themed trivia. And now, two guys who probably don't even know how to recycle unless it's a bad dad joke. It's Joe and oh, g. I think we're at the point in the quarantine now where Cheryl knows all my dad jokes. In fact, I get, like, halfway done and she finishes it off. I think I sent you the, data sore thing. Right? Yeah. That's been making the rounds on the interwebs? Well apparently that's not his first rodeo oh really oh yeah there's all sorts of videos on the Internet of this dude just in the moment the kids say it he goes crazy And his wife gets really ticked off. And I've got a I've got a bored panda thing I found yesterday about husbands and wives upsetting each other during this. This one's comes from Dan Reagan originally. Says me can't find the sea salt wife next to the paprika. Me. No, it isn't. She comes in to look bottle of sea salt magically appears right next to the paprika. Exactly. Yep. And then one more. This comes from rainbow kingdom. My husband on Twitter, my husband and I were having a hypothetical conversation about opening a restaurant after all this is over. And it was really fun until we started to disagree on how we'd run things and who we'd hire. Now our restaurants going under, we're getting a divorce. Welcome to coronavirus time humor for the win. I'm Joe Saul Sehy. AverageJoeMoney on Twitter and across the card table from me for another earth day. This is our ninth earth day podcasting together. I have Mister Ogie. Impressed that you have that. It's our ninth anniversary of Earth Day. I gotcha. When you said I gotcha, I thought that meant I gotcha something. I thought it meant you got me something Oh. Because you're …

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  • by Chris Krimitsos

    Chris Krimitsos, creator of Podfest conference and documentary The Messengers, explains his Start Ugly philosophy

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  • by Chris Krimitsos

    Chris Krimitsos, creator of Podfest conference and documentary The Messengers, explains his Start Ugly philosophy
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    by Chris Krimitsos

    Chris Krimitsos, creator of Podfest conference and documentary The Messengers, explains his Start Ugly philosophy

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