The Ask Nick column has been a fixture in the Sunday BG since its start last year April, but while 'Nick' has been a wellspring of information for those seeking to improve their financial affairs, his real life alter ego, Nicholas Dean, 45, is a little more reticent.
"I'm really an introvert," Dean said, as the Sunday BG turned the spotlight on the financial advisor, who is such an integral part of the publication. "I was always afraid to talk. Imagine a person who had to do a workshop for money. And, he has never, ever, done a presentation in his life. I was trembling so much. I have never sweated so much. It was the most gruelling three hours I had in my life."
Now a veteran of many workshops, Dean thanks that sympathetic first audience in 2004 and also God for his subsequent successes.
"That is what started my career as a trainer. Because I started doing more workshops, the individual clients got me workshops and the workshops got me more individual clients."
But before the training, the workshops and the individual consultations, Dean, who has been operating through his company The Financial Coaching Centre Limited for over a decade, had racked up debt and failed at business.
"I got to understand the problems that people have with money. I, myself, had challenges with money. They don't teach you about money in school. So you make bad mistakes with it because you think you are doing the right thing," said Dean.
His formative years were spent at a catholic school in the south Trinidad, followed by time at St Stephen's College in Princes Town.
"I am a South boy. I grew up in South. My family actually lives in San Fernando. I visit them from time to time. I come from a family of 5 boys. And of course, a father and mother. I am number four. Most of us are entrepreneurs."
Dean believes the family's entrepreneurial cast may have a lot to do with the fact that his father owned a business, a small trucking company, that delivered groceries in the days before supermarkets bought their own vehicles. But, he said, his mother, a homemaker, was also very influential.
"I think my mum was really the driver in terms of teaching us to think independently," said Dean. Her compassion towards others also made its mark. The financial advisor said she was always quick to help anyone in need.
"I would say that was the core, the cornerstone of everything I do," said Dean, "The drive to write what I write about is really about helping people. That is my mum coming out there."
'Nobody going to pay for advice'
However, Dean was not always so sure about what he wanted to do. He taught for a year after completeing his A levels at St Stephens then left for a job at National Commercial Bank. He was 20 years old at the time and worked there for 5 years, spending most of those years in the debt collection department. Even with a steady job, he flirted with entrepreneurship. He set up several businesses over the period, but realised he had much to learn.
"I was always trying to figure things out. Always trying to make some money. There were many failed attempts at many things. As many business people will tell you, they would have tried things and they did not work out."
One attempt would be particularly costly for Dean, causing him to re-evaluate how he approached business and ultimately, money.
"At that point in time, (1992) I partnered with a guy. For his protection. I wouldn't say the nature of the business, but that business didn't go so well. I was about 21. I was the person who provided the capital. I had a lot of problems and I think this augured well for my knowledge about business but I lost money and it was a very painful time. One of the most painful times in my life."
Dean said he put the experience behind him and focused on his job at the bank, leaving NCB when it became First Citizens Bank. His next stint in banking was in the debt collection department of the then Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.
Dean observed that working in banking didn't make him immune to bad financial decisions. It was up to him to internalise the lessons learned from his experiences and to increase his knowledge.
"You know when you are down and out and you have no other options, you start to do a little introspection. At that point in time, I did a lot of introspection."
He also did a lot of reading. At 30, one of the books he discovered was life changing. It was Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He also played the Cashflow Quadrant game, which he said was very instrumental in teaching him how to manage money. While at the bank, he completed the Certified Financial Planning course through ROYTEC.
In 2000, he left RBTT to start a career in the insurance industry with Guardian Life. He took this decision because of another book, the title of which he couldn't recall, where he read that the ability to sell was critical to business success.
"I thought what better job to learn how to sell than selling insurance because it is one of the most difficult jobs to succeed in."
Of the industry though, Dean said, "I think insurance liked me, but I didn't like it."
While it was closer to self employment than any area Dean had worked in before, he found himself putting in a lot of work, without being sure of a reward.
"I was doing so many financial plans for people, because this was part of my approach as an insurance salesman. Many times, it didn't result in a sale. That's when I realised I needed to make a transition and start charging for my time. And that's when I left my job in the insurance industry."
There were naysayers.
"My manager said to me, 'boy that not going to work, nobody going to pay for advice'. Eventually, he lost his job, but I still have mine," said Dean.
He said his decision to set up a consultancy had much to do with the failed business experiments of his youth.
"If you have to get into business, get into business based on a talent that you have, because they can take your money away from you, but never your talent, your knowledge or your education."
"I asked myself, 'what do I know that people can't take away from me?' At that time I had 13 years experience in banking and insurance."
After starting a second course in financial planning, the Certificate for Financial Advisors programme run by the Institute of Banking and Finance, Dean struck out on his own.
Lean years
In 2004, Dean's first office space was given to him by a client in exchange for his expertise.
"In my first six months, I made $150. I was in so much debt. My credit cards were maxed out. Imagine I am giving financial advice and I have credit card problems. I couldn't keep up with any of my insurances, so all that lapsed. I actually started my business with an overdraft. The amount of my overdraft was $600."
He credits a girlfriend with being his main source support at this time. She was the one who helped him pay bills and encouraged him to continue with his financial coaching. Eventually word got around about his services.
Reading in yet another book that a newsletter would be one of the best ways to get word about his services out, Dean started writing.
But he also continued reading, sometimes going through several business books a month as well as the financial news.
"I read every Business Guardian column for a year. I read every Newsday column, every Express column for a year. So much so that they were piled up under my bed," joked Dean.
"What started happening was that I realised that I could predict what people were going to write about. I realise that was a major part of my education in terms of becoming an advisor because I understood more about business and about money. Even today, I usually tell anybody read the business section of a newspaper for an entire year and you will get an education that you will not get anywhere else."
However, while providing solutions for other people's money problems, Dean still had many of his own. He said, altogether, it took five years for him to pay off his own debt, employing many of the same strategies he now advises readers to use.
"I started my business in 2004 and around the end of 2005, I paid off my two credit cards. After that, as I began to get out of debt, I started to have money to save. For the next three years, I was just saving money like a mad man. I started cooking, I stopped liming, I stopped drinking. I stopped buying clothes. I was being efficient with how I spent my money. It took me three years to start to build a nice bank account."
Dean said the fact that he survived these first five years, including a particularly dry spell after 2008's global financial crash, convinced him that he deserved to be in business. Meanwhile, other opportunities kept coming. He caught the attention of the Catholic News after doing some work with a church and started writing for them.
Explaining his writing style, Dean said he tried to write so that even a nine year old could understand, "People think finance is an intimidating subject matter. I needed to write it in such a way that it would appeal to people who did not have an education in finance.That actually became a hallmark for me. Trying to write simply. Because finance is something that people are afraid of."
Lessons taken away
Dean said his own experiences and practice as a financial consultant has shown him there are some immutable truths in personal finance.
"You cannot spend your way to wealth. People spend too much. If you control your spending, you now have the most fundamental secret of wealth creation." said Dean.
He also said anyone hoping to improve their financial situation had to increase their capacity to earn, ideally, by working in a field they loved. Buying real estate was 'the third leg of the stool" of his financial philosophy.
"Get yourself to a place where you can buy a property. Or properties. Because real estate is a way to store your wealth."