First Post: Short Bio

MikeFanelli.com

Personal Bio

Current Residence:

Raleigh, NC

Birthplace:

Endicott, NY

Degree:

Binghamton University (NY)

Athletics:

Herkimer (NY)

Experience:

My professional career has consisted of various accounting and financial positions.  I have worked for three of the top 20 accounting firms in the U.S., where I first focused on financial statement audits.  Most recently I have changed my focus (since December 2006) to mergers & acquisitions.  More specifically, I concentrate on financial & accounting due diligence.  I am currently a Manager in the Transaction Services Group of a super-regional accounting firm.  Most of our clients are corporate strategic buyers and private equity groups.  I also worked as a controller of a middle-market transportation & logistics company.

Certifications:

I am currently a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the state of North Carolina.  To achieve a CPA designation, an individual must go through a rigorous process of academia (150 credit hours or master’s degree), experience (1 or 2 years of post graduate experience directly under the supervision of a licensed CPA), pass all four parts of the CPA Exam with a specified time frame, continuously adhere to ethics requirements through action and continuing education, and also adhere to Continuing Professional Education (CPE) rules and regulations which currently mandates 120 hours every three years, with at least 20 hours completed in any particular year. NOTE:  None of the information on this site should be construed as CPA-type services.

Organizations:

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)

North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants (NCACPA)

Association for Corporate Growth (ACG)

Passion:

Financial Literacy.  I believe there is an extreme disconnect between service providers (credit card companies, home mortgage lenders, auto lenders, student loan lenders, etc.) and the buyer of these services.  Even the so called “professionals” either don’t know how to manage finances, or simply can’t get out of their own way during a transaction.  For instance, the cascading crash of 2008 was due to a couple primary reasons (investor confidence being the primary cause), but the most important issue was that individuals purchased homes, taking on mortgages that they could not really afford, but that banks would lend to them.  Financial engineering then occurs through buying these high risk loans and/or insuring the aforementioned high risk loans.  Then, the minute that these homeowners can’t pay the bills, a domino effect occurs throughout the entire financial system, where debt is called, payments are late, and firms that were “too big to fail” (see Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, among many others) fail miserably and fade off into the night like they never existed, because their leverage ratio was 50 to 1!  So, even the “experts” couldn’t get it right because the human mind is a crazy animal.

One of my goals of this website is to bridge the gap between Wall Street and Main Street.  Now, don’t get me wrong, we as a country are much more informed than our grandfathers and grandmothers were.  However, I believe we are much greedier, and there are more financial instruments available to Main Street that we simply do not understand, but buy them anyways because some talking head said it was a good idea.

This website will initially focus on personal finance, investing, careers, among other topics, and is meant to be informative and easy to understand.  I hope that everyone reading this site will tell their friends, visit often, and please ask questions through the post comment section, or send me an email directly.  In the future I hope to increase the content of this site along with become an author, a renowned speaker, and money manager (among other desires).

Please read the Disclaimer page on this website, as none of the advice on this website should be construed as financial advice on any subject matter.