The short version: we love how social media has helped millions of young people to educate themselves about personal finance. For some time, though, we've wanted to find a way to match people's key finance questions with a healthy balance of professionals and real people.
That's what the Pearler Exchange does. Rather than creating yet another space in which simple questions are met with hundreds of (sometimes angry) opinions, it offers a forum where like-minded advisers and investors alike share deeper thoughts about finance.
The aim is to build a library of discussions (or Exchanges) that you can keep revisiting to learn, share, or contribute to. We've gone deep on this topic, so here's a short-cut guide:
- What problem are we trying to solve?
- Why create the Pearler Exchange?
- "OK, so what does the Pearler Exchange do differently?"
- The Pearler Exchange in two images
- Want to get involved?
- The not-so-fine print
What problem are we trying to solve?
Now, if you’ve used Pearler before, you probably know that we’re big on three things: community, long-term investment, and financial literacy. And if this is your first time with Pearler, welcome! When we looked around online, though, we couldn’t find any investment forum which combined all three. That’s why we’ve launched the Pearler Exchange.
Since we created Pearler, we've seen the difference a supportive community can make in everyone's investment journey. On social media, we've watched our investors rally around each other to share their experiences with personal finance. In our events, we've met people from all walks of life who have shared their investment stories with each other. Every time, the result has been the same: everyone involved feels more supported, informed, and empowered on their journey to financial independence.
By launching the Pearler Exchange, we're giving that community a space in which to support each other every day. In a nutshell, the Pearler Exchange does what our investors have told us they wish investing forums did. It’s a forum experience unlike any other investment or personal finance space, and it’s based on three concepts:
- It enables open conversation between real people and real investors. Pearler verifies everyone to ensure a transparent dialogue and monitors conversations to keep it collaborative and respectful.
- It doesn’t share or sell data; allow personal advice; or permit product spruiking (nope, not even of Pearler). In fact, the Exchange community rewards you for contributing (which we’ll discuss further below).
- It’s a supportive and open space in which the investing community can help each other on our financial journeys. You can ask hard, easy, or even stupid (there are none) questions, knowing that everyone is there to empower each other towards a common goal.
In this article, we cover how the Pearler Exchange differs from other personal finance forums, and why you’ll love participating. We also give you a crash course on how to post questions and answers on the Exchange. Finally, we cover the ground rules, and detail how you can make the most from it.
TL;DR: if you have questions about the Pearler Exchange, this article has answers!
Why create the Pearler Exchange?
Traditionally, if you wanted to answer a question about investing or personal finance, you’d have a few options.
- Seek the advice of a professional financial advisor. Great, but not so practical if you’re just starting to learn, you’ve got a minor question, or you’re simply more keen to do your own research.
- Ask a friend, relative, or colleague. This can be awkward or just plain uncomfortable when your friend tells you what you should do, but you’re not sure they are right.
- Google. At a glance, this might seem like a winning approach. However, not even Google’s algorithm is safe from the millions of dollars spent on spruiking financial products and apps.
Of course, there are forums, Facebook groups, Discords, and many other ways to chat online. When we thought about how we could help, it occurred to us that it's been nearly 20 years since Facebook and Reddit launched. With this in mind, we realised it was time to have a crack at something new.
Where forums fit in
The sharing of personal finance experiences online has helped spread the Financial Independence Retire Early community, which inspired much of what you see on Pearler today.
We think online forums have been one of the most important levelers for wealth creation in perhaps all of history. And we each share these amazing resources that can help us make sense of this life with money. So let’s just say without the likes of Reddit, FB, or Instagram, there would be no Pearler.
Like with everything online, though, there are amazing pockets and terrifying pockets and plenty in between. Just like forums. They’ve certainly helped me on occasion; they’ve probably helped you, too. As long as everyone looks after themselves, treats threads with a healthy dose of skepticism, and can ignore the snarky answers, then you get what you pay for.
Likewise, there are many share trading and micro apps out there, and Pearler is trying to do its own thing in that noisy space. Basically, we’re about being simple, passive, automatable, goals-focused, and less interested in picking stocks and beating the market. So, with those ideas in mind, we thought we’d have a go at making a forum better suited to investors like us.
“OK, so what does the Pearler Exchange do differently?”
Here’s everything we’ve pulled together so far, but it’s just a start.
1. All community members are verified
We welcome all comers at the Pearler Exchange. Even so, we want to ensure that all content comes from a real person - not a bot or sales rep. That’s why, before anyone can post a question on the Exchange, they need to create a Pearler account.
For investors who want to answer questions, we go even further. After signing up to Pearler, they’ll need to verify their ID. Only after Pearler has confirmed their ID will they be able to post an answer to a question.
This way, you can feel confident that all content on the Pearler Exchange stems from verified members of the community. Also, no bots!
2. All content is moderated
You may have already guessed this, but we’re pretty big on helpful content over spruiking or financial advice. For this reason, Pearler moderates all content to ensure it’s educational, helpful, transparent, and objective.
This isn’t about making sure everyone agrees on everything. We love picking apart the differences between the indexes as much as anyone.
BUT if an answer baselessly makes a claim or promotes a product, we contact the contributor and invite them to rephrase it. If a question encourages this type of response, same deal. Obviously, aggressive or offensive behaviour will never find a home on the Exchange either.
The result? An online community in which shared experience and transparent dialogue enjoy their chance to shine.
3. We never sell you. In fact, we reward you
Forums exist as businesses to capture attention and sell ads. That’s fine, but when you’re trying to find an answer to a question on a forum, it may be why two weeks later you get bombarded with ads for a new product or service. We understand why it happens, but it’s not what we are about. Once you’ve joined the Exchange, you can know that Pearler will NEVER sell your data to any third party. We want you to participate in a supportive online community - not pay for our start-up foosball table (we don’t have/want one) with your data.
Where do rewards factor in, then?
When content DOES educate or assist, we like to reward it with Pearler Credit. With Pearler Credit, you save on Pearler Shares or Micro fees and maybe reach your financial goals that little bit quicker. Here’s how:
You earn Reward Credits when other verified Pearler Exchange community members really “like” your content.
- Get 10+ likes and get 25 cents in Pearler Credit.
- Get 100+ likes and get $5 in Pearler Credit.
- Pearler shares your comment on its socials, that’s another $5 Pearler Credit.
In summary, instead of a forum taking your answers and monetising them for themselves by selling ads, Pearler instead rewards the most helpful content. We will see how this evolves, but for now, we want to ensure we incentivise helpful, high-quality discussion and Pearler Credit will play a part. This is just a humble start.
The Pearler Exchange in two images
This might all sound good and well, but if you’re a visual person, you might be having trouble picturing it. That’s why we’ve broken down the Pearler Exchange into two easily ingestible flow charts.
In the two images below, we’ve visualised how Pearler verifies ID and moderates content. We’ve also given you an overview of how to create a best-in-class question/answer that aligns with our Community Guidelines.
People asking a question
People answering a question
Want to get involved?
We’d love to have you! To get started, or simply take a look around, visit the Pearler Exchange.
The not-so-fine print
Please keep in mind: that none of the information posted in the Pearler Exchange is financial advice. It is only intended for educational and/or entertainment purposes. As always, before making financial decisions, please seek professional advice. None of the opinions shared on the Pearler Exchange are endorsements or positions of Pearler Investments Pty Ltd. If you see something that you believe goes against our Community Guidelines, let us know via community@pearler.com.
