LEWISTON — Seth Poplaski sat in second place going into the finals of the national online contest “So You Think You Can Finance.”
NerdWallet announced the winner Monday. He’d stayed in second.
Poplaski was one of five 20-something contestants who tackled hard truths and dreamt big in a month-long series of questions posed by NerdWallet for the company’s first-time contest on money, debt and finances. They vied for $1,000 and two sessions with a financial planner.
Poplaski, 26, is newly married and marketing director at Maine Family Federal Credit Union. For the contest he’d had to share his debt and salary with the world.
“It was definitely a little interesting being 100 percent transparent with everything,” Poplaski said Monday. “(Finances) are not talked about too much, and if they are, it’s in generalities.”
Each week in September, contestants were asked personal details and hypotheticals. Judges scored each answer. After two strong weeks, Poplaski said he “ended up tanking” on week three: How to invest $100,000 for retirement. Judges took him to task for not being diverse enough.
“I definitely have more to learn about investing but it’s OK because I’m young,” he said.
Poplaski hung neck and neck with Jia from Michigan during the two-week public voting period that followed the month of questions. Things turned a little strange, he said, when Jia announced she would donate her prize money to a school in Kyrgyzstan. Seth said he’d apply at least some to college debt.
“It was a really great cause,” he said. “The thing I guess I didn’t enjoy was that it turned out to be a contest of me against children in Asia.”
In all, Jia received 9,000 votes, Poplaski 8,000-plus.
Overall, it was a good experience, Poplaski said. “It was definitely cool to see how everything played out. It was unlike any contest that I’ve been in before. It was definitely something I’d do again in a heartbeat.”
kskelton@sunjournal.com
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