I grew up not knowing much about money at all. It was always a taboo topic that I never thought to bring up to either of my parents and was never discussed directly with me. Neither of my parents worked with a financial planner so I never thought needing one was necessary.
I went into adulthood in my early 20’s not really having any financial principles to fall back on. I had to unfortunately learn things the hard way. In college, I began to rack up credit card debt and wasn’t saving any of my income. Mistakes were certainly made along the way in my younger years but were quickly learned from. I guess you can call it a ‘learn by doing’ way of learning.
I’m willing to bet there are many individuals who can resonate with my short story. Unfortunately, too many people go throughout life without a set of principles or relationship with money. I became a financial planner to change this exact situation for the many individuals who have a negative or nonexistent relationship with their financial lives or do not have any principles with their financial lives.
Sharing my story wasn’t the only reason to pursue a career as a financial planner. A big part of why I choose to be a financial planner was passion. I came into this industry starving for passion. I wanted to spend my working years (and beyond!) working in a position I was passionate about. After a few working months as a junior planner, I quickly realized this was the perfect position to utilize my equal parts of quantitative and qualitative thinking.
The conversations I would have with many of my clients over the years solidify my choice in pursuing the financial planning profession. Our discussions would weave anywhere from beliefs to income strategies and from current events to future vacation destinations. I loved the fact that our talks would take any direction and could cover all facets of life. I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of being more than just a financial planner but in some ways a life coach to my clients.
My ambition to share my story and eagerness to change the lives of my clients, community, and partners around me continued to grow as I embraced this exciting and newfound passion. After 4 successful years at an independent broker-dealer, I realized the only way to truly deliver impactful and conflict free advice was through a completely independent and fee-only capacity.
In March of 2020, my dreams had come true: I launched Branson Financial Planning. I was the now owner of a financial planning and investment management practice. It’s been an exciting venture so far and I look forward to many more prosperous years for my practice and more importantly my clients!
