Financial planning started early for me. Every year on the Saturday morning after my birthday my parents would make pancakes and let me open my presents, of which were always cards from family that included cash. First thing Monday after school my mom would load me and my 4 siblings up and take us into town so that I could deposit my newly acquired net worth into my savings account. We would sit in the waiting room and wait until a teller was ready, at which point mom would then instruct me to go up by myself and ask to deposit my money and get a receipt for the balance. Once we got home she would go through my statement with me showing me how much interest I had earned over the past year and how much my new balance was with the deposit of birthday money. I didn't understand then but my parents were sowing seeds of wisdom in me that were far more valuable than anything I could have thought to buy with the money at the time. Lessons on compound interest, delayed gratification, gratefulness, and thinking about the future were being instilled in me before I realized it.
Fast forward to my high school and college years where I realized that managing money is stressful. Taking out loans, buying houses and cars, investing for retirement and many other decisions were looming in my future after school but how was I supposed to know the best way to approach them all at once? During college a Financial Advisor spoke at my college discussing both what he did for a living and how he advised clients in general on their investments and financial planning. That was the light bulb moment for me. He was confident, intelligent, and relatable - giving wisdom and insight on the questions I had and questions I didn't have but needed to have. He had a lot of great knowledge to give but the most important thing I took away from his talk was that he made the complex simple.
From that point on I had a soft spot for walking with others as they sought to make the right financial decisions. I joined Waddell & Reed shortly after college and have had the joy and privilege of doing just that ever since. Since my first $20 deposit into my savings account as a child I've learned many new and exciting ways to invest, manage taxes, and plan for the future. But no matter how much the world changes and how much I learn, there is one thing that I seek to keep constant as I serve others: financial advice shouldn't be complicated, and everyone deserves an advisor that puts the client first and gives easy to understand answers to the hard questions.