Throughout my life I have always wondered what I wanted to be when I grew up. Whenever I would ask my parents, someone I looked up to or a guidance counselor a school I was always faced with the same question; “What are you good at?” and my favorite “What do you like to do for fun?”. Often times what should be generally easy questions to answer have resulted into blank stares and an occasional “I really do not know”.
Now I can’t help but look back into my past and see that the answers have been there all along and I just never knew it! Shortly after I joined the Army I was sent to Afghanistan. Before I left I went through an in-processing where basic things happen like updating immunizations and making sure you are getting paid correctly. Here is where the finance representative asked me if I wanted to start a 401K retirement plan with the Army, I said sure. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I just knew I wanted to be able to retire one day.
When I got back home from Afghanistan still in the National Guard, I went to work for a company and they too offered me a 401K plan. I thought to myself Perfect!, bring on the 401K’s, I am going to retire nicely one day. Still blind to what exactly a 401K is or does. Many years later I went on to separate from that company and I got a letter in the mail from the company that managed my 401K telling me I had to transfer it into another type of account and sent me information pertaining to IRA’s and Roth IRA’s. I can see you laughing now, oh yea my head was spinning. Right then is when I decided to educate myself.
By nature I am a very inquisitive person, my two favorite questions by far are “I wonder how much that costs?” and “I wonder how they build that?”. That moment little did I know, would be the start on my path to where I am right now as a Financial Professional. I read everything I could about the retirement accounts and what exactly they were. I began asking my closest friends and co-workers if they too had set up retirement accounts. I began describing and educating them on everything I had read. If they told me they had a 401k account I’d ask if their employer had a matching program, if they said yes I’d ask if they contributed the threshold, if they said no I would go crazy! Why not take advantage of free money!
When I got to college I would continuously take those personality tests that shoot out your top ideal jobs based on a whole bunch of questions about yourself and Financial Professional was always towards the top but I still never made the connection. I first decided on Business Management as a major because I wanted to help people launch their own American dream of business ownership. I quickly was convinced to change into the Finance major track by an influential teacher I had in college which taught a Personal Finance class that I loved! I was like a sponge, and the best part about it was this was my first official introduction to Time Value of Money and a financial calculator! Now armed with the instant use of a calculator and a few assumptions I was providing real numbers to back my explanations of retirement accounts and their benefits.
By now you’re probably thinking how could you not see the connection and you’re absolutely right, how could I not. It wasn’t until the beginning of my final semester of college that I saw what was looking right at me, my career. I was truly thankful to have found a company that would give me the opportunity to truly help people achieve their dreams of retirement and financial freedom. When I first found the company I did a ton of research and asked everyone what they knew about the company as well. I had heard nothing but great things and when I went in for my first interview I was greeted with nothing but warm handshakes, smiles and coffee.
I leave you with this, keep an open mind of the things you do regularly and think of how you can incorporate them into a career. Even if what you do can be done as a side job that earns a supplementary income. That supplementary income can be the income that you use to put into your retirement account.
Now I can’t help but look back into my past and see that the answers have been there all along and I just never knew it! Shortly after I joined the Army I was sent to Afghanistan. Before I left I went through an in-processing where basic things happen like updating immunizations and making sure you are getting paid correctly. Here is where the finance representative asked me if I wanted to start a 401K retirement plan with the Army, I said sure. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I just knew I wanted to be able to retire one day.
When I got back home from Afghanistan still in the National Guard, I went to work for a company and they too offered me a 401K plan. I thought to myself Perfect!, bring on the 401K’s, I am going to retire nicely one day. Still blind to what exactly a 401K is or does. Many years later I went on to separate from that company and I got a letter in the mail from the company that managed my 401K telling me I had to transfer it into another type of account and sent me information pertaining to IRA’s and Roth IRA’s. I can see you laughing now, oh yea my head was spinning. Right then is when I decided to educate myself.
By nature I am a very inquisitive person, my two favorite questions by far are “I wonder how much that costs?” and “I wonder how they build that?”. That moment little did I know, would be the start on my path to where I am right now as a Financial Professional. I read everything I could about the retirement accounts and what exactly they were. I began asking my closest friends and co-workers if they too had set up retirement accounts. I began describing and educating them on everything I had read. If they told me they had a 401k account I’d ask if their employer had a matching program, if they said yes I’d ask if they contributed the threshold, if they said no I would go crazy! Why not take advantage of free money!
When I got to college I would continuously take those personality tests that shoot out your top ideal jobs based on a whole bunch of questions about yourself and Financial Professional was always towards the top but I still never made the connection. I first decided on Business Management as a major because I wanted to help people launch their own American dream of business ownership. I quickly was convinced to change into the Finance major track by an influential teacher I had in college which taught a Personal Finance class that I loved! I was like a sponge, and the best part about it was this was my first official introduction to Time Value of Money and a financial calculator! Now armed with the instant use of a calculator and a few assumptions I was providing real numbers to back my explanations of retirement accounts and their benefits.
By now you’re probably thinking how could you not see the connection and you’re absolutely right, how could I not. It wasn’t until the beginning of my final semester of college that I saw what was looking right at me, my career. I was truly thankful to have found a company that would give me the opportunity to truly help people achieve their dreams of retirement and financial freedom. When I first found the company I did a ton of research and asked everyone what they knew about the company as well. I had heard nothing but great things and when I went in for my first interview I was greeted with nothing but warm handshakes, smiles and coffee.
I leave you with this, keep an open mind of the things you do regularly and think of how you can incorporate them into a career. Even if what you do can be done as a side job that earns a supplementary income. That supplementary income can be the income that you use to put into your retirement account.
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