"Here Be Dragons"

On paper, I had the kind of job many young financial advisors would want. I worked at an independent firm of only 28 people and was part of a team that managed $3 billion. From a career standpoint, it looked like I had struck gold.

Unfortunately, life is not always about what is on paper. Paper is only two-dimensional, and we live in a very three-dimensional world. Paper shows salaries, promotions, and growth charts. Real life includes time, relationships, and purpose. While I was making great money, learning a lot, and “living the dream,” I was slowly reaching the point where I knew something was off. It was one of those feelings you cannot fully explain at first, but you know it is there.

My career hit a major crossroads. One path looked like this: leaving my house at 7 a.m. and coming home at 7 p.m., making great money with “unlimited upside,” but with little control over my time. It meant waiting and hoping that one day I would make partner and that life would somehow be better on the other side of it.

The other side was simpler: less money, a lot more risk, but more freedom.

Again, on paper, the choice should have been easy. Keep chasing the money. Keep chasing the prestige.

I decided to go against the paper. In a sense, I ripped it up. I did that because my “why” changed. In my 20s, I chased money at the sacrifice of almost everything else. In my 30s, I got married and started thinking much more seriously about the kind of life I actually want to build.

My “why” changed dramatically, so I decided my plan had to change too.

Like any good plan, this one is uniquely mine, and it probably would not work for most people. That is okay. In fact, that is the point. This is one of the reasons I love being a financial planner. I help people build the best plan for them, and then course correct when the destination changes or life throws something unexpected in the way.

The “why” is so important because it gives everything else direction.

There are a lot of distractions in the world and in our personal lives. It could be staying in a career you do not enjoy because the pay is good. It could be buying the bigger house because it seems like everyone around you is doing it. It could be delaying retirement because you are not sure who you are without the job.

And in investing, it can look like chasing the newest shiny opportunity without first asking what you are actually trying to accomplish.

That is what happens when you get so focused on the parts that you lose sight of the whole. You are stuck in the trenches, unable to see the field.

In retirement planning, too often people start with the investments instead of the destination. But the destination has to come first. You need to know where you are trying to go before you can make good decisions about the steps it will take to get there.

Now, you do not need an exact roadmap. It is okay to work off maps that say, “Here be dragons”, the phrase old cartographers wrote at the edges of the known world. Truthfully, that is where I feel like I am in some areas of life right now.

But I am okay with that, because I have direction.

I know I want to help people find their path and walk with them down it. I want to provide value to the world. And I want to build a life where I can be present for my family, not just provide for them from a distance.

So while I may not have every detail mapped out, I know the direction I am heading, and I know the steps I am taking to get there.

That is also how I think good financial planning should work. It is not about chasing what looks best on paper. It is about understanding what matters most to you, building a plan around that, and adjusting when life changes.

That is the work I want to do for the people I serve.