My STORY
Why I do what I do
When I was 14 years old my mother became permanently disabled. She was side swiped by a driver who ran a stop sign. This accident accelerated her degenerative disc disease. Shortly after she was unable to work and we lost our home and had to move 4 hours away to my grandparents house. This was during the DotCom bubble, which led her to lose most of her savings and retirement assets in the stock market crash. The only source of income we had to rely upon was her Social Security Disability Income check. It was not much but it did help us out dramatically.
Before I established my career in the financial industry I had always wondered, how could a single life event, such as an auto accident, completely alter a family’s entire financial world?
The short answer to this is usually, “We had no safety nets, no safe money strategies and very little insurance coverage.” Why? The archaic financial planning models were to put ALL your money into the markets and not to worry it will always grow and be there for you despite ups and downs. Well, financial planning has changed, in the past we did not have unlimited money printing and artificial bubbles.
Shortly after these times, I experienced three grandparents that lived through long term care situations. Not only was it financially draining on our family but it was incredibly emotional. None of my grandparents had any long term care insurance, the financial responsibilities were left to their savings and our family.
My family had no professional financial experience, we came from mostly a blue collar background. During highschool and college I was working on my father’s logging farm in Missouri and during the school year I was working construction and landscaping in California. After my personal family experiences, I decided to switch my college studies from Cultural Anthropology to finance. My journey in the financial services industry started when I was 22 years old.
Over the past decade I have been fortunate to have my mother work with me and together we have helped educate thousands of people on how to protect their hard earned money from life’s surprises.
DISCLAIMER: The content presented here is intended as information only and is not intended to represent tax, legal, or investment advice. Financial products can differ based on state of residence, age and product selected. Many financial products such as annuities may contain surrender charges and/or restrictions on access to your funds. Optional lifetime income benefit riders are used to calculate lifetime payments only and are not available for cash surrender or in a death benefit unless specified in the annuity contract. In some annuity products, fees can apply when using an income rider. Guarantees are based on the financial strength and claims paying ability of the insurance company. Read all insurance contract disclosures carefully before making a purchase decision. Rates and returns mentioned on any program presented are subject to change without notice.