Liz’s Story

After graduating from college with a degree in paralegal studies, I decided to go to law school. Always one to take multitasking to a new level, while I was in law school, I married my childhood sweetheart and shortly before graduating with a law degree, I had my first son. Whoever said, “you can’t have it all”!

It was during this very busy period in my life that I was drawn to financial advising. I had been fortunate to work for a financial planning firm as a college student. What started out as a job to make money became a career choice. The profession of Financial Planner has enabled me to utilize my education and experience I gained over the years in a career with boundless opportunities and room for expansion. It has enabled me to make a difference in the lives of people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds who share a common concern, planning for the future. Finally, being a financial planner has been personally and financially rewarding. With financial planning there is a direct correlation between hard work and commensurate rewards and I thrive in this environment.

It seems like a lifetime ago from my first entrants into the financial planning business and today, as the owner of my own firm. Not always a bed of roses, there have been challenges along the way. Being in an industry that is dominated by men can be daunting. Earning the respect of your peers takes skill, tenacity and an acceptance of our differences as a positive rather than a negative. Refining interpersonal skills is something I work on every day, knowing that it is an important and necessary component of success.

Interacting with people day to day, at the most personal level, about hard life decisions requires listening, understanding, discretion, loyalty and patience. It takes a realization that often the best advice needs fermenting before it is followed. And, at the end of the day, each individual is responsible for their own financial and personal growth. As a financial advisor, one needs to realize that even the best laid plans might not come to fruition when life gets in the way. This is when the financial advisor and client must regroup and find another path to reach financial goals.

In the financial planning profession, no two days are the same and each client is unique.  If you choose the profession of financial planner, like I did, you will never be bored!