Investments are important and one of the ingredients to a client reaching their financial goals. But it’s been my experience that they’re not the most important thing. 80 % of reaching your financial goals is clearly defining that goal and having a plan from today, point A, to where you’re going, point B. And a plan for how to overcome some of those speed bumps, the unexpected events that might derail you from your plan. And some of those events could be the loss of your spouse, loss of your ability to work.etc.

If you’re always striving for the absolute best investment, I think that long term you spend an awful lot of energy reaching something that is maybe not as important as some of the other questions and other things that you need in your financial plan. I, you know, joke with people all the time and they want to buy this stock or that stock, etc. That diversification is absolutely essential. Going to Vegas is not bad.

Going to Vegas with the mortgage on your house, that’s what’s bad. Okay. What you have me for is when your brother-in-law comes to you and wants you to invest in his chihuahua farm, I say, how does that really help you reach your financial goals? Maybe that’s not such a great idea. I have been doing you know, meeting with clients for over 26 years. And I’ve met so many people with great investment strategy that they want me to recommend to my clients. And frankly, so many of them, 99 % of them sound great on paper, but you know, I think sticking with some of the non-exotic, some of the staple, the core investments and the discipline to stick with it so that you can sleep well at night is long-term best for the client.

The types of people that I work with have similar characteristics. Number one, they’re fun people that I like. Life is too short for me to work with people that I don’t like. And frankly, this is a very personal, intimate relationship and I want to feel comfortable with people that I’m working with.

Number two, am I going to add value to the relationship? If the issues before the prospective client is not one that I am an expert in, I’ll be upfront and say, I’m not the right guy for you. You deserve better.

Number three, will it be profitable for me long term? Many advisors have dollar minimums and I want to say right up front that I don’t have hard dollar minimums. If you’ve got the discipline and the right attitude and that’s what I’m looking for, we can have a good trusting relationship long term then you’re going to have the dollars sooner rather than later. I want to help you and guide you along the way in that particular situation.

I’m originally from Michigan where my parents still live in my childhood home today. Went through all my school and college there and moved out here to Colorado in 1993 where I met my wife and I have two dogs, cat.

I’ve been a member of the Boulder community, like I said, since 1993. I’m involved in a number of different charities, that’s my passion. And usually I’m on the board as either a treasurer or a president. Very involved in Rotary, both at the club level, the district level, and internationally. I believe that…

Being active, being a part of your community is absolutely essential and I want to do what I can to be a part of it.

I’ve been involved in the community in a number of different ways, number of different boards and just members of organizations. Some that I’ve been involved in was a restorative justice up in Longmont and here at Boulder Probation where I help facilitate victims and offenders coming together and members of the community. I’ve been involved mentoring college-age men and teaching them values that they can take into the world. I’ve been involved in prisons where I would go in and help through an organization called Prison Mindfulness Institute. We would go in and help heal them from some of the trauma that they would have coming into the prison so that by the time that they left, hopefully they were better and able to reintegrate into society. I’ve also been very involved in Rotary, both at the club level, the district level, and internationally. I think it’s a great way to be involved both locally and globally in our communities.

Speed bumps is my own non-technical term for unexpected life events or behavior that’s not helpful to reaching the financial goals. Some examples of some speed bumps would be the loss of your spouse, loss of your ability to work, and some of the behaviors would be perhaps just not saving enough money. Not understanding that your income on a monthly basis needs to be greater than your expenses and that the difference between the two needs to be saved, just not saving enough money.

In over 20 years, I’ve done many financial plans for clients and some met their financial goals and some didn’t. It’s been my experience that those that did not meet their goals, it really had nothing to do with if they bought investment A instead of investment B, but it had to do with one of these speed bumps or these behaviors that I’m talking about. What do you do when we identify one of these speed bumps? We proactively talk about it. We try to minimize the impact that it could have.

Or we buy some insurance. If you can’t take the risk on your own, you kind of transfer that risk to something else, to some type of insurance, some kind of pool. But it’s important upfront to think about what could go wrong. We’ve got a great plan, but yeah, let’s also think about all the, have a contingency plan for all those things that might not make that as possible as what we want it to be.

I used to be president of a registered investment advisory firm with over 30 people. So I know what it’s like to have a large staff. And frankly, that’s not what I have right now or what I desire. It’s by design. In today’s world, I can use technology and leverage that in order to do the most for my clients in the most efficient way.

I have an assistant, she’s actually in another state. I also utilize various professionals and experts in various areas of marketing and technology, money management, et cetera, and using them in a very targeted way. Because of technology, I can do more with less all the time and that makes things cheaper for the client. So if a client or prospective client comes in and expects a huge staff running around with a bunch of paper. That’s just not me. I want to be available for the client with the best advice that I can give them and I want to use technology in order to communicate with them, to be with them, to get them the right answer when they need it.

I come from a mindset of abundance, not scarcity. And I named my company Generosity Wealth Management because I work with clients mathematically and emotionally to help them get to a place where they feel that they can be generous with themselves. They can be generous with themselves and perhaps they can be generous with their families. They’re generous with themselves. They’re generous with their families. And if they choose, then I help guide them to being generous in their communities, both local and global. That’s what generosity means to me and I help guide them in the technical aspects, but also in some of the emotional aspects towards that generosity in a full life.