Blogs

What is your earliest money memory?

My earliest money memory is when I started babysitting around the age of 12. Now that I was earning my own money, my parents opened a high yield savings account for me and said I had to put part of my babysitting money into that account. I didn’t enjoy losing some of my hard earned money to a savings account but I did like seeing it grow over time and, eventually, I made the connection that this money was not lost, that it was still mine, and that it would help me in case of emergency or sudden financial hardship. I am grateful to have built the habit as, since then, I have always maintained an emergency fund in a high yield savings account.

When did you discover financial planning?

2018 is when financial planning as a career popped up on my radar. For several years prior I had been learning about the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) community and, after reading many books, blogs, and attending webinars, had made big changes with how I approached my own financial life. My friends, family, and coworkers learned about my new found passion for personal finance (mostly because I couldn’t stop talking about it) and started asking me for help with their finances. Being able to clear up confusion, provide basic personal finance education, and help make those difficult money topics more approachable for them brought me a lot of joy. Ultimately, I decided I wanted to help as many people as I could figure out their personal financial life and meet their goals which is why I switched tracks and pursued a career in financial planning.

What inspired you to pursue your CFP® certification?

When I realized that I wanted to be a financial planner, I started researching the best way to go about that kind of career change. How would I learn all the areas of financial planning I needed to know to be a great planner? What could I do to indicate to future clients that I am knowledgeable and trustworthy? How can I make sure I hold myself to the highest ethical standard? While blogs, books, and other tools are great for learning about many topics, I felt I didn’t have the full picture on financial planning yet and I wanted to make sure I obtained that before making this career switch. Ultimately, what my research found is that pursuing, and eventually obtaining, the CFP® certification would be the best way to meet my goals - to have the education, experience, and ethical standards I felt I needed to make this shift into a new career.

How do you find community as a young professional?

My first step in finding community was to join the Candidate Forum on the CFP Board website. From there I joined the CFP Board Mentor Program where I worked with a mentor in the year leading up to my taking the CFP® exam. I learned so much from her about the financial planning industry, how she got started as a CFP® professional, and her experience in studying and taking the CFP® exam. Getting to know her and being able to ask as many questions as I could think of helped me feel more at ease with this big transition I was undertaking. Earlier this year, I joined the Financial Planning Association, the Future Financial Planners slack group, and created a professional Twitter account to build more connections with women, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, etc. financial planners like myself. Finding these communities has boosted my confidence that I can carve out a space for myself in this industry.

What change do you want to catalyze in the industry?

I worked in tech before I made the transition this year into a financial planning role and I appreciated in my previous role that we had an established Diversity and Inclusion program. While no company is perfect, it was a weight lifted to feel that I could be myself at my job and not be treated differently for it. One of my biggest concerns as someone who doesn’t fit the traditional mold of feminine and straight was that I would not find that space in the financial planning industry. That I would have to change myself or hide who I am to effectively build my career. Creating space for and supporting people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, etc. in their careers, no matter the industry, is top of mind for me. This is a more common discussion now in many financial planning circles. I see webinars, podcasts, articles, and conferences all surrounding this topic now - how do we build a more diverse workforce? How do we create a welcoming and inclusive space? I am passionate about helping to answer these questions and creating as many opportunities as we can to open up this career path for anyone to be welcome as they are and for who they are. I would add here that I think this is just as important when we think about the people we serve as financial planners. Personal finance is important for all people and our industry should reflect the world at large, not just a small subset of the population.

Who do you desire to serve as a financial planner?

My passion lies in supporting and uplifting the LGBTQIA+ community both personally and professionally. My hope is to serve the LGBTQIA+ tech community specifically as there are unique challenges in personal finance when it comes to family planning, healthcare costs, etc. In addition, having come from tech, I have experienced firsthand the different types of equity compensation tech professionals may receive. Helping my tech LGBTQIA+ community thrive personally and financially brings me a lot of joy.

How will you celebrate on the day you become Kiersten Peshek, CFP®?

I will probably dance around my house for a few hours and sing at the top of my lungs - exactly what I did after I passed the CFP® Exam last year! Plus, of course, tell all my family and friends so they can all dance and sing with me. Obtaining my certification has been an ongoing goal since August of 2018 so reaching that goal I will feel immensely proud of myself and the hard work I put in over the years to get there.