My mother told me years ago that one of her biggest regrets was not purchasing a house she might leave me one day. She wished she hadn't invested her savings in a whole life insurance policy for decades. As a first-generation immigrant, my mother was sold something that she didn't truly understand. All that opportunity cost was lost and now, it was too late. It inspired me to take action. After a 20-year career in Information Technology, I was ready for a change and dove head-first into the financial planning industry. I wanted to help folks achieve their financial goals: saving for retirement, putting their first down payment on a house, or funding a child's college education. I'd like families to have no more financial regrets.
“Burnout is about resentment. [Preventing it is] about knowing yourself well enough to know what it is you’re giving up that makes you resentful.” — Marissa Mayer
Having loved computers and gaming since a young age, I’ve been employed in Information Technology for most of my adult life. The pay and stock compensation were great in tech, but burnout is a real issue. I started in IT as a Web developer for nearly 4 years in college. Then, in my engineering career, I lasted almost 9 years at a small tech company. Finally, I survived another 10 years at a slightly larger tech company before burning out. The hours were long and I was on call every other weekend where I needed to jump on my laptop at a moment’s notice. My wife told me recently that for the first few years of marriage, she was a “tech widow.”
By the end of 2019, I was done with tech and was ready to work anywhere else. Luckily, a friend at work suggested I talk to their acquaintance who owned a financial planning firm. It sounded like a great idea… until I actually talked to the person. They said that in my first few years in an entry-level role in financial planning, I should expect to work the same crazy hours as tech but make a third of my current tech salary. With my financial planning career dreams dashed, I decided to buckle down and stay in tech. How much worse could it be?
Then, in the early fall of 2020, the stress and long hours at work became overwhelming and I was back to wanting to quit again. My wife probably got tired of my constant complaints and suggested (again) that I talk to an old friend who left a wirehouse to start his own solo financial planning firm. She thought my friend would have my best interest at heart, so I relented and took her advice. As usual, I should have listened to my wife’s advice sooner rather than later.
Pro tip: Always try to associate with people smarter than you. My friend has a master's degree, is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), has his CFP® certification, and started his own fee-only Registered Investment Advisor (RIA). I had already done some research on the CFP® certification, but he explained in detail about the financial planning industry and the different fee models working for an insurance company, a broker-dealer, or RIA. By the end of the conversation, I made up my mind to pass the CFP® exam so I could find a position at a fee-only firm, which seemed to have the least conflict of interest compared to the other fee models. In hindsight, having my friend as an unofficial mentor was a watershed moment for my career.
Takeaways: Find a mentor, formal or informal. Talking to the right people can be pivotal to finding a wonderful career in the financial planning industry. Don’t stop after chatting with just one person; get a diversity of opinions by talking to several folks in different parts of the industry.
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” — Benjamin Franklin
As an amateur financial planning nerd, planning was in my blood. I researched several online courses and decided on Dalton because I wanted a self-paced course. With my more-than-full-time hours at work, it was difficult to attend regular virtual classes at night. I needed the flexibility to study part-time on nights and weekends. I’m an only child and was a latchkey kid growing up in a first-generation immigrant Chinese family where both my parents worked blue-collar jobs, so I had no problem studying by myself.
I purchased the Dalton coursework in September 2020 and started studying the following month. They allow you 9 months to complete the course, plus a 3-month extension, and I had the audacity to think I could complete it in 9 months. Life laughed at my plans and I barely finished before the 12-month deadline in September 2021. The biggest challenge was the sheer number of broad topics to learn, most from scratch. I loved investing and had been managing my wife’s and my own investments for years, but all the other topics were new to me beyond the basics. My absolute weakest areas were taxes and estate planning.
What I had going for me was the rest of the plan. I negotiated a good exit package from my tech firm and when my wife heard it she immediately exclaimed, “You take it!” We were fortunate to have been raised by our respective immigrant parents and taught the value of saving for a rainy day, so we had two years of emergency savings should both of us have to stop working.
Being well compensated for the insane work hours in tech helped fund our decent retirement savings beyond our emergency fund. My wife worked in a very stable industry which meant we could stretch our emergency fund to three years with her employed. I switched to her health insurance, we had two cats and no kids, and while I was still employed in tech we refinanced our mortgage to decrease payments by 25%.
My wife’s support was also critical to my success. She knew my go-getter personality (which may have unfortunately resulted in her being a “tech widow”) and she had no doubt I’d pass the CFP® exam and find a job in financial planning. My friends and family were also very understanding of my study schedule and missing get-togethers. I guess all my complaining about my tech job helped.
Takeaways: Research your potential career in financial planning to see if it’s a good fit for you. If it is, then make a plan and backup plans, and be flexible when your plans go awry.
“There is no substitute for hard work.” – Thomas Alva Edison
I left tech behind in mid-2021, completed my education course in September, and started the Dalton review shortly afterward. Dalton provided a detailed schedule geared toward part-time study. But I was behind schedule targeting the November 2021 exam (after postponing it twice previously) so I pushed myself to complete the 15-week review in 8 weeks. I studied 40-50 hours a week, working through a couple of hundred questions a day. But it took a toll: I was holed up at home studying most days of the week, ignoring my wife for most of that period.
Going through the question bank of 2,300+ questions twice worked for me. I scored an average of 70% on my first round through. I then created a spreadsheet (because I should get an “I heart spreadsheets” tattoo) listing all 150+ subcategories of topics and my scores, then used conditional formatting to highlight areas where I scored less than 60%. I focused on studying my weaker areas because I figured it’s easier to bring a 30% subject area up to 70% than a 70% up to 80%. That helped improve my average score the second time around to 81%, even with questions randomized to mimic the exam better.
I turned on “show answer” for each question in both rounds through the question bank to learn not only why I got an answer wrong but why I got it right. Occasionally I guessed correctly or answered correctly for the wrong reason. Understanding the reasoning behind the answers seemed to help.
As an auditory and visual learner, I’d listen to the lecture recordings of my favorite instructors, Rey Belyeu and Thomas Langdon, two or three times. I tried to optimize studying when my energy levels were high, getting up early in the morning, eating breakfast, and then focusing on the toughest subjects first. I ran through the easier topics when my energy levels were lower in the afternoon and night. Focusing on the quality of study, instead of quantity in sheer hours, helped make the most of my efforts.
A week before the November exam, I paid for the Prometric test drive to do a dry run. My exam was at 8 AM and the exam center was 40 miles away. I knew I’d hit traffic, so I needed to leave by 6:15 AM at the latest, meaning waking up at 5 AM to get ready. I went as far as sleeping 15 minutes earlier every night for a couple of weeks prior to the exam so my body would acclimate to waking up so early.
The exam was difficult and when I clicked that final button to finish it, I had no idea if I had passed or not. Then my head nearly exploded when the screen displayed the message, “Would you like to take a survey?” No, I just wanted to know if I passed! I clicked through the next screen and was ecstatic to discover I passed the exam! I immediately checked out of the exam center with a huge smile on my face. Then I called my wife and my friend who had just passed the exam a few days before. I was like a ton of bricks off my shoulders.
Takeaways: What worked for me may or may not work for you. Not everyone wants to wake up at 5 AM to take an exam! Experiment and figure out how you learn best and stick with them.
"Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble." — Warren Buffett
In early 2021 I half-heartedly applied for positions like "associate financial advisor," "associate financial planner," and "paraplanner." After passing the CFP® exam in November 2021, finding a job was my full-time job. I was hoping for a fee-only firm, but as time went on, I was OK with fee-based firms.
Then, right before Christmas 2021, I saw a job post on the XY Planning Network Facebook group. By then I had applied for 30+ jobs and gone through 7-8 interviews. It was an associate advisor position at a small fee-only RIA and it seemed like a great fit. I went above and beyond in preparing for the interview: researching the firm, listening to the podcasts the founder had been on, thinking about how I would answer questions he might ask, and learning what a Registered Life Planner (RLP) was.
After two rounds of interviews, I was offered the position by the end of January! Passing the CFP® exam worked in my favor, but surprisingly so did my former part-time career as a kids ski instructor and some of the people skills I developed. I started my dream job in February 2022 and have been loving it ever since.
I accrued my 4,000 apprenticeship hours working under a CFP® professional and earned my CFP® certification in February 2024. There was a lot to celebrate: Not only did I complete my CFP® certification journey, but it helped me land a job at this wonderful firm. In one recent client meeting, we asked if there was something in the coming year that they might spend money on that could bring them joy. The client said “no” because since working with our firm, they had everything they wanted in life right now. I fought back a tear, as it reminded me of why I wanted to become a financial planner in the first place.
Takeaways: When you find your ideal job, do everything in your power to impress in the interview because great opportunities don’t come often.
“Luck favors the prepared” — Edna Mode
If you’re a career-changer or a new college graduate, ask yourself why you want to join the financial planning industry. What is your motivation? Yes, we all need to make a living, and you can reach six figures eventually if you become a great planner, but I think many of us just want to help others.
Next, figure out the type of role that’s your dream job. Do your research on fee-only and fee-based firms, broker-dealers and wirehouses, and a plethora of terms you’ve never heard of before. To help other career-changers and college graduates get a head start in finding their ideal job in financial planning, here’s a frequently updated list of financial planning career resources.
When you’ve narrowed down your positions, map your skills from your current career (or your school work) to your new potential job. Connect the dots for the hiring manager about why you’re such a great fit. Tell your own compelling story of how far you’ve come and let your passion for the position and the financial planning industry come through. Ace that interview!
I’m very fortunate to have the resources and family support to get to this point, and I realize not everyone has this privilege. But I know folks who’ve entered the financial planning industry with a lot less in their favor because they set a plan in motion, played to their strengths, and focused on why they wanted to become financial planners. You can do it too. Best of luck to you in your own career journey!