Road to Certification

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 ...

She’s On Her Way Featuring an Interview with @Amanda Gutierrez on her Path to CFP ® C ertification ​ What is your earliest money memory? My earliest money memory is from when I was nearly 10 years old and went camping with my aunt, uncle, and cousins in San Diego. For the trip, my parents had sent me with a limited amount of money to pay for food and trinkets. However, I knew that I didn’t receive money very often and therefore wanted to save as much as I could by asking about the cost of everything. My aunt and uncle took notice and still tease me about it to this day. When did you discover financial planning? I discovered financial planning ...

January 26, 2021: 45 Days Until the CFP ® Exam I am in the Valley of Despair. My review course provider, Brett Danko, hosted a webinar with a Ph.D. to discuss the mental aspects of test-taking. She showed a U-shaped diagram where you start out high, ignorantly excited about taking on the CFP® exam. As you move to the right, you sink down into the trough where you are knee-deep in the depressing reality of what it will take to pass the exam. When you rise again on the other side, you have knowledge-based confidence that you will be able to pass. She called the trough the Valley of Despair, where reality catches up to you, everything seems hopeless, and you ...

She’s On Her Way Featuring an Interview with @Jonae Daniels on her Path to CFP ® C ertification What is your earliest money memory? My earliest money memory is my Money Bunny account. Money Bunny was a savings account that our local credit union offered for kids. The only mail I could eagerly look forward to receiving each month as a child was from the credit union.. They would send out monthly statements and coloring books so that it was not just a boring piece of paper. My mom would always go over the statement with me, making sure to talk about the account balance and emphasizing the importance of "paying yourself first." She was teaching me ...

She’s On Her Way Featuring an Interview with Dawn Torres-Gale, Candidate for CFP ® Certification Dawn, Thanks for joining us today to talk about your career in financial planning. First, what is your earliest money memory? My earliest money memory is my single parent mother telling me it was too expensive to buy a car in response to my asking her about it while we were waiting in the rain for the bus in San Francisco where I grew up. I was probably around 4 or 5 years old but the fear I felt then has always stayed with me. When did you discover financial planning? I think I had always heard of Financial Planning as a profession but ...

So now that you’ve made it through the educational requirements, it’s time to start thinking about taking and passing the CFP® exam. During my exam prep course through Brett Danko, he always talked about us PASSING the exam and not just taking it. Once you get through the education and the studying, you have to go into the big day with a positive mindset. A phrase that I used during my college hockey career and before my test day experience was: Positive thoughts produce positive results. Anyway, enough of the pep-talk. You’ve got this! Let’s move on to the actual test experience. First and foremost, you want to make sure that you sign up for the exam at a ...