Author: Brandon Jones

I’m excited to welcome Dan Huffman on the podcast today. He is the founder of Cornerstone Financial Planning, a fee-only RIA based in CO. His focus is on working with those in the real estate community so we spend a lot of time talking about that type of expertise, the planning and tax considerations for that niche, compliance considerations, and balancing those goals with other aspects of financial planning especially when so many clients think about real estate in more emotional aspects.

Dan shares his story of learning about aspects of personal finance in the FIRE community and some of his initial challenges of trying to market to them as prospective clients. We also touch on many of the places that Dan has learned from and educational resources you might also benefit from.

I appreciate Dan’s candor as he navigated gaining his confidence early on before really opening up his marketing and experiencing fast growth in the past year or so. With that growth, we also discuss becoming more efficient through processes and delegation. 

Lastly, we wrap up talking about what Dan sees coming up next and how he is seeking to serve his clients, a broader community, and balance those against the purposeful work in a life of financial independence. Here is my interview with Dan!

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-huffman-cornerstonefiplanning/

https://cornerstonefiplanning.com/ 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/

https://militarytaxexperts.org/

https://www.realdata.com/ 

https://www.ccim.com/

https://www.therealestatecpa.com/ 

 

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I’m excited to welcome Ryan Guina on the podcast today. He is the founder of the Military Wallet, one of the longest running and most respected personal finance websites focused on the military audience. Ryan served over six years in the United States Air Force as an aircraft mechanic, then joined the Air National Guard in 2014 after an 8.5-year break in service which we talk about integrating the challenges of that with his entrepreneurial journey.

In our wide-ranging discussion Ryan shares his personal journey of sharing his discoveries on a blog during the early days of this content creation, the community he learned from along the way, and how it evolved from an initial side hustle into a full-time career. I especially appreciated his advice around looking for ways to help others careers selflessly and in so doing build a community of people who are within a few levels of where you are at. 

Ryan has years of experience with SEO or search engine optimization which we also talk about including helpful resources and how to capture an audience to nurture over time. We also discuss the challenges more recently from the rise of AI and its impact on web traffic. 

If you are interested in content creation, building an audience online, or exploring alternative career paths related to personal finance you can find lots of nuggets in this episode. Here’s my interview with Ryan!

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanguina/

https://themilitarywallet.com/

https://www.semrush.com/

https://moz.com/

https://ahrefs.com/ 

 

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I’m excited to welcome Valerie Rivera on the podcast today. She is the founder of First Gen Wealth, an RIA specializing in no shame, no judgement financial advice for First Gen wealth builders in their 30s and 40s. I invited Valerie on the podcast to help share her story of overcoming lots of barriers including race, family of origin, education, class, financial safety net, and much more. I love her transparency in sharing each stage of her career journey and how she persisted in finding a path forward, even in the midst of challenge after challenge. 

She is part of just over 1% of Latinas holding the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER designation, the gold standard of financial planning. Valerie is a member of the Financial Planning Association (FPA), XY Planning Network, Fee-Only Network, The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), and the CFP Board Diversity Advisory Group. She has contributed to publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Insider, and others regarding her expertise in personal finance.

In my discussions over the years with people in the military space, it often comes up that it feels daunting or different to try and make the leap into financial planning when you might not feel like you fit in. It’s a stark fact that financial planning isn’t as diverse as the population as a whole, much less those of us who want to serve based on our backgrounds or communities. If you feel like you might also struggle to fit in or find your way based on initial or past experiences in financial services as a whole, I hope you can take away some encouragement or inspiration to follow Valerie’s example and not give up. We need you in this valuable profession! 

Here’s my interview with Valerie!

 

https://1genwealth.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-rivera-cfp/ 

 

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I’m excited to welcome Curt Sheldon on the podcast today. He is the founder of C. L. Sheldon and Company, a flat-fee RIA focused on serving senior military officers. Curt first launched this firm more than 14 years ago and offered flat fee engagements with investment management long before this became more common. His firm also prepares more than 300 tax returns.

In this wide-ranging interview Curt shares how his early interest in finances started during his academics studies during undergraduate, masters, and CFP coursework while on active duty. Listen for his story about a bad experience early on with being sold some unsuitable products and how this impacted his view of the industry. We talk about his decision to pursue the EA and how tax planning and preparation has shaped much of his client experience over the years. 

We also explore the team growth of his firm and his vision for the future, both in his company but also in the broader industry. Curt shares his perspective and advice for job seekers including how to focus on the mission and vision of the firm you are interviewing with. Lastly, we reflect on how much has changed even just over Curt’s firm and what he sees as some of the biggest transitions and opportunities.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-curt-sheldon-cfp%C2%AE-ea-20a51b19/

https://clsheldon.com/ 

 

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In this short bonus episode, Paul Allen rejoins us to share the exciting news about the MQFP live exam prep course coming up at MilMoneyCon25. We chat through what that looks like, what you can expect to learn, how much it costs, when to plan travel, integration with the MilMoneyCon conference schedule, and a special opportunity for some scholarships! Hope to see many of you listeners there!

https://milmoneycon.com/

https://mqfp.org/review-course-at-milmoneycon/ 

 

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I’m excited to welcome Stacy Miller on the podcast today. She is the founder of Bayview Financial Planning, a flat-fee RIA focused on serving women, widows, and military and veteran families. Stacy is a military spouse to a retired U.S. Army officer. Married for over 30-years to her husband, Jody, who served 28-years in the military, Stacy has experienced many positive and negative transitions. She has seen firsthand how those transitions can impact women, widows, and military/veteran families. Together, her military family moved 14 times during their service, and as a result, Stacy was often unemployed or underemployed. She therefore recognizes how important it is for women, especially, to feel confident in their own future financial security.

We chat about her exposure to personal finance as her family CFO holding down the fort during her husband’s long and varied military career. Like most military spouses, Stacy found a way to make it all work and built up an incredible skillset during those years across her varied experiences. 

Stacy shares how her initial experiences with financial advisors made her wary of going down that career path before a colleague finally convinced her to join an RIA. While it was a great training ground and opportunity to do lots of things, she felt the pull of real financial planning for families and individuals that was different than the institutional money management that prior firm did. 

So, Stacy took the leap into launching her own firm earlier this year and we catch her at the 6 month point where she is fresh in the trenches of marketing and working to get those first 10 clients. I love how she shares about the real reasons why she had to do this for herself and how work and identity plays such a key role for her in this decision. Lastly, she shares some really interesting advice she gives to fellow military spouses also exploring careers in this profession. 

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacymillercfp/

https://bayviewfp.com/

 

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In this episode, I’m joined by David Evetts, who serves as the President of the USAA Educational Foundation. Since 1986, The USAA Educational Foundation has served the military community by helping service members and their families become informed financial decision-makers through every life stage. USAA, the founder and sponsor of The USAA Educational Foundation, is a San Antonio, Texas-based financial services company that provides auto, homeowners, and life insurance products and, banking and investment services. While USAA is the sponsor, The USAA Educational Foundation does not endorse or promote any commercial supplier, products, or services.

Before this current role, David served as the USAA CEO’s chief of staff/aide-de-camp with previous leadership roles in CEO Communications, Corporate Responsibility, External Affairs, and Enterprise Innovation. David joined USAA in 2011 through the Junior Military Officer Career Development Program after serving in the Army.

Over the course of our interview we chat about these roles and more including David’s perspectives on how to balance the dual goals of serving the military community with education or support along with finding ways to have a career. David also shares some particularly relevant advice related to looking for a company that aligns with your values instead of the particulars of the job or even role.

Lastly, we chat about the challenges of shedding the military identity when making a career transition and how to be known as a leader, not just a veteran. There are definitely some pearls of wisdom in there. Here’s my interview with David Evetts.

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidevetts/

https://usaaef.org/ 

 

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I’m excited to welcome a friend and colleague who has a little bit different career track today. Drew Stamp serves as the Chief Operations Office for the Donovan and Bank Foundation – a, nonprofit organization that focuses on helping special operators transition to a life of peace, balance, and contentment. 

We chat about Drew’s early personal finance experiences, how he learned he loved to teach and help other with financial literacy, what studying for the CFP exam was like even though he had never worked in a traditional job in financial planning before, and how he found his way to his current role. If you are interested in financial literacy and education, you might find some of his answers surprising.

With his wide range of experiences, Drew shares some incredibly practical advice born out of personal experience and the hundreds of briefings and thousands of hours of conversation. We could all benefit from his advice on how to better deliver financial education as well as advice!

Drew has the benefit of looking back over his many years of transition counseling and shares the common themes he sees including how important it is to have your own financial house in order and be prepared for the emotional, mental, and identity challenges that come with leaving the military experience. 

Lastly, we chat about the changes and perceptions of current military members, if BRS has changed things from where Drew sees it, and what it means to work with the military population as they approach their career transitions. So here’s my interview with Drew Stamp. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-stamp/ 

https://www.donovanbank.org/ 

 

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Today on the podcast I’m joined by Matt Stephens from Willow Chute Financial. Matt has had a winding career path that has taken him to a variety of roles, firms, structures, and responsibilities. During his career in financial services, he has also served as an officer in the Army Reserves since 2008. In our discussion, we chat about the pros and cons of a variety of financial services compensation and service structures and how that factored into his career decisions.

Given the variety of structures as well as front and back office roles, I ask Matt about the traits he found for those that were successful in the variety of positions so you can better understand and find your best fit. Matt also shares about his special prospecting opportunities to network and receive referrals from CPAs as well as help clients solve very specific tax problems. 

Lastly, we chat about the lessons learned along the way for other people looking for their first position in this profession or looking to chart their best path. Matt’s grit and determination helped him persevere through lots of challenges before he ultimately found his way to his current broker dealer and the best fit for him and his clients. Be sure to listen for the pearls of wisdom about the things to watch out for when evaluating different job opportunities and structures. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattstephens730/

https://www.willowchutefinancial.com/ 

Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services Inc. (member FINRA/SIPC). Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services Inc.

 

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