A Decade Later

Executive Summary: This is a detailed look into my life and how my personal financial plan has changed over the past ten years.

December 17th, 2010 was the last day for final exams in the Winter 2010 semester. I officially completed coursework for my Bachelor's degree: Bachelor's in Applied Sciences Business Management with a Major in Finance.  

A decade from then seemed to be an extremely long time, especially for a 21-year-old. When I graduated Eastern, I had a simple plan in place. My plan's goals were to pay off the student debt I accrued and wait for the right position. I was able to accomplish this by keeping my expenses low, sacrificing wants for needs. 

A Decade goes by faster than you think it will. 

It took me less than a year after graduation to pay off the student loans - I had worked throughout college and paid on the loans along the way. During college, I held positions with  Consolidated Market Response - an in-bound and out-bound telemarketing position, Rural King Supply - a retail job, and kept working for my uncle's Funeral Home business. I intentionally applied for jobs at these locations to help build skills of working with the public that I would eventually use in my career goal of becoming a Financial Planner. 

When possible, pick jobs that can help you develop skills for your ultimate career goal! 

After graduation with my Bachelor's degree: the job market was slim at the beginning of 2011. My goals were to stay local to Central Illinois and stay independent.  Due to these, I had to remain patient for the right opportunity to come around. During this waiting, I chose to get my State of Illinois Insurance Producer license.

The first opportunity that met both criteria was for an independent insurance company. During my time in this position, my tasks generated new property, casualty, and life insurance. This position wasn't right for me, but it helped me break out of my shell a little and be more comfortable in front of people. 

The right fit will emerge to you, possibly in an unexpected manner. 

In August 2012, I accepted a position that had great promise for my career goals.  This position came about due to someone close to me, turning it down and bringing me up as someone who would fit. I have remained in this position and continue to build additional knowledge and responsibilities. I worked solely as a Financial Assistant/Para Planner from 2012 to 2016, when I began accepting clients. 

Keep your plan Agile so you can make adjustments as life can come at you quickly.

Back to my personal life, I met my wife in 2015, and we married in June of 2017. At both of these points in time, my financial plan changed to accommodate the changes in my life from me to we. 

_{Photo Credit: Amy Eubanks Photography} 

At the end of 2018, we decided to change our plan to include extending our family. We looked at all we needed to do in preparation for this decision. We decided to add a second bathroom to our home, renovate the spare bedroom into a baby's room, and upgrade my wife's car to an SUV.

We had planned for these steps to move slowly; however, we were lucky and found out in a short time that we were expecting our daughter, Raven, at the end of 2019. Our plan allowed us to speed up this process and complete all the tasks before Raven's arrival in November of 2019.

We are now one year later, amid a global pandemic, with everyone healthy, thankfully. It has been a wild past decade with many opportunities to learn; cutting down the last ten years into a BLOG post took careful consideration. The last decade would be dramatically different, had I not taken control of my Financial Narrative.

Take steps to get your Financial Narrative under control today.