How did you end up in this industry?

Like so many young students, the allure of becoming a chartered accountant gripped me early on. So, when the time came to decide on my tertiary education path, Bcom Accounting was the obvious choice. After completing my degree, I took a job as a fund accountant. While the novelty of becoming a salaried employee was at first intoxicating, I knew from the get-go that something was missing.

You see, I’ve always loved to teach. And with my education and love of personal finance, a different calling started to take shape in my mind – one where I would help people live the lives they wanted through better management of their finances. After three years of working as a fund accountant, I made the leap, taking up an administrative role at NFB Wealth Management where I simultaneously began studying toward a post graduate diploma in financial planning.

I am now a Certified Financial Planner, proud of it, and not looking back.

Why do you love being a Wealth Manager?

My drive to help people with their finances, as well as improving the state of my own, comes from having seen first-hand the destruction caused by financial illiteracy. I watched as my parents and their peers strained against the weight of funeral policy premiums, and invested their savings in fixed income products, foregoing life-changing equity returns.

I see it as my life’s purpose to empower my clients with the right information so that they can grow their wealth. The word empower is important here. Because each of my clients have differing financial circumstances and goals, any financial planning activity must be collaborative in nature. And effective collaboration happens only when my clients are well informed of their options.

What should most people focus on when managing their wealth?

The first myth I think it’s important to dispel is that you have to be rich to have a financial planner. This may have been the case in the past, but technology and industry competition are making financial advice available to more and more people. So, just ask!

Then it boils down to getting the simple stuff right. Make sure you have a well-defined set of financial goals that you’d like to achieve that are both measurable and achievable. Once you have the end in mind, you can begin putting a plan together to help you get there.

When it comes to advice for the younger generations, the importance of starting to save early cannot be stressed strongly enough. It’s less about preparing you for the day you can no longer work, and more about solidifying a habit of building wealth – no matter how old you are, having wealth behind your name comes with innumerable benefits, including the ability to amass a wealth of life experiences.

Finally, once you have a family, you need to have the requisite protection and contingencies in place should something happen to you. The burden you’ll leave behind if you don’t will weigh heavy on those you love. 

If you were a client, what would you look for in a Wealth Manager?

There are certain character traits I believe are common among financial advisers that help their clients achieve their financial goals and dreams. I’ll put them in bullet point to stress their importance:

• Being a good listener
• Showing empathy and compassion
• Solving problems with you, rather than telling you what to do
• Ability to demonstrate deep knowledge about financial planning
• Being relatable

Why did you choose to work at NFB Private Wealth Management?

In deciding on where to establish myself as a financial planner, I looked for a business whose approach and philosophy to helping their clients with their finances were similar to my own.

NFB Private Wealth Management cares deeply about their clients. The team treats those they serve as if they were family. That resonated hugely with me and it’s why I still work here.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Simple. Put together a set of financial goals you want to achieve, then start saving, no matter how little, from your very first pay cheque. It’ll help build the discipline needed to create wealth in the long run. 

Perhaps a little more nuanced is the advice to start developing a good relationship with money early on. I grew up in an environment where the subject of money wasn’t discussed as openly as it should have been. It’s important to talk about it, get comfortable with it, and if you can, figure out what money means to you and what role you want it to play in your life. This will shape how you treat it.

Tell us something your clients might not know about you.

I love running long distances! And my greatest joy in life comes from the act of using financial planning to help change people’s lives for the better.

Looking for a holistic financial plan? Partner with NFB Private Wealth Management on your wealth journey today.