Jumping ahead to the ripe old age of 7-years-old, my parents sat me down with my older brother and gave us each an envelope. They said they wanted us to start saving money so we could buy things when we went to Disney World. To any child, there is no greater motivation than Disney – I was even more determined to save than I had been by gummy bears. Soon, between saving allowances, Christmas, and birthday money, I was able to build up what I considered to be a good amount of money. I would take out the envelope and sit on my bed, counting the money. I was on my way.

A few years down the line, my father brought me down to the local bank in town to open my first bank account. I vividly recall sitting at the banker’s desk as we counted out every bill and coin: $212.19! I received a little book with the account value printed on it, tangible proof of my savings. Periodically, my father would update the bank book to show me the current value of my account. It almost seemed magical. The money grew for seemingly no reason. He explained the concept of interest and I was fascinated by how the balance would increase. Keep in mind that this was the mid-1980s, when interest rates were sizable and fees were virtually nonexistent.

I was excited by any chance to earn and make money – chores around the house, yard work, even a paper route. Back then, 15 was the earliest age you could get a part-time job in Connecticut, so I started working at the local grocery store. I earned $4.26 per hour before taxes, working three hours after school with a 15-minute break a few days a week. As a teenager, I had trouble with trying to look busy or going above and beyond without any extra incentive. It quickly became apparent that I could mow a lawn in a half an hour and make $20. It would take many more hours to clear that bagging groceries, mopping floors, and fetching carts. So I plastered the neighborhood with flyers and landed enough clients to start my own landscaping business. Word of mouth at my grandmother’s bridge club also helped, and I was well on my way.

My entrepreneurial spirit was born. Between lawns, hedge trimming, and winter snow removal, I had plenty of work to stay busy while earning money. The reward wasn’t all financial, though. I learned a number of other lessons through this process as well: work ethic, client communication skills, practical landscaping skills, and what I believe to be most important – reliability. I continued the landscaping business through high school and college, illustrating that if you did a high quality job and were considerate, then the client would be happy.

One Christmas while in high school, my grandmother bought me a rather unique holiday gift – my first share of stock. It was Ford Motor Company, with the ticker symbol “F.” Ford performed very well during the early 1990s, making my grandmother’s gift a great first lesson and exposure to the equity market. I would periodically check the price in the newspaper and looked forward to receiving my statements. Dividend reinvestment and spinoffs sweetened the pot and I was fascinated once again with how the investment magically grew.

Although I loved my candy, and still do to this day, I hesitate and think things through before making any purchase. That’s not to say it’s all about earning money, saving, and watching it grow. Money is a means to an end. There are many other components to finance, including spending wisely to maximize happiness. For the 16-year-old version of me, this meant having my own car and all of the related responsibilities and expenses. Buying guitars, drums, and musical gear was also an important way for me to spend my funds. It was – and remains – important for me to be able to afford to do and buy things that I deemed worthwhile. Looking back, there was little in the way of hobbies and activities that I missed out on due to lack of funds or time being at work for that matter. More importantly, I gained a sense of independence to make my own choices. My formula for making this happen revolved around doing a good job as a landscaper – professional, reliable, knowledgeable, and all for a fair price. It’s a novel idea!

I recall feeling as though I’d spent my whole life in school and was itching to get a real job and earn money. By 1998, I had graduated and was finally able to enter the job market. Although my goal was to run my own business, I needed to make money and learn. With my savings and the $1,000 my father gave me as a graduation gift, I was on my own. Fairly easily, I was able to find a job that looked appealing on the surface – a financial advisor for Prudential. However, this amounted to an unpaid internship to become licensed to sell insurance. Sales? Insurance sales? Selling insurance could not have seemed less appealing to the 21-year-old version of me. With a better understanding of the wide range of what qualified as “financial advising,” I wanted to hone my skills in the investment business, not the insurance business. I aspired to learn about personal finance and help people with their money. Surely there must be a better way of accomplishing this than pushing an insurance product that may or may not be appropriate for a client.

I returned to the root of where I had always received sound advice: family. My father said to look at Smith Barney, which at the time was owned by the Travelers Group, where he had worked for more than two decades. Around the same time, I had read Michael Bloomberg’s book about how he started his career on the ground floor, literally, at Solomon Brothers counting securities in the back office. Smith Barney had recently acquired Solomon Brothers. Given Bloomberg’s success and my father’s advice, Smith Barney seemed worth looking into. While attending a seminar the company hosted, I approached the branch manager. I told him I was looking for a job and was willing to start wherever he had a need. He said he could find something for me, and my career officially started.

In my early 20s, I learned the business of finance from the ground up. I opened up new accounts, picked up mail, and made the daily drop off at the bank. I began to feel the need to move on to the next level. At 22-years-old, I certainly wasn’t ready to be an advisor for Smith Barney. However, there weren’t any alternatives locally in the office. I still despised the idea of sales and having to rely on persuasion to be successful in the investment business. I wanted to be an expert and client advocate and succeed through my work ethic and knowledge. I obtained my Series 7 General Securities license, and I started my master’s degree in Economics at Trinity College in Hartford. I transitioned to a new job at Cigna in 1999 where I could work directly with clients. I helped investors roll over their 401(k)s and invest money. As opposed to Smith Barney’s full-service brokerage model, Cigna had a discount brokerage model similar to Charles Schwab and Fidelity. I believed this was the future; in essence, why pay for a glorified used car salesman when you could simply go to a discount brokerage and save money?