Why Kardinal Financial
After over a decade in financial services, I founded Kardinal Financial in 2021. In this post I detail why I have made a career in financial planning and what led me to go out on my own.
Why am I in this business?
I started down the path of finance because I simply wanted to know how to handle my own money. When declaring a major in my second year of college, I didn’t know what a career in finance looked like, or what a financial planner was. I didn’t even know if I’d end up with a career in the industry. But I knew money was a stressor growing up and money would inevitably be part of my life. I wanted to know how best to manage it.
My career has been driven by a desire to understand best practices when it comes to personal finance. After over a decade in the industry, I founded Kardinal Financial for three key reasons:
- To provide financial planning and service the way it should be
- To work with professionals and couples in their 30s and 40s
- To control the balance between my work and family life
The Way it Should Be
Financial planning should be uniquely tailored to you, created without bias, and provided for a transparent fee.
Your family, your money story, your values, your goals, your spending, your investing experience, and what you want out of your life are all unique to you. Your advisor should have a deep understanding of who you are and what’s most important to you, along with your full financial picture, before giving financial advice. Your financial planning relationship should be intentional not just about every component of your financial life - it should also be intentional in clarifying your values to ensure your plan is pointed in the right direction.
Your unique plan should be founded upon a complete absence of bias and with all options on the table. You shouldn’t wonder whether your advisor is recommending a certain strategy because it also happens to benefit them. You should have comfort in the knowledge that every recommendation and strategy is best suited to you and free from potential conflicts of interest. Your advisor knows you as well as anyone, understands what drives you, and is treating your financial situation as though it were their own. All options are on the table.
Your financial plan should be delivered for a transparent fee. You should know precisely what and how you pay your advisor and can evaluate whether the service they provide is worth that fee. You should not have to dig through statements or ask for help to find the fee you're paying. The more transparent, the better.
Serving Professionals and Couples in their 30s & 40s
I help young professionals and families build security and peace of mind in their financial lives. Our lives are full of change. And with each change comes financial decisions and opportunities to meaningfully benefit from good financial advice.
Consider for a moment the changes in your life over the last five years and the financial decisions that came with them.
My wife and I have experienced moving cities, changing jobs, selling and buying homes, some promotions, meeting one another/engagement/marriage, having a child, and starting a business. Financial decisions have accompanied all of these changes: identifying our shared goals and priorities, combining finances, creating and adjusting our budget, planning for stock compensation, updating beneficiaries, obtaining life insurance, considering estate planning, assessing company benefits, understanding new 401(k) options, opening 529 plans for education savings, contributing to a dependent care FSA for daycare, and the list goes on. I can only imagine what the next five years will bring.
Despite these opportunities for financial guidance, we are not a great fit for traditional financial advisors that require a certain amount of investable assets or want to sell a specific insurance or investment product.
Kardinal Financial was founded to be your trusted guide through all of these changes and more. Together we develop a plan unique to you, created without bias, and implemented for a transparent fee.
Controlling Work-Life Balance
I am tremendously fortunate to have had two parents who prioritized being present for my childhood. I plan to do the same for my children. It is immensely important to me to have the flexibility to be their coach, to be at their events, and simply to be there as they grow, just like my parents were for me.
Being mentally and emotionally present for my family is as important as being physically present. I fear being the dad who comes home in a sour mood because of a bad day at work. And over time I’ve realized what puts me in those moods and keeps me up at night is doing work I don’t believe in. Although I will undoubtedly have bad days, creating a business I deeply believe in will go a long way towards being the best husband, dad, and financial planner I can be.