We Are Ready.
Heather Magers Keefe, MBA Candidate
Many people’s financial stories start by explaining how they dug themselves out from under a mountain of debt, and how they can help you do so too. My story begins a little differently.
The first time I remember learning about money, I was with my mom in the grocery store. I was asking if I could have something, as you do when you’re a small kid who doesn’t know any better. Being a person who likes to teach instead of scold, my mom explained to me how to read a price tag and what it represented. She explained to me the value of being cognizant of what you’re spending. Growing up, money was definitely not something that we had in abundance. The only times that I was allowed to reach for something without money being an object, was when that something had to do with education. That instilled in me two things, first that education is unparalleled in importance and second that I would need to learn to work for my own money from an early age.
I got a job at 14 and immediately started saving. At 22 I paid off my undergraduate loans before they even started accruing interest. In my thirties, I am paying for graduate school in cash from money that I make at my full time job.
What this tells me is that I have both a will to save and an extreme intolerance to debt. This is in stark contrast to American trends of increasing consumer debt and student loan balances. The percentage of U.S. Households carrying credit card debt has increased each year since the Great Recession and reached 45.6% in 2017. The average student who borrows to pay for college was facing $37,172 in student loans upon graduation in 2018.
I have always been intrigued with how money affects people’s lives and their decision making process. Social norms in our society often dictate things that we “should” do. People who are unable or choose not to meet the same expectations are often treated as outsiders.
I have always known to a certain extent that I wanted to help others realize their financial dreams. By the end of my undergraduate studies, I thought I would become a financial advisor. However, as I began to reach out to companies and shadow people who were doing the job, it just didn’t feel like something that fit for me. I didn’t want to work for commissions or sell offerings provided by the company I was working for. I wanted to work with clients to teach, explore, and question the things that get in their way. I was saddened at the time thinking that there wasn’t a space for this kind of work. I shelved the idea of becoming a financial advisor, and started looking for other work.
I started what I still think of as my first “big kid job” where I had benefits and a 401(k). With the lack of homework my abundant free time, I immersed myself in reading and volunteering. I started devouring books on investing and saving for retirement because I realized I didn’t know what to do with these accounts I now had. I became certified in tax preparation for a season and assisted individuals with limited incomes. This also meant that I had a number of friends coming to me for basic information on their taxes.
After five years in my job I started to feel restless. I felt a strong desire to apply to graduate school, but I was determined to do it without taking out loans. I associated loans with feeling trapped. Paying off my undergraduate loans allowed me to make decisions in my early twenties free from the weight of that burden. I could avoid credit card debt, begin saving for retirement, move when it made sense for me, travel when it made sense for me, and just generally feel an enhanced quality of life.
For the past few years, I have been taking classes and observing the career paths of my peers. Some work for large companies here in the Twin Cities, others work for start ups, and some are creating their own businesses. In keeping with this idea of an open mind and self-exploration, I stumbled upon the opportunity to work with a life coach. In my everyday life of work and school, life is pretty rigid. Through coaching, I have discovered the ability to question the current assumptions that I have followed thus far and whether they have really served me in a positive way.
What this has shown me is that my previous definition of “work” when I was looking at financial advising was too narrow. I realized that although I had given up on my passion formally, I had never stopped doing it informally. I had always continued to be passionate about personal finance and that was apparent to those around me who would ask for advice. What I couldn’t envision as a reality many years ago has finally come to me through coaching. It finally hit me that I could combine the two things that have taught me to feel most empowered and share it with others, financial literacy and life coaching.
I am driven to engage people in meaningful conversations about their life goals and how personal finance can help them achieve those goals. My focus is on empowerment and teaching. There are many who say that personal finance is too complicated for people to handle on their own. That they shouldn’t try. In the United States, our society doesn’t place enough importance on teaching people personal finance principles from a young age which helps aid in this myth that it is too difficult. I feel that financial principles are not only necessary to master, but are totally within reach. The first and most important step is the desire to empower yourself through learning and exploration.
If you identify with wanting to empower yourself through financial literacy I would love to work together!