You are right. You aren't being given the whole story. There is more you should know about this stuff. It's not your fault. There are things you can do beyond your company 401(k). You are still a smart person. You still make good decisions.
Here I will "geek-out" on finance to show you how finance works and try to deliver to you the "whole story" the best that I can. I will also try to not use "air quotes".
Let's get to know each other a little bit before the geeking begins.
Who are you and why should I listen to you?
This is an awesome question. You are completely right to ask.
My name is Sean Seidell. I've been in finance for over five years both as
a Financial Advisor and as a Financial Principal. I am currently employed
as a Financial Advisor at a firm that rhymes with Storgan Manley in
Portland, Oregon. I will tell you right now that my firm in no way, shape,
or form endorses anything said here on Geeks in Ties. This isn't
them talking to you, it's just me. Just a guy who studies a lot of
finance, market data, and economic theory talking to you, an intelligent,
inquisitive person who asks excellent questions.
Why should you listen to me? Because I'm not going to sell you snake
oil here. If you want to hire me privately you may (still no snake oil
available), but here I'm going to tell you straight what is and is not going on
in finance.
How did you get into finance?
I'm here because I'm ignorant. My plan was to go to law school and become an attorney. I worked as a paralegal for a year but by the end of that year I had very little interest left in pursuing a career in law.
What I had was a very broad education, a lot of skills, and no idea of how to make any money or how it worked. I have a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies degree from Humboldt State University. I studied art for most of my life. I lived in Taiwan for two years writing text books and teaching English. I speak Mandarin Chinese. I've travelled to 30 countries. I also have zero formal financial education.
To help lessen my ignorance I first educated myself by going to the public library and reading everything I could check out. Then I decided to pursue a career in fianace to learn more. I started with a job dialing for dollars as a stock broker trainee, then as a fully licensed financial advisor, then later as a financial advisor trainer and principal. I kept taking new jobs that would present new challenges and education opportunities so that I could better learn finance. Currently I'm enrolled at the American College in the Certified Financial PlannerTM (CFP) designation program.
What can I expect you to help me with?
We are going to talk about debt and what you can do to make it better. We are going to talk about taxes and how to make them go down. We are going to talk about why the 401(k) is not the end all be all of your finances. We are going to cut through the bullsh*t and talk about finance so that it benefits you, not the bank or the investment firm.
However you have to do something for me. You have to agree to use your common sense. You have to agree to not take what I say as gospel. You still have to make decisions that make sense for you. My disclaimer is that you still need to hire the experts who are the experts (i.e. CPAs, Attorneys, Mortgage Advisors, Financial Advisors, etc...) to help advise you to do the things you want to do. In short, you can't spill the McDonald's coffee (which is the temperature of magma) on your lap and then try to file a lawsuit because you claim that you didn't know the coffee was hot.
