I've been blessed in life to be surrounded by people who have supported me. From a young age, I had the support of my parents as I tested out entrepreneurship with a lawn mowing business. Rather than spend my money on toys and candy, my Dad taught me how to invest and grow my earnings and it sparked a life-long love of the stock market, business, and investing.
In college, I used an athletic and academic scholarship to graduate debt free from college. It was not easy to play football and graduate in 5 years with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master's Degree in Engineering Management, but it paid off when I was hired by Procter & Gamble in 2004. I began my career making diapers at the plant in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, eventually making my home in Cincinnati, Ohio.
While P&G has been great to me over the years, I still find myself daydreaming about helping people with their financial planning, leveraging all the lessons my Dad taught me as we invested my lawn mowing money so long ago. After years of daydreaming, my wife, a brilliant and successful marketer, finally convinced me to pursue my passion and supported me in becoming a financial adviser.
After researching several firms, nothing felt right. I needed a team that was really behind me; I wanted to truly help people make better financial choices, I wanted to have a hand in the portfolios I managed for clients, and I didn’t want to get paid through commissions for products I recommended to my clients.
One day I was talking to a friend of mine and he mentioned an investment advisory firm that works with a lot of Procter & Gamble employees and retirees. In fact, a partner of the firm, John Burke, had worked for P&G for over 15 years, spending his last 5 years doing financial advising part-time. I didn’t expect much when I sent an email to John at Stone House Retirement Income Planners. I figured he might respond, we might have a good chat, and that would probably be the end of it.
But it was just the beginning. John asked questions about me and about my life. He asked me about what I wanted and helped me understand my options for getting there. Over the next few weeks, it became clear that Stone House was a really great company with a passion for doing what is best for the client. When I first saw their LifeStack system, I knew I wanted to be a part of the Stone House team. Holistic financial planning - not just investing - can be overwhelming, and LifeStack makes it feel natural. I could tell it was developed by someone who had worked at P&G for a long time; like most P&G systems, it makes the complex simple and focuses on continuous improvement.
Fast forward to today...as a proud member of the Stone House team, I am now a financial advisor focused on retirement income planning. With their support, I've created a schedule that allows me to stay in my current role at P&G and after hours, I help people understand their benefits and retirement options.
With all the support I've been given over the years, I hope you'll give me the chance to support you, too. I'd love to "engineer" your ideal retirement.
Interested in setting up a time to talk? Please reach me by email, at CTaake@StoneHouseMail.com, or by phone, at (570) 836-7020 or 1 (866) 923-1946.