Financial advisor Cary Stamp shares an uncomfortable secret that can help you recover from financial adversity or a mistake that you feel vulnerable or embarrassed about. Don’t be afraid to admit your mistake and seek the assistance of a financial advisor to get back on track.
TRANSCRIPT:
Recovering from Financial Adversity
My name is Cary Stamp and I’m the founder of Cary Stamp & Co., Principled Wealth Advisors, and I wanted to let you in on a little secret. I now have a fairly successful financial advisory firm. I have a family that’s doing great, I have a great lifestyle. But that wasn’t always the case. There was a day when I almost went broke.
That day came about 18 years ago after I started my own firm in Chicago. In fact, it was so bad that there was one moment where my wife and I were going to the change jar on top of the dresser to buy groceries. Why? I was a financial adviser, I’d been a financial planner and a stockbroker for 12 years. How could it have gotten so bad? Two reasons. I failed to plan and number two, my expenses got out of control. I’m not talking about my personal expenses. It was a time right after I started a business. I had built a new company called Lincoln Park Financial Group in Chicago, and my former employer was able to restrain me from doing business. I had no revenue coming in, I built out this amazing office space, brought over a bunch of people and they were on my payroll, but there was nothing coming in to pay them. I did not know what to do. I had my back against the wall and I figured the only thing I could do was work my way out of it.
I don’t necessarily like telling this story because it makes me seem vulnerable and I truly am. I was at the verge of making a major decision in my life that I was probably going to have to work for somebody else for the rest of my life because I was a failure at what I was doing. But I didn’t want to let that happen.
I often find that when I’m talking to investors, when I’m talking to people that are saving, they’re afraid to admit that they’ve made mistakes along the way; and one of the most valuable things that you can do for yourself is say, hey, I’ve made a mistake here and I can use some help. Don’t be afraid to go to a financial adviser and say, hey, this is something that we did, it didn’t work out the way that we planned, we really need some help. Oftentimes, the idea of having to be vulnerable and admit that you’re not as well-prepared as you think you should be, or as well-prepared as you think the rest of the world is, or your neighbors are, that shouldn’t stop you. Don’t let that hold you back from getting the help that you need. I’ve been there before. I know what the experience is like and if I hadn’t reached out to some friends and some business advisers to get some help, I wouldn’t have gotten through it either.
We’re here to help. We’ve heard all the stories before. We’ve made all the same mistakes before and we can give you the guidance that you need to get everything back on track. It’s my secret, I want you to know about it because I think it might be able to help some folks right now. I’m Cary Stamp, this has been a Principled Wealth Moment.
