Financial Advisor (Misty Lynch): Day in the Life

Transcription

(Music)

Misty Lynch: If it's not going to meet my needs, that's not the price that I could set to do my work. Also, I think it's really important for people who are in hard to price services…

Dan: Today on Time We Discuss, I wanna welcome Misty Lynch and it's Time We Discuss what it's like working as a financial advisor. Misty, thank you for joining me today.

Misty: Thank you so much for having me, Dan.

Dan: Absolutely, this is cool. I find the world of finance very interesting. So I'm very curious how this is all gonna shake out for us, but let's start at the beginning. For you, what is a day typically like as a financial advisor?

Misty: Okay, so as a financial advisor, my days are very different, I guess I could say, than when I was in corporate. All of my meetings tend to be very, very important and I tend to be very active in all of them. So I meet with my clients usually on a regular basis, but often as a financial advisor, when any of my clients are going through certain things like switching jobs, putting a child through college, making big financial decisions, moving everything financially related, sometimes my clients will pop up on my calendar and have to set up some time to discuss what they should do next. I do manage my clients' investments, but most of the time our conversation is a lot more based on living their life, accomplishing the goals they want, doing the things that they wanna do, and trying to figure out how to finance these big or small things that come up in everyday life. So my days are very different. The conversations are usually different every day with different people. And the stock market opens at 9:30 every business day. And lately we've been waking up to all sorts of new things every single day going on in the market and in the rest of the world. So all of those things are kind of circling my brain as I plan my work day. So it's a very interesting job with not a lot of repetition. So it's definitely good for somebody who likes a challenge or likes problem solving.

Dan: I was speaking with someone a couple of years ago, and we talked about the stock market specifically, and we talked about how it always opens at a certain time, it always closes at a certain time, and that sort of thing. And we talked about keeping aware of what is happening after hours, because that can affect the next day. So what's that like for you from a financial advisor perspective? Are you up early checking out the headlines to see how things could affect you? Talk to me about that after hours work.

Misty: I am not a day trader, meaning that I'm not looking for opportunities that happen overnight trying to rebalance in the morning. I'm working with my clients usually on creating a diversified portfolio, making changes when needed, quarterly, typically I'm making some adjustments or more frequently if there is something that came up in the world. But I will tend to see the markets open all 9:30 to four closes, and then sometimes I'll start taking a look at the futures in the evening. What's happening because certain markets are open globally at different, obviously are open at different times of day. So we could have Asia, Europe, all sorts of trading still going on. And now there's things like crypto, other types of securities that trade all the time. It is something that I take a peek at, but I wouldn't say that it's something that I'm awake, trying to necessarily make an intraday profit on, like some other traders who maybe do this at a more frequent basis. So I'm definitely, and also the news, because if something happens overnight, not necessarily in the market, but in the world, and it gets my attention, there's a good chance my clients might be watching the news. They might see something that causes them to be concerned about what does this actually mean for me? And so for that, sometimes that means that when I get into work in the morning, I'm creating a video or sending out an email saying, this happened overnight. This is what we're doing about it. We're aware of it. Just to help settle the nerves of some of my clients who might be really concerned about what's happening globally or politically that could impact them, but they're not really sure if they need to act or what to do about it, because sometimes acting can cause you to make some mistakes or maybe act out of fear, which, so for me, it's very important to try to get in front of that and make sure my clients know that we're taking a look at this, this is what we're gonna do about it, or this is why we're not gonna do anything right now, just so they could feel that sense of comfort.

Dan: So you mentioned creating videos and newsletters. I think that's very interesting. I think about my parents. I think about the financial advisors that they use, and they see they're a financial advisor on a quarterly basis, and I'm sure there's correspondence between the two of them during that time as well, but I've never heard them talk about specifically videos or newsletters, so I'm curious, in 2026, how common is that? Is this generally new trend? Is it a trend at all? Talk to me about that.

Misty: I would say it's uncommon for the most part. I am in a field that is getting, probably I would say that there's probably more financial advisors retiring every year than joining, and so I do feel like there's a lot of financial advisors that maybe have had all their clients for years. They do the quarterly or the annual meetings that they're required to do, and they send their statements, and maybe they spend the rest of their time golfing. I don't know, but I do feel like it is a little bit different for more, some financial advisors now who are taking a more holistic financial planning approach to working with clients, not just looking at that one account that they invest for them, but really looking at everything that's going on in their lives. So there is a trend, I would say, towards financial planning instead of that traditional investment advisory work that was really specifically focused on the investments held in one account for that particular client.

Dan: Earlier you talked about, and I can't remember exactly what you said, but it made me think about your clients and different life milestones, and this brings me to this question, in your role, and people that do this job that is acting in a similar capacity, do they tend to follow their clients with different milestones? Like, do you track them like, okay, well, you know, about now, they need to make sure that they have a college plan in place if their children are going to college, and this other person, they are on track to be buying a house probably in the next year or so. Do you do any kind of tracking internally with your clients when it comes to that?

Misty: Yeah, I think it's really important because all my clients are in different spots in their life, so it's definitely not a cookie cutter answer that I could give to multiple clients, and so yes, we are looking at, you know, we have all the information about our clients, about anybody that they support financially, that could be children, that could be parents, that could be, you know, there's a lot of different things to consider, we look at, you know, their partner, their goals, what's going on as far as, you know, marriage, divorce, all of these things that can change and happen in a client's life, where I might say, okay, now that, you know, baby has entered the picture, we need to change things because before, we didn't have this as part of the financial plan or as, you know, one of the financial goals that we needed to figure out. So things are constantly changing, and so it is really important to take, you know, good care of the clients, understand what's going on with them, because they might be experiencing something that I've seen before with other people, but it's always gonna be a little bit different. So yeah, their, you know, their goals and milestones and things like that might shift quickly, but it's always really good to reassess, okay, what are things looking like now, is anything big changed? And for a lot of my clients who are probably midlife, there's lots of things that change all the time when it comes to their parents, their children, their friends, family, all of that. So really, really important to get the big picture or else you might say, where did this money go? What did we do here? And we need to realize that there might be certain things going on that we need to reevaluate.

Dan: Going back to the beginning of our conversation, you talked about working in corporate prior to doing what you're doing now. Were you working in the same capacity or is it a career change?

Misty: It was the same industry, but I worked in compliance for a larger financial firm. I had really wanted to have a steady paycheck when I graduated college. I was looking at that because my father had been self-employed and I'd seen the ups and downs from that, more downs than ups. And so I really was, I was interested in finance and in money and investing and things like that, but I took a bit of a safe route and started working in a compliance department for a firm. So not client facing at the time, but I was supervising people that were. So that was what I did for quite a while, but I was always kind of pulled to working with clients one-on-one, helping them, getting more involved than doing kind of surface work or really just supervising people who were getting involved with their clients' lives and helping them. And so then I ended up making a shift in 2020 to actually working independently, leaving corporate and working with people.

Dan: So one of the things I'd really like to address is people that tend to change careers midlife. I also like to look at it from the beginning as well, people just entering their career, but I think it's equally important to look at those that are switching careers. So for someone that is in that part of their life, that they're looking to switch careers and they're thinking maybe a financial advisor is for me, what kind of roadblocks can they expect from an education perspective? Is it important that they have a bachelor's in finance or something like that? Or is it just a matter of studying and taking some tests to get certifications? What does that look like for someone that wants to change midlife?

Misty: To be a certified financial planner, you need to have a bachelor's degree still, which is something that they have been evaluating, but it doesn't have to be in finance. Mine is in political science. It could be really in anything. I know someone who's in music theory. You just need a bachelor's degree. So that is one of the requirements there. But for other financial advisors, if you're not looking to go the certified financial planner route, it is requiring to take some entry-level examinations to study and pass, where you can decide that this is where you wanna go. A lot of times you wanna have a firm that will sponsor you to take these exams, but you could take something like the securities essentials exam without having a job or just to show that you've studied, you've passed this test, and that might be appealing to employers who are looking to bring on new advisors.

Dan: And what's the typical timeframe if someone's looking to go down that road from starting to get their certification, are there different stages of certifications they take? What does that look like?

Misty: There are. And one of the things that is good to kind of know, I mean, you could go as far as you'd like. Some people get a lot of designations and certifications. You really don't need all of them to help people or to get started. But to work as, there's typically two, the series seven exam is something that you can take and then there's something called the 66. These are state, one is a state level exam, one's federal. Basically, it's just showing that you have that general knowledge of securities and investing different investing types, situations. It's not a very easy test to pass, but it is something that somebody who wanted to really dedicate the time to study for it could do within a matter of a few months or a year to get licensed to do this work. The CFP course is about six courses you need to complete either online or in person. That takes a bit longer and it's a fairly challenging test for first time takers.

Dan: Invariably, when someone starts their own business, okay? And especially if you're dealing with finance, your clients need to know that you're reliable, that you're credible, that you know what you're doing. So how important is it for someone to maybe get their, build up their chops somewhere else in a firm before going out on their own? Is it even possible to start on your own and just friends and family? What are some of the roadblocks there that people can expect?

Misty: I think that having some sort of background from either a larger firm, if you worked in operations, trading, compliance, any other area, I think that does give you a better understanding of the backend of all the work that does go into, things that you're gonna have to do if you're running your own firm. It would be, it is possible for people to just, potentially start their own investment advisory firm without any background or work experience in there. I would say that that's typically not the route that I see people go because there are a lot of different tasks and things that you need to be aware of from the operation side, getting accounts opened, period, doing the actual work with clients, trading, and then the regular, we're a highly regulated industry as well. So there's a lot of things to consider before you're able to say, hang a shingle and be open for business. I have seen some people who maybe like a specific part of financial planning, maybe they're really great at budgeting, maybe they're really good with credit cards, maybe they're really good with certain things that they might've go down that path of, I can help people as a financial coach or something that maybe is less certification, but helps with some tangible things like helping somebody start a budget or get started investing, which can be really helpful on the education front. For some people who really just wanna get out there and say, "Hey, I did this myself, I paid off a ton of debt, I can help people do it." So I've started to see people go that route as well. It's just another kind of wing of the industry, that's pretty cool.

Dan: I'm very glad you mentioned the regulation side of it. And that brings me to this question, as a financial advisor, are you audited in any capacity from any federal agency? What does that look like?

Misty: Yes, so I'm in the state of Massachusetts, we're regulated by the state of Massachusetts, some advisors, once you get to a certain level, like this year, we'll be moving to being registered with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), where they will be oversight is through there. So yes, it's very heavily regulated. If you were to work at a larger firm, you might have FINRA, which is another regulatory body that looks at other, that if you're not an independent investment advisor and you're working with the Edward Joneses, the Charles Schwabs, the bigger firms like that, another layer of regulation. So it is, they are very aware of what people, who's working with people, who's giving investment advice, making sure that they have the certifications that they require, that they have a clean disciplinary record, all of those things. And so it's a very sensitive job, you're working with people's life savings in some cases. So very, very important to understand that there is a regulatory side to it. And you can't just give advice, without the training you need.

Dan: Do you ever offer free consultations, where maybe someone is, they, because through my day job, we have the opportunity to manage our own retirement accounts essentially. We can choose how aggressively we wanna be, how conservative, that sort of thing. Do you ever, or people like you, ever offer free consulting advice, where like you will look at people's portfolio and give them some advice, some things they might wanna consider, does that ever happen in the industry?

Misty: I've done some pro bono work specifically, like with people at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, but in typical, normal setting, I get paid for the work that I do. And I think that even sometimes an hourly consultation can be very valuable for somebody who's just trying to make the right investments in their 403(b), 401(k), they don't know if they've got the right things going on. But I also feel like it's very important, as a financial planner, and somebody who's working with people who are potentially self-employed, to make sure that they get paid in money. And that they think, you know, because it's a, I do think that it is really important to put enough value on the work that you do to set your prices properly so you can continue to work and help people. And I have seen some people who maybe are undervaluing their services, and then they lead to burnout and other things where they end up either leaving and going back to a nine to five job, or they can't handle the workload and, you know, feel like they're being. And this is in lots of industries where I see some of my clients where they're coaches, they're this, they wanna help people, but they need to make sure that they can support themselves too.

Dan: I'm so glad you mentioned the part about setting appropriate pricing. It's, when I was much younger, I had a business with a couple of business partners, and we, the industry we were in, and the products we were offering, we thought we had a very reasonable price. And what we found out later was we priced too low, and because of that, there are certain expectations that kind of go along with that. So how did you find, how did you find what the best pricing was for your model? Did you call other people and ask, did you, just knowing from your previous corporate world, how did you find the best price to offer for your services?

Misty: I think pricing is an interesting topic. And there is a lot of access to information out there now, which is great for people. You could do your own research at home. You can go to the internet, you can go to chat, you can find out what people the average price is for say, a financial plan or an hour. But also I think it's really important for people to first understand how much it costs to be you. I know how much I need to make every month to pay my bills, to save, to invest. And so even if say the average plan is cheaper than that, if it's not going to meet my needs, that's not the price that I could set to do my work. Also, I think it's really important for people who are in hard to price services to be able to say their price confidently, but it should make you feel a little nauseous. If it doesn't, it's probably too low. So if you're saying your price, it's rolling off your tongue, everybody's saying yes to you. Oh, sure, that sounds like a deal because I think another thing people don't understand is they assume what people can afford. And I see how people spend money all day long and you'd be surprised how many people could come up with 14 grand for a Taylor Swift ticket if they really want it. And so if your service is valuable and you're able to clearly state that and you can say what you, maybe you just wait and see and let the client decide if it's something that they want or not. I think that it's important to review your prices as your expenses go up. But I also think that if it's just, if everybody's saying yes and you start to feel like, oh my God, I'm working so hard and I have nothing to show for it, your prices might be a little too low. If you can't say it, then nobody's gonna pay you if you look like you're sweating trying to get these words out. So it has to just be that nice break-even point where it feels a little, where a yes will feel really exciting still.

Dan: That's awesome. Well, one of the things I really like about talking with all my guests here is that, one, learning about the different industries and the different occupations, in and of itself is just beyond awesome. But then a lot of times, maybe not a lot of times, it is not uncommon for a particular person to share information that is applicable to other industries. And I haven't had anyone that I can remember, I haven't had anyone talk about that pricing model before. So that's really good. Other people can take that information and apply it to their own entrepreneurial world. So that's really, really cool. Misty, one of the things I'd like to ask is, what are some of the unexpected perks that come along with being a financial advisor?

Misty: My job, especially being self-employed and being able to set my prices and decide who I'm working with, I do have a lot of flexibility when it comes to my time, which was always really, really important to me. As I said before, my father was self-employed, he went to every game of mine, he was always showing up. We weren't very financially successful, but he did have a lot of time wealth. And he did what he wanted, he woke up when he felt like all of those things. And so while I used to get up, workout at four in the morning, get on a train, go to work, get home at six, it wasn't exactly what I really wanted, especially as my family grew. It just was, it was just not ideal. And so I have a job where I can block off on Wednesdays, I need to leave it two, because I coach my kids, I need to do this. And I can kind of set my schedule and have enough, you know, income, things like that to support that. So I do think that it is a great job when it comes to having some control over your time. I don't work weekends, the market's closed. I don't work evenings, unless I have occasional clients that need to meet in the evenings because there's not much that I could do. So the timeframes really work nicely. A lot of my clients can set aside time to meet with me as they would a doctor's appointment or anything else they wanted to get done. And typically, as long as I'm communicating with my clients and sending them things, there's usually a way to kind of reduce the number of emergency meetings and things like that that need to happen. So I have a pretty nice routine and schedule that has really supported other areas of my life.

Dan: I was speaking with Liz Theresa, she is a webpage designer. Her episode has not dropped yet, but it will shortly. And she talked about the same idea of having that time freedom, how she can choose to take time off and she's able to get her kids on and off the bus. Really, really great. Misty, one of the other things I'd like to talk about are discovering barriers sooner rather than later. So something, and I'd like to say, if there is something that is critical to your job that people might not like, we should probably identify them sooner rather than later. So think about your job, think about something that's critical. And if someone doesn't like doing this thing, this job is not for them. What would that thing be?

Misty: If you don't like difficult conversations, then this job is probably not for you. Not every client comes in with a very rosy picture. There are a lot of times where we need to talk about potentially spending less money, maybe working longer than you wanted to, maybe making some trade-offs. And that can be really difficult. Sometimes clients might have had these money stories in their head their whole lives about what they can do, what they can't do, what they shouldn't do. And there can be some real resistance when it comes to making big financial changes or partners making changes. And so you have to be fairly, I don't wanna say thick-skinned, but you can't just become your client's best friend. If I feel like I'm helping my clients, I'm not jumping in the pool with them if they're drowning. I have to be on the side, I have to be the lifeguard, I have to help them. And so sometimes it's not really my goal to make everyone happy. My goal is really to make everyone understand the big picture, maybe see things from a different way, ask questions in a different way to really get to the root of what's going on, because it's not always as simple as just make more, spend less, invest the difference. There's a lot of emotional things behind every financial decision we make. And so it's really, if you can't handle asking questions, and then maybe stick to the numbers side, you could go into the trading side, you could go into research operations, that's very cut and dry, there's math, there's numbers. So there's lots of different areas to kind of work in if maybe you're not a people person, or maybe you love the markets, but you don't necessarily wanna talk to somebody about why they can't go tell their boss off and quit today, or it'll torpedo their financial health. So it's definitely an interest. There's a wide range of things to do in this industry, but if you're not comfortable kind of, you know, going through some important topics and having some real conversations, being a financial planner or financial advisor might not be the route you go.

Dan: Misty, this is all really, really good information. I feel like we just kind of barely scratched the surface. Again, like I said, I can't remember if it's before we started recording or after, I find the world of finance so fascinating. Probably if I were to do it all over again, I'd probably get into the world of finance. All that being said, unfortunately, we are running out of time, but before I hand the floor over to you, I wanna take a second and thank Ashley DiBiase for introducing us. Ashley was in episode 62 as a social media marketer. Everyone, please go check out that video, the link is in the description. I'll put a card up top so you can easily get to it. Misty, this is the part of the show where I like to offer my guests the opportunity to talk about a project they're working on, a cause they believe in, more about their business. So if there's something specific you'd like to discuss, the floor is yours.

Misty: Well, thank you. Yes, I'd love for you, if you wanna head over to my website, mistylynch.com. I did write a book about money mindset and some financial tips to help anybody who's really trying to get better at their finances this year called Demystifying Money. And I also host a podcast by the same name where I talk to different entrepreneurs about how they make money, how they help people, because like you talking to other people, there's a lot of different ways that people make a living. And sometimes it's really fascinating to figure out how they did that. For those people who are out there maybe struggling to kind of find their way or they're stuck in a job that doesn't really feel fulfilling, so I love talking with different people about how they make money and how they help people. And so if you're interested in money mindset or entrepreneurship, I'd love for you to head over to my website, mistylynch.com to learn some more from there.

Dan: Misty, thank you for sharing all that information with us. I'll make sure I get those links. I'll put them in the description. They'll be on the website. They'll be all over the place. So when people are trying to find you, they can easily find you. I want to thank you again for being on Time We Discuss and we learned what it's like to be a financial advisor.

Misty: Thank you.