How To Find A Financial Advisor
Fiduciary Wealth Management, About Me
Core Values & Integrity Combined With Experience
Like you, I’m sure, when I look back throughout my life it seems as if it’s a video going in high speed reverse or fast-forward. When I hit the play button, to slow it down and focus on my memories, I always seem to stumble upon the 10 or 15 moments that make up 99% of my character as a man today. Inevitably, when I take time to consider why those moments matter, it always comes down to formation of my values. I told you on the first page that this website is designed around you and your goals, and thus far I think I’ve lived up to that by showing how your life will be better with the information I share.
With that top of mind, I’m reluctantly going to discuss who I am, how I got to this point and where I see the future going. I certainly am not typing this for me, I promise that. Rather, I feel it’s necessary for you to know the person who you might (hopefully) consider helping you with your asset wealth management needs. The benefit to you is you will have an idea of whether my values align with yours, thus making your life easier.
Importance of Family
You have probably heard of Syracuse, New York, as they have a few things that are remarkable. Syracuse University is renowned for its communications school, and, its basketball team is a perennial contender in the March Madness tournament. Unless you like record snowfall, gray skies and bitter cold temperatures, the positive attributes fall off considerably from there.
From the day I was born until freshman year of college, I lived there. You’ve heard of “salt of the earth” people, meaning they are genuine, honest and hard-working. As a card carrying “born in Syracuse” member, I can attest that those are the defining qualities that I overwhelmingly attest is the character of that city, and proudly, of my family. My parents were hard-working as well, with my mother a secretary at Magnavox, and my father a crew foreman at the town of Manlius highway department.
There are certain things that I know I’m not good at. I’m not a creative person, for example. If you asked me to paint, you would get a stick figure. Similar to that, my mom hates to and therefore cannot cook. It’s impossible to recall the number of times the smoke alarm went off, only to find dinner in the oven that looked like Kingsford charcoal. About 15 minutes later, we could be found at McDonald’s enjoying value meals and man oh man those were delicious. Now days, she knows, admits, and embraces the fact she can’t cook. Looking at it now, I clearly see the point of the memory. Trying to overcome things is you aren’t good at is admirable, but if you dislike doing it in the first place, find someone that enjoys it because they will do a better job anyway.
Lend A Hand
In the winter, my father was called to work in the middle of the night to plow and sand the roads, 
so they would be clear for commuters. An interesting thing happened in the summer, because he had the job of paving those exact same roads, fixing the damage that the daily plowing did. Talk about job security!
No matter the schedule and no matter the weather, I could always rely on him to be there. My sister and I were always active in sports. Baseball, soccer, football, softball and lacrosse. I could talk about how my dad coached my sister and I and took a level of interest in developing us as kids, but there’s something more important I learned that today is more present than ever. Like clockwork, at the end of games or practice or getting out of school, there was always one friend after everyone else had gone home, that was left waiting for a ride or had already started walking home because they had no ride. I suppose it was just something I knew because I didn’t ask until later in life why my dad waited with us, already packed up and ready to go. I hear it as I type this now, “Get in (whoever it was) it’s getting late, let’s go”. And away we went with a plus 1 taking the kid home. Not asking what happened, just having normal conversation like it was all planned out. There are a lot of lessons that I learned from my father, but this one is one of the bedrock values that I live by, and it’s this: Be a person that helps other people.
As a side note, I have a saying that I swiped from somewhere that I try to remember every day. “Everyone you encounter every day, is dealing with problems in their life that you know nothing about.”
Can We Go Home Now
Rose the hairdresser lady, who looked like Marge Simpson, had an 11:00 appointment every Friday my entire childhood. I know this because my sister and I attended these appointments grudgingly, I admit, with my grandmother while my parents worked. At the salon it was my job as the cutest and youngest of course, to ask “Can We Go Home Yet?” in an astonishing ignorance of how long a ladies’ hair appointment can last.
I bring this point forward because to this day, I am in awe of the seamless transfers in conversation that these women seemed to possess. Hair salons are famous for senseless gossip, and that Rose, man, she could hold her own. Never in her life could she have imagined a customer sitting in the chair and having a conversation the entire time.
The very next memory of my grandmother regarding communications is her at church, listening to people and trying to be the shoulder that people needed. With these examples and having lived through it, I know she was the type of person that could talk to anyone on the face of the earth. My two daughters make fun of me whenever I start randomly talking to people in the grocery store or at the gas station or wherever. I blame my grandmother for this, it’s definitely all her fault.
It’s quite funny that progressive has a commercials on TV titled “Don’t Become Your Parents”
I realize now that she wanted those conversations because she was sincerely interested in people and hearing their story in life. I don’t think there was ever a bad word ever spoken about her because the people she spoke with, as well as everyone around her, knew that her interest in them was genuine, and she wanted the best for them.
What I want to convey and help you know is, as my client we will talk a lot, and it’s my goal to be a person that my clients not only trust, but know that I care about them. People can pretend to care for a little while, but genuine interest eventually proves itself to be invaluable in a relationship
Tough On The Outside, Soft On The Inside
It’s amazing to think of how naive and inexperienced we all were at one point. There have been two men, other than my father, that cared about me and took an interest in my well-being.
My grandfather, Charles Sr., was a man I feared when I was young. He was never mean to me, never mad at me, and he never did anything specific that I can point to that warranted my fear. You see, he was the Fire Chief and the Superintendent at the Town of Manlius Highway Department. Until I was 16, all I saw was that he was the most respected man in our small town and when he said to do something, grown men would scurry to make sure whatever it was got done. It’s hard to explain now, but it was much deeper than that. The men that he was responsible for didn’t do things because he said to, they did them because they respected him, and they knew what they were being asked to do was the right thing to do.
Around the time of me getting my driver’s license, his interest in me changed. It was almost as if he knew a course correction was required. You know when they say “the formative years”? They are usually at ages as a young child. Not with me. My formative years came when it became crystal clear, courtesy of my grandfather, that my education was the most important thing and I had better get cracking. The statement was as follows: “They Can Never Take It Away From You.” which isn’t exactly an inspiring one-liner, but the old man had me at the next one: “Besides, if you don’t get it, you’ll end up shoveling shit for the rest of your life, so it’s a pretty easy decision isn’t it”?
Just to add some color to the story, you need to understand the world in 1985 when I was 15, and he got me a summer job as a trash man, working on the back of a trash truck. After doing this for 2 summers and being presented an ultimatum of get smart or shovel crap, even a young man can make the right decision on that one.
The escapades of Charles Sr. and I included all kinds of different places and experiences. The underlying theme behind everything we did was: Do the right thing no matter the consequences. He is the one that made it okay to admit when I am wrong. To never lie. Not because it’s wrong, but because if you want to be treated well and respected, people need to believe what you are saying is true. When you and I meet or talk, ask me about George’s house. That little gem stick out in my head every day.
You Want Me To Do What?
As a wet behind the ears college graduate from the University of Tampa, an opportunity to join a money management firm presented itself. Two things to note: A) I didn’t know anything whatsoever about how stocks, bonds or investments worked, B) failing was not an option unless I wanted to go back to Syracuse, which was a hard NO!
Chuck C. (the third Charles other than myself if you’re counting) wasn’t going to let me fail, however, this was only clear in hindsight. He took me and molded my thought process and corrected me when I stepped outside his guidelines. It’s important to know something before proceeding. Everything he said and taught me was logical and made sense even to an inexperienced person. If they didn’t make sense, or if I thought he was leaving something out, I would have up and left, even if Syracuse was the only other option. To this day, I have a short tolerance for that.
As a reader, let me ask 
you a question. Have you ever handwritten a compounding table out for 20 years? How about in increments of 5%? How about if your boss as your first task asked you to handwrite the compounding table for 20 years at 1% increments up to 25%.
Remember, the site is designed around your benefits and how your life will be better? Because I did those compounding tables, I know more than any other advisor you talk with, the value of getting an extra 1% on your investment over 8 years as an example.
IBM Isn't Blue Chip?
When you look at a stock, what do you see? More importantly, what does your advisor see if you are paying him tom manage your investments? Ask them. I promise they will give you a price quote and tell you the future look s bright. It was under his tutelage, that I learned what makes a stock price go up or down over time. Wait, what did I just say? Most advisors and clients look at a stock and see the price, but if there is something that is influencing the price, shouldn’t I focus all my attention on the thing that influences the price? These were the lesson I learned and were embedded in my brain and have, so far, never been remotely challenged by any strategy of investing anywhere in the world.
Do you know why Big Blue, IBM, has been a crappy investment since the day I got in this business? When he asked me what I knew about stocks on the job interview, I told him I know IBM was a blue chip stock. In his unintentional condescending voice he said: “No it isn’t, it’s dead weight” and proceeded to show me why, during the interview! For those interested, a blue chip stock is a stock that is 
reliable and grows steadily.
I’m going to stop here on this note, and I encourage you to adopt this as your accepted truth until someone shows you differently: The fact of the matter is this: most investors and sadly, the large majority of professionals in this business, have no idea what, why, or how a stock price moves or is expected to move. Of those that do, there are even less that know how to use that information in order to benefit their clients.
Today, while you read this, you are one submit button away from talking to someone who does. I want to help you, I have the experience to know much more than most of the people you’re going to come across, and I have the capability to. The submit form is at the bottom of the page.
PS: Identify the premium or discount of the stock’s price to its p/e ratio over a 5-year or 10-year period. Find out the EPS growth expectation and apply the same discount or premium. I’ll bet you, if the company hits that growth rate and does its job, the stock price will be withing a narrow range of the number you just calculated. That’s How You Determine How A Stock Is Going To Move
