Frustrated, Scared and Upset — Why I Created the Investing Tutor.
A friend called me; she was frustrated, scared and upset. She had just graduated from a professional program and couldn’t handle the burden of student loans. She was newly engaged to be married and felt trapped under the weight of many important financial decisions that had to be made.
Up until our conversation, she had never been exposed to personal finance as it relates to managing student loans or investing for the future. She told me on the phone, “Hans, I feel like ALL of our money goes to pay loans. I’m so frustrated. We’ll never be able to get married anytime soon.”
I was on the phone with her for an hour and provided education about student loans, the available repayment options and how to begin investing for the future. Exactly one year from our conversation, she and her finance’ bought a beautiful home and had their dream wedding.
It was her success (and that of MANY others), which encouraged me to create The Investing Tutor to educate others about personal finance and investing.
As a licensed health professional, I know students are not exposed to the subject of money until they graduate. While in school, we are bombarded with topics such as medicinal chemistry, calculus, anatomy and physiology, physics, accounting, corporate finance, etc. We never stop to learn the most important topic that we need to survive outside of school. It is quite interesting, when you think about the fact that professional’s graduate making a very good salary, yet know NOTHING about what to do with money to enable them retire and live comfortably.
As a result, I asked myself a series of simple questions:
· “What if there was someone that could simplify investing and teach it to anyone?”
· “What if this person could provide honest, accurate and unbiased financial education based on facts?”
· “What if this person did not sell financial products — such as insurance or mutual funds — their only responsibility was to educate?”
· “What if this person cared about the person on the other end of line?
· “What if this person could serve as a tutor?”
· “An Investing Tutor!”
Eureka!!! These series of questions led me to create The Investing Tutor service, which aims to make investing easy to understand. The Investing Tutor provides financial education, in the form of online tutoring sessions, for professionals. Imagine if you could have a tutor guide you, step-by-step, and teach you how to invest in less than 1hr. That is the value I offer to graduates. Providing the BEST financial education needed to manage debt, save and invest towards retirement.
The moment I understood that a large majority of employees with 401k accounts stood a chance to lose up to 50% of their retirement to fees was when I recognized the power of financial education. Employees have no idea about 401k fees. Many of them assume a 401k account is free. (If only they knew the truth) Also, realizing that anyone (literally anyone) in the United States can retire with millions of dollars was the wake-up call for me to educate our generation.
Your ability to retire in the future is going to be based entirely on what you do with your money today. You cannot leave that to chance — you’ve got to invest intelligently, because Social Security may not be enough to provide you with the retirement you need.
The Social Security Program’s 82-year history shows it has collected roughly $19.9 trillion and paid out $17.1 trillion, leaving asset reserves, in its two trust funds, of more than $2.8 trillion at the end of 2016. The Trustees project that the combined trust funds will be depleted in 2034. Thereafter, scheduled tax income is projected to be sufficient to pay only about three-quarters (75%) of scheduled benefits through the end of the projection period in 2091. — Social Security Administration
In other words, Social Security benefits are likely to be reduced for retirees after 2034. Lacking financial education is not where you want to be at this point in your life.
I’ve provided one-on-one tutoring to over 3000 individuals since the start of the business and mentored over 50,000 individuals via social media. Wall Street is always going to make investing seem complicated so they can (try to) take your money without your knowledge. But, I’ve committed my life to stopping them. And I’m doing that with financial education.
