Next Generation Planner: March 2021
Rachel Elson, CFP®
www.linkedin.com/in/rachelelson/
Former journalist Rachel Elson recently sat down with the NGP to talk about her career change from being the deputy editor at Money to becoming a CFP® professional helping young professionals navigate their financial lives.
You’ve had an impressive career as a journalist—both as the editor-in-chief of Financial Planning and deputy editor for Money. What inspired you to make this career change?
In part: I’m from California, my husband is from the West Coast, and we both wanted to come home. And there were fewer journalism options in California than in New York. But also, I wanted a change. I got into journalism because I got to learn something new every day. You have a license to ask anyone questions.
But then once you’ve been covering something for a long time—in my case, it was personal finance—it gets a bit stale; you’re not learning in quite the same way.
So professionally, I felt like it was time for another challenge—and I was able to sync it with the move to California.
How did working in journalism prepare you for your new career as a financial planner?
When you are a journalist, you have to gather a lot of information and then process it, organize it and present it in a way that it makes sense and tells a story.
That’s a lot of what we do in planning. We find out people’s stories—what’s important to them, what their priorities are, what their resources are—and do the analysis, then figure out: how do we package this in a way that will give them a really clear path?
Journalism also teaches you to talk to anyone. You learn how to ask questions and how to listen for both the answers and the gaps. Sometimes, we’ll be talking to a new client and afterward, I can say, “You know, they didn’t really answer this question; maybe there’s something there that we should keep our eye on.” That can be helpful.
What is your advice for other career changers?
First, find your network. I was told right away, “Join the San Francisco FPA chapter. There’s a great community there.” So I started going to events. Find that world of supportive people.
Then, start talking to people. Because of my background, I find the easiest way to learn is just by calling people up and asking questions. And the planner community is pretty amazing; they’re used to helping other people. I learned a lot by talking to other advisers—they have tons of expertise and I found they were very happy to share it.
Finally, be very practical and know that you’re going to have to invest in yourself. A career change is very much a human capital investment.
I planned for a year or so where I would earn much less money. At the outset, I focused 100 percent on my education; that was the absolute number one priority. Then I picked up a part-time internship and then increased my hours. Now I’m working at full capacity, but there was a long period of adaptation—almost two years.
Everyone needs to figure out what that’s going to look like for themselves. Even if you were very experienced in another field—I had almost two decades as a journalist—you might have to be in a more junior role for a while. That said, you have a lot of skills from previous roles that will transfer over. It’s not going to be like when you were 22 years old and starting from scratch.
Tell us about the importance of mentors and how next-generation planners can forge those mentorship relationships?
I started out having conversations about, “Should I make this transition?” Then somebody very wise said to me, “You’re only going to be asking this question for a couple of months; pretty soon you’re going to be asking, ‘Tell me about your firm. Tell me about how you handle X.’” That was completely true.
Don’t worry about feeling dumb. There is so much that you don’t know; it’s such a vertical learning curve. You just have to be open to that and enjoy the growth.
Asking about firm processes, culture, operations, etc., was really useful. It really helped me find the firm that was the right place for me.
What do you love about financial planning?
A couple of things. First of all, when you’re a personal finance journalist, you’re putting all these ideas out in the ether, then hoping for the best. Money magazine had more than 1 million circulation—
not including the online audience—but even with all those readers, you present these good ideas and don’t know if anyone ever uses them. So it’s nice to actually put the ideas into action and to help people make those changes.
Also, at my firm, we work with people who are a little younger. Most of our clients are in their 30s, 40s and 50s. So they’re still in the workforce, and they’re making a lot of life decisions that are very complicated. There is just so much planning opportunity.
We meet people when they are, say, 38 years old. Maybe they have one or two kids; they’re thinking about buying a house, or maybe they bought a house but are outgrowing it. They have questions about their equity compensation at work, and tax questions tied to that. Maybe they want a second house or to finance a big project. They have so many questions they need answered. It’s incredibly satisfying to be able to help.
Tell us why you volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.
I love Habitat; I’ve done nine or 10 Global Village builds. For one thing, I really believe in the mission—that humans deserve a place to live. It’s also a different way to travel. You’re working side by side with folks in the community you’re visiting.
My first build was in El Salvador. And one of the other volunteers explained it in a way that stuck with me: If you walk down a village road on any other vacation, you’re just an American tourist. But when you walk down the road and you’re part of this group, it’s like, “Oh, that’s the guy working on Doña Teresa’s house.” People know you; you have a place in that community.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
It’s a management thing: Praise in public; criticize in private. So important.