5 Reasons Why I Loved Being a Financial Advisor (+ Why I Quit)

Do you want to know why I love being a financial advisor (in the past)?

A few years ago, I never thought I’d become a financial advisor.

I’m an introvert with no experience in sales – how could I join this career?

But then last 2012, something devastating happened to our family.

My lolo suffered his 2nd heart attack and still insisted to be taken to a public hospital far away from our house just because he didn’t want us to spend a lot of money.

And even though I was already working and earning money, I didn’t have the confidence to tell him, “Ok lang yan, ako na po bahala magbayad…” because even though I had an income, I didn’t manage it properly so I didn’t have any savings of my own!

It wasn’t until my lolo Tatang passed away that I realize something:

I wanted to be a financial advisor because I’m passionate to share my story to other people. It was a heart-breaking experience. I don’t want you to experience the same thing.

Now, if YOU also desire to teach people about:

• How to manage their money properly – so when they encounter an emergency, they have emergency funds to use for it
• How to adapt new beliefs about money — so they can toss old money beliefs out the window 
• How to protect their income – so that whatever happens to the breadwinner, their family is taken cared of financially
• How to achieve a comfortable retirement – so when they finally stop working, they can enjoy their “golden years”
• How to start investing their hard-earned money, so they can get higher returns than banks…

Then YOU may also be interested about how to be a financial advisor.

In today’s blog post, we’ll talk about:

• 5 Reasons Why You’d Love to be a Financial Advisor
• What It Takes to be a Financial Advisor
• Why I Quit Being a Financial Advisor

Let’s get started.

5 Reasons Why I Loved Being a Financial Advisor

1. You “technically” manage your own time

You’ll work, yes, but you can also enjoy more time with your families.

When you become a financial advisor, you don’t need to go to the office from 8 am – 5 pm. You work at your own time.

Have children you’d love to spend more time bonding with? You can make them breakfast and help them with their homework, too.

My friend who’s a single mother and also an amazing financial advisor works from 7 am – 2 pm only. She gets to help families improve their financial lives and she still has time to pick up her son from school everyday.

Have aging parents you’d love to take care of? Or do you have a spouse/life partner you’d love to enjoy life with together more?

What if you want to go to Japan for your honeymoon? Or you want to go to Seoul to celebrate your father’s 60th birthday?

Whether you work from 6 am – 12 noon, or 3 pm – 9 pm, or 8 am – 1 pm or whatever other working schedule you’d like, it’s all up to you.

2. You can work at your own chosen office

When you become a financial advisor, it’s like a mini-adventure everyday.

One day, you may be meeting your clients at a coffee shop in Ortigas City.

The next day, you may be meeting clients at their offices all throughout BGC Taguig City.

Or what if next week you choose not to work for a full week? It’s all possible.

You can dictate where you want to work.

I remember back in 2017, my family and I went to Tagaytay to have a staycation for my birthday. At the same time, I met with 2 of my clients based in Tagaytay so I could service them personally.

That’s working hard and playing hard – at your own time and at your chosen place.

3. You want to improve the lives of your family and friends

Aside from choosing when to work and where to work, I’m sure you’re interested to be a financial advisor because you want to secure a better future for your family, your relatives and of course, your friends, right?

As a financial advisor, you can make a positive difference in the lives of your friends and families.

After all, you’re teaching them to how secure their income and invest their hard-earned money for college fund of their kids or for their own retirement fund in the future.

You’re there to help them and their families, in sickness, in disabilities and even during loss of life.

Being a financial advisor is a career that you can be proud of. Through this, you get to give practical and doable financial advice that your clients can use to manage their income properly.

4. There’s no “fixed” income, so it depends on you

When you become a financial advisor, you “write your own pay check”.

What does this mean?

Basically, how much money you can earn depends on how hard you’ve worked and how many connections you’ve made as a financial advisor. You’ll receive fair compensation for all your hard work – so you’ll get an idea as to how much you’ll receive in your bank account every 15 days.

In addition to my online businesses, this profession also helped me send my brother to college, purchase multiple lands in our province, start several life insurance and investment accounts, buy my first car and travel to local and overseas destinations with my loved ones.

5. You love getting awards and being recognized for your hard work

If you’re driven to succeed and you’re passionate in receiving recognition for all the meaningful work that you do, then you deserve to be a financial advisor.

Love travel? As a financial advisor, some investment and insurance companies give you the privilege to receive travel incentives locally and abroad.

What It Takes to be a Financial Advisor

Interested in being a financial advisor?

Here are some of the skills you need to have in order to succeed in this profession.

• Sales and marketing skills – you’re going to market yourself, after all
• Attention to detail – there will be paperwork you need to fill out, so you need to make sure everything’s correct
• Love building strong client relationships – you’ll be talking to a lot of people who want to seek advice from you
• Comfortable with analyzing data – since you’re going to give advice based on data, you should understand technical terms fairly easily
• Can simplify complex ideas – not everyone you meet is a “finance major”, so you should explain jargon in simple terms — like you’re talking to a friend

Why I Quit Being a Financial Advisor

Ever since I retired from the financial industry a few years ago, people have been asking me why I did it.

Let me answer this by talking about the reasons why I loved being a financial advisor and my way of thinking:

༶ Since I managed my own time, I was prone to my workaholic tendencies

Some people worked their best when they managed their own time, but because I had anxiety, I didn’t have any boundaries between “work time” and “relaxing time” anymore.

I would go on a 2-week vacation abroad with my loved ones, but if a client messaged me, I’d work — even if I weren’t in the country, so I ended up working the whole time I was there.

Weekends? I never got to personally enjoy them anymore because I would always be working, too. ^^;;

It’s the same with holidays and special occasions. Sure, I’d be there attending, but my mind would always come back to work, so it was stressful.

I realized that I worked best when my own company enforced the work-life boundaries for me.

Now, I’m working remotely for an international tech company who firmly believes that work should be done from Mondays to Fridays only. And I’m super in love with it. 🙂

༶ There wasn’t any “work routine”, so I felt disorganized

At first, it was great coffee-shop-hopping and meeting new people where I went.

But the job doesn’t end at the coffee shop. It’s a continuous journey that you needed to accomplish, and you had to go to several places to do so.

Meeting someone? Go to a coffee shop.

Filling out paperwork? Go to your branch office.

Confirming details and need to sign another form? Go to another coffee shop or to the client’s office.

Your company has a required in-house training? Go to your main office.

It was exciting and fulfilling at the beginning.

But after a while, I started to crave the comfort of having my own office — and working on my own terms.

That’s why I’m thankful that my work right now can be done remotely.

If I’m in the mood to work at home for the day, my home office is waiting for me. (And the commute is just a few steps away!)

And if I’d love to travel, I only need my laptop, earphone and phone and I can literally work from anywhere in the world. 🙂

Plus, there’s a set boundary for my working hours: it only starts the minute I open my laptop, and it ends whenever I close it.

༶ I can still share about personal finance tips

In the past, I thought I could only share tips about money management if I became a financial advisor.

After a while, I realized that this isn’t the case at all. As long as the advice is helpful and applicable to a person, they’ll find it valuable and apply it to their life, too.

Plus, I figured I can still give advice on finance thru my website, The Wise Living, and also thru my 2 books:

• OMG! Where Did Your Sweldo Go?
• #AdultingAccomplice

And if anyone needs help with starting a life insurance plan or investment account, I can easily refer them to my financial advisor friends.

༶ I felt more “secure” with a guaranteed income

This may be the least of my concerns when I decided to retire, but it’s helpful to you if you’re considering being a financial advisor.

Since you don’t receive any monthly allowance from the company, the money you earn depends on the accounts you close.

I’ve been fortunate enough to not have any “zero months”, but some people do.

And if you’re not a fan of this uncertainty, then being a financial advisor may not be for you.

Now that I’m working online and earning a 6-figure monthly income, I appreciate more the idea of getting a “fixed” income every month. And since we have unlimited Paid Time Off policy in place, I have plenty of time to work on my passion projects on the side.

How about you — are you a financial advisor?

Or are you considering being one?

Have any comments you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments below. 🙂