Long time listener, first time caller

[rackingguy]

Hello! I've been reading Early Retirement for a couple of years now, and so while I just registered and nobody knows me, I feel like I know most of the main posters.

I recently sold a software development company I co-founded, and have made a career shift into financial planning. I have wanted to be a planner for a long time because when I was a young Army officer, I had soldiers who thought that because they had checks in the checkbook, they could write checks. Additionally, at that time, there were some rather unscrupulous "financial advisors" running around the post selling all sorts of high commission, high fee, high load products, using their retired command sergeant major or retired lieutenant colonel status to imbue a patina of authority upon the crap that they were selling.

I'd imagine Nords can relate.

I am an avid traveler. When I lived in Germany, I was on the road or train every weekend going somewhere. We went to the World Cup in 2010 and had a blast. My wife and I and another friend are going to Chile in September to visit another friend. If it involves going somewhere exotic (such as camping in Namibia) and exploring and meeting new people, I'm interested.

I have these grand visions of semi-retiring one day - probably when the dog goes to the great dog pound in the sky - and living as temporary expats, doing 3-6 months on, 3-6 months back in the States. I think I have the strongest desire and vision of my group of friends, and my wife isn't totally bought in either, but I'll get them all there through force of will!

In the meantime, I'll continue to read. I wanted to wait to register until I was approved by my state securities commissioner, so that day has arrived, and I have too. I am a big fan of the Life After FIRE, Young Dreamers, and Travel Information forums.

I currently live in Charlottesville, VA, but we're moving to right south of Fort Worth, TX over Labor Day weekend this year, so if anyone is near me, I'm always happy to meet for a cup of coffee or a glass of beer.

 

[Rowdy]

Welcome rackingguy!

 

[Gumby]

. . . . when I was a young Army officer, I had soldiers who thought that because they had checks in the checkbook, they could write checks. Additionally, at that time, there were some rather unscrupulous "financial advisors" running around the post selling all sorts of high commission, high fee, high load products, using their retired command sergeant major or retired lieutenant colonel status to imbue a patina of authority upon the crap that they were selling.

Navy here, but I saw the same exact thing; just substitute the word sailors, Master Chief and Commander. Welcome to the board.

 

[RISP]

Welcome to the boards. I'm a long time lurker who joined only very recently myself. I'm German - were you in the Army when living here? Will you focus on counselling military personnel in your new career?

 

[LOL!]

Charlottesville to south of Ft Worth? Something is wrong with this.

 

[rackingguy]

Thanks all for the welcome mat!

@RISP: Deutsch war mein Hauptfach in der Uni. Ich war stationiert in Deutschland von 1996 bis Februar 1999. Ich wohnte in eine kleine (kleine kleine) Dorf in der Nahe von Bad Nauheim - Wisselsheim. Ich war umgefahr 45 Minute nordwestlich von Frankfurt (am Rhein).

I doubt that I'll focus primarily on military personnel, but I do want to do pro bono work for them. Fort Hood is not that far away, so I'm going to try to go down there on a monthly basis and spend a day doing basic counseling.

@LOL: Blame the wife! She moved from Fort Worth 11 1/2 years ago to be with me, so it's my turn to move for her. Her family is there, so there's the draw of being near family, since here, there's only one aunt and one uncle within a 2 hour radius. At least the weather has been Fort Worth-esque in Charlottesville recently, so I won't get the shock of going into hot and humid. It's going to be 99 with 90something percent humidity here today.

 

[obgyn65]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Parr0thead98]

Welcome & welcome to N TX. 108 yesterday :-( Yup, almost got suckered in by a retired Col back in '88. But I was spending too much money to keep up "the contract." Good thing after all??

 

[rackingguy]

Whoa pony. 108? I'm sure humidity was close to that too. All I ask is for a nice day when we're unloading the truck when we arrive in Texas.

It is amazing how we sometimes serendipitously make small mistakes which prevent us from making the big ones. I shudder to think what would have happened had I not stopped my (meager) investments in that organization when I went to graduate school. They did have nice chart porn, though.

 

[MDJO]

Ditto on getting sold crap in school. When I figured out how bad it was, it started me on the road to learning how to invest and understanding what I really needed to do. So I'm thankful for the jerk who sold me a piece of junk back in 1974.

 

[FreeAtLast]

welcome!

 

[Nords]

Hello! I've been reading Early Retirement for a couple of years now, and so while I just registered and nobody knows me, I feel like I know most of the main posters.
I recently sold a software development company I co-founded, and have made a career shift into financial planning. I have wanted to be a planner for a long time because when I was a young Army officer, I had soldiers who thought that because they had checks in the checkbook, they could write checks. Additionally, at that time, there were some rather unscrupulous "financial advisors" running around the post selling all sorts of high commission, high fee, high load products, using their retired command sergeant major or retired lieutenant colonel status to imbue a patina of authority upon the crap that they were selling.
I'd imagine Nords can relate.

Hey, Rackingguy, welcome to the board! Or rather "thanks for the de-cloak".

I've been off this board more than on it for the last couple weeks, but my daughter's headed back to college now and I'm finally catching up. Good to see you here, too.

Congratulations on hanging out your shingle... again. You'll have to let us know how the fee-only business model works out. Many of us have looked at it and decided that it's the kind of career you have to save up for. (Or else mortgage your soul for soft dollars.) Jeff Rose at GoodFinancialCents seems to be doing well with it, but he's blogging up a storm of multiple streams of income.

I'll be in Houston late Sep and possibly San Antonio early Nov.

 

[rackingguy]

Thanks for the good wishes. Yes, I definitely waited/saved up/sold a business to be able to be an hourly, fee-only guy. We'll see if it's a viable business model. Jeff Rose is a fee-only guy, but he does AUM; it's on his firm's Form ADV and he wrote a blog post about his B-D relationship.

San Antonio might work. You'll be in Houston when I'm in Chile. I'll DM you on Twitter closer to the date and maybe we can coordinate. First beer is on me.