The Story of The Wealth InFormation Lady
I was raised by parents with an outstanding work ethic and a great savings discipline. I started earning my own money sometime around the age of 12: the accumulation of dollars was both a way to keep score for my labor as well as a measure of progress toward my ultimate goal of owning one of the Z28’s on the many Camaro posters that covered my pink bedroom walls. At some point, someone said to me, “get your money working for you so that you do not have to work so hard for your money”. That statement hit me like a bolt of lightning and from that moment, I formulated a whole new money attitude.
My husband and I married at 23 and from that point in which we joined finances, we committed to reviewing our net worth around our anniversary each year as part of our look back of the previous 12 months of marriage. Some years, it was fun to see the progress we made. Other years, it was a wake up call to make adjustments so that we could get back on the track of progress. In all years, it has been the cornerstone of our own personal financial planning and wealth formation.
We bought our first small business, a self-storage facility, when we were 24 years old. It took a year and a half of hard work to make it profitable. Rather than ramp up our lifestyle, we used the revenue to invest in other types of real estate. I was so compelled by our progress that I craved more learning about ways to build wealth. I self-educated by reading lots of books, listening to tapes, and eventually went back to college to major in Economics. My advisor said “You should really be a personal financial advisor”. He was right, and I am forever grateful for his advice.
I started in financial services in 1999, teaching people simple but powerful financial concepts, like the magic of compounding, the rule of 72, how to save fifty bucks a month into a Roth IRA and what a good growth mutual fund is. Building my knowledge and advancing my skills has always been a passion. As my client base grew, so did the level of their financial sophistication. It became evident that with our business ownership background, my husband and I would own our own Wealth Management firm.
Some of our clients have been with us for decades, while others are new to our firm. Over the years, I have learned that wealth, is always in formation. It is never “done”. Like our health, our wealth changes daily. Sometimes the changes are negligible while other times, the changes are significant. Wealth, like our health, is most influenced by our actions. Our actions can be productive or they can be destructive. Wealth, like our health, is also impacted by the external world around us. Tax laws change. Investment opportunities change. Needs for our money change. Threats to our net worth change…. to name a few.
One of the services we provide to our clients is a weekly financial commentary. We started out like other advisors, by purchasing a subscription to a ready-made report that we were then able to send out every even days and brand as our own. Most of the time, I was not entirely happy with the content, so I began to write my own. Our local media inquired about the authenticity of my writing and asked if they could feature my writing as a column. The more I wrote, the more I enjoyed it! I thrive on the “light bulb” moments when working with clients: the instant when something clicks, either in my brain or theirs, and it all makes sense. I truly love sharing information about wealth management, the “wealth information” that is genuine. I authored my first book, RetireMEANT to BE in 2023 and my second book, Wealth InFormation in 2024. As you can see, I am a bit of a word nerd, enjoying the play on words.
That is my three-fold Wealth InFormation story: it’s been a personal lifetime journey, a 25-year experience of working kneecap to kneecap in the formation of my clients’ wealth, and a 15-year love of writing and sharing wealth information. I am flat out thrilled to be The Wealth InFormation Lady!
LouAnn Schulfer of Schulfer & Associates, LLC Wealth Management can be reached at (715) 343-9600 or louann.schulfer@lpl.com, TheWealthInformationLady.com SchulferAndAssociates.com , or louann.biz
Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC.
