Latest / The Comeback Career Podcast with Fexingo: Returning After a Gap, Stay-at-Home Re-Entry / How a Career Gap Helped One Parent Return as a Financial Planner
Transcript
- Lucas: So you know how we've talked a lot on this show about parents re-entering the workforce after a gap, and we've covered everything from tech to teaching to government contracting. But there's one corner of the professional world that a lot of returners overlook, and it's actually a great fit if you have good people skills and a tolerance for exams. Luna: Let me guess — financial planning? Lucas: Exactly. Today's guest is Sarah, a former middle school math teacher who took seven years off to raise her two kids. She came back as a financial planner at a boutique RIA — registered investment advisor — in a mid-sized city. And the cool thing is, she didn't have a finance background before. She basically built a new career from scratch while still at home. Luna: I love that. Teaching to financial planning — that's a jump. How did she even get started? Lucas: So Sarah told me that during her gap, she started managing her family's own investments out of necessity. She and her husband had some savings and a small inheritance, and she wanted to understand where their money was going. She read a few books, listened to some podcasts, and realized she actually really enjoyed the planning side — the budgets, the goals, the tax implications. Luna: That's relatable. I think a lot of parents end up becoming the de facto CFO of their household during a gap. Lucas: Right. And that's exactly what she leaned into. She decided to pursue the CFP — Certified Financial Planner — certification. That's an 18-month program, roughly, if you're studying part-time. She did the coursework online, mostly after the kids went to bed. The total cost was around four thousand dollars for the exam prep and the education requirement. Luna: And the CFP also requires work experience, right? Isn't it like four thousand hours? Lucas: Yeah, four thousand hours of relevant experience, plus passing a six-hour exam. So she had a chicken and egg problem. She needed the experience to get certified, but she needed to be certified to get hired. She solved it by finding a firm that was willing to let her work part-time and count that toward her hours. She started at a small RIA doing client service and administrative work for about twenty hours a week. Luna: How did she find that firm? Did she just cold-email them? Lucas: She actually networked through her kids' school. There was another mom in her parent-teacher association who worked at a wealth management firm. They got to talking at a bake sale, and that mom mentioned her firm was looking for someone part-time. Sarah sent her resume, and the firm was actually intrigued by her teaching background. They thought she'd be good at explaining complex concepts to clients. Luna: That's such a smart way to reframe the gap. Instead of saying 'I was out of the workforce,' she could say 'I was developing communication and education skills that apply directly to client relationships.' Lucas: Exactly. She told me that in interviews, she focused on the transferable skills. She talked about how she managed a classroom of thirty kids — which is basically project management and behavior management. And she talked about how she helped parents understand their kids' math homework — which is client education in miniature. Luna: So what did the compensation look like when she started? I imagine it wasn't a huge number at first. Lucas: She started at twenty-five dollars an hour for that part-time client service role. After she passed the CFP exam and moved into a junior planner position, her salary went to sixty-five thousand a year. Within two years, she was at eighty-five thousand. And she works a hybrid schedule — three days in the office, two at home. She said the flexibility was a non-negotiable for her, and the firm was happy to offer it because they wanted to retain her. Luna: Eighty-five thousand in a mid-sized city is solid. And it's a career with a clear growth path. You can go from planner to senior planner to maybe partner at an RIA. Lucas: Yeah, and the industry is actually hungry for people coming from non-traditional backgrounds. The average financial advisor is pretty old — the median age is over fifty. Firms are desperate to bring in younger, more diverse talent who can relate to a broader range of clients. Luna: And if we've helped you think through a career move or decision, we just want to mention that listener support is what keeps this show ad-free and independent. If you've gotten value from episodes like this one, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, and it genuinely helps us keep doing deep-dive conversations like this one. We don't have sponsors, so it's really just listeners like you who make it possible. Luna: Anyway, back to Sarah. One thing I found interesting is that she didn't aim for the big wirehouses like Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley. She went straight to independent RIAs. Why was that? Lucas: She told me the big firms wanted her to bring her own book of business — basically, a list of clients she already had. But she had zero clients. She was starting from scratch. The independent RIA was willing to train her and give her leads. They also had a fee-only model, which she felt more comfortable with than commission-based selling. Luna: Fee-only means they charge a percentage of assets under management, right? So no product pushing. Lucas: Correct. She didn't want to be a salesperson. She wanted to be a planner. And the RIA liked that. They saw her as someone who could build long-term relationships with clients, not just push annuities. Luna: What about her CFP exam? Was that brutal? I've heard it's one of the harder professional exams. Lucas: She said it was tough. She studied for six months, about ten hours a week. She used a review course that cost about fifteen hundred dollars. And she passed on her first try — but she said she wouldn't have been able to do it without her husband taking over the kids on weekends. Luna: So the support system at home was key. That's a common thread in a lot of these comeback stories. Lucas: Absolutely. And she also did something clever — she got a part-time nanny for two afternoons a week during her final exam prep. That cost about two hundred dollars a week, but she considered it an investment in her career. Luna: Worth it. So for a parent listening at home right now, thinking 'I could do this' — what's the first step? Should they start studying for the CFP? Lucas: Sarah's advice is actually to start with the CFP Board's website and look at the education requirements. But before you spend any money, she suggests having a conversation with a few financial planners in your area. Ask them what the day-to-day is really like. Shadow someone if you can. She did a job shadow for a day before she committed to the program. Luna: Smart. Because the idea of being a financial planner might be different from the reality. Lucas: Right. And also, not every role requires the CFP right away. You could start as a paraplanner or a client service associate, which doesn't need the certification. Then you work toward it while you're earning a paycheck. Luna: That's a lower-risk path. So what's the biggest lesson from Sarah's story, in your view? Lucas: I think it's that a career gap doesn't have to be a liability. She turned her time at home into an asset by learning something new and by leveraging the network she built as a parent. She didn't hide the gap. She owned it and connected it to the skills she needed for the job. Luna: And she found a firm that valued that. That's the other piece — you have to find employers who see the gap as experience, not a hole. Lucas: Exactly. And those employers are out there. The key is to be intentional about where you look. RIAs, especially smaller ones, are often more open to non-traditional candidates than the big banks. Luna: Good to know. I think a lot of our listeners will find that encouraging. Lucas: Yeah, and if you're considering something similar, I'd say just start the conversation. Talk to a planner. Take one class. You don't have to have it all figured out. Sarah didn't. She just took the first step, and the rest followed. Luna: Well said. That's all for this episode of The Comeback Career Podcast. We'll be back next week with another story of a parent who found a way back.