Brian M. Ursu - Now What?: A Practical Guide to Figuring Out Your Financial Future

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Copyright 2020 Brian Ursu

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Print ISBN: 978-1-63299-259-8

eBook ISBN: 978-1-63299-260-4

First Edition

For my children: Leland, Olivia, Christopher, Maggie, and Elizabeth, who have inspired me to write this book.

M y wife is technically a baby boomer because of her birth date. I am technically a Generation Xer. There are only two and a half years between us. I often joke with her that I dont understand her generationthe way they speak, the way they dress, the music they listen to. Then I boast about my generation and... well, you get the idea. I may be the only person who finds any humor in that, but it helps make my point.

One of my children is a millennial, and although I dont generally put much stock in generational labels, they are a convenient way for people to separate, segment, and categorize folks while also making up biased ideas about who they are. I am generally not a big fan of labels, but there is one thing that ties millennials together: a huge gap in their understanding of financial planning.

My daughter pointed this gap out to me recently. She had just completed her formal education and begun work as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. She had transitioned from impoverished college student to well-paid worker with significant financial benefits and big decisions to make. She is very smart, but she found the idea of planning her financial future overwhelming and the information she neededtargeted to her age and place in lifeto be lacking.

She called and asked my advice. She wanted some books to read. So, I said, OK! and gave her the same titles that I usually give to anyone who wants the basics of financial planning. But none of them seemed right to her. They were written for people further ahead in life, or they were just too academic to be practical. She told me I had to write this book.

So, here we are. If you dont like it, you can blame her.

If youre reading this book, you are probably like my daughter: a millennial who may have just landed your first big job and a substantial paycheck. Although on your own with a steady income is a great situation, that gap in your education can lead to crippling debt. Dont blame your parents or your teachers or what youve been eating for breakfast for the gap. Its more systemic than that. Whats been missing is the curriculum to give you the necessary financial-planning skills to thrive and find success and meaning in your current and future life.

What follows is everything I know about and discuss every day in my professional life. However, I often found myself writing this book with my daughter in mind, as if I was speaking to her or leaving her instructions about how to handle certain financial challenges. I apologize in advance if the result seems overly familiar in tone; I hope its not too dad-like.

Although this book is geared primarily to millennials, much of it can also be useful to anyone facing a financial awakening. Sudden wealth can prompt this awakening, as can something less positive, such as suddenly finding yourself single, either by death or divorce. Maybe you werent paying as much attention as you could have been; now, you are the primary decision maker. I have seen this many times in my 30 years of practice. Things are going along swimmingly, and a couple has the divisions of responsibility worked out. Then the relationship changes and they have no idea how to manage their financial life. I hear, My husband always handled the investments or My wife always paid the bills. I have met with widows and divorcees who lacked the basic skills required to move forward with confidence. These meetings are tragic. I have also seen what can happen when a spouse suffers from dementia. Imagine finding yourself in your 70s without a clue to paying the bills, filing your tax return, or managing your investments while also taking care of your spouse. Financial literacy is something to be shared, not divided or assigned to one person, whether youre young or old.

My mission in this book is to bridge that gap. If I can save one of you reading it from a life of never-ending minimum payments, if I can save just one of you from financial disaster or getting shamed by someone half your age later on, it will have been worth it. I know that you think this may seem trite, but I assure you I believe it to the core of my being, and I hope to prove to you how true that is. The path is wide and easy for financial disaster. With this book, I intend to guide you to a better way.

Brian Ursu
June 2019

I doubt there has ever been a generation more misunderstood than millennials. I have heard them broad-brushed as lazy, living in their parents basement, self-focused, unprepared for adulthood, and worse. Most of these mischaracterizations come from older people threatened by change. To be sure, millennials are quite different from previous generations, but Ive found my millennial employees and colleagues to be ambitious, focused on the needs of others, and independent thinkers. They just see the world differentlyas has every other generation before them.

Millennials are a great pivot point in our society. How we vote, how we shop, how we consume media, how we eat, and how we recreate have all changed because of the preferences of millennials. They are the new market leaders among us.

But they face a huge gap in their education when they finally achieve employment and independence: No one has given them the financial-planning background they need to succeed. In case you think theres no basis for this claim of a gap, read this and shudder. According to research by Natixis Investment Managers