Expert: Dr. Joseph de Beauchamp - 6/2/2007

Question
I am currently a junior at CSU Channel Islands in the process of getting my Masters in Business emphasizing in financing. My goal is to become a financial advisor, mostly because I love budgeting and helping people with their finances. However, I am completely lost as to what job I should get while in College in order to gain experience in the field. I have been working for a real estate company for almost 5 years doing research work and finding values for homes based on similar properties in the area and know that this will not help as far as experience goes for a financing career. I was thinking of applying at a bank but I cant find any part time positions. Any ideas or advice where I should start?

I am also interested in investing a bit in mutual funds just to get a feel for it, but am not sure where to start. I am very tight with my savings and I currently have about $3,000 in a CD getting 4.5% interest, $2,000 in a checking, and $4,000 in an online savings account getting 5% interest. What do you recommend as far as how much to invest and what to invest in?

Thank you for your time, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Jenna

Answer
Stay safe and liquid for now. Keep your money out of the market, since I think we are not going to get much performance for now. Find a copy of Morningstar in a local libary and read through this book, and the Valueline. This would be free information and good to you to start understanding investments.

Work can be found at banks and a good place to start. Banks pay a salary or wage, where broker dealers do not usually pay anything but commissions. There is a great deal of risk with financial plannning today and law suits. I would recommend a large bank to start and stay working through your career. We have an international website at http://www.mrinetworks.com and you can look over millions of jobs, non with commissions, and find out what the job market looks like. We are in http://mriseattle.com and are one of 1500 offices in 35 countries. The http://www.mrinetworks.com site is free and will give you much information to really see what the employers are looking from you.


Again, commission jobs as a stockbroker are out  --in my opinion. You will probably find a "wealth advisor" in a bank trust department that would fit, and pay you what you are worth.

Dr. Joseph de Beauchamp