Windy city workforce

This department spotlights a relatively recent addition to the workforce, focusing on the person’s educational or working background, daily responsibilities, challenges, passions, frustrations and outlook for his or her future in the field.

Name: John Seagraves
Age: 30
Company: Waddell & Reed
(630) 954-4611
Title: Certified financial planner
College Path: B.S. from Oklahoma State in Engineering Technology
MBA from the University of Illinois

How you ended up here: I worked in marketing and sales out of college until an opportunity arose with the family business.

How long you’ve been at it: Three years.

Who you answer to: The three of us — my mom, brother and I — really have a team approach. We have two meetings every week. On Monday morning we get together at 8:30 a.m. and have our “Crucial Results” meeting. Basically, we review the important things that need to get done and review how our strategic projects with deadlines beyond a week are going. We also discuss a quality of the week and ways that it can be exemplified by us. For example, our quality of the week for this week was contribution. Our theme was to always make your contribution greater than your reward. We call our Friday morning meeting “Positive Focus.” At this meeting, we review all of our crucial results for the week and what was accomplished. We review appointments that we’re conducted and see ways that we can continue to build on what was done. If something doesn’t work out the way we want it to, we brainstorm on ways we can do better next time.

Hours you expect to be at work: Usually I’m at work from 8:30 to 5:00 or so. But our hours can be all over the place. Oftentimes we meet with people after work, which can make for a longer day. But if we have a busy week, it makes it a lot easier to leave work early on Friday. So it all evens out.

Breakdown of what people anticipate from you: I think they expect us to provide clarity and direction regarding their heartfelt financial goals.

What your friends assume you do: Help people with financial stuff. I think they see this primarily as investing work. But financial planning is much broader than just investing. It’s about knowing that your financial plan will work for you and that you have your important “what if” questions answered.

What’s the biggest mistake you see people make with their money? Not giving it to us is probably the biggest mistake. Seriously, not having a systematic investment plan in place is probably the biggest mistake. Most people spend all of their income they take home. Without an automatic and systematic approach to investing, all of their money is usually spent. If you don’t plan for it, it won’t happen. You need to live beneath your means and pay yourself first. Once you’ve paid yourself first is when you can pay all of your other bills and then splurge on a few of the extras. Most people get that reversed.

Best perk: The relationships we have with our clients. We get to know our clients in ways that most professionals don’t get to. Over the years, we get to see our clients accomplish very rewarding goals. We get to see our clients move into their new homes they’ve been saving and investing for, send their children or grandchildren to college, retire at the age and timing they want to. The relationships are what make this job special.

Do many young people fully realize what retirement will be like? No. No one is sure what the robots will be doing by then. Just kidding. One of the great things that we as financial planners get to see is the changing demographics. People are living much longer, and our retirement years are going to be much longer than any generation before us. We need to be thinking in terms of 30-year retirements. People could potentially be in retirement for as long as they had been working. That is so much different than other generations faced. I think we’ll also see people transfer into a retirement period where they still continue to work or volunteer or do things that make them feel productive and active and providing a contribution. It seems to me that people today and people in the future are not very likely to just retire and sit in a rocking chair. Retirements are going to be very active times.

I know it’s a good day when... any day we’re face to face with our clients. In our business, this is where the rubber hits the road.

Wealth, at least in our society, is... freedom. When you have wealth, you have the freedom to choose where you live, what you do, what schools your children go to, what you want to do for a living and your overall lifestyle. Money does not equate to happiness. Plenty of wealthy people are unhappy. But when you have freedom and you pursue it according to your deeply held values, then you will know happiness. It’s your approach to money that matters. Those with limited resources can feel more empowered than millionaires simply because they are being proactive and feel in control. That is always the best. Money is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. It can help us accomplish amazing things. But if we let it take control of us, it is capable of making us do terrible things.

Things can get tense when... like all jobs, we have a lot of deadlines to meet for our clients. Deadlines are a good thing because without them, we probably wouldn’t get nearly the work done here that we do. But they do cause a little bit of stress and anxiety. But my brother Jim makes me laugh a lot, and that certainly helps.

Why you have a smile when you come to work: I get to work with my family, and that’s something I always look forward to. Not a day goes by here where I’m not smiling and laughing.

Advice for joining the field: Don’t — just kidding. You need to know your stuff, but you also need to be a good marketer. To be a financial planner means you’re an entrepreneur. This means you need to run your practice like a business. You need to have the systems and resources in place to take care of your clients. Once that’s in place, your success will be insured.

Click here for more Windy City Workforce