Are you an engineer? A financial advisor who understands the unique needs of engineers can help you make smarter money moves throughout your career.
In today’s fast-paced world, engineers are the masterminds behind many cutting-edge innovations. But with their attention to detail and responsibilities that tend to consume considerable bandwidth of their daily routine, one crucial area in the lives of engineers often gets overlooked: financial planning.
Beyond just crunching numbers or drafting designs, engineers stand to benefit from the expert guidance of a financial planner who understands their unique circumstances.
You’ll likely find dozens of nearby financial advisors well-suited to help you reach your money goals with a personalized plan. But it may be more difficult to find a financial advisor who specializes in serving engineers.
Fortunately, many financial advisors offer virtual services so you can meet online no matter where you (or they) live. This means you can choose to hire a specialist financial advisor who lives hundreds of miles away if you decide their knowledge and experience working with engineers is a better fit to help with your unique financial planning needs.
Financial Planning for Engineers
💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial advisors who work with engineers to help them make smart decisions to enjoy life more today while preparing for a comfortable retirement in the future.
🙋♀️ Do you have questions not answered below? Use the form on this page to submit your questions, and we’ll update this article with answers from the financial professionals and educators in the Wealthtender community. You can also contact the financial advisors featured in this article directly to set up an introductory call or ask your questions by email.
💸 Smart Money Insights for Engineers
This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:
- Q&A with Financial Advisors Specializing in Serving Engineers
- Get to Know Financial Advisors Who Serve Engineers
- Get Answers to Your Questions About Financial Planning for Engineers
- Browse Related Articles
Q&A: Financial Advisors Specializing in Serving Engineers
Answers to Questions with Kyle Simmons
We asked Kyle Simmons, a financial advisor based in Broomfield, Colorado, to answer questions about financial planning for engineers, given his specialization in this area.
Q: What is a common financial planning challenge unique to engineers you frequently encounter when working with your clients? How do you work with them to overcome this challenge?
Kyle: One challenge that I often see among engineers is risk aversion, which is the tendency to prefer certainty and to avoid possible loss when making decisions. This can lead to several outcomes, but there are two that I see often.
First, it’s not uncommon for engineers to have a desire to change their career path or to outright retire, but unfortunately, they stay at their current job because it may be more stable or is perceived to be less risky than making a change.
Second, once engineers do retire, they often significantly underspend what their portfolio can support.
Most financial planners are happy to support this risk aversion because it makes for more profitable clients, but I find fulfillment in helping people maximize their lives and opportunities. As a former engineer myself, I know that engineers appreciate having another analytical person with them that they trust to talk through possible changes and ultimately make progress towards their goals.
Q: For engineers who are unsure whether or not they should hire a financial advisor at the current point in their lives, what guidance can you provide to help them make a more informed and educated decision?
Kyle: Engineers are smart, capable professionals who usually can manage their own portfolios themselves and many do without issue. Despite this, there are engineers who choose to outsource this part of their lives, and the reason usually falls into one of three buckets:
- They are too busy and would rather focus on their careers and family.
- They have been ignoring their investments but know this realm of their lives is important and needs to be dealt with.
- For whatever reason, they don’t like dealing with money, or money stresses them out. This often happens with first-generation high-income earners.
These are all cases where outsourcing to a financial planner can make sense.
Q: How do the services you offer engineers distinguish your firm from other advisory firms?
Kyle: I tend to focus more on digging into a client’s goals and values and talking about the “why” of their saving, spending, and career. I enjoy working with engineers because we often share a certain way of looking at problems and share similar values, such as a desire to spend more time with family rather than maximizing net worth.
When I get into these deeper conversations with clients, they can benefit from working with a financial planner that’s understands the benefits of working as an engineer as well as the challenges and frustrations. I think this leads to better financial planning outcomes.
Q: When you first speak with an engineer, what questions do you like to ask to better understand their unique circumstances and determine how you can best help them achieve their goals?
Kyle: As part of my meetings with prospects, the number one thing I’m evaluating is what they are looking for in an advisor. It’s important that there is an alignment of values, so I’m very clear up front that I strongly believe that we are not investing to reach a specific net worth number or to just continuously grow wealth, but rather to use money as a tool to reach the client’s personal goals and live a simpler, happier, and less stressful life. I also try to understand how much anxiety they have around money and investments, as this will guide how we approach the financial planning process.
Get to Know Kyle Simmons, Financial Advisor for Engineers:
View Kyle’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit his website to learn more.
Q: For engineers thinking about leaving their current employer to accept a job elsewhere, what actions do you recommend they take before resigning and shortly thereafter?
Kyle: There are the usual things to do, like making sure the new job is in hand and not burning bridges by maintaining professionalism and staying connected with your network. Beyond that, my advice is to always be really clear on the reason you are making the change.
Early in our careers, we are often chasing money and opportunity, but at some point, we need to step back and realize that we’re pretty well paid and life is pretty good. Are we taking the next job only because it’s the natural next step in our career? Or are we doing it because the job will be more interesting, more fulfilling, or a better work environment?
We want to be intentional with how we live our lives. At some point, you have to ask yourself if the additional money is going to actually benefit you and your family or if the job is just going to add to your stress and your account balances.
Q: For engineers approaching retirement age, how do you recommend they prepare to make the transition from living off their salary to relying upon other sources of income?
Kyle: My best advice here is to make sure you are retiring to something, rather than from something. The last thing you want to do is wake up after retirement, having lost your sources of purpose, social standing, community, and structure to your day, and wonder if you made the right decision.
I recommend testing out your plans for retirement either via sabbaticals or part-time work first and easing into the next stage of your life. Again, make sure that you are clear on the reason you are making the change. Ideally, you want that decision to be well thought out and intentional, rather than simply the result of what society’s expectations are for you at a certain age.
Q: Is there a particularly memorable experience or a moment you recall with a client who is an engineer when you first realized they have unique opportunities and circumstances when it comes to their financial planning needs?
Kyle: I remember when I was first thinking about changing my own career from engineering to financial planning, I would interview other financial planners, most of whom would tell me that engineers make horrible clients because “they ask too many questions”.
This was a huge red flag to me because I like asking and answering questions. I also know that engineers trust technical aptitude more than placeholders, such as a suit and tie or a fancy car, so I realized that I might be able to help an underserved market.
Get to Know Financial Advisors Who Specialize in Serving Engineers
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About the Author
Brian Thorp
Founder and CEO, Wealthtender
Brian and his wife live in Texas, enjoying the diversity of Houston and the vibrancy of Austin.
With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress.