| Becoming a financial planner is vital to my future career plans as it solidifies my credibility within this role. Having this certification manifested is important because it’ll be a barrier broken on the financial generational curse not only on my family but all connected to us. Being able to a community of my peers, youth and senior that traditions of poverty can be broken is priceless to me. I wish I would have had access to these services when I was serving and going through a divorce. I am reaching out because I was curious if you ever have clients that desperately need your services but cannot afford the retainer and other fees rights away? Without this certification, I may look like a scam or imposter as an online business owner. That is no my intention so I desire to be proactive and pursue the credibility needed to reach the masses. I have put my eggs in the basket of entrepreneurship and I wish to work immensely hard to be successful in this endeavor. To be able to assist other individuals from the lens of being where they are because I know how they feel. I’ve been divorced, homeless, beyond broke and uncertain about my future. I now am blessed to be a homeowner, working toward debt freedom, financially stable and secure. My heart’s desire is to offer the truth that if I can do it, so can others. |
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| Because of the child custody case, I was then considered the non-custodial parent and so I was the one ordered to pay child support to the custodial parent. Never in my life did I know if a mother that was associated with mental illness or drugs or something extreme to put a child in danger to not have her child. I was the first in my family. I was ordered to pay an upward of $1200+ a month in child support, and only allowed to have visitation with my child one week per month. This tore me to pieces! Not only because my child was taken from me but because I had no money to continue to fight this legal battle. My family didn’t have the financial resources as well to assist me. Eventually, because of the high child support, I could not sustain my own residence and pay the child support obligation, not to mention my other debts (auto loans, maxed out credit cards, etc.) Quickly, I hit what I consider to be rock bottom as I began living out of my car. Finally, I had the choice to separate out of the military so I did. When I relocated back to the state where my son was living, I still didn’t have much money but I had determination to get on my feet to be able to support myself and him. It took a year to go back to court after my relocation, to fight for at minimum split custody of him. I won my last case, but it wasn’t easy! |
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| Going this horrible time in my life I was broke, I had no savings and I needed money for a lawyer and a sustainable lifestyle. I truly hope that no other parent, military member or divorcee will ever have to go through what I endured alone. I want people to know that life happens and storms will come, but through financial responsibility, many of life challenging burdens can be made lighter with resources in the bank. |
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| The CFP mark helps me grow by business by showing the world that I am credible source. It makes me trustworthy. Unfortunately being a single mother, African-American and a female, many people will not automatically want to trust me or work with me based on solely what I say because these characteristics appear to be only negatives to some. I wish to work with all people regardless of gender, race or religious beliefs. Having the honor and opportunity to earn the CFP mark is another opportunity to serve honorably as I did for seven years in the United States Air Force. It’s priceless but not cheap. If afforded the opportunity to be granted this mark, my dreams of having a successful business will be brought to fruition. If I can help others to be proactive and even rebuild as needed then I feel my mission will be successfully accomplished. What’s a better role on this earth than to serve others? For me, my servitude is to financially plan other families to success. |
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| My goals in financial planning is to soak up all the knowledge afforded to me to be able to successfully educate and mentor communities as well as congregations on how to properly manage their money; laying a solid foundation of basic money management skills. The skill myself I did not have growing up. The blind was leading the blind as they say. Once I moved out and away to serve my country in the United States Air Force, I learned the hard way just how much I did not know. As the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know. Three years into my enlistment, I got married and shortly thereafter pregnant. After being married for less than two years, my husband (at the time) decided to leave me for another woman. My financial dependence and lively hood was through him. How could I move on with him? What would I do? How could I take care of our son and survive? He paid all the bills, our son wasn’t even two years old when we would be separated. I remember after splitting up from my husband at that time, I had to decide between food and diapers for our young son. I was still serving in the United States Air Force and I was ordered to deploy for a minimum of six months overseas without my family or child. Later that same year, I went to court for a total of three times for custody and divorce proceedings. I lost all three cases. I became a single parent through divorce. I wasn;t just a single mother, I was a broke single mother that owed thousands in retainer agreements, zero savings and a consistently negative bank account. My son was almost two years old when I lost custody of him and was ordered to relocate to another state to serve. Serve before self was one of the top USAF core values. |
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| Because of the child custody case, I was the now considered the non-custodial parent and so I was the one ordered to pay child support to the custodial parent. Never in my life did I know if a mother that was associated with mental illness or drugs or something extreme to put a child in danger to not have her child. I was the first in my family. I was ordered to pay an upward of $1200+ a month in child support, and only allowed to have visitation with my child one week per month. This tore me to pieces! Not only because my child was taken from me but because I had no money to continue to fight this legal battle. My family didn’t have the financial resources as well to assist me. Eventually, because of the high child support, I could not sustain my own residence and pay the child support obligation, not to mention my other debts (auto loans, maxed out credit cards, etc.) Quickly, I hit what I consider to be rock bottom as I began living out of my car. Finally, I had the choice to separate out of the military so I did. When I relocated back to the state where my son was living, I still didn’t have much money but I had determination to get on my feet to be able to support myself and him. It took a year to go back to court after my relocation, to fight for at minimum split custody of him. I won my last case, but it wasn’t easy! |
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| Going this horrible time in my life I was broke, I had no savings and I needed money for a lawyer and a sustainable lifestyle. I truly hope that no other parent, military member or divorcee will ever have to go through what I endured alone. I want people to know that life happens and storms will come, but through financial responsibility, many of life challenging burdens can be made lighter with resources in the bank. |
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| The CFP mark helps me grow by business by showing the world that I am credible source. It makes me trustworthy. Unfortunately being a single mother, African-American and a female, many people will not automatically want to trust me or work with me based on solely what I say because these characteristics appear to be only negatives to some. I wish to work with all people regardless of gender, race or religious beliefs. Having the honor and opportunity to earn the CFP mark is another opportunity to serve honorably as I did for seven years in the United States Air Force. It’s priceless but not cheap. If afforded the opportunity to be granted this mark, my dreams of having a successful business will be brought to fruition. If I can help others to be proactive and even rebuild as needed then I feel my mission will be successfully accomplished. What’s a better role on this earth than to serve others? For me, my servitude is to financially plan other families to success. |
