Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Ragsdale.
Hi Christopher, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story definitely has a lot of twists and turns! I’ll start by saying that even though I started a financial planning firm, I wasn’t always exposed to good money management habits, nor money at all for that matter.
I grew up POOR! I was raised by my mom, maternal aunt, and maternal grandfather. My grandfather was a retired porter on the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, a predecessor of Amtrak. From that, he received a monthly pension which enabled us to pay the rent each month. My mom and aunt were both unemployed for the most part. My mom had a job at the now-defunct Provident Hospital in Baltimore, from which she was fired around the time that I was five years old. My aunt did little odd jobs, but nothing long-term. The only significant income that I can remember her receiving was a monthly disability check. And my mom stayed on welfare for the better part of ten years. Like I said, I grew up poor.
That poorness turned into extreme poverty starting in the Fall of 1993, which was around the time that I entered high school because my aunt and grandfather both were hospitalized. Both had strokes. I can specifically recall the day my grandfather left, my first day of high school. Both would eventually pass away; two months apart to the day, actually. This left my mother with her two hundred and some odd dollar welfare check to pay the rent, keep the lights on, etc. Needless to say, that something had to give.
We were blessed to have local churches actually pay our rent and chip in with food for the Holiday Season. And thank God, mom landed a job in January of 1994, which was the second half of my ninth-grade year. Things were okay for the rest of that year, and well into 1995 as well. However, the Summer of 1995 is where the wheels started to come off the cart. My mom lost her job during that summer. Ultimately, that was the last substantial job that she would have. Her losing her job again put us in a situation where charities were helping us once again just to get by. Unfortunately, this time mom was unable to find a job and we were forced to give up our apartment in May of 1996, during the Spring of my junior year.
That was the launchpad for us living nine different places over the next year, and not all of the time did we live together either. We stayed with family, friends, and in homeless shelters. Midway through my senior year of high school, I seriously contemplated quitting and getting a full-time job of my own just to help. The only thing that kept me from following through was that my English teacher talked me out of it. I graduated from high school on time in May of 1997.
The next year saw my mom and I still living separately. I lived with my sister and her family, my mom was able to find transitional housing, I was also able to find a decent paying job as a telemarketer, this enabled me to get my own apartment in the fall of 1997. The plan was to move my mother into it, however, she never got to see it because of her own health issues.
In the Spring of 1998, I did something that would change my life forever, I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. I would leave for boot camp on Monday, May 11, 1998. The day before was Mother’s Day. That day, I went to visit my mother for what would be the last time. Early in the morning on Friday, May 15th, I was awakened by a drill instructor and was told to report to his office. I thought I was in some sort of trouble because in his office was a commissioned officer wearing captain’s bars waiting for me. Well, as I got myself together, I realized that I wasn’t standing in front of a Marine captain, but a Navy lieutenant; the equivalent of a Marine captain. The Marine Corps doesn’t have medical and religious personnel, those positions are filled by Sailors in the Navy. Along with the bars on his collar, the gentleman was also wearing a cross. This let me know that he was a chaplain. He was there to tell me that my mom was in critical condition. When the sun came up the next morning, I was informed that my mom passed away. That was a rough blow for me. Needless to say, that I didn’t finish boot camp; that time. But I did go back in January of 1999.
My second shot at being a Marine was golden. I served for five years, stationed for the most part at Camp Pendleton, California, which is about 40 miles north of San Diego. I got to go to Iraq in 2003. All in all, my time in the Marine Corps was great. However, I wish that I had learned more about finances. The only financial, “advice”, I was given was not to overdraw my checking account. Nobody was there to teach concepts such as investing.
After my time in the Marine Corps, I took a job in a call center at a credit card issuer. It was there that I started to become interested in finance, especially during the financial crisis of 2008. I would imagine myself giving financial advice to the client on the other end of the phone, although there were regulatory guardrails in place that prohibited me from actually doing so. In 2016, I got my first advisory position, I had passed the Series 6, and Series 63 securities licensing exams, as well as having a previously issued life insurance license, and was working for a venerable company that had changed its focus from insurance to financial planning. It was a good position, but deep down inside I wanted my own, I had a vision for how I wanted to serve my clients and my community and it wasn’t a good fit with the company that I was working for. So, I left in 2017 after my wife and I gave birth to our son, and I was a stay-at-home dad. And with our son now in pre-kindergarten, I started the Piedmont Financial Consulting Group, a registered investment adviser that focuses on comprehensive financial planning. We were declared effective by the State of Maryland on July 2nd of this year and began taking clients in August.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
(Laughs) My road has been as smooth as an Olympic bobsled track! It’s been difficult, slippery, and full of many twists and turns. Previously I talked about the struggles in my youth, but as it pertains to this business? It hasn’t been easy, not by any stretch of the imagination. I’m going to call an ace an ace, and a spade a spade. I don’t have the formal education that so many of my contemporaries have. I have some college experience, but no degree. This led to me erroneously thinking that I was behind or lacking in some capacity because the perceived gold standard certification in this industry is only possessed by those with a college degree. However, it wasn’t until I was studying for the Series 65 examination that I really took to heart that a degree isn’t necessary to be successful in this industry. What’s more important than a piece of paper from a college are honesty, integrity, and transparency, and putting the needs of the client ahead of your own. I got over the garbage in my own head to put this company together, and the final step was working with one of the Assistant Attorneys General for the State of Maryland to make sure that everything was legally and ethically in place before the firm could be declared effective. Normally, this process can take the better part of 30 days, mine took two. I’m purposefully withholding their identity, but they did mention in an email to me that, “this may be some sort of a record”, with regard to how quickly I met the requirements to get the firm’s registration effective. Not bad for a high school graduate!
Another challenge has been finding someone more seasoned than me, with a similar background that I can relate to. I’m an African American, and there aren’t many of us in the finance industry. That number gets even smaller when the focus becomes investment advisory, and it’s extremely minuscule when it comes to owning a firm independently. With that in mind, I have come to accept that I may never find that person that I can relate to, and that’s okay. What matters is that I have a service that I believe is going to empower people and set them free financially.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Piedmont Financial Consulting Group?
We are a registered investment adviser with the State of Maryland, specializing in comprehensive financial planning. Comprehensive financial planning is more than picking a bunch of stocks. It’s working with the client to uncover their goals, and address and ease their fears around money. Practically, that means making sure the client has the right type, and right amount of insurance (life, auto, health, home, etc.). It means making sure that the cash flow is in order. It’s legacy or estate planning. And of course, it’s investment planning. I’d say the most important thing that we do is making sure everything is tax efficient for our clients. I always give the example that you can invest in whatever company’s stock; you can buy it and put it in a brokerage account, it can be in a 401K, or traditional IRA, or it can be in a Roth IRA, and depending upon when you sell it or realize the gain dictates how much of the gain you’ll get to keep.
I’ll say that the thing that makes us stand out is what we charge our clients for, or more accurately what we do not charge them for. We don’t charge for assets under management, which so many of our peers do throughout the industry. We believe that planning is the bedrock of every endeavor, especially financial endeavors. Secondly, I think that charging for assets under management leads to discriminatory service in favor of those clients that have assets. I have experienced this personally as both a customer and an advisor. As a customer, I can recall being referred to an advisor and when he found out that I didn’t have six figures in my 401K, he quickly ended the meeting. And as an advisor at the company that I was previously with, I remember being asked this question by one of the managers: “Chris, is so and so the type of client you really want?” This was because the prospective client did not have a whole lot of assets. I don’t want to, and will not mimic that in my practice. My goal is to service the initial wealth builder in a family. This is not to say that I won’t help those with established wealth, but the initial wealth builder, along with the service member and the veteran are my heart because they are who I am!
I gave this firm the name, “Piedmont” on purpose. The Piedmont Plateau stretches from New York to Alabama; that’s ten states and the District of Columbia. So, you can imagine, that territory is large and culturally diverse. Though we’re registered in Maryland right now we look forward to expanding to serve the individual who is just out of college who works at a tech company in New York City, as well as the family who owns a farm in the Carolinas.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
We’re looking for strategic partners; namely accountants, enrolled agents, and estate attorneys. We’re also looking to bring on another advisor representative in the beginning of the year.
Pricing:
- General Financial Planning: $175/hr. Max of two hours.
- Comprehensive Financial Planning Option 1: 12 payments of $233.33
- Comprehensive Financial Planning Option 2: 1 payment of $600.00, followed by 11 payments of $200.00
- Comprehensive Financial Planning Option 3: 4 quarterly payments of $700.00
Contact Info:
- Email: info@thepiedmontfcg.com
- Website: thepiedmontfcg.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizman34/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopher.a.ragsdale.9
