About Dave Part Two

I learned at a very early age what a profound impact money can have on people. Those lessons left an indelible impression on me that impact the work I do for my clients each and every day. Below are a couple of experiences that lead me to a career of helping my clients reduce taxes, invest smarter and retire on their terms.

My parents were divorced when I was young, and my mom and I lived a very modest (poor) lifestyle. We got a lot of help from family over the years or I am not sure what would have happened to us. I will never forget the stress on my mom’s face every day as she was working two jobs and still struggled to make ends meet. When my grandfather passed away, she inherited some money, not a fortune but enough to help us tremendously! Unfortunately, she had nobody she could turn to for advice about how to handle that kind of money and in just a few short years it was all gone. The financial problems were back and most of all, the stress was back. I know that stress stole her joy and shortened her life and I do not want to see others suffer the same fate.

My second money lesson was when I was in economics class in high school, in the early 1980s, and I learned about a great “program” called an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The teacher showed us how we could put away $2,000 per year and assuming it earned a certain rate of return we could have $1 million by age 65!! That was almost impossible to believe for someone from my background. A million dollars!! I went to my bank and opened an IRA in March of my senior year. I was on my way to financial freedom. By July of that year the lesson (and excitement) had waned a bit and besides, my 1970 Camaro needed new tires. You guessed it, I closed my IRA, paid the taxes and penalties to the IRS and bought new tires.

I learned a lot about finances while I was young. Some of those lessons were painful but I found myself fascinated with money and how it worked so in 1995 I found my way into the financial services world. I love this business and I love working with people to help them avoid some of the kinds of mistakes I have lived. Most importantly, I want to help people avoid the stress that I used to see on my mother’s face.

I am part of a great team here in Englewood, CO at Jenkins Wealth where my clients and I have all of the support we could possibly need. I am a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional (CFP), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU). These highly respected designations give me professional credibility, but I think the experience outlined above gives me the heart, compassion and judgement to really make a difference in people’s lives.

I am blessed to have spent over a quarter of a century with my beautiful wife, Kristi. We have one daughter, a great son-in-law and a precious grandson who we get to spoil! Kristi and I are both Colorado natives and we live in SE Aurora with our two Labradoodles, Jax & Landry, who we also spoil! I love to get outside for golf, a bike ride or a hike. When inside I enjoy sampling one of Colorado’s great micro-brews or a glass of red wine. I value faith, family and good times with friends.