Best financial advisers are motivated by helping you - Des Moines Register Best financial advisers are motivated by helping you - Des Moines Register

Monday, May 28, 2012

Best financial advisers are motivated by helping you - Des Moines Register

Best financial advisers are motivated by helping you - Des Moines Register

Youve probably heard and read a lot of tips and advice about what makes a good financial adviser. Training, education, technical skills, experience and many other factors usually are mentioned, and these things are important. However, Im convinced that the most crucial attribute for a top-notch adviser is passion for working with clients and helping them reach their dreams.

I might not feel as strongly about this and I might not even be a financial adviser today were it not for the tremendous service I received from my first financial planner.

I started out in the corporate world, and although I didnt see my long-term future there, I liked my job. I had started working with a financial planner right after college, and he knew me well. He was focused on my future and had suggested that I pursue a financial planning career. I trusted him, and I decided to get an MBA and take investment and financial planning courses at night while working at my corporate job during the day.

Then I was offered a promotion that required me to relocate, and I discovered that it collided directly with my core values about family. I didnt want to leave Des Moines and move our family farther from my parents farm in southern Minnesota. Although I didnt see myself staying in the corporate world very long, this was a difficult decision.

A conversation with my financial planner gave me the courage to make the decision that started me on my current path. He asked: Jim, how many 35-year-olds do you know that have three years of income saved in their personal investment accounts? I know one you. Jim, you can leave corporate America, and even if you dont make any money for three years, you have enough to live on. After three years, you can always go back to corporate America.

I decided to leave my job and follow my calling, and it was the second-best decision of my life. The best decision was to marry my wife.

I have been in the financial planning profession for 18 years, and I love it as much as I did the day I started. In part because of the difference that my financial planner made in my life, I want to help make that same difference in the lives of other people. Seeing the results of my efforts in clients lives is my greatest reward.

How do you find an adviser who has the passion that I am talking about? Ultimately, you should feel financial peace of mind by working with that person. You should feel confident that he or she will protect the security of your retirement. Numbers and quantitative analysis certainly are important, but the advisers ability to communicate and give you a sense of confidence is just as important. Do you feel you can get along with and trust this person? You always should feel that you are in control. Ultimately, its your money, and you make the decisions.

The moral of my story: Passion for helping others ought to be the reason why people are in the financial planning profession not passion for helping themselves.



Business spotlight: Gorst's Wig Wam Tavern rides again - Kitsap Sun
A tap at Wig Wam Tavern.

Photo by Larry Steagall

A tap at Wig Wam Tavern.

Mike Sweet makes some Texas barbecue chicken outside the Wig Wam Tavern. Sweet's son, Erik, is one of the co-owners.

Photo by Larry Steagall

Mike Sweet makes some Texas barbecue chicken outside the Wig Wam Tavern. Sweet's son, Erik, is one of the co-owners.

George Wood, a co-owner of the Wig Wam tavern, comes the keg cooler.

Photo by Larry Steagall

George Wood, a co-owner of the Wig Wam tavern, comes the keg cooler.

Mike Sweet, right, visits with customers at the Wig Wam Tavern last week.

Photo by Larry Steagall

Mike Sweet, right, visits with customers at the Wig Wam Tavern last week.

Photos by LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN
Marti Webster, a bartender at the Wig Wam Tavern in Gorst, fills a glass. The Wig Wam, a staple of life in Gorst for decades, recently reopened under new ownership.

Photo by Larry Steagall

Photos by LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN Marti Webster, a bartender at the Wig Wam Tavern in Gorst, fills a glass. The Wig Wam, a staple of life in Gorst for decades, recently reopened under new ownership.

Scott Kirvan of Slaughter County Brewing Company in Port Orchard sips a beer at the Wig Wam. Several local brews are on tap at the Gorst tavern, which emphasizes Northwest microbrews

Photo by Larry Steagall

Scott Kirvan of Slaughter County Brewing Company in Port Orchard sips a beer at the Wig Wam. Several local brews are on tap at the Gorst tavern, which emphasizes Northwest microbrews

— In earlier decades the Wig Wam Tavern was smack in the middle of the action, a busy wayside stop on the Old Belfair Highway. Neighbors gathered to tip a few, shoot pool and shoot the bull. There were dances and potlucks and even a few haircuts given from time to time.

"It was like a community center ... Cheers," said Mary Shaw, 65, of Auburn, one of "the Gorst kids" whose parents called it "the office."

Construction of Highway 3 put The Wig Wam off the beaten track, but still it survived. Time and tides made their mark on the old place, and the recent economy did it in.

New owners have resuscitated The Wig Wam. They opened May 7 with a belated Cinco de Mayo celebration attended by an appreciative crowd.

Business partners Erik Sweet and George Wood bought the 1.44-acre property late in 2011 with no intention of operating a tavern. They wanted to start a brewery for George's craft beers and may still do so out back where the cabins used to be.

"As they started cleaning it up, people kept stopping by and saying, 'Are you going to open up the old Wig Wam?'" said Mike Sweet, Erik's dad, who moved up from Texas to manage the tavern, bringing with him the obligatory stuffed armadillo, a set of tourist trap longhorns and some kick-ass barbecue.

His secret? "Lots of chili powder."

The new Wig Wam capitalizes on the Northwest's burgeoning fixation with microbrews. The tavern features an assortment of beers, ales and hard cider from regional breweries, including several in Kitsap County.

Lila Goakey ran the Wig Wam with husband Loren from 1973 through 1996, along with faithful bartender Shirley Clanch, now of Tiger Lake. Goakey, who lives in Tracyton, couldn't be happier with the tavern's latest incarnation.

The Goakeys sold out before Loren's death in 2001. Buying the tavern was a woman who changed the name and got rid of the iconic tepee on the sign. The place did not thrive, and closed in late 2009. There was a foreclosure. The Wig Wam sat empty and disheveled.

"It was like it died," Goakey said. "I am so happy that the new owners renamed it The Wig Wam."

Indeed, Sweet and Wood have veered clear of political correctness, with a mishmash of Native American symbols. The new sign, modeled after the old yellow and red one, bears a tepee like those used by Plains Indians, not a wigwam, the traditional housing of tribes from the Great Lakes eastward. The Great Plains motif is picked up on new wood-carved restroom signs, with a chief in feather war bonnet.

Never mind that the old wooden Wig Wam, the one that burned in the early '50s, had Northwest Native American-inspired totem poles on the shutters.

"I guess anyone who gets offended with that wouldn't really enjoy themselves here anyways," Mike Sweet said.

But make no mistake, anyone and everyone is welcome at the Wig Wam — shipyard workers on their way home (just like in the old days), golfers on their way to Gold Mountain Golf Course, bikers on their way to wherever they're going and sailors from Kitsap's Navy contingent.

There's a "liars corner" — a vestige of the old Wig Wam — and a quilters' corner. Yes, the Wig Wam has a nicely appointed area, where ladies ply their craft. Rumor has it the old Wig Wam had ladies who plied another craft in the second story, now gone.

"That was something everyone laughed about," Goakey said, dismissing the colorful story as hearsay.

At least during her time the tavern was family-oriented, "a gathering place."

Friends and former patrons have donated illuminated bar signs, antique logging tools, historic photographs, scrapbooks and other knickknacks that give the tavern the feeling of a family living room … make that a blended family … blended in a Mixmaster.

Wood, retired, and Sweet, active Navy, applied considerable elbow grease to cleaning the place up. The septic, which the Goakeys installed not long before they sold the Wig Wam, had backed up. The availability of a new sewer line through Gorst was a selling point for the partners. The building had been flooded during heavy rains at least three times over the decades.

"Everything had to be washed a couple of times," Wood said. "Getting the smells out was the worst."

The refurbished Wig Wam smells fresh. Its walls are white and bright new tables and chairs set about in inviting groupings.

"I can't say enough good things about the new owners, and what they've done," Goakey said. "I just wish them all the best in the world."

The original Wig Wam, a wooden structure, was built in 1933. The tavern was operated by Cliff Whitney and later a second generation, the Chamberlain family. The building burned in 1951 and was resurrected in concrete in 1952.

The old tepee on the original sign was sold at a recent yard sale, and the tepee's new owner wants a pretty penny. More than Wood and Sweet can pay. Kitsap County's Wig Wam, is in good company. There are Wig Wam taverns in Eau Claire, Wis., Forestport, N.Y., and Scappoose, Ore. A grand opening celebration is planned for the weekend. Find the Wig Wam on Facebook and at 3548 W. Belfair Valley Road, Gorst, WA 983121 360-813-3548.



Vermont Business Expo - Rutland Herald

The 27th annual Vermont Business and Industry Expo drew thousands indoors last week to the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in South Burlington despite balmy spring weather outside.

The Expo, the states largest business gathering, was created by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce in 1985 for CEOs, business owners and managers, senior level decision makers and purchasing agents. The show has become know as one of the best places for businesses in and around Vermont to network, learn about businesses pitching from hundreds of booths on two floors, attend seminars and speeches addressing up-to-date topics in the business world, and accept awards for business excellence.

Family- owned Rutland company Foley Family of Companies took the 2012 shows most prestigious award, the Deane C. Davis Outstanding Business Award. The mood at this years show was realistic but optimistic, with some business leaders saying they are seeing signs the state is beginning to lift out of recession, including a flurry of start-ups, a growing organic foods industry, and low statewide unemployment rates compared to the national average.

A veritable parade of politicians visited, including Gov. Peter Shumlin, Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, and House Speaker Shap Smith, to name a few. A delegation from Quebec also visited and met with state officials and representatives of Vermonts growing aerospace manufacturing and services industry.



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