Hello, I am Dave Brundage. I'm a Certified Financial Planner and a Certified Life Coach. I am a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a degree in Business Administration, The College of Financial Planning with A Certificate of Financial Planning and the School of Hard Knocks with a degree in Real Life. My early lessons in the School of Hard Knocks came from a parent who believed in the adage "Spare the rod, spoil the child." OUCH!! I decided at a age 10 that I would attend college when I was working my first job as a drywall scrapper on a construction site. It was a summer job in Las Vegas, Nevada outside in the 110+ degree summer heat. I noticed a guy on the site who drove around in an air conditioned truck and occasionally got out with a clipboard to talk with someone, then got back into the A/C. I turned to the 50 year old man I worked for and asked "Who is he and how do you get that job?" "That's El Jefe (the boss) and you have to go to college to get that job. He went on to tell me that there are workers who go to college and ones who don't. The ones who go to college get to work in the air conditioning and get to be our bosses. It was 114 degrees that day. I decided I was going to college!
I am a poor kid from North las Vegas, Nevada. I would need to earn a scholarship to pay for school. I was an A student, a varsity wrestler and a champion motorcycle racer. I was sure my future was bright and I would definitely go to college. Then life happened. At age 16 my girlfriend announced that she was pregnant. In 1971, if you had any honor and your girlfriend got pregnant, you married her. I found myself a 16 year old father and husband. I had been raised to be self-reliant and I refused to ask for help from our parents. I went to my dad and told him that I needed to quit high school for now and work full time. My dad popped his cork! He said "Absolutely not! If you quit school now you'll never go to college. Not only that, you will probably never finish high school. I know you have good intentions, but life will get in the way and you'll never finish." I made my dad 2 promises that day. "I promise I will finish high school and I promise I will graduate from college. I don't know exactly when, but I promise that I will."
My dad was dead on point. Life gets in the way. For the first 11 months of my marriage I worked 3 part time jobs and slept about 4 hours a night. The sleeping got far more difficult when my son was born. Babies don't sleep on our time line. I was worn out, we needed medical insurance, I needed a full time job and college was a far off dream. I solved all of those issues by joining the United States Marine Corps. I excelled as a Marine. I was Series Honorman and High Shooter in boot camp. I was honorman in 2 avionics schools after boot camp. I was promoted very quickly and 2 years into my enlistment, at the age of 19, I was allowed to go to Drill Instructor School at MCRD San Diego (I needed permission from the Commandant because i wasn't 21). I graduated in 1974 as a Sergeant (E-5) and the youngest MCRD Marine Drill Instructor ever. I learned discipline, leadership, self-confidence and command presence as a Marine. I earned my high school diploma attending classes on my lunch hours and after work. Promise #1 to my dad was fulfilled! I left active duty after 4 years and became a police officer in Las Vegas. I also began attending college courses using my G.I. Bill benefits. My Hard knocks education continued during my 3+ years as a police officer. I learned that decisions matter. My first day working in the jail, I ran into a good friend from high school...on the other side of the bars. My friend was in jail for murdering another of our friends. They got in an argument in a bar over a girl and he went to the car and got his gun. He went to prison for life without the possibility of parole. During this time, I also learned that you don't do a good job of choosing a spouse at age 16. We were divorced. She ended up with everything we owned and I ended up with the blame and a child support payment that amounted to over 50% of my net income. During this time, I had earned an associates degree in Real Estate and my real estate license. Soon after the divorce, I decided that police work would never pay me what I thought I was worth and I left police work to pursue real estate sales full time. My first year in real estate I earned 4 times my cop salary, no one spit on me and no one pointed a gun at me. Good decision!
I worked as a Realtor for 5 years and continued my college education. I finally graduated at age 29 and kept promise #2. Working full-time and attending college full-time concurrently is hard, REAL HARD. I wanted to quit many times, but I don't break promises. My dad attended my graduation and was very proud of me. Five years later he died from Lung Cancer at age 59. I miss him and still talk to him nearly everyday (in my head. I'm not delusional). Sometimes, traumatic experiences like losing a parent will cause you to re-evaluate everything. I began planning my life.
Life is a series of decisions whether you make well thought out decisions or decide to make no decision (that's still a decision). I've learned that there are 3 kinds of people in the world. There are people who make things happen, people things happen to and people who constantly wonder what the hell happened. Those people who wonder "What the hell happened?" are standing on the tracks and don't even know there is a train. They tend to go through life choosing the default. The default is what happens when you make no decision at all. The default is almost always the wrong decision. The people things happen to tend to be primarily reactive. They don't think very far ahead. They deal with life as it comes at them and make their decisions on the fly. The people who make things happen are proactive. They think things out in advance. They consider multiple solutions and predict consequences both intended and unintended. They choose the outcomes they want and then plan to make those outcomes come to fruition.
My life plan has had many iterations. John Lennon, my favorite Beatle, once said "Life is what happens to you while you busy are making other plans." Life plans need to be adjusted for the realities of life. Consider your Life Plan like a road map for your life. You can plan out your trip across the country, but on the way you may encounter detours, roadblocks, get distracted sight-seeing, swerve around obstructions, get sick or any number of other setbacks. You get to your destination by thinking about the setback, choosing the best solution or revised course and getting back on the road.
My School of Hard Knocks education has been long and sometimes torturous, but successful. As I sit here today, I have a beautiful wife who I love and adore who is my true partner in life. We have 6 children who are all married (to their only spouse). We have 16 grandchildren who are happy, well adjusted, have never been in any trouble. They do well in school and treat their parents, siblings and others with respect and kindness. I have retired from a 25 year career as a Certified Financial Planner at age 63 and have begun pursuing my life's passion by founding the Life Planning University. I am very happy.
I began life planning early in my financial planning career. We live in a culture where nearly every goal in life comes with a price tag. Financial Planning is not about accumulating money. It is about financing your goals and dreams. Life Planning is about clearly defining those goals and dreams, creating a plan to achieve those goals, implementing your plan, throwing off the inevitable discouragement and roadblocks and making constant small adjustments to stay pointed at your goals. I look forward to helping you plan your life!