Measured Money Maneuvers

Hi, I’m Alan Nelson, Founder of Measured Money Maneuvers. My “money” story began many years ago with my decision to enlist in the Navy. At the time, I was independent and living on my own, attending community college and working full-time to make ends meet, but was not really sure what I wanted to do with my life, and didn’t want to get shackled into a ton of student loan debt and paying it off into my 30s and 40s. So, I raised my right hand and took the oath with the goals to serve our country, learn valuable skills, hopefully figure out what I wanted to pursue in life, and get my college education paid for…or at least get the GI Bill to assist with college later. Like many young enlisted starting out, in the first two years, my two roommates and I were fooled by the predatory insurance salesman and purchased a whole life policy as an “investment” with the promise of the “guaranteed” 7% rate of return. Thankfully, we had some senior enlisted leaders that knew better and told us to get out of it immediately before the 30-day window closed and we’d have had to pay a huge surrender fee to get out. This was my initial wake-up call that I needed to learn more about personal finance and investing. I was fortunate to earn a commissioning program within a couple years and while I initially thought I’d transition out in 6-8 years, I went on to serve a 25-year career as a submarine officer. As a young junior officer, I wanted to help my Sailors holistically – professionally, personally and of course, financially. Many young service members make poor early financial decisions that can take them years to recover from due to: 1) lack of financial literacy, 2)having their own paycheck for the first time in many cases and, 3) being the target for many unprincipled salespeople. Despite also working at an innovative high-tech company with brilliant engineers, I realized quickly these highly-educated people still didn’t know much about personal finance. People asked how I knew so much, so I offered an initial lunch and learn. The feedback was so positive and by the second seminar, it became undeniably clear that helping people with money to live their best life was my passion and I knew I needed to earn my credentials as a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional. While I will continue to educate, I realized that I could truly help more people by starting my own fee-only, fiduciary registered investment advisor (RIA) firm, Measured Money Maneuvers LLC.