My Journey: From Engineering to Personal Finance

How and Why I Transitioned From Engineering into Personal Finance 

My name is Sarah and you probably know me as the founder of Momentum Financial Planning LLC, a financial planning and coaching firm for early career professionals to set themselves up for financial success early. But it’s been quite the journey to get here - let me share it with you.

I am not your traditional financial planner. 

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My family lived on a farm in Illinois, and I grew up horseback riding and driving a tractor. Growing up, I loved math, science, and school in general.  This love and aptitude for numbers and experimentation led me to MIT, where I double majored in chemical-biological engineering and biology. I really wanted to do something that would have an impact on the world, while applying my love for science (especially human biology) in “the real world”. Naturally then, I was drawn to engineering. I was looking for a challenge, and I found one. My experience at MIT was unparalleled, and I wouldn’t take it back for the world. If I could learn about everything forever, I absolutely would :) 

After graduation was a whole different story. Now living in California and working my first job in biotech, I had $70,000 in student loans. I felt trapped. What was the next life milestone to look forward to? There was no more high school or college graduation to shoot for. What were my choices? I became very focused on finding that milestone, figuring out what I wanted from life, and how I could best set myself up for success, whatever that ‘success’ ended up looking like.

To do any of this, I quickly discovered I needed to control my personal finances, so I chose to attack my loans. I scoured the internet for all the reliable financial advice blogs, articles, and websites I could find and devoured them (wasn’t even on Instagram yet!). I was searching for how I could work my way towards more freedom of my time and towards that impact on the world I was so excited to make. Through this research, I eventually found the Survey of Personal Financial Planning class through UC Berkeley Extension and enrolled.

I scoured the internet for all the reliable financial advice blogs, articles, and websites I could find and devoured them (wasn’t even on Instagram yet!).

Enrolling in that class was the first step towards today. In that class I learned much about my own personal finances, but I also learned how my classmates were training to make personal financial planning their career because personal finances affects everyone. Suddenly, I found myself halfway through UCB Extension’s program and was still learning so much and loving it.

The program was significantly focused on financial planning towards “high net worth” individuals because those people have traditionally been the focus of the finance industry. Historically, they were the only ones that could afford the financial planning advice. This “high net worth” focus was fascinating and fun to learn about, but it also didn’t quite mesh with what I was seeing happen around me. My friends, also recent graduates in their first jobs out of college, were also figuring out personal finance for themselves and were asking similar questions that I was. None of us had the money to afford that level of financial planning advice. It wasn’t a question of how to maintain what wealth we had already built - it was the age old question of how to learn how you can build wealth when you don’t yet have it. 🧐

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Learning from the classes became the foundation for then learning through the real-world experience of helping another financial planner build her own financial planning practice. When I saw her posting on a Facebook financial planning group, I knew it was meant to be. This opportunity allowed me to work for her virtually part-time (shout out to the early days of Simply Paraplanner here!), while also still working full-time in tech. Somehow I had found someone that focused on fee-only planning for clients that I could somewhat relate to, mid-career women in tech. We worked well together and I absolutely loved watching her build her firm and getting to be a part of it.

I still felt drawn to help those that were just starting out in their careers (Gen Z and millennials) to build that momentum towards wealth. I wanted to serve as a comprehensive source of everything your “financial life” entails, what to do as you’re starting out in your first few jobs, how to handle those 20s/30s life transitions, and educate you on an appropriate framework to make financial decisions in the future. When I was learning initially, it felt like having to piece the advice together from many different disparate sources - and that’s exactly what I don’t want you to have to do. 

I felt drawn to help those that were just starting out in their careers (Gen Z and millennials) to build that momentum towards wealth.

That’s exactly why I started Momentum. A big part of our work together focuses on holistic financial education - how to make sure you’re saving and investing for retirement appropriately, what constitutes a sufficient financial and insurance shield against any unexpected or unfortunate events, if/why you should be preparing an estate plan (even at 25!), and yes, how to invest appropriately too. But we also cover the day-to-day money management side as well - how to set up your credit card payments to make sure you’re not being charged interest, how to create a good cash flow strategy to make sure you spend less than you earn, how to read your pay stub, what to look for in your employee benefits package, how to open your first brokerage account, and so much more.

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I take the approach of not just showing you what to do, but educating you on why you should be doing it, how you can make it happen, and how it applies to your future as well. I often screenshare together with my clients to get the job done in our meeting itself. I focus on building habits, tackling any projects that need doing (like rolling over a previous employer’s 401(k) account), and making sure you understand your financial life in its entirety. My philosophy is that if you can learn about all of this now in a personalized and relevant way, this knowledge and these habits will serve you well in the future many years beyond our work together. It’s the same way with Momentum's "Money & Marriage" program - it aims to help committed couples work through the challenges and financial planning opportunities that come with combining (or not combining) finances as they get married. In addition, my transparent monthly fee-only structure allows you to really learn along your recent graduate/early career professional journey for as long as it makes sense for you.

I take the approach of not just showing you what to do, but educating you on why you should be doing it.

So there you have it. I completed UC Berkeley Extension Certificate Program in Personal Financial Planning in 2018, then passed the CFP® exam, and am now a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certificant. I also passed the AFC® exam and became an Accredited Financial Counselor®, and am now writing to you as the founder of my own firm doing exactly what I’m excited about!

Does any of this sound like you? Reach out to Sarah here to see if a comprehensive financial momentum program could be right for you!

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