A career in personal finance can be rewarding financially, intellectually and emotionally. It requires not only an educational grounding in accounting, finance or economics, but also an ability to work with people. You'll need to earn their trust by providing solutions that work and delivering bad news diplomatically when necessary.
To succeed, you must help people articulate and understand their financial goals, then find the right products to meet their needs.
Financial Planner
According to The Princeton Review, financial planners work with clients throughout their lives to help them meet their financial goals. Financial planners take a broad based view of personal finance, understanding the mechanics of investing, borrowing, education and retirement planning, and the tax implications of each. Be prepared to spend time with each client, understanding their financial goals and their tolerance for risk when investing, and then developing and implementing a tailored plan to achieve those goals.
Lender
A role as a lender is a personal finance job that allows you to help individuals find the best borrowing solutions for their circumstances. Whether you're working with small personal loans, medium-sized auto loans or with the largest loans people take out in their lifetimes--mortgages--you'll use not only your technical skills but also your people skills.
As a lender, you'll evaluate raw data and you'll help people by looking at their finances and guiding them toward smart borrowing choices. For example, someone who wants a mortgage loan might benefit from having their credit card debt rolled into that loan, reducing their monthly cash outflows. This type of personal financial assistance is invaluable to customers. But in other cases, you'll have to disappoint people by rejecting their loan applications or offering them a lower loan amount than they requested, and you should be prepared for frustrated and even angry customers.
Trainer
Another rewarding personal finance career is as a trainer. You can work with organizations such as the Jumpstart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, which helps kids learn basic money survival skills for earning, spending, investing and borrowing. Or you can work with university or outreach programs that help adults learn to budget, reduce their debt and save for the future.
Private Banker
According to eFinancialCareers, private bankers provide personalized financial services to the wealthy. They help develop trusts for the financial security of future generations; manage investments in real estate, businesses and valuables such as art and jewelry; find recipients for charitable donations; and arrange financing deals for personal spending and corporate endeavors.
In many instances, private bankers become close personal advisers to their clients, and relationships can last several decades and cross generations.
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