For the past several years, The Kelly Group Consulting has been focused on what we’ve done since the early 1990’s: Strategic and Master Planning services for parks and recreation agencies. In conjunction with that we have spoken on leadership (cowardly leadership being a favorite topic, as in “Don’t Be A…”).
We will never abandon that emphasis. The entire team has been in the parks and recreation field for the entirety of their professional careers; it is common sense to share what we know.
A New (Additional) Focus
In the early 1980’s Brad Chambers took an investing class at a local college and was bitten by the investing and finance bug. Ever since, he has researched, read, and learned as much as possible. Hours each day are spent at www.kiplinger.com, the Motley Fool, and CNBC. Since retiring from the parks and recreation profession, his emphasis and interest has shifted more and more toward investing with an emphasis on retirement planning (a bit of self-preservation involved there).
Then, as sometimes happens, opportunity and preparedness met and synergy was created. Brad had a chance to speak, as he often does, for the Tennessee Recreation and Park Association state conference he was so involved with for so long. The light bulb moment happened with the realization that rarely if ever had a session been done at a state conference on basic investing and retirement planning. He submitted a session proposal entitled, “You’re Not In It For the Money–But You Need to Be!” with a focus on basic, down-to-earth advice for the parks and rec professionals– those experts in programming and maintenance, but no so much in personal investing. When he asked the question in class, “How many in here know what funds your retirement money is invested in?” and two of 30 raised their hands, his assumption that the subject was needed was confirmed. In fact, it was so well-received he was asked to write an article for the state association magazine. He countered with, “How about a series of articles over the next year or two?” and financial literacy for parks and rec began to develop a life of its own. He then contacted leadership in the West Virginia and Kentucky associations to see if they would be interested in the same series of articles, and was asked by both to consider speaking at their state conferences. Since then, he’s been contacted by North Carolina, Georgia and Ohio to propose a session for their respective conferences.
It seems that financial and retirement planning is even more popular–and needed–than anyone suspected.
Personal Assistance
He has been excited to assist a parks and rec professional, working with he and his wife on their personal retirement plan. He has completed Retirement Planning University, sponsored by UNC-Charlotte, and remains committed to extensive research in order to give not only the best advice possible, but also to ensure that he and his wife’s retirement future is secure.
Parks and Recreation professionals, and in fact all local government employees, are the core demographic for the down-to-earth, plain language type of advice and guidance that Brad can, and does, offer. As he has said, he remembers those on-boarding orientation days where the government finance representative would come in and try and cram too much information into too little time, thereby accomplishing little.
Everyone is going to retire sooner than you realize. Even at 30 years old, you are already halfway to 60, and at 60 you are staring retirement in the face. It’s never too early to start retirement planning, and the sooner you start, the more financially secure you will be.
To find out more, call or email. But don’t ask Brad to explain the significance of high-Beta hypergrowth Tech stocks in a downtrending market. It isn’t relevant to common sense retirement advice (and besides, he doesn’t even know what it means).
