The future of wealth management and financial planning with Devin McCombs.

A quick chat with a superb colleague.

I am really excited to share this week’s newsletter with everyone. As many of you know, I work for a boutique wealth management firm. I absolutely love it and wouldn’t change it for the world, but I have to work hard to make connections within the industry outside of the firm.

This week, I wanted to share the thoughts and insights of a fellow young advisor and Certified Financial Planner® Professional. I met Devin McCombs through Twitter, and he puts out some amazing content. Given the parallels between our age, experience, and profession, I knew from the minute he came across my feed that he’d be an amazing person to build a connection with.

Over the past 2 years, Devin and I have been chatting on a near-weekly basis, sharing ideas, asking each other questions, and supporting each other’s content. I had the idea to include him in this newsletter because, as a young advisor, I believe camaraderie amongst planners and advisors is essential to growth, and the opportunity to learn through others’ experiences is invaluable. While it may seem that most in the advisory space would be deemed “competitors” to someone on the outside, I cannot begin to describe how far from the truth that really is.

Without any further commentary from me, let’s hear from Devin McCombs, CFP®. For the remainder of this piece, please note that Devin’s responses are in bold font.

Quick background of Devin and what he does:

Hey Yield to Maturity readers! I appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself and share a little bit about my journey in the personal finance space. Currently, I work for one of the largest RIAs in the country, Focus Partners Wealth, and help manage around $800 million of assets across 250 client households. I hold my CFP® and CSLP (Certified Student Loan Professional) designations and am working towards a third tax planning designation, much like Cliff. I started working full-time in the financial services industry in 2022 after graduating from Virginia Tech with a degree in financial planning. Throughout undergrad, I worked on a very talented financial planning team based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Following graduation, I moved to Denver, Colorado, to work for a boutique financial planning firm. In the spring of 2023, I passed my CFP® Exam and hit my hours requirement in 2024. Later that year, I transitioned to a role with Focus Partners, and my career took off from there.

What drew you to the wealth management and financial planning field?

I knew very early on that I wanted to help people and enjoyed problem-solving. I had a background working in running shoe stores, fitting and educating clients about the various intricacies of gait analysis and training periodization. Because of this, I knew that I loved working with people and was pretty good at it. While at Virginia Tech, I took a survey course covering careers in finance, and when the head of the financial planning department came to speak to us, I was hooked. I went down to the registrar’s office and declared my degree that afternoon.

I found a team a few hours away that let me work remotely in undergrad, and I cut my teeth in the industry there. During the COVID period of volatility, I saw how valuable timely and personalized advice really was. I saw clients who were terrified that they were going to lose their retirements reassured and refocused. Ultimately, the clients made a lot of money in the markets, and they exited that period of volatility with a lot of confidence in our team and their retirement forecasts.

What are three things you would tell any young person looking to get their finances in order?

Cashflow, Cashflow, Cashflow…

If you can master the art of cashflow management, it’s difficult to fail. Early on we’re more focused on building habits that will carry you through the rest of your life than we are about dollar figures. I want our young professional clients to focus on building the skill of investing.

I strongly recommend working with a cashflow tracking tool that reports and categorizes recurring spending. This allows you to manage fixed and variable recurring expenses, to get a sense of where each dollar is going. Simple budgets (50/30/20 method) will get you started down the right path.

Cliff asked for three items, so let me follow up with some very blanket suggestions: build a 3–6-month emergency fund to cover essential spending (rent, gas, groceries) and then always take advantage of a 401k match if one is available! A 100% return (or 50% return on contributions) is the only free money you’ll ever be offered.

What are two aspects of this industry that you are paying the most attention to right now?

Student loan planning has always been a focus of mine. Rarely can we see our advice have a bigger and more immediate impact on clients’ lives than with student loan planning and student loan debt forgiveness. Right this moment, the passage of the OBBB has turned the student loan landscape on its head in short order. I am really interested to see how this plays out and if any supplemental legislation is going to be introduced.

Zooming out, the democratization of investing and the increasing accessibility of investing tools, products, and platforms have been really fascinating to see. I am from the Bitcoin generation, so I remember as a teenager having friends joke about buying things with bitcoin. Now, some of those friends have done quite well with those small positions. Investing has become accessible to almost everyone, and it’s wonderful to see young investors take an interest in the markets.

If you had to restart your own personal finance journey today, what would be the first things you would focus on?

You mean besides buying bitcoin and Nvidia? If I were restarting my personal finance journey today, my number one focus would be my saving/investing rate. Early on in your career, each dollar that you can invest has decades of time to compound in the markets. This compounding is the surest way to build wealth.

Following up on that idea, the habits that you build early on stay with you for life. Investing 20% of your income is difficult to do early on in your career, but if you can build that habit early on, then as income rises, the habit is already ingrained. So, graduating from a 50k annual salary to a 150k annual salary comes with a 200% investing increase as well. I am a proponent of increasing investments by at least 50% of any raise or bonus you get, and then quickly, your savings and investments will take off.

What is the most common misconception you see young professionals having regarding financial planning or building wealth?

Easily the most common misconception is that they are not ready to start investing or building wealth. But building wealth is simple:

1. Save and invest 20%+ of your income into a globally diversified portfolio with an eye for tax planning

2. Avoid making big mistakes

If you can do these two things well for 40 years, you will be able to build wealth.

My encouragement for anyone with earned income is to open a Roth IRA or individual brokerage account and start small. Little contributions compound over time, and suddenly you’re on your way to building wealth. Wealth creation doesn’t happen on the sidelines; you need to be on the court!

That does it for this week, everyone! Big thank you to Devin for his amazing insights on the industry!

This is for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal or investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security or strategy. The investment strategy and themes discussed herein may be unsuitable for investors depending on their specific investment objectives and financial situation. Opinions expressed in this commentary reflect subjective judgments of the author based on conditions at the time of publication and are subject to change without notice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.