I took an unusual path to become a financial advisor. Upon graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in cultural anthropology, I didn’t really know what to do with my degree! I had put myself through college by cooking. Suddenly, I found myself considering cooking as my first career.
My aspiration was to be a chef at Chez Panisse; within four years, I had my dream job. However, as much as I enjoyed cooking, I was becoming more and more interested in finance and investments. I took a class in personal financial planning and was hooked. I decided to go back to school and change careers.
After earning my master’s in business administration, I worked in investment research and portfolio management at a couple of very large companies in San Francisco. But big company life really didn’t suit me. Like cooking for people, I wanted to do something that was more personal.
In 2008, I founded Stoffer Wealth Advisors. Helping people through those difficult financial times helped me to see the power of incorporating our values into our decisions about money. It can lead to clarity about what we want our money to do for us.
In my years at Chez Panisse, I developed a strong connection to the organic food movement and saw how our choices around eating could have such a profound impact on the health of our planet. We as investors choose where to put our capital, our precious savings. We can invest our money in companies that are interested not just in making a profit, but also in taking care of their employees, their communities, and the planet.
Joining the team at Terra Blue I felt I’d found kindred spirits in the financial advice business…those who believe that by investing within a socially conscious framework we can help our clients achieve their goals and can ultimately have a positive impact on our world.