“Done right, a financial plan is like a puzzle – it’s really hard to see the big picture when you have all the individual pieces sitting on the table, but if you work on it consistently, you start to see progress with the outline, and then the big picture comes into focus, section by section, piece by piece.”
Joe grew up in Red Wing, Minnesota, on his family’s Arabian horse farm. This included daily chores and, beginning in high school, helping keep the books for his parents’ horse stable business. It also meant spending summers with groups of up to 20 youth riders who bunked at the farm as they trained and participated in horse shows across the country. To this day, Joe maintains his self-described “farm kid” work ethic and, like his parents, enjoys cultivating meaningful, lasting relationships with people.
Joe attended Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1989 with a BA in Chemistry. After college, he began his career as a financial advisor, working for a large, national firms (what is now Ameriprise), and doing fiduciary investment management for a smaller, local firm. He gained corporate perspective at Securian, where he helped lead the national implementation of their financial planning program. In 2008, he returned to his roots as an independent advisor. He co-founded Vantage Point Wealth Management in 2012.
Over his 30+ years in Financial Services, Joe has enjoyed continuous opportunities to use his math skills. Yet along the way, he’s discovered that what’s even more fulfilling for him is combining his love of problem-solving with his love of people.
He explains that to him, “Financial planning is a thread that weaves through people’s entire lives, whether they’re aware of it or not. When you pull on the thread in one area, it can (and almost always does) influence many other aspects of their finances.
Outside of work, Joe likes to be outside – whether biking, golfing, kayaking, hiking, or working on the yard at home in Deephaven, Minnesota, where he lives with his wife, Nancy, their two college-aged kids, Kenna and Ellen, two rescue dogs and a cat. He loves puzzles of all kinds, reading spy novels, science fiction, and hanging out by the bonfire pit with friends and neighbors. He often visits the family farm in Red Wing, where he still likes doing chores.