Meet Jonathan Grimm | Author and Investment Advisor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jonathan Grimm and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jonathan, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
It started simple with a sequence of thoughts that went like this: we have a problem with retirement > the financial industry does not have a solution for it > we need to fix this > I better come up with a solution. Like most businesses, you find a large problem and offer the solution. In one sense my business is financial services and there are a lot of those places. It is like Starbucks being on every corner. I decided that the way the industry operates makes people poor and that needs to be flipped on its head.

Here is a longer explanation of the sequence of thoughts that led to where I am today. As a licensed investment advisor working in the finance industry I realized there is a “retirement bubble” for people under the age of 50 and making less than $150k a year. 9 out of 10 people in that segment are going to be poor in their senior years. I wrote a book called The Future Poor outlining this situation.

The financial industry is in a place where they only know what to do with large sums of money, which is why most firms won’t work with you unless you have $500k or $1m ready to invest. This leaves out 90%+ of Americans. My educational background in Ethics and Moral Philosophy drove me to create a solution for the 90% and go after that as my target market. One of the central problems was realizing there is a retirement bubble and it probably already popped. So, while everyone else in the industry is fixated on retirement planning, I moved beyond that. What worked for the past quarter century is not going to be what will work for the next quarter century.

I invented a planning model and developed a application called “The Magic Circle” that is unlike anything used in the financial advising world. The app is in its beta phase and about to be available for use. I know that the financial industry is consolidating and everyone is now fighting over the same 5% of people that own most of the assets. I wanted to do something different. I also believe that the financial advisor role (CFP, Advisors, etc) will continue to go away and there will probably be 50% less of us in the next 5 years. I wanted to create a new model for what advising will look like in the future and have impact on that sub-50/sub-150 group.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
There are several branches of the business. I have a financial advising practice called Fernbridge Advisors where my team and I execute practically the advising philosophy we have. That philosophy is connected to my work as an Author, my book The Future Poor, and the public persona of doing podcasts, writing and speaking about the finance, ethics and the future. A third branch is training advisors, new and old, on a different approach from the rest of the financial industry. I want a growing team of like minded advocates for the middle class that are saying no to tradition and doing what is actually helpful for people and their financial lives.

I used to be part of a large national financial firm. That is where I realized we have an enormous problem centered on retirement in America. The challenge was no one within that system took me serious even though the math is clear as can be. It was as if the industry has collectively drank the kool-aid. This makes it really hard to have independent thoughts, ideas and approaches. I am a fiduciary and yet I was not truly able to do what I believed was in the best interest of my clients because of a completely different approach. I struggled for several years before realizing I had to leave and go on my own with a few like minded partners.

It can be tough to swim against the current. Retirement is a $40 trillion industry and to go against that is certainly a challenge. On the advising side, there is a lot of cognitive dissonance around a new approach to financial advising especially when we talk about retirement being a bad idea. That is intellectually challenging since we have been told and every financial ad makes retirement our single financial goal. I know that we are at the start of a revolution and the early adopters to a new approach are seeing significant financial results and will be able to make their money go further than anyone working with a traditional advisor.

One thing about me that I would want the world to know is that I truly care about your financial well-being. This isn’t lip service because it is too challenging in the financial world to say retirement may not be the best outcome and we need to do something that works better. It is easier and safer to stay in the traditional mode even when we know it is probably not going to work for clients. I could not do that. The people that work with me could not do that either.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There is so much to see in Los Angeles. I would oblige and take a day or two to see the traditional touristy things. Hollywood, a theme park or Santa Monica pier. But then we’d have to do some real fun things that you only get here. One night would be a Dodger game. Dodger stadium is one of the few remaining historic parks of MLB. A couple Dodger dogs and overpriced beers and preferably a night game to see the summer sunset from up there is perfection. We would have to eat street tacos from a random corner in LA. Outsiders don’t quite understand how wonderful these are and are not used to buying food on the sidewalk. We’d also need to find a bacon wrapped hotdog cart one time. We’d have to do dinner at The Raymond in Pasadena and enjoy 1 or 3 of my favorite cocktails, the Don Lockwood. Hands down my favorite place to eat. We’d also head up to my old neighborhood in Altadena and see where our house used to be before the wildfires. Altadena is a special part of my life and, while not fun and exciting, experiencing it firsthand has power. We’d end at my favorite Altadena place The Good Neighbor Bar for a couple drinks and see our favorite people Shawn, Luca, Matthew, Miguel and more.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Aimee Grimm, LMFT, She is my wife and an award winning therapist, but it goes beyond that. We have known each other since 1992 and she has been the one person in my life that has seen when I have a vision for something. It has not always been tangible, profitable or clear, but her belief and willingness to be part of seeing it through with me is a gift. Right now is no different. I have an incredible vision for changing the way we approach finance and aging in America and want to keep people from becoming The Future Poor but that takes time, energy, resources and encouragement to see it through. She is that and more for me.

Website: thefuturepoor.com and fernbridge.us

Instagram: @jdavidgrimm

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-grimm-4818b052

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.grimm.142/

Youtube: @TheFuturePoor

Other: What’s Up With Money?! Podcast

The Future Poor on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Future-Poor-families-communities-retirement/dp/1641802049/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.HYmQPVvRLF3bHKMnBWWL0QOYM03EHjyw0mVUzWEwBaASNDjW-vOqgL1_RoYvUmu75tWTxnEmZwgrGq0reEj4wDyLQJoQp3Qe5YNiBAQEaSHwMH9pe7rsKHHA3UbIgbO1u-5BF5BfkKCBEy2dkF0ccJsUXZOrMpHQjbIG2GoUzB7wqSRmeKWXYMxXRBu_MQrHEcv1jZ119LxduvdII_-uTIFGLeVQWpg4XRlVT2AkOfI.ze5V1HyrL70eg1mYKOtjhiqpmXXdc19wB2SqWGGSbkY&qid=1753463629&sr=8-1

Image Credits
headshot photo credit Alex Scott

byalexscott.com