Finance Mogul the Journey of Ryan Krueger

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On today’s blog post, we talk with Ryan Krueger, Co-Founder Chief Executive Officer of Freedom Day Solutions. He shares his journey from the Wall Street Mail Room to his own Financial Advisory Firm.

One of the reasons why I want to have Ryan on is that Ryan I started in the business together, I got started in 94 and Ryan in 96, we were both at the same firm and it was a different culture back then it was it was just different and one of the things that I've always thought set us a little bit apart is that we were surrounded by people who at least pretended that they knew a lot about the markets and let us know on a regular basis how much more they knew than we did about the market conditions that's always one of the things that I always remember we had it was a when we got started it was a bullpen, so picture cubicles and we're all sitting in these cubicles and there were computers on a Lazy Susan and you have to spin it around between different people and so I'd be sitting there and the person on the other side of that would make a lot of money.

They spun that computer around all day long, I'm just relishing at you stating how much older you are than I am and you're immediately reminding me you know there wasn't quite as much training as a lot of investors would like to believe it was a lot of self-taught, yes it was for our sake thank goodness a lot of voracious reading and talking and that's probably where we started to cross paths and we were the last ones there and the first ones in an office of 70 some odd advisors, I was so young and green Brad

Brad - I vividly recall after first being turned down to the job then agree to start in the mailroom for the minimum wage, grateful to our mutual friend Doug who took a chance on me and hired me, I’ll forever be grateful because mostly they wanted somebody with a network of some sort I did not, I didn't come from money, I had no network I had my only instruction heading up to trading was to take my training materials and all that I learned and make sure nobody saw me because if they saw how young I was I would be fired and you will for sure be fired.

It wasn't a different environment back then and you're right, it is kind of a shame they didn't teach as much the fundamentals of the market as they taught you how to sell and they were set and I understand it, but setting up a sales force, we spent probably two weeks in New York going through how to overcome objections on the phone and they gave us these scripts it was hysterical and what I could not see myself saying these things they do so like I've already got a broker on does he have the monopoly on all the great ideas out there and just think it was just craziness.

That was true of Wall Street at that time I do think it's changed quite significantly since then, absolutely you and I are you know we're the only two knuckleheads at the time, I just didn't know anything different than I assumed when you got this industry people wanted you to figure out how to invest and unwind the stock market and figure out how stocks and bonds work and when and why and you know I look back now and it's comical that we decided that you were going to manage money and ask for everybody's discretion and trust us to do for them as we do for ourselves and we never considered all these different outside complicated complex products.

I'm grateful for that day as we were learning and focused and not distracted and we survived and thankfully we still serve some of the same folks who trusted us all on the way but yes those were those were different times, did you remember these little stories and remember we used to say we're going to write a book called tales from the pen and I'll never forget we were calling in back at these times interest rates were extremely high and so it was very in tax rates were also higher than they are today so a lot of people would buy tax free muni bonds but at that time you could get a AAA rated insured muni that was yielding six and a half 7% tax free that is monstrous now I could I wish I had a hundred of those that never matured but I'll never forget dialing away this is all I did is dialed the phone calling people who were hopefully retired and have some money.

In all seriousness I gave you and folks who count on you kind of tested this to this day 25 years later I constantly give you credit I look back you were super rare and you know everybody talks about unicorns and how much you can effectively multiply your money and the fact that you were humble enough to know that right before I know as much as I will now as we're sitting here today how about I start with something I can't lose.

I give you such credit for that everybody knew they could trust you, you weren't trying to impress them and to this day I actually think it might be the best kept secret off Wall Street, if you ask nine out of 10 people listening to this right now would they rather pay fewer taxes they would shake their head no if they go ask ten of their neighbors who don't know you do they own an indi