Karen Ramsey Story

Karen grew up on a farm in Loveland, Colorado. Her family was poor, and their lifestyle made a lasting impression on Karen. Especially seeing her dad, who'd get up every morning at 4:30 to milk the cows, work all day in the fields, milk the cows again at 4:30 p.m., and then fall asleep exhausted in front of the TV every night. Work was their whole life—she remembers going on one vacation, for two days, in her entire childhood.

Bootstraps and Budgets
By age 15, Karen was determined to go to college, and knew it would be up to her to make it happen. She found a job at a local hospital and began saving. A few years later, having worked her way through college, she graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration.

Karen began her career in Personnel (now called Human Resources). She was the one you could count on to get things done. She came in early and stayed late whenever necessary. Hard work and budgeting were second nature to her. Having observed her parents all her life, long hours were a matter of course. She had an innate sense of how much to set aside when she needed to buy something, and her bills were always paid on time.

She began to notice that it wasn't so natural for others, this world of money management. One day a friend came to her for help—he was in over his head in credit card debt and didn't have a clue about how to balance a check book. Karen taught him how to get his finances in order, the word spread, and soon Karen had others tugging on her sleeve for help. What seemed overwhelming and mysterious to them was easy and obvious to her.

At first her friends and colleagues struck her as inept and helpless. She was repeatedly bewildered by how lost they seemed to be with what, for her, were simple financial tasks, until it finally dawned on her that it wasn't that they were so clueless—it was that she had a natural gift that not everyone had. When she realized this, she was immediately clear that she wanted to develop this gift and find ways to help others.

She knew the dinner table talk she'd grown up with—the price of wheat, for instance—needed to become more about investing, wealth-building, and intelligent planning. She needed more knowledge, and after some research began taking classes to become a Certified Financial Planner®, whatever that was. She signed up for a class.

The Good Old Golden Rule
Karen loved the financial planning class, and eagerly took the next one, and the next one, and the next one, until she had worked her way to full certification from the College of Financial Planning. And in this two-and-a-half-year process, while working and going to school, her personal ethics—that Golden Rule approach to life that was such an inherent part of her life on the farm—began to take shape within this new world of finance.

A defining moment came in the middle of one particular class in which compensation models were being discussed, and the apparent importance of selling products on which you earned commissions to supplement the usual service fees. Her instructor, dramatically and—as Karen remembers, even vehemently—stated, "You will never make it financially as a fee-only financial planner." She looked around the room to see the other students nodding their heads in agreement, but she was not comfortable. She knew that any time commissions were involved—from the consumer's point of view—came the suspicion that the motive might be the planner's personal gain rather than the client's well-being. She couldn't imagine having that conversation over and over, never fully having her clients' trust.

It was in this and other key moments that Karen discovered her life's calling. She wanted to open a financial planning practice. She wanted to work in an atmosphere of trust. And most of all, she wanted to treat people the way she would want to be treated.

Oh Yeah? Watch Me!
Her instructor's words stayed with her: "You will never make it financially…." Now, something you need to know about Karen—don't tell her she can't do something, especially if it's something she strongly feels is the appropriate course of action. It will just kick-start her determination and drive. She has a voice that says, "Oh yeah, watch this!" and nothing gets in her way.

As so often happens, fate comes along at the right moment and makes your dreams possible in ways you never expect: Karen was laid off from her job. Now she was free to put her money, so to speak, where her mouth was. She took three months to develop a business plan, working with the gifted career counselor David Goodenough, and opened her practice on October 1, 1990.

Karen was convinced that doing things her way would work. And her first day on the job happened in that spirit: she got up, had breakfast, grabbed her Rolodex and phone, and climbed back into bed. And from there, with the gumption of a farm girl and the vision of a pro, she called everyone she knew to ask if they could think of anyone who needed help with their finances, and to please give them her name and number. And it worked. Charging a straight hourly fee from the beginning with no commissions or hidden fees, Karen went from a dreamer in her PJs to one of the most respected wealth managers in the nation.

Inspired by Guilt
Over time, Karen's reputation grew, and her services grew also, from advising people on an hourly basis to managing whole portfolios for an annual retainer determined by the size of the account. She hired employees, but soon, the customer base grew so much that Ramsey & Associates could not keep up with demand. So they did what every booming business does to control growth—raised their hourly rates. While this made perfect business sense, it gnawed at Karen. Her calling—to treat people the way she'd want to be treated—wouldn't allow her to forget the people who needed advice but who couldn't afford her now. She thought of her parents and how impossibly hard they worked. She admired their character, and wanted to hang on to their values, but didn't want to be exhausted all the time. And now this applied to her staff as well—she was committed to the concept of a balanced life for herself and all those she worked with. Her need to skillfully manage the company conflicted with her conscience, and created a dilemma that haunted her.

Over the years, the company's rates continued to rise with demand. And so did Karen's feelings of guilt—her childhood experience of being poor was a constant voice in her head, reminding her of what it is like for those who struggle constantly to get ahead. The voice got even louder at a company retreat when a policy decision was made to set a minimum of $1,000,000 on portfolio size. The decision was necessary to preserve the sanity of her staff—they were already working too hard again to keep up with growing demand—but she couldn't get the "non-millionaires" out of her mind, those who had scraped together a life savings, and who, more than anyone, needed sound, professional investment advice.

This is the crossroads that many people in the world of finance face. It's a truism that you make money from those who have money. And it's also a fact that conscience doesn't always jive with business. When successful businesses are on the line, many people bury their conscience and never look back.

But Karen could not do this. She had too much heart for the average person. She not only knew they needed her as a professional, they also needed her sensibility. She understood how individuals with modest savings often feel stupid or embarrassed that they have not acquired more wealth. They feel intimidated by the thought of meeting with an investment advisor. They are reluctant to lay out their life stories—foibles, investment mistakes, personal struggles—to a complete stranger. Too scary, too private. And so they do nothing.

Inspired by her own guilt, and by the humble people who had helped her grow as a child and as a business leader, Karen rededicated herself—this time to find a way to serve people with smaller portfolios.

Oh Yeah! Watch Me (Again)!
Karen talked to various experts in the financial industry about creating a service model to serve clients with portfolios of less than a million dollars. Just like her college instructor had done, they said it was a bad idea.

RamseyInvesting.com is the beginning of proving them wrong. It is a place that provides excellent investment advice for people with as little as $50,000, which is not so little, for many, many people. But Karen knows there is hope for security, comfort, and even some wealth building for sensible people with the right information.

This is the fulfillment of Karen Ramsey's dream and life work. Welcome! May this website be of true service to you.