Interview with Jeff Rose | Founder of GoodFinancialCents

Written by True Tamplin, BSc, CEPF®

Reviewed by Subject Matter Experts

Updated on March 21, 2023

Jeff Rose | Founder of GoodFinancialClients

Introduction

Success leaves clues.

Finance Strategists sat down with Jeff Rose, founder of GoodFinancialCents. He shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the company, as well as the insights he has gained from running the business.

Who is Jeff Rose?

Q: Who are you and what’s your background?

My name is Jeff Rose and I am a Certified Financial Planner, author, entrepreneur, husband, and father. Upon graduating from college with a degree in finance, I began my career as a junior stockbroker. I began a 16-year career in the financial services industry, eventually becoming the CEO of my own wealth management firm that I sold in 2019.

I now solely focus on my financial planning blog GoodFinancialCents.com which also includes a YouTube channel and Podcast. I also served in the Army National Guard for nine years, including a 17-month deployment to Iraq in 2005 to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Most of my experience is in financial planning and investing but after launching the blog in 2008 I was forced to learn the basics of online marketing including SEO (search engine optimization), and social media marketing.

Q: Who has been your biggest influence, and why did they have such a significant effect on you?

When I began my career as a financial advisor, the guy who hired me was a huge influence on my life. My parents struggled financially and made several regrettable decisions over their lives. In contrast, the advisor that hired me was the top producing advisor in the branch making almost half a million dollars per year while living in small-town America, where the average salary was less than 1/10 of that.

Working with him I was able to witness firsthand what hard work and determination delivered. He had one of the strongest work ethics that I've ever encountered. What was even more impressive was his ability to have fun even though he made really good money. He never let that get to his head - always remembering where he came from. It was that humility that really inspired me.

Q: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you have given your younger self?

Give yourself permission to fail sooner and fail often. Even though much of my career followed this mantra when I was younger, I was terrified of failure. I can recount several instances where the safer option was to not even try because the fear of failure was just too great.

Business

Q: What is GoodFinancialCents?

GoodFinancialCents® was a blog initially started as a marketing tool for my financial planning practice.

When I first discovered blogging back in 2008, I was excited about the possibilities for potential clients. Over time, and after attracting new clients, I discovered that you could make money from a website. It literally blew me away. From that point on I began educating myself on how to grow a website, which was really a brand, and monetize it.

What I'm most excited about in the monetization piece is that I make money by helping people make sound financial decisions.

Having an upbringing where important financial skills were not passed down to me, my goal with the blog was to share my expertise in a way that would prevent people from making some of the same silly financial mistakes I and others have made.

Q: What separates GoodFinancialCents from its competitors?

There are hundreds of personal finance blogs that now exist online and I'm grateful for each and every one of them. It's a good reminder that personal finance is “personal.” Every single person has their own intimate relationship with money and the financial decisions that they make.

One of the ways that mine is different is that I get to share it from my own personal experience and how I've struggled with debt, but also from someone that has 16 years of financial planning experience in helping hundreds of clients retire successfully.

Q: What led you to start Good Financial Cents?

The short story is that after I left the brokerage firm I started my career with I went the independent route. This gave me more freedom to market myself creatively. Underneath all that was a desire to truly help people not make dumb money decisions that could haunt them for the rest of their life.

Q: What has the experience of building the business taught you?

Trust your gut. Just to be clear, there is a big difference between trusting your gut versus acting on impulse. I'm a big idea guy that can easily be enchanted by the next shiny object that comes along. That's different from trusting your gut. When I first launched the blog, I had an undeniable feeling that I was on to something bigger than I could fully wrap my head around.

The impulse may have been a factor in me starting the site but trusting my gut allowed me to not give up. Several of my friends, family members, and co-workers questioned how much time I was wasting on the blog. Thankfully, I didn't trust their unsolicited advice. I continued to rely on my gut.

Q: Where do you see things headed for you and the company in the next five years?

In the next five years, the sky's the limit. The competition will continue to increase but I look forward to the challenge. One of the ways that I look forward to growing the business is growing the community by rallying like-minded individuals who are excited about making a difference, not only in their life but also in the lives of others.

This includes ways of teaching people how to invest for wealth building, understanding how to create passive income streams, and doing so without neglecting their friends and family.

For more information visit: goodfinancialcents.com.

About the Author

True Tamplin, BSc, CEPF®

True Tamplin is a published author, public speaker, CEO of UpDigital, and founder of Finance Strategists.

True is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF®), author of The Handy Financial Ratios Guide, a member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, contributes to his financial education site, Finance Strategists, and has spoken to various financial communities such as the CFA Institute, as well as university students like his Alma mater, Biola University, where he received a bachelor of science in business and data analytics.

To learn more about True, visit his personal website or view his author profiles on Amazon, Nasdaq and Forbes.