Profile: Gary Neigeborn, financial adviser

Neigeborn, 35, loves his work, which he’s been doing for more than a decade. But it’s stressful right now, because clients are more worried about their investments.

; ; What is your background? How did you get into financial advising?

I am originally from Long Island, New York. I went to school at the University of Albany. Originally I was going to be studying psychology, which became my minor. I fell in love with American history; I studied it at the undergraduate and graduate level. I went on until I was about to complete my master’s thesis and my grandmother talked me out of it. She sat me down and said, ‘Honey, teaching on a college level – you’re going to be broke and you’re going to be unemployed a lot and this is not for you.’ And I said “…OK.” I was about 23. So my background was in academics, and I had not taken an economics class in college. It is interesting to find that many of us have not; we have lots of varied backgrounds. I traveled for a little bit after school, not really sure what I would do, came back. I came back to the states when I was 24. I had spent a little time overseas. I got a job in the telecommunications industry, which at the time was booming. I did that for about a year and this was at the height of the technology boom in the late 90’s. I came down to visit some friends in Atlanta, fell in love with the city, packed my bags and came. This was 1997. At the time, Prudential was hiring financial advisers. I had enough of a push to want to take on a very challenging job at 24, 25. I didn’t quite know what I was going to be getting myself into. It turned out to be a lot more challenging than I fully expected.