Cameron Valadez, CFP®, EA, CPFA, AWMA®

I became a financial advisor in sunny Riverside, California with the intention of providing pre-retirees with the education and tools they need to accumulate, preserve, and distribute their money as efficiently as possible. I specialize in showing pre-retirees how to build systematized processes around their money that allows them to confidently spend their hard-earned savings.

In addition, I have a knack for "prioritizing the small details" and a true passion for financial planning during rather unexpected life events such as inheritance situations, business sales, and grey-divorce.

I am married to my lovely wife Courtney, I have a 14-year-old stepdaughter Remedy, and a 5-year-old son Walker!

I enjoy writing about finance and giving back to the retirement community via our blog and my podcast for pre-retirees Retired·ish.

When I'm not obsessing over learning more about my profession… I'm often driving around Orange County for volley ball tournaments with the kids, being bad at golf somewhere, tuna fishing off the coast of CA, boating to Catalina, drumming, or in the weight room!

Favorite Financial Tip

Create a mechanism that forces you to save money. This will remove the emotional aspect around deciding when and how to save consistently.

For example, you may begin to have your paychecks deposited into a savings account (without a debit card assigned), then transfer only the amount you need for bills and necessary expenses to your checking.

This will force you to understand how much you are really spending and will make the savings process more automated since you will have saved first, spent second.

This is especially true if you are in a situation where you consistently receive large payments such as commissions, bonuses, or sell employer stock and Restricted Stock Units.

If you suddenly get a chunk of money, you "suddenly" will also have large "expenses". Therefore, consider having it put into a brokerage account of some sort and set automatic disbursements to your personal bank accounts on a scheduled basis (semi-monthly, bi-weekly, etc.).

This will allow you to stay consistent and only spend what you need to spend and have some discretionary spending "here and there".