Greetings and Happy New Year!

What I’d Tell My 23-Year-Old Self About Money — and Climbing Mountains

Greetings from Zermatt.

The last time I stood here, I was in college.

Same mountains. Same views.

Completely different lens.

Back then, I thought success was about earning altitude fast.

Wall Street. Long hours. Steep climbs. No looking down.

What I didn’t understand yet:

Work isn’t just about earning — it’s about training for the next ascent.

Here’s what the mountain (and money) taught me over 30 years:

⸻

🏔️ 1. Apply what you learn to your own climb

On Wall Street, I analyzed companies by their cost of capital (WACC) — how much risk they took on to grow.

Then it hit me:

We each have a personal cost of capital too.

Borrowing can speed your climb.

But leverage increases exposure.

Higher altitude = thinner air = less margin for error.

When I started treating my life like a balance sheet — assets, liabilities, risk — everything changed.

I stopped climbing for a paycheck and started building equity in myself.

⸻

🏔️ 2. Build skills like switchbacks — not shortcuts

Every job should give you tools for a higher peak:

 • Skills you can do better

 • Faster

 • More independent

That’s how I went from hedge fund PM → advisor → launching my own firm at 48.

I didn’t helicopter to the summit.

I took switchbacks for decades — learning terrain, weather, and footing.

By the time I went solo, I wasn’t starting over.

I was climbing with muscle memory.

⸻

🏔️ 3. Respect the weather (a.k.a. capital cycles)

In the mountains, storms roll in fast.

So do bear markets.

If you borrow — for a house, a business, a life upgrade — carry supplies:

 • Cash

 • Flexibility

 • Time

I’ve seen brilliant, overconfident climbers wiped out by bad timing.

Most folks don’t have a plan so they have poor positioning. 

Mountains don’t care about your confidence.

Emergency funds aren’t pessimism.

They’re your rope when visibility disappears.

⸻

Standing here 30 years later, the mountains haven’t changed.

But I have.

The first mountain is about proving you can climb.

The second is about choosing why — and how — you climb at all.

👉 What would YOU tell yourself 30 years ago?

Happy New Year!

Tiffany Kent

Your Friendly Wealth Engagement Guide

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