Troy Scott has long dreamed of running his own lawn mowing business. Growing up on acreage on the New South Wales central coast, he was forever jumping on the ride-on mower or helping his family care for the horses. Essentially, he loved being outdoors.
“A one point I thought about being a green-keeper,” he says.
Needless to say, Scott ended up becoming a financial planner instead. He started an apprenticeship as a green keeper in Sydney, but the early starts — we’re talking 4am — almost killed him. And he struggled to feel at home in Sydney. “It seemed like a tough way to make a living and a tough way to get ahead,” he says.
So Scott, 31, studied for a degree, moved to Brisbane and became a planner instead.
At first blush, the career paths seem worlds apart, but Scott can see parallels.
“With green keeping, I liked that you can make a difference, you can actually see the results of your hard work,” he says. “And I guess that is not so different from planning.”
Green keeping wasn’t the only career Scott considered. Midway through his bachelor of business degree, he developed a fondness for numbers.
“I wasn’t overly academic at school, but if I liked a subject, I would do well at it,” he says. “At uni I thought about becoming an accountant because I was good at numbers.”
The human aspect to planning
However, a friend of Scott’s persuaded him otherwise. “He was a planner himself and I realised that accounting would be just putting numbers into a computer,” he says. “I liked the human aspect to planning, and when I worked behind a bar I always enjoyed chatting to people, so accounting was quickly pushed to the side.
“I remember my friend telling me that I would have much more fun as a planner and now that I work in an accountancy firm, I can tell you that is true.”
Scott is passionate about increasing financial literacy among younger people, and would love to see more 20-somethings knock on his door.
“I think we need to educate 18 to 25 year olds about money in general,” he says. “There is a fair degree of depression among this age group and part of it would come down to financial issues.
“Young people struggle to understand the basics of not spending what you don’t have and with social media being so influential, I think everyone is trying to keep up with each other.
“Forget about teaching Shakespeare: I think that financial literacy needs to be taught in schools.”
The next generation of leaders
Scott wants to see more graduates like him — professionals in their 30s — move into planning, and thinks this is where the next generation of leaders will emerge from.
“I think planning will be the new accounting,” he says. “We are getting to the stage where the old guard — the planners who are more focused on selling financial products — are starting to be weeded out.
“There is a massive opportunity for people in their 30s to get into an industry that is already good, but is going to become great.”
Once he has put in the hard yards as a planner, and has acquired the necessary financial security, Scott is still toying with setting up a lawn mowing business.
“Maybe when I am older and have achieved what I want to achieve I will start it,” he says.
“I don’t want to be rich, just comfortable with enough money for retirement. I see how hard my parents are still working and I want to put in the hard work now and have a bit of balance later in life.”
Planner profileTroy Scott Name of firm: Perrier Ryan Financial Adviser and Chartered Accountants Name of licensee: Securitor Years in the industry: 6.5 years Academic qualifications: Bachelor of Business. Currently studying the chartered practitioner designation (will finish mid 2017) Professional association memberships: AFA Other memberships: Most Trusted Adviser (MTA) network |
