Joe grew up in Red Wing, Minnesota, on his family’s Arabian horse farm. This included daily chores and, beginning in eighth grade, helping keep the books for his parents’ horse stable business. It also meant spending summers with groups of up to 20 youth riders who bunked at the farm as they trained and participated in horse shows across the country. To this day, Joe maintains his self-described “farm kid” work ethic and, like his parents, enjoys cultivating meaningful, lasting relationships with people.
Joe then attended Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1989 with a BA in Chemistry. He explains that he never intended to become a chemist: “I chose Chemistry because it had the hardest, most interesting math classes.” After college, he began his career as a financial advisor, working for large, national firms (what is now Ameriprise and Principal), and doing fiduciary investment management for a smaller, local firm. He gained corporate perspective at Securian, where he helped lead the development of their national financial planning program. In 2012, he returned to his roots as an independent advisor and business owner to co-found Vantage Point Wealth Management.