Dylan Wardenburg

Dylan was a sports guy growing up…baseball and football (quarterbacking the team). Until…he hurt his arm, and had to move to plan B. He’d thought of coaching, and it’s always in the back of his mind…but then, while in college at Mizzou, he secured a job working on the Office of Financial Success. Mission: to help college students—overwhelmed by student loans, and budgets, and managing money—to come up with a plan.

Growing up, Dylan had a family friend who was a financial advisor, who often talked about the satisfaction he got from his career. Dylan found himself experiencing the same—the joy of spending an hour with someone, talking them through budgeting and money decisions, and then checking back in a few weeks later to see a level of confidence, organization, and planning (and a lack of worry) in those he’d helped and coached. He realized he could actually change people’s lives…and he’s been happily trying to do so ever since.

Dylan has been involved in various “give back” efforts in the community; one involved “Servicing Service Men/Women” through which he and his colleagues did whatever was needed for those who have served or are serving. That could be mowing a lawn, painting a house—whatever needed doing. He also remembers fondly visiting his grandparents, Peace Corps volunteers in Ukraine—and “giving back” by spending time with kids there who had never seen baseball. Dylan and his cousins taught them, working around the language barrier, how to play baseball (mostly successfully—they couldn’t get them to accept that tackling as one runs the bases is a no-no) and on subsequent visits, he reports that his grandparents still see the kids playing. One more way that Dylan’s joy in what he does helps inspire others.

Dylan finds joy in bowling (seriously), in golfing, and in hunting…there may be a video series around that if he can figure out how to edit his go-pro footage! And his well-th dream some day is a lake, or a ranch, that he can gather his family around…a base for the family so that everyone feels cared for and secure.