About

Hello there!

I’m Taylor Schulte, a native San Diegan and the owner of Stay Wealthy.

I’m also the Founder and CEO of Define Financial – a commission-free (a.k.a. fee-only) wealth management firm headquartered in San Diego.

I’m glad you’re here and ready to take your financial health to the next level.

With my help, you can reduce taxes, invest smarter, and make work optional in retirement.

But before we go any further, I want to share the story of why I made the desire to help people make smart decisions with their money.

It all started with my grandfather and a gift I wasn’t happy to receive at the time.

But eventually, that gift set into motion a series of events that changed the outcome of my life – and it could change yours, too.

Why I Became a Financial Advisor

When I was 12, my grandfather gave me the worst Christmas gift ever: shares of a publicly traded stock!

I was used to getting cash I could immediately “invest” into skateboard wheels or video games. Stock was something I just didn’t get at the time.

I mean, what was I supposed to do with this piece of paper?

In the end, I learned I could do a lot – a whole lot. I also learned several important money lessons I still carry with me today.

As much as I didn’t appreciate it at the time, my grandfather used his gift as a tool to teach me how to succeed in life.

Some of the lessons I learned include:

• The benefits of long-term investing
• The power of compounding interest
• The role of dividends 
• The difficulty of patience

Yes, it was annoying as a kid — but he showed me how to look up the stock in the newspaper (yes, the newspaper) and track the price.

Over the years, my grandfather and I watched the stock he gave me go up and down. But we never sold.

Crazy thing is, we held onto that stock for more than ten years. And then “the worst Christmas gift ever” helped me buy my first home.

A little bundle of papers received during childhood helped launch me into the real world and taught me a lot of important money lessons along the way.

This experience had a huge influence on my career path. After getting into business school, I had my eye on a career in finance and never looked back.

My first day out of college, at 22 years old, I was hired as a financial advisor at large wealth management firm. 

In this role, I learned a lot about investment management and financial planning. I had a great support system and several instrumental mentors. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.

One thing stood out to me, though, and it made me start questioning what I really wanted my career to look like: we spent A LOT of time talking about how to make the firm more money. In fact, we were incentivized to do so. 

I’m not criticizing the firm. That’s how public corporations operate. They have shareholders to satisfy and a bottom line to grow.

But I did think there was a better way. I understood it was someone’s job to make the shareholders happy. I just didn’t want it to be my job.

Instead, I was more interested in making my clients more money.

Why I Launched Stay Wealthy

Since working for a big firm wasn’t a good fit for me, I made a few career changes. Eventually, in 2014, I launched my own firm: Define Financial.

Unlike the large wealth management firms, we adhere to the Fiduciary Standard. Put simply, we have structured our business so that we are personally liable if we give you bad advice.

I love my job.

I’m proud of my firm.

But there’s only so much time in my day and only so many people I can help.

This dilemma led me to the launch of Stay Wealthy.

The goal of this site is simple: to educate and empower people like you to make smart financial decisions so you can retire on your terms.

There’s a lot of bad advice out there.

And, a lot of conflicting advice.

And even when the advice you can find is decent, there’s just too much of it for a busy professional to sort it out on their own.

You shouldn’t spend your time and energy trying to puzzle through the right retirement and tax planning moves to make.

You should just get access to proven strategies, in plain English, that help you reduce taxes, invest smarter, and make work optional in retirement. 

That’s what Stay Wealthy is all about.

I’m here to provide clarity around important financial topics and teach you proven strategies that will ensure your money lives longer than you.