The Ethics of Waffle Street and Wealth: Why I’m Choosing Financial Planning

It was kind of hard to give up med school and not just med school, but also the dream of becoming a PhD researcher in psychology. But here’s the thing. One thing about finance, it doesn’t have to be unethical if you are aligned with core values.

It’s 3:25 in the morning, and I am watching this movie called Waffle Street, where James Lafferty (he played Nathan on One Tree Hill) loses his finance job. I can’t remember if he quits or is let go, but it’s not ethical work. What I do remember is this: he wants to do honest work. So he ends up at a waffle and chicken franchise, learning to clean public toilets and bus tables. He goes from crisp suits to jeans, from a BMW to a bucket car. But it’s honest work. This movie hits me.

Because I wasn’t planning to go into finance either, at first.
I was worried about the same problem, the ethics.
I didn’t want to become some finance “bro”.
I didn’t want to work 100 hours in investment banking.
I didn’t want to do anything I couldn’t stomach just for a paycheck.

But financial planning… it feels like something I could do.
Like something I could be proud of.

The difference is that instead of treating sick patients, I’d be helping people with financial trauma.
Instead of managing physical health, I’d be tending to financial health. I’ll be choosing financial planning as a way to serve people ethically and deal with their trauma, their fears, and their survival scars. And just like in medicine, the core mindset would still apply: be ethical.

Because doctors can be unethical too. They can get kickbacks for recommending certain treatments. Teachers can cross the line too, getting paid by the number of students they place in special education, because it funds the school district. No field is safe from the temptation to cut corners. But that’s why ethics matter more than ever.

If any of you also plan on becoming a financial planner, I want you to carry this with you: When you work with people’s money, especially people who are vulnerable, behind, or just starting out,
You always put the client first.

It shouldn’t feel right to recommend a financial product that someone doesn’t need.
If a 70-year-old with a $150,000 account is being told to go aggressive for 20+ years just so someone can earn a commission? That’s not planning. That’s predatory. Sure, that planner might put food on their own table. But they’re taking food off someone else’s. You can always choose to be ethical in what you do.

And as for me, I want to build my financial planning career around fee-only planning. I have no desire to sell investment vehicles just to earn a cut. If that ever becomes part of the job, I already know what I’d do.
I’d walk away. I’d turn to my partner and say, “Babe, I can’t do this. It’s not me.” And the kind of partner I know I’ll have would say, “Okay. Let’s figure this out.” Because they’d know me. And they’d know I mean it. That’s a reminder to myself, too: Find the person who knows your ethics as well as they know your heart.

I don’t want to become some finance robot or push paper for profits. I don’t want to enter a field where my soul has to be shelved just to make a living. And in the end, I don’t think I will. I’m choosing financial planning as a way to serve people ethically. Not with a scalpel or a DSM, but with spreadsheets, deep listening, and hard-won wisdom. I’m not just trying to build a career. I’m trying to build a life. And everything I do should always prove my integrity.