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January 31st, 2009 by moniesAuthor: Array
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January 29th, 2009 by moniesPeggy Eddy wants to drag the subject of money out of the country’s closet and onto its dinner table.
“Money should be open to discussion just like any other topic might be — why Clinton is in and why Bush didn’t get elected and what’s happening in Somalia,” says Eddy, a financial planner and president of Creative Capital Management Inc., advisor to closely held businesses.
“I think it’s still a taboo topic,” she says, “Money is a very charged issue and it represents power, it represents control, it represents a person’s status sometimes.”
And because people are afraid to discuss money matters, they find it easy to ignore their finances. But those who don’t control their spending, budget their money and plan for their retirement are going to be in serious trouble in the coming years, she warns.
As a financial advisor in partnership with husband Bob Eddy, she makes her living talking frankly about personal finances and helping people and companies manage their assets and plan for the future.
At home, she practices what she preaches by teaching her two sons about the realities of earning a living and budgeting money.
From an early age, sons Sean and Ryan received an allowance — half to spend and half to save. Now that they’re older, they get allowances for clothing and other purchases. If they want to spend all their money on a pair of shoes or a jacket, that’s their choice, she says. They also have savings accounts and earn extra money by cleaning their parents’ offices and tackling odd jobs.
Still, despite her openness, Eddy reveals only so much. She hasn’t told her children — and she wouldn’t tell the Business Journal — how much she earns beyond a general “six-figures.”
“They have a general idea of how much we earn,” she says about her sons. “I don’t want them to worry. I think children ought to be allowed to be children, too.”
Eddy has long been fascinated by family businesses. Creative Capital has helped numerous mom-and-pop companies face their financial realities and optimize their assets. Over the years, the unique problems of family businesses so interested Eddy that she created the Family Business Institute at University of San Diego last year with USD’s Jackie Freiberg, after unsuccessfully pitching the idea to San Diego State University and University of California, San Diego Extension.
She and Freiberg interviewed hundreds of family-business owners and designed a program to address the issues they found most pressing. So far, 20 companies have joined the institute — including Fornaca Family Bakery, Neyenesch Printers, Inc. and Lloyd Pest Control — and Eddy was instrumental in designing the programs for 1992 and 1993.
Annual membership in the institute runs $1,500 and is limited to 50 family businesses. The institute sponsors breakfast meetings on such topics as company valuation and communication and conflict on the job. This year, it’s planning a family business retreat and one-day conference.
“It’s really gratifying for me to see a vision of mine really happen,” she says. “Since July 1990, I’ve been wanting to get these companies that face the same challenges, the same benefits and the same disadvantages working together. And now it’s working.”
Eddy and Freiberg also dreamed up a family business mystery tour for September, which will use teams to solve various family business issues involving stock sales, succession and other issues of corporate intrigue.
“Bringing materials to individuals in a different concept is helpful,” Eddy says. “You can only go to so many seminars before you say, ‘Ho, hum.’”
Colleague Eldonna Lay says Eddy’s no nonsense attitude propels her projects through to fruition.
“Anything she takes responsibility for she will do the best job, not only that she’s capable of, but that anyone is capable of,” says Lay, owner of a small publishing company and education director for the Heritage of the Americas Museum at Cuyamaca College. “She’s exceptionally well organized and focused and on target.”
Personable and friendly yet to the point, Eddy says she offers clients the personal touch and serves as a counterpoint to her husband’s technical expertise.
“I’m the touch, and he’s the tech,” she says.
“Bob’s really on the accounting end of it, the numbers,” agrees Ralph Rubio, co-owner of the Rubio’s restaurant chain and a CCM client. “Peg’s more like the big picture person, the strategist. They don’t step on each other. They’re honest with each other and aren’t afraid to disagree.”
Rubio’s hired Creative Capital about a year ago on an hourly basis to help with a variety of matters including its shareholders agreement and trusts. The firm’s advice is helping Rubio’s financial structure reflect the growing company, Rubio says.
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