About

Suzanne M. Muniz, CFP®

As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional with over 20 years’ experience in banking and investments, I have been obsessed with saving, budgeting and investing most of my life. But I’ve also made my share of mistakes.

Growing up in Ohio, I got excited adding to my piggy bank whenever Aunt Ann sent me a dollar from her bingo winnings. While other pre-schoolers were playing Candyland, I was bugging Uncle Dave to play Finance, a board game like Monopoly. Initially I identified the bills by color, but I learned to count those twenties and fifties like a boss! My dad even taught me how to calculate overtime pay after he worked a few extra hours on a Saturday morning.

I graduated with a BA in German and a minor in Business Management from Kent State University, and then worked in retail for a year, where — despite my passion for saving — I managed to get into debt of a few thousand dollars. This debt racked up monthly interest charges that negated the employee discount I received.

In 2000, I got a job as a bank teller with Sky Financial Group (now part of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated) and worked diligently over the next year to pay off that debt. When I finally became debt-free, I cut up my store card for good!

I continued working my way up through Sky’s various divisions, eventually becoming a securities trader, while diligently saving my own money with a 401k and Roth IRAs.

Then I married and moved to southern California, one of the most expensive areas in the country. Even though I was now an investment associate with Comerica Bank’s Wealth and Institutional Management group, I once again ran into money troubles. My biggest mistake was agreeing with my husband to withdraw the down payment from my Roth IRA to cover the cost of a foreclosed home.

But I continued putting funds into my retirement, and when I eventually walked away from the marriage, I had most of my accounts intact, a nice savings account thanks to a bump in the housing market, and a new job as a Private Wealth Analyst at City National Bank in Irvine.

Around that same time, I pursued my CFP® certification, and in 2017 I passed the exam that over a third of participants fail. I also became a FINRA compliance analyst, supervising the investment activity of 85 Private Banking colleagues at City National Bank.

It was then that I realized how much I enjoy talking about money with people. Conversing with strangers about their 401ks and stock indices while commuting on the train energized me. Helping my friend figure out how to sign up for automatic contributions into her Health Savings Account was much more exciting than talking to colleagues about FINRA compliance.

Now I am a full-time financial coach, helping others learn how to save and manage their finances and to avoid the pitfalls I have experienced myself. My mission is to teach people to build their nest eggs so they can afford to leave their cubicles and start a business, travel, retire early or simply fulfill their life purpose — just as I have done.