The FisherDad Blog
All my life I’ve enjoyed the outdoors; God’s awesome creation keeps my life in perspective, focusing me on my place and purpose in His creation. I have been fly fishing since 1977; it is my greatest passion of all outdoor interests. I started writing fishing “vignettes” to memorialize my adventures for those who were not with me (and possibly for old age when my memory becomes feeble). After reading some of my fishing vignettes, my eldest son, who at the time was a web designer, set me up with this blog, including securing the “FisherDad.com” Uniform Resource Locator web address. Most stories occur in Nevada, but some include southern Utah and even northern California.
I am a Christian fly angler. I believe in one God (i.e., the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are separate but one in purpose and will). I believe that the Son of God (Jesus the Christ) was born on earth as both fully man and fully God in order to save us from sin, to pull us out from under the law, and to teach us how to be in fellowship with God. Recognizing that God, made man, died for my sins I am compelled to accept his gift at the cross, to believe in Jesus as the way to truth and life, to confess and repent my sins, and to be in fellowship with him. And so, while this blog is primarily about fishing and other outdoor adventures, you will see a decidedly Christian theme in many of my stories.
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Professional Career
The first three years of my professional career primarily consisted of performing financial audits of public and private hotel/casino resorts in Las Vegas. Once I worked enough hours to become a CPA, I took an internal auditor position with EG&G Energy Measurements, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of EG&G, Inc.). EG&G/EM was a prime contractor for the Department of Energy (DOE) primarily tasked with retrieving data from the Nevada Test Site nuclear weapons tests for the U.S. government and its scientists and physicists. Changing defense strategies and DOE prime contractors led me to leave EG&G/EM after seventeen years (reaching the position of Treasurer and Director of Finance in my final ten years). I have a blogpost on fishing Mammoth Creek that reminisces about those years with EG&G/EM.
After EG&G/EM, I accepted the position of Director of Finance for the city of Las Vegas. I spent nineteen years working for Las Vegas, with the last six years as their first ever Chief Financial Officer (akin to a Deputy City Manager over Finance and Administration). I decided to retire from Las Vegas after suffering a heart attack while fishing Dacey Reservoir.
My early retirement from public service afforded me the opportunity to work for Zions Public Finance (a division of Zions Bancorp) as an SEC Registered Municipal Advisor to local Nevada governments and nonprofits who wanted to sell their bonds to investors to fund their capital projects. It was a much less stressful job that allowed me to keep in contact with friends and associates in the Nevada local government financial circle. I retired from Zions Public Finance in March 2022.
My profession became an avenue to serve on the Nevada Department of Taxation’s Committee on Local Government Finance for seven years, as well as nine years on the Nevada Public Employee Retirement System Board, including seven years as the Board chairman.
One of my passions throughout my career has been encouraging young people to take advantage of their employer’s deferred compensation plans when available, or otherwise saving for retirement via Individual Retirement Accounts. My experience is that most young workers don’t think about retirement funds that won’t be needed for three or four decades, or if they do, they can be discouraged by the financial jargon and forecasts/predictions that seem too good to be true.
I was never a Certified Financial Planner, nor am I any longer a Certified Public Accountant (I retired my certificate). I do not provide specific investment advice, but I have my own personal retirement funding experience as well as my nine years as a PERS Trustee, observing and learning from their top-rated Investment Officers. From time to time I get asked for advice, and while I avoid specific recommendations I usually try to explain that contributing into a retirement plan is a simple action but a difficult habit, and that the purported complexity that asset managers try to sell so that you will pay their fees to manage your assets is actually something that can be simplified for most people who have a good understanding of mathematics. For those who got this far and are interested to learn more about a simple indexed approach toward retirement savings, my “Simple Plan” page may give you the confidence you need to ensure your retirement is financially secure.