Melissa Gonzalez
Financial Advisor
Building Complete Financial Solutions for Your Future
Professional
Melissa Gonzalez was born and raised in San Diego in a home of three generations of women. After graduating from San Diego State University with a business degree, she started her career in banking at a nationwide financial institution.
“I loved my career at the bank,” Gonzalez says. “I had a lot of success managing a branch for four years but eventually I wanted to have more control over how I helped people with their finances.”
Gonzalez’s own financial advisor at the time encouraged her to join Northwestern Mutual. “I was afraid of making such a big change, but one day I realized that I needed to bet on myself,” she says. “So I agreed to have the conversation and decided to take the leap. The other big draw was that owning my own business would give me the freedom to manage how I spent my time.”
Today, Gonzalez lives in San Diego with her wife, Marisela, and their two dogs and two cats. Below, she shares some of her earliest memories around money, the biggest concerns she’s hearing from LGBTQ+ clients and the importance of trust in her relationships with clients.
- Financial Advisor Melissa Gonzalez on What Financial Freedom Means to Her
2022 Northwestern Mutual Diversity and Inclusion Excellence Award
Personal
I love being a financial advisor and helping my team. I also love my family, my wife, and creating long lasting friendships.
Just like many of my clients, I love to travel. Throughout the past several years, I was fortunate to visit many top cities in the U.S and Europe (absolutely love Italy and Spain), and several beautiful places in Mexico and Guatemala. I look forward to visiting new places and learning more about the different cultures around the world.
You will often find me enjoying a coffee. You may notice in meetings that I drink a LOT of water (the BEST water) and try my best to minimize toxic chemicals in my household. You may see me taking a weekend trip to Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico to sip on some wine. I believe that true wealth includes physical wellness, spiritual wellness, mental wellness and financial wellness.
Lending a hand in my community.
Associations and Memberships
- Diversity and Inclusion Council Member(former Co-Chair)
- University Club San Diego
- Financial Wellness in Retirement
- BNI - Partners Reaching Success
- PureVibe H2o
- Gigi's Playhouse
- OutPro San Diego
- The Academy of Our Lady of Peace
- Our Lady's School Volunteer
- Mario Lemieux Foundation
- Alex's Lemonade Stand
- LGBT Center Volunteer
- Bachelor of Arts in International Business and Spanish — San Diego State University
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer (ALSF)
ALSF funds cancer research, raises awareness, and supports the families of children with cancer. Since 2012, Northwestern Mutual, its employees, and financial professionals like me have donated more than $20 million to support ALSF and fund over 400,000 research hours.
Beads of Courage
Beads of Courage is an art-in-medicine program that helps kids with cancer tell their unique treatment story through colorful beads that are symbols of their courage.
San Diego Network Diversity and Inclusion Council
Our mission as a council is to create a more diverse and inclusive environment, which in turn we will be able to better serve our diverse communities. I had the opportunity to co-lead the first D&I Council in our local San Diego offices to help grow and develope our diverse advisors.
Here are my areas of expertise
Our team are here to help you navigate through the complexities of finance.
Investment Planning & Strategies
Tax-Efficient Strategies
Long-Term Care Planning
Life Insurance Strategies
Retirement Planning & Income Strategies
Education Planning & Funding
Estate Planning
Business Planning
How Northwestern Mutual helps you live the life you want.
When people feel better about their money, good things happen—they become more confident and feel more secure. For more than 160 years, Northwestern Mutual has helped people achieve the financial flexibility they need to live more and worry less.
Being a mutual company means Northwestern Mutual reports to its clients, not Wall Street. They don't believe in chasing fads or taking undue risk for short-term gains. Instead, they take a long-term approach—both in the way we help people plan to reach their goals, and in the way they do business. This has served their clients (and mine) well through all kinds of economic ups and downs, including wars, recessions, even the recent pandemic.
It's why I'm happy to be part of a company that's in it for the long-haul and prioritizes clients over profit.
