By: Bethel College

When Josh Gregory decided to attend Bethel College, he knew that his time on campus would help him find a good job one day. But he never expected it to lead him directly to his dream career.

Gregory is a certified financial advisor and owner at Korhorn Financial. He’s also one of the co-hosts of Wise Money, a radio program that airs on 95.3 Michiana’s News Channel.

He knew he wanted to go into financial planning as a freshman and began taking marketing and economics classes. In his senior year, he met the man who would become his business partner: Kevin Korhorn.

“When I first met Kevin, I heard him share his vision for a financial planning firm and what he wanted it to look like,” Gregory said. “He used the same language I was using when I was thinking about establishing my dream.”

That dream was a one-stop-shop for financial matters, where a client could have relationships with all of the professionals who collaborate to make a client’s financial goals come true. A client could meet with a CPA who knows the tax code, a financial advisor focused on investments, an insurance agent who can create a custom plan, an attorney who could handle legal questions, and anyone else focused on their financial needs.

When Gregory graduated from Bethel in 2001, he immediately went to work with Korhorn to achieve that dream. The two have added several other members to their team over the years, including Mike Bernard, another certified financial planner on the executive team with Gregory and Korhorn.

“We’re closer now than ever to achieving that one-stop-shop vision that we talked about achieving so long ago,” Gregory said.

Sharing the same dream wasn’t the only reason Gregory wanted to work with Korhorn. The two share the same faith, and Korhorn has been a spiritual mentor to Gregory as well as a career mentor.

Gregory grew up in the Missionary Church, which is affiliated with Bethel College. While on campus, Gregory’s professors and internship mentors talked to him about how their spiritual life helped guide their careers.

“Bethel was where I started believing that your professional life and your spiritual life don’t have to be separate in any way,” Gregory said. “That was a big part of why I chose to be a part of this firm with Kevin. There were plenty of other great financial planning firms that I could have joined, but the culture wasn’t the same.”

While networking with other people in his industry, Gregory has heard stories from people who felt that they’ve needed to choose between their heart and their finances when making career moves. Gregory has never felt that dilemma.

“If you were going to stereotype the students who come out of Bethel, I feel like they truly have a servant-hearted posture. That’s kind of encouraged by your peers,” Gregory said. “I never would have had that as a high value of mine if it wasn’t for Bethel and what I learned outside of the classroom from the people who were investing in me. And from being surrounded by roommates and classmates who believed in the same thing.”

That servant-hearted posture is at the core of how Gregory does his job every day. He grew up in a family of pastors, and he believes that financial planning can be a ministry of its own, if it’s done correctly.

“I spend the biggest part of every day in a conference room helping families try to make wise decisions with their finances,” Gregory said. “We try to align their financial resources with the vision that they have for their future and their life. It’s some of the most fulfilling work that I get to do.”

Gregory is so passionate about helping families remove financial stressors from their lives that he spends time outside of the office working on that mission. He co-hosts Wise Money on 95.3 MNC every Saturday with Bernard and Korhorn. He also teaches courses on retirement and financial planning to community members in partnership with Bethel College, and he serves on the Alumni Board at the school.

“I get kind of fired up when I think about how a community can be better if every family is better, and how families can be better if they’re not worried about finances dragging them down,” Gregory said.

Ultimately, Gregory feels blessed to get to do the work that he does, and he credits much of his success to the time he spent at Bethel College and the relationships he formed with his classmates and his professors. He still uses many of the lessons he learned in the classroom in his day-to-day work and is still close friends with many of the people he met there.

“I look back at that time, it was such an intense four years of so many people investing in me and caring about my development and my future and living up to my potential,” Gregory said. “I just look back with nothing but fond memories of my time at Bethel.”

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