Ryan Peters

Background and interests

I grew up in a middle-class family on a small farm in Wisconsin. I worked during and after high school as a carpenter for my dad’s construction company. After working in construction for several years, I grew tired of the monotonous nature of the work and decided that I wanted a more challenging career. More importantly, I realized that by continuing to work as a carpenter, my contributions to society would be limited by my income. I wanted to make a big impact in the world, and I came to see that home-building was not the best avenue through which I could do that.

Career plans

I left construction to take my first step in developing a high-impact career: I earned my bachelor’s degree in finance from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. I now work at a Fortune 500 financial services firm, and I plan to someday open my own hedge fund or private equity firm. I currently donate about 10% of my income to charity, and I will increase that percentage as my salary increases; I plan to maintain roughly the same living standards as I have now, so that any increase in my salary can be allocated completely to charity.

Inspiration

I am inspired by wealthy philanthropists throughout history: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Warren Buffett, and others like them. Over the course of my career, my goal is to donate several billion dollars to charity.