Why would you cut your pay 75% to go into financial planning? Why don’t you just team up with a Senior Advisor? It’s been 2 years and you’re broke. Just call it quits! You’re seriously going independent without any help? Young people don’t have any money. Where will your revenue come from? A monthly flat fee and super-low AUM?! That will never work! Seriously? Monthly meetings?  The list will go on and more furled brows will be pointed in our direction. I take them as indicators I’m on the right path. The vision I’m methodically manifesting is helping people in ways never done before ..read more

It’s a popular one amongst financial influencers. Your CPA might have even recommended it. The basics are:  if you own your own business, you can hire your kid as a “model” for your website and contribute their “earned income” to their Roth IRA. (Because you can only contribute to a Roth with earned income.) I love and hate this one. I love it because it’s true and a great way to save for your kids. I hate it because it’s clickbait. The problem I have with financial influencers is that they need to grab your attention. So they’re motivated to publish content that feels sexy. Like you’re g ..read more

The marketing world says your messaging is working if you’re attracting the right people and repelling the wrong people. We are. So it is. But… To achieve world domination, it still needs work. And I’d love your help. If you’re a Financial Zen Member, you already know what we do. It’s basically equal parts: – Accountability Partner – Financial Housekeeper – Investment Advisor – Financial Planner – Decision Coach – “Easy Button” Pressers Technically we’re a Financial Planner/Advisor, but I think we’ve created a new category. To put us in the same category as traditional financial advisors who c ..read more

After looking under the financial hood of 100’s of families, I bet I know your current savings strategy (because we all do it the same). Tell me if this is you… 1. Your paycheck goes to your checking.  2. You pay your credit card, mortgage, etc.   3. The leftover cash accumulates in your checking account 4. Months go by and then you notice the large pile of cash  5. You shuffle an arbitrary amount into savings 6. Rinse and repeat The problem with this technique is that your checking account is the Hawaiian beach resort for your money. While your cash is in there, it’s just ..read more

Two weeks ago I discovered Spotify now has 250,000 audiobooks included with a premium subscription. Podcasts are like reading a magazine. You can only go so deep. But audiobooks are like, well…. books!  You can really get in there and learn some life-changing stuff. I’ve dug into the audiobook library and these are the audiobooks I’d recommend for anyone to raise their financial IQ. I’ve read all of these myself and they’re all queued for 2nd and 3rd listens in my library. THE ALMANACK OF NAVAL RAVIKANT If you only listen to one, listen to this one. Most personal finance books rhyme – sam ..read more

This week will go down in Financial Zen history as one of the 3 most important ones to date. This week is just as pivotal as the week I started as a Financial Advisor and the week I launched Financial Zen. This is the week Sogol joined our team.  Mark Zuckerberg must have felt this way when Sheryl Sandberg came aboard. Sogol didn’t hitch her wagon to our trailer just for her new role as an Associate Financial Planner.  She came aboard because she gets it. She understands what we’re building and wants to be part – a BIG part – of it. She has ambition that is only matched by my own. Wh ..read more

I’ve looked under the hood of hundreds (maybe thousands?) of 401k’s. So I bet I already know how your 401k is invested.  Here’s how to fix it.  I’ll wager your 401k is invested in a target date fund.   Those are the mutual funds where you pick your retirement year and just load up the fund. I don’t HATE these funds, but you can do better.  On the upside, target date funds kinda sorta get you invested correctly. Plus, “set it and forget” is better than not setting it and forgetting it. On the downside:  1. MOST TARGET DATE FUNDS ARE EXPENSIVE – i.e. high expense r ..read more

I don’t need help envisioning a 6-pack. I’ve been there before, so how hard could it be to get there again? (At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself.) A 6-pack is Point B. We don’t need much motivation to envision the future we want.  Point B is the easy part.  The last 9 months, I’ve been a victim of my own success.  We’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time – or the mental bandwidth – to work out consistently. In fact, other than COVID this is the least consistent my workouts have ever been. But I’d look in the mirror and tell myself it’s not so bad. Right on the other ..read more

Financial Zen’s 8th birthday was this week. We’ve come so far and have soooo far to go. Always departing. Never arriving. That can mean either “success purgatory” OR an opportunity to celebrate past wins and look forward to bigger ones yet to come. The frame matters. I choose the latter.  The post #EarnedIt Friday – Always departing. Never arriving. appeared first on Financial Zen ..read more

7 years ago, an FZ Member asked “So what do you think about Betterment?”  “I LOVE the robo-advisors! They give average investors the ability to invest correctly, but at a fraction of the cost of traditional financial advisors AND with a small minimum account size, it’s accessible to almost everyone.” “If it’s so great, how come you’re not set up that way?” At that point, Financial Zen was still charging a 1.5% AUM fee.  I fumbled over some sort of answer to save face, but the real answer was simply inertia.   That’s just how 98% of financial advisors charge their fees and h ..read more