What if I told you that you could make ONE decision now that would help make allllll your financial decisions for the next 12 months so much simpler? Would you be interested? (Duh. Of course you would!) I call this decision your Chief Initiative, and it is basically a values and goals statement that can…
Many people might think that financial success is all about the money…I mean, yes, it is? In that, it matters how much you can keep. And the more you keep, the more you can leverage that savings. But aside from investing strategy, there is so, soooooo much more to being financially successful. You might be…
As everyone scrambles to check off their to-do list for the year and shift into the holiday, I asked my planners what they think are effective year-end financial strategies? Here’s what they said: Joann Nieciecki: “Honestly, amid the holiday chaos and winter break with kids, my finances are the last thing on my mind. Instead…
Although I didn’t realize it then, when I was younger, I used gift-giving to gain love, approval, control, and admiration. People seem to think that the less control you exert over your environment, the less control you have over your money, but I found exactly the opposite. The less codependent I became, the less money…
Environmental Social Governance Investing (ESG) and Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) are fraught with misunderstanding. When I was first coming up as a planner, your only options were extremely expensive mutual funds. Now, you can invest in a relatively low-cost portfolio, but I still see confusion about oversight and to what extent these funds meet the…
Money and power are two of the biggest causes of conflict and drama in our lives. Lots of people right now are in survival mode, but when you are no longer worried about just survival, you tend to think about money within the context of status, ego, personal fulfillment, and power. Power isn’t bad necessarily,…
Our clients get market outlook emails every few months, and it’s because context is important. If you understand WHY an investment is declining, you feel more confident about weathering a temporary storm. My planners and I were discussing this the other day, and I asked them, what do you wish people understood better about the…
I just read somewhere the average age of a financial planning client is 65. That DOES NOT track for our practice here at Creative Money – my theory is that the younger generations want something other than an asset manager or the more traditional financial services experience. We deal with retirees, but our practice’s bell…
What has been your most successful tactic for saving? We see a lot of strategies work for different people across our client base, and although there are some tactics that are generally successful for most people, one size does not necessarily fit all. I asked my planners what their most successful strategies are – Here’s…
When it comes to financial planning, investment returns often take center stage. It’s pretty common for us to see someone buy one stock and hope it hits a home run. However, while the allure of high returns can be enticing, the foundation of a solid financial plan often starts with one simple but crucial factor:…
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