Services

Have the life you want with a financial plan that supports who you really are.

The planners at Creative Money work with people in the Seattle, Bellevue, and Bellingham area (and all over the country!), who are ready to take their next step into financial clarity, organization, and evolution.

Financial success is about creating enough clarity in purpose that you know EXACTLY what needs to happen to get you there faster, easier, and with more grace. There is tons of advice out there, but few resources that can zero into exactly what you need NOW to really leverage your time, energy, and money to produce the greatest results.

Who We Work With

Fundamentally, financial planning is about making the best use of every dollar coming in and going out of your household…and having the clarity and context to understand how one decision dominoes to the rest of your situation.

We work with a range of clients who are going through specific phases in life. You can read the different scope options below to see which one is right for you, or, if you’re a “bottom line it for me” kind of person, we will be determining this in your consult call (so if you want to skip straight to pricing, you can click here).

Young Single

Usually in your 20s to early 30s, you might still be in a career transition or finally settling into what you know you’ll be doing career-wise for the foreseeable future. You know you don’t want to miss an opportunity, and you definitely want to make the most of what you have! You might need to get better about investing excess cash but are cautious about moving forward into investing without more information or guidance. You might already have the 401k base covered but are looking to expand your wealth into new areas.

Young Couple

Usually, in your 20s to early 30s, you’re starting to merge your life and goals with a loved one! Both gainfully employed and maybe finishing up an advanced degree as you work. How do shared goals look? What does it look like to merge your financial life (while maybe even keeping things separate for the short term)? How can you make the most of what you have and prepare for big things coming down the line, like home and (maybe?) kids? Maybe you’re realizing you probably need to get better about investing excess cash and coordinating joint money and goals but are cautious about moving forward without more information or guidance. You are probably already doing tons of stuff right, just need a bit more clarity and context over your merging financial life.

Established Single

Firmly established in a career and have a few balls to juggle – may or may not be in a relationship where you keep finances separate, possibly have kid(s), and probably doing a good job with the basics of retirement plan savings, and have some accounts just by virtue of working for a few different companies over the years. You want to get some clarity, context, and confidence that your default saving and investment plan is starting to align with what you actually want to see happen in the future.

Established Couple

You’re a couple and completely used to being a couple – usually dual-income – maybe you’ve decided that kids aren’t for you, maybe a few fur babies, which means you have more excess cash flow in your life, yay you! Definitely starting to think about more big-ticket items like a home reno or home upgrade and trying to balance out all of the things. Life requires a lot more coordination than it used to! What is the context for the bigger picture goals, like early retirement or a major career shift? Maybe you are interested in active real estate, like getting a vacation rental or more traditional rental real estate? Or caring for elderly parents? With no time to treat investing like a hobby, what is the best “set-it-and-forget-it” plan for long-term investments? What is the balance between cash savings and investing? And what does balance look like, can we work in life balance, such as awesome vacations and the stuff that makes life worth living?

Family Tree Established

Your family is established and you’re firmly in the trenches of your chosen career. Your life is in a rhythm and things are comfortable. Retirement and college planning may still be a ways out, but feeling more and more real every day. You and/or your partner might be starting to think about early retirement, or potentially a transition away from a grueling workweek into something that gives you more life balance. Long term goals and investments feel closer, so should your strategy adjust? What is the context you need to feel confident moving ahead?

Retirement Now-ish

Might be single or a couple, but after getting through many years of your career (and maybe kids that are grown or almost there) you can now focus on the next big goal – retirement. Whether you are 1-3 years away from pulling the trigger, or already enjoying your retirement, here at Creative Money we call that a Retirement Timeline Distribution analysis. We will paint a picture of what retirement might look like in a lot of different areas, and translate that back into specific, actionable steps that cover spending, cash savings, investment, and real estate decisions.

It’s Complicated

Sometimes people are a tornado of financial situations and goals…you might be self-employed or employed with partnership profit sharing and potentially have a ton of income streams to review and understand, or maybe even a super complicated tax situation. Sometimes we slow roll this analysis a bit more than other segments because of the complications in data. You might be wondering, are we profitable? Is this asset better generating an income stream or selling and living off the proceeds? How does this all play out in terms of long-term wealth building? (Note: Because it gets so complicated, this is our only two-meeting model, so we can be sure and take enough time to document all of the details and assumptions to pull together your plan).

Not sure which scope is you? You can take our quiz below to find out. Or we’ll talk about that in our call, which you can schedule at any time once you complete the Prospective Intake Form. You can click here now to learn about pricing, logistics, and taking the next steps.