A Planner's Diary in July
In a world where everything is oriented toward optimization, this summer has been the perfect antidote. Sure, optimization has its place in building the right investment portfolio, or making the wisest long-term tax strategy. By nature, an important aspect of planning is measurement; returns, ratios, effective tax rates, savings rates, withdrawal rates, net worth. I acknowledge that numbers matter. Plans matter. Precision matters.
But metrics and returns are not the arbiters of a life well lived. And if we're not careful, our obsession with measurement can crowd out the very things we were optimizing for in the first place.
A Planner’s Diary in June
When we understand the roadmap in front of us, we gain confidence to keep moving forward, even when the discomfort feels insurmountable, and even when unexpected things arise.
The same principles apply to major life transitions, especially ones where the finish line feels impossible to see but with thoughtful preparation and patience, a path becomes navigable.
A Planner’s Diary in May
When I set out to start my own planning practice, it was driven by a desire to create something intentional that reflected how I feel about what financial planning can deliver on. I wanted to choose the clients I worked with and give them more: more direct interaction, more connectivity throughout the year, more opportunities to anticipate what they each need before life forces reaction.
And those motivations ring truer than ever.
What I did not fully anticipate was how much entrepreneurship itself would ask me to change.
A Planner’s Diary in April
Like many things in life, capacity and tolerance for risk taking in investing are built on personal experience and perception. I view investment risk as a three-legged stool: leg one is risk capacity, or how much risk you can take based on your financial situation, time horizon, and goals. Leg two is risk tolerance, or how much risk you’re comfortable taking. And the third leg is perceived risk, meaning how risky something feels, which is often shaped more by emotion, past experiences and subconscious biases, than facts and figures.
A Planner’s Diary In March
William B, Irvine’s The Stoic Challenge has been gathering dust on my desk for far too long. Sometimes it takes a unique set of current challenges and experiences to inspire cracking open certain books. This was certainly true here. The opening chapters offer a simple but powerful reframing: What if setbacks are not misfortunes, but tests? Can challenges and stressors become opportunities to practice resilience, steadiness, and strength? I think so.
A Planner’s Diary in February
Last month, I wrote about the power of process in shifting ideas from the abstract into something concrete, tangible. Since then, I’ve spent a great deal of time on some very important minutiae: from shaping a client onboarding experience that feels both special and effective, to building out a process to deliver ongoing, real, and quantifiable value. The time invested in choosing the right tools and building repeatable processes has demanded a level of undivided attention that I’ve found energizing and purposeful.
Welcome to A Planner’s Diary
Like many passionate advisors, I spend much of my free time thinking about planning and about my clients. Inspiration and opportunity for reflection live in the everyday moments at this intersection. This Diary, so I choose to call it, is a monthly collection of things I’ve mused on, experienced, read, listened to, watched, or sang along to that feel worth sharing for their relevance in financial planning, or simply because they brought me joy. I hope you find some amusement, maybe learn a thing or two, and get to know me a bit better along the way.