Organizing Your Financial Life

It’s that time of year when we’re all hoping to end up on Santa’s nice list – or trying to get our kids onto Santa’s nice list – but Old St. Nick’s isn’t the only list we hope you’re paying attention to. For those of you who are clients with us, think back to those early meetings we held with you. Remember that paper we gave you with little boxes next to some words, and “planning checklist” at the top?

• November 29, 2018

Have you ever watched the TV show Mad Men? Do you remember the episode where Don and his colleagues are discussing what they want in life? They all answer with something that has to do with their careers. Don gets to thinking, and later in the episode, he asks his daughter what she wants to do in life. She replies that she isn’t quite sure. Don then tells her that if she’s lucky enough to think about it, she’d better write it down so she doesn’t forget when she’s older.

• October 18, 2018

Recently, I helped my neighbors move as they set out across the country for a new job and a new adventure. They are a young couple who had moved in with each other about a year and a half ago, and like most people, found that even in that amount of time, they had accumulated more stuff than they’d realized. Although they got along for the most part, they argued a bit during the packing process over what to keep and what to pitch, or something one finds hideous that the other thought was awesome.

• July 26, 2018

A couple weeks ago in this newsletter, I said we’d be back with some more information about the planning checklists we provide to our clients. When folks decide to come into our office for the first time, we’ve probably had a conversation about what to bring with you. We most likely rattled off a list, or sent you an email that spelled out all the parts of your financial life that we’d like to review. You may recall sitting in our conference room with all of those documents, and you might have thought, “what the heck am I doing?” This was, for many of you, probably the first time you’d brought your entire life into a meeting in a professional atmosphere.

• November 30, 2017

Every quarter, our office receives about 10 phone calls from clients who are having trouble understanding their quarterly or monthly statements. The call usually goes something like this: “I got my Pershing statement in the mail, but I also received a statement from Reits/Atel/Business Development Company (BDC) (alternative investments), and I’m not sure if these extra statements are in addition to my Pershing account, or if they’re part of what’s reflected in my Pershing statement. Then, when I log into eMoney, the values don’t match up with what I’m seeing in my statements.”

• November 2, 2017

Halloween is less than a week away, and if you’ve got young kids like I do, your house is probably well into the preparation of costumes, and all the excitement that comes with the prospect of free candy. Although Halloween costumes today aren’t as scary as they used to be, watching my kids get ready to dress up and scare away spooks has me thinking about some of the things that keep our clients up at night.

• October 26, 2017

Here at Family Financial Partners, we are proud to be able to say that the majority – nine out of 10 – of new clients who come in to have initial conversations with us do end up choosing to work with us. To be perfectly honest however, we’d prefer to bat a thousand. We’ll always keep striving for perfection, even if we know we’ll never get there.

• October 19, 2017