Family guy and financial advisor exploring the intersection of money and values. Curious about Enough. Most tweets are self reminders. Simul justus et peccator.
Super excited (and oddly nervous) to make this public:
I made a Thing.
A course for advisors to implement their own One Page Financial Plan, in conjunction with none other than
@behaviorgap
.
👇
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it
My mind when reading
@JamesClear
's weekly newsletter:
Oh wow. That's really good.
Whoa - I should tweet that.
Oh, no - I should tweet that instead.
Nope - just need to link to the entire thing.
How on earth does he create this good of content every week?
So good.
Spend at least 20% of your social time with people who are at least a decade older than you (family members don’t count). Don’t aim for mentorship. Aim for a two-way exchange of value. You’ll bring them vision and energy. They’ll give you wisdom and opportunities.
-
@david_perell
Today I helped my parents determine they can retire.
That they have Enough.
My dad grinded for 20-some years in the family business (hard work, big dollars), and then another 20-some years in ministry (hard work, smaller dollars).
One of my favorite meetings of all time.
Working with a client who retired from their jobs at ages 62 recently. They were planning on COBRA'ing at $1,800/month for healthcare. Walked them through the state sponsored exchange option, and with some income minimization strategies they're now paying $81/month.😵
Pretty rare for me to listen to a podcast multiple times (let alone one that's 2 hours long), but
@tferriss
hosting
@DanielPink
is well worth it. One of my favorites by far - I even tweaked my daily schedule because of it.
Am speaking early next year at a conference on "What I would tell my 25 year old financial advisor self."
In addition to the weird reality that I'm not really a "young" advisor anymore, it's been a good exercise to mentally work though.
Here's what I'm thinking:
Confessions of a financial advisor (and his wife):
1. We don't max fund our retirement accounts every year.
2. We don't save into 529's for our kids.
3. Our retirement goals are fuzzy. At best.
4. We happily pay our CPA to file our personal and S corp tax returns.
😵😵
Today I turned 38. Here are 38 things I've learned in just under 4 decades in no particular order.
1. I'm not as smart as I think I am.
2. I'm also not as dumb.
3. True friendships are one of life's greatest gifts.
4. Kids force you to improve yourself.
The scariest conversation I ever had was with my potential father-in-law, back in 2007. And it was by far the most memorable one.
I was asking for his blessing to ask his daughter to marry me.
A bit of context. He was the prototypical blue-collar worker. Grew up in a steel
Always read the terms of service.
This one from Amazon.
Check for yourself - section 42.10.
(Head nod to my [literal] brother-in-law for somehow finding this.)
While I'm putting his younger siblings to bed, our ten year old has gotten into the habit of preparing tea for him and I.
We then sit in my office and talk. About life, about faith, about anything.
It very well may be a clever ruse to stay up past bedtime, but I'll take it.
We have a limited time window of ~18 summers with each of our kids.
Here's where I'm at:
🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳
🔳🔳🔳⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️
🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️
🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳🔳⬜️⬜️
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️
🔳🔳🔳⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️
Live accordingly.
Non-ACAT transfers have probably cumulatively taken a decade off of my life via frustration in addition to the year's worth of time following up with them.
Dumbfounding how sticky some money can be with all the technological advances we have.
Grateful.
For her.
For a flexible schedule to grab a Valentine's day brunch in the middle of a work week.
For financial provision to go out.
For a life together to celebrate and discuss.
This happens somewhat without fail.
I write a piece of content (most often my weekly client letter) I'm super jazzed about. A piece that I think really is going to land. Something that's going to trigger tons of responses.
And I hear nothing but crickets.
Conversely, I'll
It's been a number of years since I started to try and use this concept as a guiding concept in my life.
The longer I do, the more I realize just how small that shaded overlap area really is.
Anyone in or around Lancaster can pretty much stop checking any other weather outlet, and just follow
@MUweather
. No nonsense, no sensationalism, just the facts explained in a technical yet highly understandable way. Well done, once again, Eric!
Well, it only took 1.5 years and countless amounts of follow up, but I'm happy to report that a non-ACAT transfer from Truist bank has now been completed for a client.
1/ I was telling a client yesterday how much I appreciate Twitter, because of how much I learn (compared to other social networks I've abandoned). Here's a randomized, top of mind list of folks I personally enjoy in the FinTwit world.
Underrated personality character traits I admire a lot in others:
Authentic humility
Expectation-free help
Encouragement
Sharing of expertise
Family and career balance
Determination / courage
Vulnerability
Admitting wrongs and mistakes
Seek those who have these.
I've heard to never to meet your heroes in person because you'll be disappointed.
And I can fundamentally disagree with that take.
Just had an absolutely amazing time this week hanging out with
@behaviorgap
, along with
@T_Gatzemeier
,
@zachary_ashburn
, and
@MichaelHBaker
in
Any of my advisor friends doubting the actual ROI of Twitter ... 5 out of my past 10 prospective clients (over the past 2 months) have came directly from them finding my content on this site.
I love FinTwit b/c of what I learn - but this was a nice upside I wasn't banking on.
Every year I do two things for my kids' birthdays, which I hope will be around for a long time:
1- Write them a letter. I might highlight some things that happened in their life the past year, talk about some gifts I see in them, or some specific memories.
2- Create a video
Last night I was irritable.
Grumpy.
Super short tempered.
Got ready for bed feeling like a failure to my kids, at least for that day.
As I got in bed, I found this note - written that day by our 10 year old.
Keep on keeping on, parents.
The work matters.
Confessions of a Financial Advisor:
😲I took money out of my IRA to fund Fident's startup
🙋♂️I haven't contributed to retirement accounts in 2+ years
...
I also turned down an acquisition offer that was approximately 12.5x the amount I took out.
$$ advice isn't a commodity
"Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement."
-
@JamesClear
Getting 1% better or 1% worse everyday is powerful.
Not sure how I haven't read this book yet, but Atomic Habits is amazingly good.
Started taking her out for breakfast on Valentine's Day when she was in Kindergarten, half-joking that I get to claim her for the day.
We missed a year year or two, but I'm grateful that 8 years later she's still is up for it.
Proud
#GirlDad
weekend. On her b-day, and her first ever state championship meet, this girl rocked to a
#6
all around,
#5
floor,
#7
bars, and
#9
beam. One of three girls to finish top 9 in 3 events. Vault was a 🔪.
(Gymnastics is insane from both a mental and physical aspect.)
So - recent lesson on how fragile life is. (Spoiler: everyone's ok.)
We just got back from a beach family trip. The waves were pretty good for most of the week, but were especially great on Friday, coupled with almost crystal clear water which I hadn't seen on east coast
Someday I'd imagine I'll grow out of this home office.
But a large part of me hopes to always incorporate this table framed by these sketches with this vintage lamp.
The Greeks has two different words for "time" - Chronos and Kairos. In English (and well before English) we conflate the two. Which is unfortunate.
Chronos is quantitative. It measures time in minutes.
Kairos is qualitative. It measures time in moments.
Each year I write a letter to each kid in my journal on their b-day. Telling them what I admire about them, what makes them smile, what's challenging being their parents, and some favorite memories.
It's as beneficial to me as it may be to them someday.
Highly recommend.
My wife and I got married young-ish - ages 23 and 24.
Our financial plan included renting for a few years near a larger city, me continuing to start my career at my existing firm, and her going to Physicians Assistant school.
She'd then nab a PA job, I'd look to start buying
I've heard the term - "I love my job so much that I'd do it for free" countless times.
But it's hard to recall a single example more evident than what
@HorstWeather
is doing for local weather coverage here in PA.
No frills, no drama, just humble observations and forecasts.
Success - to me - is partially measured by not feeling rushed.
Having the ability to linger. To be curious. To notice. To explore.
To create and maintain margin in the calendar to do these things.
And not to feel guilty about it.
I have to admit, this brought a tear to my eye. Completely unsolicited thank you note from our 7 year old.
I mess up a lot as a parent ... grateful for the small wins.
Gonna tape this one in my journal.
I'm going to attempt a new (small) thing.
A social experiment + public accountability.
I'm trying to simply take notice - and then record - things to be thankful for around me which I typically take as granted.
I'll do it in a thread, and see how long it goes.
Had a progress meeting with a client recently and I received the highest compliment I can remember in awhile.
We've tackled a lot in our work together - investment overhauls, estate planning, retirement and kids savings projections, some tax strategies, insurance coverage. All
I'm 38 years old.
And one thing I realized recently was that good, solid, consistent friendship is somewhat rare at this age.
I am super grateful to count my friends whom I can be 100% vulnerable with, who support me, and call me out when needed. 🙏
Sometimes the highest value thing we can do for our clients as advisors is... nothing.
This week I sat with a client in his living room for 3 hours. He's in a rough patch of life with lots of hard things going on, of which I won't get into.
I couldn't offer any solutions. I
2nd best decision I've ever made in my career: capping the amount of households I work with.
1st best decision I've ever made in my career: launching my own firm.
The 2nd wouldn't have been possible without the 1st.
Good heavens - this unexpectedly did numbers. A few things ...
1. I didn't claim credit to it, as noted at the end. I think it's awesome Jimmy John's has it in their stores (didn't know that!) but their signs also show credit to an unknown source. A client shared it with me a
Keeping my LinkedIn profile feels somewhat akin to having our home landline.
It's free,
some part of me still thinks I might need it at some point,
and I ignore pretty much every message that comes through it.
Random list of things I'm grateful for on a random Sunday.
A heated home.
Healthy kids.
Reliable transportation.
Not worrying where our next meal is coming from.
Being literate.
Access to internet.
My wife.
Being able to breathe through my nose again.
This week we had a birthday party for our 5 year old. It included going to a local trampoline park that was open to the general public.
We had our kiddo, his older siblings, and a handful of his preschool friends. They wanted to play dodgeball, and so we did so with some other
1st grader had an assignment to decorate a Santa. He chose to decorate him as
@BeauHeyser32
. (Beau, he's the little guy who'd sneak out on the field and say "Good game, Beau Heyser" after home games).
@LSFootball1
A few years ago we started an Advent Family Together tree. Each day is some event. Some small (go for a walk), some medium (record videos for distant family), some big (go to Christmas concert). Lots of planning, work and prep, but something the kids (and us) really enjoy.
It dawned on my recently how much better* of a financial advisor I've become since leaving my old firm and starting my own.
It's hard to quantify, but a few thoughts.
*better, not perfect.
Serious question: is there any downside of obtaining umbrella insurance?
It blows my mind how many people I see who don't have it. So little money for so much coverage.
Drive 45 mins for a live nativity only to discover there's a 2.5 hour wait.
Pivot to a cafe for dessert only to see it's overcrowded.
Pivot again to an ice cream shop only to see them closed.
Making a fire and s'mores in Dec only made sense.
Lifted their crushed spirits.
One aspect of Wealth that I define is real, true friendships. The people you can be completely yourself with - no pretentiousness, no faux posturing. People who support, encourage, and rebuke when needed.
And in that aspect I am very rich.
No tagging here, but you know you are.
My wife is down for the count with a sickness and I've been writing down everything I need to do in her place around the house.
3 observations:
1- She does an unfathomable amount of stuff every day.
2- I too often take it for granted.
3- I need to self-remind myself about
#2
.
Gotta boast a bit about on
@mctaggart_sean
, PA 4A player of the year and my 9 year old's hero.
He came over to play QB with a buncha 9 yr olds, and surprised our son with giving him this jersey and the game towel from a record setting game this season as a present.
Great guy.
This year I'm grateful for a ton of things. But top of mind is it's the first year we've had since launching Fident that we felt some degree of financial freedom. A quick history.
[Context - my wife's a stay at home mom to 4 kiddos and Fident's revenue is our only income]