As the old expression goes: “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Yet it seems there are cultures both among aspiring financial planners and financial planning firm owners that attempt just that. Students and career changers have casually shared with me time and time again that they’re looking for a position for two or three years that will …
Hello everyone! In the spirit of transparency and building in public, we’ve always made a best effort to share our own compensation and benefits model with you as our clients and community. It seems only fair as people who talk to our clients about their money that we talk about our own money. So, today I’m sharing our updated employee …
Every year, we as a country trot out an elderly statesman to give a grandiose State of the Union address at the pace of a DMV queue about the state of the country. The speech runs a sentence at a time, punctuated by intermittent cheering or boos by the respective political parties. The news covers the speech in detail, the …
A colleague of mine, a CPA by the name of Michael Pharris, has a framed piece of paper in his office. The header reads, “Hearn’s Laws”, written by Professor Hearn, an instructor when Michael was in undergrad studying accounting. While there are many good tidbits on the paper (“he who signs the other man’s form, takes care of the other …
In 1991, the New York Times reported on the remarkable life of Theodore Johnson. Theodore did not win the Nobel prize, nor was he a celebrity, inventor, or even a local celebrity of any real fame or renown. Rather, Theodore was a UPS driver. This was in a time before the internet hit any critical mass or made any great …
As we strive to be radically transparent at MY Wealth Planners®, today I thought I’d publicly share our pay and benefits scales for 2023. Briefly, this is broken out into descriptions of job tiers, compensation based on Longmont, CO residency, and a summary of benefits as we offer them. Job Tiers Careers at MY Wealth Planners in the “financial planner” …
Today marks the three-year anniversary of the launch of MY Wealth Planners®, Longmont’s first-and-only fee-only financial planning firm, a title that it maintains to this day. While the path to launching MY Wealth Planners started four and a half years prior as a “supported independence” practice under Waddell & Reed, the launch into full-blown entrepreneurship is both exciting and just …
Jason Zweig is arguably one of the most effective watchdogs of the financial advice industry. With a 30 year career in following the finance industry, he’s contributed to some of the hardest hitting journalism, uncovering issues with misconduct both among advisors, associations, and regulators. Five years ago, Zweig published his list, “19 Questions to Ask Your Financial Advisor” in the …
It’s no surprise that we don’t know everything. Bring up a topic such as rocket science or neurosurgery and anyone will throw up their hands and say, “I don’t know anything about that,” except, of course, for the rocket scientists and the neurosurgeons. Yet, as we move down the spectrum of complexity, people become more confident, even bolder in their …
I’m writing this on a plane flight to the Financial Planning Association’s NexGen Gathering. There’s a bit of warm nostalgia in being on this flight; not because I have a deep fondness for packaged pretzels or half-cans of ginger ale, but because NexGen Gathering has been a significant touchstone in my professional career. The last time NexGen Gathering was held …