04/17/2025
Financial planning is about more than spreadsheets, retirement projections, and optimal portfolios.
At its core, it's about helping people find and fund a good life.
And a "good life" means different things to each of us.
So today, I resigned from PWL.
Over the past 18 months, my wife Denise and I have had many honest, reflective conversations about what that means for our family, and we came to a few conclusions:
1. We want to prioritize time over money
2. We want more slow mornings, unstructured time with our kids, and shared experiences
3. We want full agency over our calendars to say "yes" when it matters and "no" when it doesn't
Through these conversations, we arrived at a crossroads.
To live our good life, I would need to resign from my role at PWL and semi-retire.
And so, effective April 30th, I am resigning and entering the world of semi-retirement.
This was not a decision made lightly, quickly, or easily. I love this work and have loved being part of PWL. I joined the firm because I shared its values, mission, philosophy, and unwavering goal of improving the lives of its clients.
That hasn't changed.
In my 15 years in the industry, I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I've met hundreds of advisors working across dozens of firms. I've seen the incredible positive impact of sound, unbiased financial advice on people's well-being.
Unfortunately, I've also seen how destructive it can be when our industry doesn't put people's needs first.
PWL represents the best of the industry. The fact that so much talent exists in one place is no accident. Every week, I talk to advisors around the country who want to learn more about PWL's story so they can emulate it.
This is a testament to the vision and ex*****on of the people here and their success in building not just a company but a community.
I will continue to wholeheartedly recommend PWL to those needing full-service financial planning and investment advice. My mom will remain a client, and I've told Denise that if anything ever happens to me, her first call (after family, of course) should be to PWL.
This decision was entirely personal and was not influenced by PWL's recent sale to OneDigital.
Our family's conversations about finding and funding a good life began long before OneDigital and PWL started their discussions. I know how deeply PWL cares about their mission and values, and I am excited to watch, from the sidelines, how PWL and OneDigital continue to evolve and exceed the expectations of their clients and the industry.
My friend 's paper, Finding and Funding a Good Life, was a key factor in this journey. It is a life-planning framework that integrates influential research on happiness and well-being.
Here are a few of my most important takeaways:
1. Experiences > Things: We quickly adapt to material goods, but meaningful experiences stay with us regardless of their cost.
2. Time > Money: Prioritizing time over money leads to greater happiness, better relationships, and more profound life satisfaction.
3. Regret: The most enduring regrets in life are about inaction, especially regarding health, relationships, and alternative choices we might have made.
4. Connection: Close relationships are among the strongest predictors of well-being over a lifetime.
I encourage you to read it and consider your own definition of a "good life."
https://pwlcapital.com/finding-and-funding-a-good-life/
This decision was also prompted by my own experiences that reminded me just how fleeting and fragile life can be:
- My father passing away just 18 months into his retirement
- News of a high school friend who passed away unexpectedly in his 30s
- A young, healthy, and fit friend going through a health challenge
- A visualization my friend built, showing how little free time we truly have left with our children: https://life.looniesandsense.com/
Life is short and precious, and we never know how many healthy days we have left.
Last week, I rewatched one of my favourite childhood movies with my kids: Hook. It's a modern take on the Peter Pan story starring the late, great Robin Williams.
Peter plays a businessman who spends too much time working at the expense of spending time with his wife and children. There's an early scene where, after an argument with his children, his wife Moira throws his cell phone out the window, preventing him from making an important business call. She then tells him:
"Your children love you. They want to play with you. How long do you think that lasts? Soon Jack may not even want you to come to his games. We have a few special years with our children, when they're the ones who want us around. After that, your gonna be running after them for a bit of attention. It's so fast, Peter. It's a few years, then it's over. And you are not being careful. And you are missing it."
And while I've always tried to balance work and family time, that scene was a stark reminder of just how little time each of us has to spend on the things that matter to us most.
When making big decisions, I try to fast-forward through life and look back.
- Will my past self regret this in the future?
- Am I seeing the forest for the trees?
- And what's the worst-case outcome if I'm wrong?
Life and money are always rife with uncertainty and risk, and only time can tell whether this decision will be correct in hindsight. But as Denise often reminds me, "You gotta risk it for the biscuit."
So, while we can never be sure, I don't think I'll ever look back and say, "I wish I spent more time working and less time with my family and children."
The paradox in financial planning is that we never know how much money is "enough." In the pursuit of more, we might accumulate too much. And too much can represent experiences not lived, opportunities not taken, and time mismanaged.
It's the same conversation we advisors have with our clients daily, and it's time I took my own medicine.
You might be shocked to learn that I didn't review my financial projections before making this decision.
Life isn't always about spreadsheets, and the optimal decision often has nothing to do with numbers.
So what's next?
As Jonathan Haidt wrote, "Love and work are crucial for human happiness because, when done well, they draw us out of ourselves and into connection with people and projects beyond ourselves."
And nowhere is this truer than in helping people with their finances.
I still love financial planning.
It's one of life's great puzzles, touching almost all of us. Helping people find and fund their own "good lives" gives me purpose and meaning, and I doubt that will ever change.
I'll continue creating educational content and may take on some advice-only planning work here and there. But the pace will be slower, and the focus will be different.
For now, though, we will travel for a few months, focus on being present, and reassess frequently.
To all of my clients:
Thank you. It's been an honour and a pleasure to work with you. I've always tried to help you build a life that reflects your goals and values, and now I'm taking my own advice.
Let this announcement serve as a gentle nudge to ask yourself what your good life looks like. Not in a dramatic or existential sense, but in the quiet, honest sense that matters.
Consider the daily decisions you make - both big and small - and whether they serve your pursuit of a good life.
And always remember:
"There is a lot more to a good life than wealth accumulation and risk-adjusted returns."
- Ben Felix
- Mark McGrath
This visualization shows your remaining 600 months of life, with each circle representing one month. Colours indicate how that month will be spent based on your daily activity patterns
