Flow Financial Planning, LLC

05/28/2026

A few months ago I spoke with a women in her 30s, single, living in NYC, an attorney, smart, educated, accomplished, killing it. She was interested in working together. I told her I wasn't taking on new clients at the moment.

She said that she was disappointed that we couldn't work together, but she was happy for me that my business was growing so quickly I didn't have space to take on new clients.

I explained that I wasn't taking on new clients kinda for the opposite reason: I wasn't growing at all. I'd reached Enough and stopped there.

For a moment, she kinda just stared at me. Then said something like, that is amazing, I love it. It had never even occurred to me that you could do that. Just stop. Have Enough.

And with that RIVETING TALE, I am pleased to announce that I, along with Kaleb Paddock and Brian Thompson, will be speaking at XY Planning Network's annual conference, about "The Business of Enough." https://live.xyplanningnetwork.com/speakers

We 3 have all run our own financial planning firms. We've all reached Enough. We've all decided to stop growing, at least for now. (Our "Enough" stories are all slightly different.)

Did you know that you don't HAVE to keep on growing, earning more, serving more clients, hiring people, building a bigger business? It's true! Ferreal!

(And of course, obvious applications to life outside of business ownership.)

Discover the lineup of keynote speakers for the upcoming 2026 XYPN LIVE

05/21/2026

Lots of people in tech (though still the vast minority) are coming into $MM via tech company equity, meanwhile massive layoffs and uncertainty about the future of the tech industry plague everyone else.

If you feel rotten about your career and your life and your finances, I think there are two approaches you can take, and a good choice is probably a balance of the two:

1) Change your career, life, or finances
2) Change who you hang around with

I don't think we take #2 seriously enough.

05/13/2026

Most of my clients (people 30-50ish) need estate planning documents (or to update wildly out of date ones). They also need to get private life insurance and disability insurance. I make these recommendations clear.

Some clients are just the "you give me an order, I will execute it" types and they git 'er done despite the administrative hassle.

Some clients...languish.

And then a parent develops rapid-onset dementia or have a debilitating fall. Or a close friend who's a parent of young child dies unexpectedly. Or a co-worker gets in an accident and their recovery prognosis is long and uncertain.

And THEN those clients are all "Tell me what I need to do and I will do it YESTERDAY."

It'd be nice to accomplish all this stuff without having such tragic events be the motivation, but hey, as long as we get it done before the tragedy hits YOU, it's all good.

05/12/2026

"...gender issues are often power issues." -- from this episode of the Money for Couples" podcast

Suuuuch a good point. In both my personal life and in observing clients' lives, what we think of as typical "men" behavior is often just the behavior of the sole/higher wage earner. And that sole/higher wage earner can easily be a woman (👋 ) nowadays.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich talks to Nicole and Shane, an engaged couple in their forties getting married in just 11 days. Together they earn $241,000 a year, have a net worth of $588…

05/09/2026

Flow turns 10 today. Whut. That's crazy.

Here are my reflections on the last decade.

What I've learned about running a (tiny) financial planning business, about being a financial planner, a quick update about where Flow is now, thoughts about the profession, and looking forward.

Reflections on the 10-year anniversary of Flow Financial Planning. Lessons about business and on being a financial planner.

05/07/2026

If you have been lucky+disciplined+smart enough to build up a lot of wealth at an early age...

Take advantage of that fact!

That early wealth means you can focus less on building wealth going forward. Which means you can be more open to sabbaticals or changing to more-satisfying jobs or saving less/spending more/donating more or retiring earlier.

If you have more wealth at 35 than most people have at 50, YOU GET TO MAKE DIFFERENT CHOICES.

Past You has given Now You and Future You a gift. Use it.

05/06/2026

If I were making a list of pet peeves in the pre-IPO space, this would be on it:

Job offers that show you the potential value of your equity if the company grows:
2x
10x
50x

Imagine the millions!

CURIOUSLY, the chart doesn't include 1x, 1/2x, or heaven forfend, 0x.

And I done seen 'em all.

04/22/2026

Many fewer couples are getting married than used to. I have no desire to wade into the cultural aspects of this change.

IF YOU ARE A WOMAN, and you are in a committed but unmarried relationship (with or without kids, but it more often happens when kids arrive):

DO NOT STEP BACK FROM YOUR CAREER—thereby radically reducing your ability to earn money now **and forevermore**— to care for the family without some form of legal agreement that, in the event the relationship ends, will protect you financially.

Yes, legal contracts aren't perfect. And neither are divorce laws (though prenups and postnups can help a lot with this). But they're both better at protecting you financially as the stay-at-home wife/mom than if your partner has NO legal obligation to support you.

Oh, and one additional thing: Your partner should WANT you to have this legal protection because if they love you, they want to ensure you're safe now and in the future. IMO, if they don't, that's a red flag.

A blog post about things you need to consider if you're in a committed but unmarried relationship: https://buff.ly/iFRozKv

And also one about having kids with a partner you're not married to: https://buff.ly/QiDUjIC

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

04/20/2026

"chop wood carry water"

I can't tell you how many times I've thought of this Zen proverb, or mentioned it to clients, with regards to modern administrivia especially around personal finance.

It seems endless...because it is. You can either rail against it, shake your fist at the sky, decry The Bureaucracy (an approach I regularly take, mind you) or just accept that this is part of modern life.

(I, of course, would give a lot to replace "modern administrivia" with actual chopping of wood and carrying of water.)

04/16/2026

There are lots of financial products and strategies that offer up TAX DEFERRAL, i.e., you save taxes now but have to pay them later.

From the simplest, most common—contributing to a pre-tax IRA or 401(k)—to the more advanced—contributing to a Deferred Compensation Plan or investing in a Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund

What seems to be often be forgotten in this decision is that, basically, IT ONLY MAKES SENSE IF YOUR TAX RATE WILL BE AT LEAST EQUAL IF NOT LOWER IN THE FUTURE WHEN YOU GET THE MONEY BACK.

(Longer time frames make deferral more valuable. I'm talking decades.)

I have two clients who were put into Qualified Opportunity Zone funds several years ago (pre-me) because it saved them taxes on $250k of capital gains that year. Whoo!

Only problem, that $250k of capital gains is coming at 'em NOW, and their tax rates are higher than they were several years ago.

The tax deferral offered by the QOZF has probably hurt them, in terms of their lifelong tax liability.

I think a lot of these tax deferral strategies make sense when you can defer the taxes to retirement (or another pretty definite low-/no-income stage of life). But if you'e 40 yo and you're just deferring these taxes until you're 45, and you're still working and earning and then now you have all this extra taxable income layered on top...you likely didn't do yourself any favors.

04/07/2026

Is your company doing a tender offer, and you're trying to decide whether you should participate (get money now!) or NOT participate (hope for even more money later!)?

It can really hurt your brain because you simply can't know what the right answer is because, ta da!, the future is unknowable.

A blog post about how to make a decision that you know is right for YOU, even if you can't know the future:

What to consider when making a decision about a tender offer for your private company stock.