Flow Financial Planning, LLC

09/01/2026

I like the idea of FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) and the general idea of Financial Independence.

And I know it's a super popular concept, especially in tech.

But I think all the awesome-sounding terms we apply to it make it seem more complicated than it really is.

"Financial Independence"? That's f*cking "Retirement," bruh.

That's "I don't have to earn any money anymore." That's what your parents probably did somewhere in their 60s.

FIRE? Again, that's just Retirement...but at an earlier age than we're accustomed to thinking about it.

There is no complicated math associated with this. (Or at least there doesn't need to be.) The calculations don't change. The numbers we use as inputs change (add another 20 years here or there, a lower withdrawal rate, etc.), but it's not some grand reimagining of financial concepts.

It is, however, a grand reimagining of LIFE and CAREER.

08/15/2026

Something I learned later than I wish I had:

If I save up and explicitly set aside, in its own account or sub-account, all the money for a big expenditure (ex., a vacation, a car purchase, a remodel, etc.) ahead of time, the vacation/car/remodel feels "free."

Because I was never counting on that money to serve any other purpose in my life.

07/29/2026

There are many fancy investment strategies out there. Many are sold as a way to reduce your taxes. (To wit: https://www.kitces.com/blog/tax-aware-long-short-investing-tax-overlay-risk-managed-active-investment-strategy-tals-harvesting-value/)

And one thing I think investors/clients should think about more is:

If your advisor implements this strategy, will you have a snowball's chance in hell of understanding your portfolio yourself?

Or will implementing this strategy mean you are *obligated* to work with an advisor (maybe even this specific advisor) forever because otherwise your investments will perform in ways you can't understand or predict?

I want my clients to work with me forever (okay, "forever"...girl's gotta retire someday herself, you know). Because they are happy to opt in, not because they are scared to opt out.

Tax-Aware Long-Short (TALS) investing involves adding leverage to existing portfolio to buy more positions and increase number of potential losses to harvest.

07/22/2026

"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in the baby carriage.

Ooops, I mean:

First comes love, then maybe comes marriage? Baby? Probably. But definitely then comes home ownership and oh yes, we’d like to completely remodel this home, please."

Yes, huge remodels seems the rule, not the exception, after you buy your home. And as hard as "how much can I spend on a house?" is to answer, "how much can I spend on a remodel?" is even harder, especially because it's usually a *voluntary* expense.

In this new blog post, I go over my framework for evaluating the affordability of a remodel: https://flowfp.com/how-much-can-you-afford-to-spend-on-remodel/

(On a side note: I have never gone this long—over 2 months—between blog posts. Seems like my "Year of Recuperation" aka "Year of No" is finally gathering momentum!}

How to determine how much you can afford to spend on a home remodel without jeopardizing your financial independence and retirement goals.

07/21/2026

My clients who are single moms by choice are, oddly (to me, as a mother who had tremendous support from my husband and still found motherhood So Hard for So Long), about the most delighted moms I know. Nothing but good things to say about their extremely adorable kids.

If you are a working parent, you almost certainly need life insurance and long-term disability insurance. If you're a SMBC, make that doubly so. Like, SUPER IMPORTANT, Y'all.

I like talking with Wallis (linked below) because she is willing and able to go as deep as my nerd brain wants—or as shallow as my tired brain needs—on how insurance can and should work for my clients.

And you can learn from her here (short snapper videos) about how to protect yourself and your adorable kids if you're a single mom by choice. https://buff.ly/escU5xU

Got a great question from a financial advisor who was thinking through coverage needs for their SMBC client (Single Mom By Choice), a client group with whom we've done a lot of work. Put together a few short videos on the topic of SMBCs getting the life insurance coverage that aligns with their goal...

07/10/2026

Wanting to have babies and not being able to, or having to pursue fertility treatments in an effort to do so, can leave rational thought in the dust, in my personal (and some client) experience.

Even if emotions *weren't* involved, the unpredictability of the future gives lie to Making A Plan for it.

“There is definitely a limit to the usefulness of planning here...We do our best with what we know now, with what we can guess is a reasonable estimation of what will happen,...[then] life is going to happen, and we’re going to see how our plan survives contact with life.”

I can certainly advise a client that pursuing IVF or surrogacy or what have you will have gigantic negative financial impacts on their future...and then after that I choose empathy and helping them make it happen instead of continuing to harp on the financial angle.

I recently spoke with Julia Carpenter for her (paywalled, yes) piece in the WSJ about the financial and emotional cost of fertility treatments.

https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/fertility-treatment-costs-planning-976703b7

The amount of money spent can rival a house purchase or college tuition. It’s crucial for couples to figure out the financial equation ahead of time.

07/02/2026

Turns out, I do business planning (i.e., planning for my own business) the same way I often do financial planning.

What is that way?

I spend a lot of time stewing over, discussing, evaluating, navel-gazing over what kind of life I want for myself and my family, what kind of values I want to uphold. It is, by some measures, extremely inefficient.

I just spent 5 days at a resort with girlfriends/fellow planners/RIA owners having just such "lazy" conversations off and on the whole time. (While also trying to survive the heat and the friggin' attack crocodiles. Puerto Vallarta...you were somethin' alright.) Conversations zigged and zagged. Waxed and waned. Numbers and tactics were few and far between.

By the end, I think we all had much greater clarity on what we wanted out of our business, based on what we wanted for our own lives.

And the action items/to dos/tactics/specifics kinda fell naturally out of it. The action items were easy...after hour upon hour of sometimes aimless-seeming conversation.

Find yerself friends or colleagues willing to dwell in the discomfort and uncertainty, because that's where the good stuff happens. Metrics and tactics are pointless unless you know they're clear on what they're supporting or building towards.

Also, happy 50th birthday to me and all fellow celebrants. May you also celebrate your big day by encountering (from a safe remove of anywhere from 10s to 1000s of yards) and surviving crocodiles.

06/16/2026

If you're feeling anxious about your life or finances, I find that an excellent way to tamp that down is to build in more room for error.

Yes, this often results in making choices with your money that aren't optimized. And I am—and think you should be—100% okay with that. Money isn't the point, after all. Life is.

A blog post:

While planning for the unexpected is always good advice, with the recent economic turmoil, creating even more margin is wise and practical.

06/14/2026

Seems a good time to remind everyone that "minimize taxes" isn't a good goal.

Sure, minimizing taxes can be a *tactic* to achieve an overarching life or financial goal, but it shouldn't be the goal itself.

Think about that when you're, say, making decisions about company stock or your investment portfolio. If you're prioritizing "minimize taxes" over "get closer to this life I want," take a step back.

A blog post:

How to prepare for your company's IPO regarding handling taxes and, more importantly, what you want your LIFE to look like.

06/12/2026

I just helped a client exercise and immediately sell a bunch of Incentive Stock Options (in a public company).

In doing so, she lost *all* the tax juju that ISOs can offer.

What did she get in return for that loss? She eliminated all risk of losing money on the stock.

I thought I'd remind you that it's okay to not take advantage of the tax goodness of ISOs. Tax goodness often comes with a downside.

A blog post :

A description of ISOs, their tax benefits, and how to make decisions about how to--or whether to--take advantage of the tax benefits.