Nicole Carlon

10/13/2026

For years, women could sit through an entire financial meeting while most of the conversation happened with the man sitting next to them.

The questions were directed to him and the conversation centered around him. Even when she was included, there was still a difference between being spoken at and actually being spoken to.

Has that completely disappeared? Of course not, but the dynamic has shifted A LOT over the years.

What’s more interesting to me now is how much the conversation itself has changed.

Women are not just thinking about how much they can accumulate. They’re thinking about what that money allows them to do with their lives and what changes if they decide to use it.

Can I take more time off with my kids? Can I start the business? Can I afford to build my family the way I want to? Can I spend more now and still be okay later?

Those are very different conversations, and I think financial planning has to keep evolving right alongside them.

Investment advisory services offered through Mutual Advisors, LLC DBA Wise Oak Wealth, a SEC registered investment adviser.

09/21/2026

In the blink of an eye, the kids are adults.

At least in this series.

Mine are still little and I am VERY much not ready for that blink to happen in real life.

We’ve gone from trying to become a mom, to pregnancy and new parenthood, to raising our kids while life inevitably throws a few things at the financial plan.

Now we’re looking at what happens when those kids grow up and some of the things that once sat 20 or 30 years out in the plan suddenly aren’t so far away anymore.

How do we help our kids when they’re adults? What are we still accumulating for? And what the heck are we going to do on a random Tuesday when we retire?

Part Five, and the final part, of The Financial Plan for Motherhood is live.

Apparently, we still have a lot of planning to do.

When did all those things that felt so far away get so close? When your kids are little, you know eventually they’re going to grow up, but that feels so far away. You’re too busy getting them where they need to go, sitting through dance recitals and spending weekends on soccer sidelines, helping...

09/18/2026

The Daily Drip Mag Launch Volume V. was a fever dream. ❤️

Seeing my own words printed in the magazine was surreal, but somehow that wasn’t even the part that got me the most.

I joined in 2023 thinking one thing, but what I found was a community of women who pushed me, challenged me, cheered me on, called me on my bu****it, and helped me find my own voice. Nicole and Romi have a way of seeing what you’re capable of and having very little patience for the excuses you make when you’re not doing something about it. 😂

Last night, I got to see the ripple effect of that.

Someone who had read my article came looking for ME because it resonated with her.

As we talked, I realized she was basically me 9 or 10 years ago. She had joined her father’s firm and was trying to figure out her own place in it.

Suddenly I wanted to hug her, mother her, and tell her ALL THE THINGS.

Because I remember that version of me.

Now here she was, coming to find me.

That got me.

It also lit a little bit of a fire under my ass because now I want to show her what we’re capable of.

Maybe that’s Poder for me.

I spent years trying to prove I deserved the opportunity I was given. Now there are women coming up behind me, and I want to give them a reason to think bigger about what they can do too.

So, as Jessica Cohen would say, “Buckle up, Buttercup.” 😂

Happy FIVE YEARS, The Daily Drip. ❤️

09/14/2026

There’s a strange point in motherhood when your kids are becoming more independent, but the things they need you for somehow start to feel bigger.

Around the same time, you may start noticing your relationship with your own parents changing too.

Meanwhile, you’re finally coming into your own, reaching goals you’ve spent years working toward, and starting to think about what you want next.

Apparently, there’s a name for this.
The sandwich generation.

The further I get into The Financial Plan for Motherhood, the more I realize the financial conversations keep changing right along with us.

At this stage, you may be perfectly capable of saying, “I can take care of it.”

I just don’t want that to be the end of the conversation.

If you ask anyone what age they would want to experience again, almost no one says their teen years. Once was plenty.

09/08/2026

The family you’re raising probably won’t look exactly like the family you pictured.

I certainly didn’t expect to be raising Donnie Thornberry, but here we are. 😂

Our children become their own people. They have their own personalities, interests, needs, and apparently plans of their own.

We can plan for the expenses we know are coming. It’s the things we couldn’t possibly know yet that can change the plan.

Turns out, our children didn’t read the financial plan either.

Part Three of The Financial Plan for Motherhood is about what we do financially when real life changes the plan.

Before our children are even born, we’re constructing their entire lives in our heads. How they’ll be best friends with our best friend’s kids, how we’ll be very structured with their eating and sleeping schedules, and maybe even how they’ll go to our alma mater because how dare they even ...

08/31/2026

We spend a lot of time talking about how expensive it is to raise a child.
We spend a lot less time talking about what pregnancy itself can do to your financial plan.

I learned some of that firsthand.

Financial Advisor Nicole knew how deductibles worked. Pregnant Nicole had never connected a deductible reset to the timing of giving birth.

There were other decisions I also understood very differently once I was the one living them.

That’s where Part Two of The Financial Plan for Motherhood goes: the financial conversations that belong between those two pink lines and bringing your baby home.

The moment you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. Maybe you knew the second your favorite comfort food suddenly grossed you out or when the scent of your favorite perfume had you running to the toilet.

08/24/2026

What if starting a family doesn’t happen the way you always thought it would?

Most of us never imagine having to answer that question. We assume that when the time is right, we’ll start trying and eventually become a mom.

So what happens when getting there involves egg freezing, IVF, surrogacy, adoption, or decisions you never thought you’d have to make?

Somewhere along the way, there are financial decisions wrapped into all of it that you probably never thought you’d need to plan for either.

That’s the gap I’m exploring in Part One of The Financial Plan for Motherhood.

What if starting a family doesn’t happen the way you always thought it would? No one prepares you for the moment you find yourself asking that. Because that’s never how you imagined this chapter of your life would begin.

08/21/2026

Kinda chic, isn’t it?

Build the wealth. Create the options. Enjoy the life you worked so hard for.

And always budget for twice-a-day gelato in Italy. 🍦🇮🇹

07/01/2026

Your money needs a job.

06/02/2026

I’ve always thought of financial planning like a GPS.

You set a destination.

Then life throws a detour your way.

A new job.
A growing family.
A major transition.

Or sometimes… s**t happens.

The goal isn’t to avoid every wrong turn.

It’s having a plan that helps you adjust, reroute, and keep moving forward.

A clip from an older conversation with Ciara Gravier Hagopian on The Bunker Insurance & Risk Management podcast that still rings true today.