Stone Steps Financial

Stone Steps Financial A fee-only financial planning firm dedicated to helping professionals and families navigate through the complexities of personal finance.

06/03/2026

Operating under the assumption that your expenses will remain flat for thirty years often leads to over-saving and unnecessarily restricting your life during your most active years. The reality of a fulfilling retirement is that your cash flow needs will naturally ebb and flow: peaking early during active travel, dipping in the middle years, and scaling back up later for healthcare.

True success isn't about hanging onto as much capital as possible until the very end; it requires designing a dynamic framework that incorporates the changing seasons of your life and gives you permission to confidently use your wealth while you have the health to enjoy it.

Discover how to bridge the gap between asset growth and real-world spending by diving into this week's episode of Real Personal Finance.

06/01/2026

The urge to track daily market swings often distracts from the quiet spending happening right under your nose.

The real risk to a retirement plan is a baseline spending number built on guesswork rather than reality. Failing to track the recurring, everyday micro-transactions, or omitting heavy predictable burdens like independent health insurance, guarantees that your financial projection will crumble long before the market does.

Scott and Nick unpack the practical steps for uncovering your actual cost of living to build an ironclad baseline for your portfolio. If you want to ensure your strategy can withstand both market corrections and hidden daily spend, this discussion provides the tools to gain complete clarity over your data.

Explore the breakdown of lifestyle tracking and portfolio longevity by cueing up the newest episode of Real Personal Finance.

05/28/2026

Many people build their entire retirement strategy around rigid projections, operating under the assumption that they must strictly adhere to a single withdrawal percentage for three full decades. This mindset creates an artificial sense of restriction, forcing you to budget for a permanent worst-case scenario while ignoring the natural flexibility of real life.

True financial confidence comes from knowing how to dynamically adjust your strategy as economic cycles and spending shift. When you establish responsive boundaries for your portfolio, you gain the freedom to safely maximize your lifestyle during strong market periods, while maintaining a clear, pre-planned strategy to protect your capital when things slow down.

Uncover the modern frameworks for navigating market cycles with confidence by streaming the latest episode of Real Personal Finance.

05/13/2026

Scott's mom worked at Motorola. She watched it dominate the cell phone market, trusted the company completely, and never thought it could go wrong.

Then the iPhone came out.

Every concentrated stock position has a story like this somewhere nearby. The companies that felt untouchable, until they weren't.

Catch the full conversation on Real Personal Finance to hear how this fits into the bigger picture.

05/11/2026

Most people think diversifying company stock means selling everything at once. But that's not the move.

The first step is simpler than you think: stop feeding the position. When your next RSU grant vests, what are you actually doing with it? If the answer is nothing, it's just stacking on top of what's already there.

And if you're within five years of retirement, that number you've been watching climb? It's time to have a real conversation about how much of it you actually need to keep.

Tune into the latest episode of Real Personal Finance.

05/07/2026

The first step to fixing a concentrated stock position isn't selling what you have. It's stopping the position from growing.

When RSUs vest, you can often choose to sell immediately and take cash instead of shares. And if you're withholding 22% for taxes when your bracket is actually 37%, you're setting yourself up for a surprise bill at the end of the year.

Catch the full conversation on Real Personal Finance to hear how this fits into the bigger picture.

05/05/2026

RSUs, ISOs, ESPPs. They're the new pension, and they're designed to keep you in one place.

The problem is concentration doesn't feel like a problem when things are going well. You get promoted, the stock climbs, and without ever making a deliberate choice, 15% becomes 30% becomes 40% of your net worth.

Catch the full conversation on Real Personal Finance to hear how this fits into the bigger picture.

04/24/2026

Single employer risk isn’t just about your stock—it is important that you understand how it impacts your entire financial life.

Start by mapping it: income, RSUs, benefits, and even career capital (your earning power outside your current company). When those all point to one employer, the real risk is correlation. That’s double exposure—and it needs to be seen clearly before anything else.

If this resonates with you, this week's episode of Real Personal Finance is worth a listen:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZpArnBSMTc
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gfiDDEORTVQXe2z5Wv3ea?si=9cea36290e414030
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-stress-test-your-finances-against-single-employer/id1467823230?i=1000761912237

04/22/2026

Most financial plans are built to survive market volatility—but what about a change in your income.

The real question isn’t whether your portfolio can handle a downturn. It’s whether your plan still works if your paycheck stops earlier than expected. That’s an input problem, not a modeling problem—and it will likely change how you think about the next 5 years.

Tune into the latest episode of Real Personal Finance:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZpArnBSMTc
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gfiDDEORTVQXe2z5Wv3ea?si=9cea36290e414030
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-stress-test-your-finances-against-single-employer/id1467823230?i=1000761912237

04/20/2026

One of the most important inputs in your financial plan doesn’t show up in the model: your career trajectory.

Are your skills transferable, or tightly tied to one company or role? Are you in a position where AI replaces parts of the work, or enhances it? These questions aren’t separate from the financial plan—they are essential elements.

The latest episode of Real Personal Finance shows you how to make sure you’re planning for what your career might look like down the road.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZpArnBSMTc
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gfiDDEORTVQXe2z5Wv3ea?si=9cea36290e414030
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-stress-test-your-finances-against-single-employer/id1467823230?i=1000761912237

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Encinitas, CA
92024

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