Sometimes Meg’s Musings are just a random collection of thoughts I’ve had, without a unifying theme. Other times, I intentionally sort through my musings (which yes! I write down when they occur to me) for those fitting a particular theme.
This last March, I took my family on a trip to Europe (London and Paris), a trip that I’d first envisioned in January 2020. Enter pandemic, recovery from pandemic, negotiation of elementary- and middle-school schedules, my own hangups, and I finally did it, four years later.
You have millions of dollars. You’re 40ish years old. You’re financially independent. At least, you think you are. But that all depends on not taking too much money out of your investment portfolio. So, how much can you spend and still be “safe”?
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I ended my reflections on my seventh year in business with this:
I am excited to slow down. I am excited to not grind. I am excited to focus on what I already have (relationships, money, etc.), not what I could have more of.
Ha ha! And then I got punched in the face. Or my plan met the enemy. Or, for the more scatalogically inclined among you, Shit Happened.
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What is financial planning, really? What do I do, as a financial planner? What does the relationship between me and my clients look like?
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Two major iterations (and several years) later, my charitable plan is finally where I want it to be. That said, even my original plan was good enough as it was! After all, the charities were still getting our money, and that’s the whole point. So, please, if there’s one lesson you take away from my “journey,” let it be: Just Start Somewhere.
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A few weeks ago, I was talking with a client about his 2023 taxes. About the fact that he hadn’t paid estimated taxes in 2023. And that a probably big, but who-really-knew-how-big tax bill was looming before April 15. And that his CPA would give him some recommendations for paying estimated taxes in 2024. And that he should pay those estimated taxes so we’re not in this position again next year.
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This is the story of how I filed my 14-year-old daughter’s taxes, and then opened, funded, and invested a Roth IRA for her, for tax year 2023. Piecing this process together for the first time was a bit frustrating (even for a financial planner!) so I hope you can follow along with a bit more ease.
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If you look at our website—and please do! I quite like it—you’ll see that we ask “Are you a woman in your early to mid career in tech?” That’s the demographic we target.
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Some of our clients go through an IPO and come out the other end financially independent. Thirty-five years old, with $10M in the bank? Check. (Technically, not the bank, but a broadly diversified, low-cost portfolio. At least, that’s the hope!)
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We work with plenty of clients who, at an enviably young age, already have a portfolio worth millions of dollars. (Thank you, IPOs.)
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Are you tempted to believe that there are magical solutions to your financial problems?