Blog - Flow Financial Planning

Flow FP's block woman contemplates her pay stub, noting the incorrect entry.

Your paystub can be very informative. And also wrong. When’s the last time you double-checked yours?

In the last month, two of my clients have looked at their paystubs and realized that their 401(k) contributions were going into Roth instead of pre-tax. This wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that both of these clients had, months earlier, changed their 401(k) contributions away from Roth and into pre-tax. And somehow it didn’t “take.” This caused an administrative pain in the butt and higher-than-planned taxes.
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Flow FP's block woman sees her yoga mat, high above her on a rock wall. How to get to it?

Do you love your yoga practice? You can apply it to your finances.

Just getting on the mat is the hardest part.

Do you do yoga? Do you love yoga? I do. My yoga practices goes back 20 years (because, evidently, I’m Old), and I don’t know what I’d do without it. Over those years, I’ve accepted a lot of the lessons that yoga tries to teach you.
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Flow FP's block woman contemplates her emergency fund.

Emergency funds. Yes, they’re boring. But do you actually have one that’s big enough?

You cannot cruise the internet without tripping over articles about the partial government shutdown and the increasingly horrible effects it’s having on many government workers and their finances and their psyches.
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What? You mean my 401(k) can go DOWN? Well, I never…

How long have you been paying attention to your investments, or to the stock market? Has it been only for the last few years, or, maybe only since 2009? Read More

You really really want to do [fill in Your Thing here]. Are you simply waiting for permission? (Video)

Do you have a Big Idea for your life? Quit your job and start your own business! Take a sabbatical! Buy an expensive home! Go back to school! And is it So Big that it’s Too Scary to contemplate doing on your own? One of my favorite things to do with my clients is to say “Yes, you can.” Are you simply waiting for someone to give you permission?
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Anatomy of an Awesome 401(k). How Does Yours Compare?

Recently a few of my clients at major tech companies (to remain nameless!) have forwarded to me company emails proclaiming the latest improvements in their 401(k) offering. These improvements have included a “true up” of matching contributions and dead-easy-to-use after-tax-401(k) contributions.
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Uber’s Going IPO! What Do I Do?! Will I Be Rich? Ahhhh!

Perhaps by now you’ve settled down after reading the news of the Uber IPO filing a few days ago. My clients who used to work at Uber are, of course, Pretty Darn Excited about the announcement that Uber has filed for IPO, likely in Q1 of 2019.Read More

Your HSA Is Better than Your 401(k) for Retirement Savings. Don’t Waste it on Actual Health Care Costs.

Like you, I’ve been going through Open Enrollment lately. Only I’ve been going through a whole bunch of open enrollments, for all of my clients. (It’s actually pretty cool, being able to compare—and, perforce, contrast—what a variety of tech companies offer to their employees.)
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Flow Financial Planning's Block Woman can only see the obvious one of several choices available.

Don’t Get Trapped by the “Benevolent Dictatorship” of Tech Employers

Last week I spent time in the Bay Area visiting clients, listening to them talk about their jobs and careers, getting treated to free meals at their workplaces, and generally standing in awe of the wealth on display in their company headquarters.Read More

I own a ton of company stock. I’m supposed to be doing something with it, right? Right?

Do you find yourself, after a few years of working at the same company, the proud owner of a whacking big pile of company stock?

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