Category: Financial planning

Confessions of a Comprehensive Financial Planner

I am not the expert.

Meg’s Musings (Inaugural!)

Block Women is to the left of the image with a black background cutout overlayed a brown wood wall.

One of the most wonderful parts of being a personal financial planner is that I get to see inside the lives and heads (and neuroses…of which I have my fair share, too) of lots of people. My clients share a touching amount of their lives with me. I try quite hard, indeed, to cultivate a relationship and environment in which people feel comfortable doing that. I believe the fleece jacket goes a long way.Continue reading

children food life planning meaning of life musings values

Report from the Women-in-Tech Front (a.k.a. GHC19)

Things I learned at Grace Hopper this year:

I cannot do basic arithmetic while standing in front of an audience of 200 people. 100 x 1000 really should be doable.
Yes there is a wrong way to hold the slide clicker, Mr. “You can’t mess it up” A/V guy. Just Watch Me.

ghc RSU RSUs stock options women in tech

Flow Is Hiring!

Specifically, hiring an Associate Advisor.

double-trigger vesting IPO lockup period privately held company public company RSUs

Flow Turns 3

Flow FP's Block Woman celebrates 3 years of Flow Financial Planning!

Today is Flow’s third anniversary. Hallelujah.

I am occasionally the introspective sort. And occasionally others benefit from those introspections, so I thought I’d publish said introspections on the last three years. Here’s my two-year retrospective.Continue reading

3 years anniversary business owner entrepreneur financial planner retrospective

Do you see yourself NOT in tech in 10 years?

When you look forward 5, maybe 10 years, do you see yourself not in the tech industry anymore? Lots of women leave tech, for good reasons and bad. If it’s a possibility for you, what are you doing now to prepare for it?

career career planning life choices video

Don’t Put Your Tax Return Away Yet! Look for a Few Bits to Improve Your Finances Going Forward.

Tax Day arrives abruptly for Flow Financial Planning's Block Woman.

Welp, you’ve done your taxes. At least, I sure hope you have.

In this here blog post, I wish not to look backwards and cast aspersions at the IRS or the Trump Administration or your company’s HR department (although lord knows, at times they’ve all deserved it…some more than others). Instead I want to show how you might use your 2018 tax return to make your ongoing finances better.

charitable giving RSUs tax planning

How Do I Combine Finances with My Partner?

Let’s just get this out of the way at the beginning: There is no one right way to combine finances with your romantic partner. The “right” way differs from couple to couple…and over time for the same couple!
Continue reading

joint finances

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

Flow FP's block woman sees her yoga mat, high above her on a rock wall. How to get to it?

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.
Continue reading

behavioral economics behavioral finance mindset money mindset savings strategy

You really really want to do Your Thing. 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?
Continue reading

behavioral finance mindset video

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

Flow Financial Planning's Block Woman can only see the obvious one of several choices available.

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.Continue reading

career life choices

What a yoga practice can teach you about building strong personal finances (Video)

If you have a yoga practice, you probably know the importance of having a strong, rooted foundation so that the rest of your body can “fly,” both joyfully and safely. Turns out, personal finances work the same way.Continue reading

behavioral finance risk management savings strategy video