Sharing my latest thoughts on money and life, with an eye to empowering more women to financial confidence.

I'VE BEEN PONDERING

"I know I should know this stuff."

That's what women tell me again and again. We feel like we should know. As The Persistent pointed out in one of their most-read stories of last year, it's "the feeling that I should have just learned it and done it on my own. I should have been born knowing it." Most of us haven’t been taught about money.

But reading books and taking classes doesn't fix the issue. Simply knowing things doesn't give you the magic key. As Morgan Housel says in his fabulous book The Psychology of Money, “Knowing what to do tells you nothing about what will happen in your head when you try to do it.”

Money is emotional! And unlike what some scientists say, it's not that we humans are irrational about money. It's what happens when logic interacts with our psychology. Again quoting Housel, “Every decision people make with money is justified by taking the info they have at that moment and plugging it into their unique mental model of how the world works.”

The info you have at the moment +
Your unique mental model of how the world works. 🤯

Lesson? Be nicer to yourself!

Housel's latest book, which is sitting on my kitchen counter waiting for me (OK it's been there for 6 months!), is called The Art of Spending Money. You might think the spending would be the easy part of financial planning. If you had told me when I started in this career 29 (!!) years ago, that helping clients figure out how best to spend their money would take up a large part of my brain space, I would have said you were nuts. But it's true.

One of the themes Housel says emerged in the book is that "those happiest with money tend to be those who have found a way to stop thinking about it."

Now THAT sounds good!

That's where I think you'd like to be too - feeling secure enough in your financial life plan that you're not thinking about money all the time.

I will share more as I dive into this book over the next weeks.

TOPS FROM OPS

Behind the scenes, we just launched a brand new Client Resource Portal for our current clients! It's their home base for scheduling links, quick contact info, and shortcuts to the platforms they use most. Video walkthroughs and tips & tricks recordings are coming soon too.

We're always working to make the client experience smoother and more useful, because financial planning shouldn't add stress to your life, it should take some away. 😊
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RECENT SIGHTINGS

Lots of fun stuff to share this month!

I had two columns published over at Rethinking65, both pretty personal. The first one, Being Fired: The Best Thing That Happened to My Career, is exactly what it sounds like, and yes, that title made me wince a little when I wrote it. But sometimes the worst moments end up being the ones that point you in the right direction. Losing a big client years ago is what eventually led me to start Sofia Financial, so I guess I owe them a thank you note. The second column, When Your Boss Is Also Your Dad, is about working at my father Jeff's firm before launching Sofia (some of you remember I wrote about him last fall). It was a complicated, wonderful, weird working relationship and I've been wanting to put words to it for a while.

I was also featured in Investopedia's FA One Thing series, sharing my take on timing your Social Security claiming decisions. The short version: there's a lot to be said for waiting until 70 if you can swing it, between the higher monthly payments, the bigger COLA adjustments, and the larger survivor benefit for your spouse. But "if you can swing it" is doing a lot of work in that sentence! It's never a one-size-fits-all answer.

On the podcast, Kevin and I had two great conversations recently. Episode 133, Don't Panic, Pause: Simple Steps to Avoid Being Scammed, feels especially timely given how often we've been talking about scams around here lately. And Episode 130, Planning to Age with Life Care: Long-Term Care and Advocacy with Laura Lynn Morrissey, dives into something most of us would rather not think about but really, really should.
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PERSONAL

My journey as executor of my father’s estate continues. The to-do list seems endless, but I’m also guilty of letting some tasks that seem less urgent slip... This will end someday, right? Please tell me it will. 😉

LET'S CONNECT!

How does “not having to think about money” rank on your list of financial objectives? Have you gotten there? Tell me! Reply to this email - I read every response.

Be careful out there,

Stephanie

Whenever you're ready, there are three ways we can help:

1. Download our free Roadmap for Financial Clarity.
2. Schedule a no-strings-attached meeting with us to see if we're a good fit by scheduling an appointment here: link to calendar.
3. Feel free to reply to this email with any questions you might have, and we'll do our best to provide a helpful response.