First Impressions

August 06, 2010

During my first week with Financial Finesse I spent most of my time in training, monitoring calls on the helpline, and trying to remember the names of my new coworkers.  I am not quite sure what I expected out of the calls into our Financial Helpline, but I was definitely surprised.  I thought maybe there might be more questions on investing and taxes, which was the norm before I joined the Financial Finesse team.  What I didn’t expect was the outpouring of emotion from the callers. Many of the callers I listened to sounded like they were on the verge of tears, under WAY MORE financial stress than I was accustomed to seeing, and it seemed like they saw their situation as hopeless.  Calling the helpline was a means of last resort, at least that’s the way I saw it.

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Training Calls from Hades

July 30, 2010

To understand the types of calls we receive on the financial helpline, new-to-the-firm CFP’s (not the same as new CFP’s – every planner here at Financial Finesse has at least a decade of experience in financial planning) listen to a lot of recorded conversations with our partner firms.  Some of the biggest names in the S&P are our clients, or partners.  Their employees call our team of financial planners on topics ranging from consideration of bankruptcy & mortgage foreclosure through how to handle the tax treatment of a sophisticated international investment or deal with how to reduce taxes on a very large estate.  When the phone rings, we don’t know if you are teetering on the brink of financial disaster or if you are dealing with complex tax issues.  Every call is unique.  There is no “typical” caller.  I think that it’s good to be a little schizophrenic to work on our helpline, but that may just be the voices in my head talking ….

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My Personal Journey into Becoming a Financial Educator

July 23, 2010

Have you ever wandered into a new coffee shop or off the beaten path restaurant only to discover, “Hey, this place is incredible!” and have that place become your all time favorite?  That’s a bit like my path to Financial Finesse.

My first job after college was as a “financial consultant” at Merrill Lynch and I use quotation marks because really, in my early 20’s, could I have really been a consultant to anyone regarding financial matters?  I mean, I had never bought a house, raised a family, worked full time and my “life experience” was a bit thin at that point.  I did, though, have a budding interest in the financial world.  I paid my way through college with a combination of work and loans, and when I thought I was not going to be able to get a loan for a big chunk of my last year of school expenses, I worked 3 jobs over the summer and earned enough to pay for the whole year.  When the student loan request was approved and a check showed up in my mailbox, I decided to take my interest in the financial markets and use that check to buy my first stock.  I did a lot of research and eventually bought a stock.  It performed very well and I was able to sell it later at a profit and bought my 1st new car with the proceeds.  (Not the best decision ever, but I was young & the car was new!)

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Emotions vs. Numbers

July 16, 2010

One of the questions that I have fielded more often than other questions in my career as a financial planner is about paying off a mortgage vs. keeping it for those who have the ability to write a check & pay it off all at once.  I have had a lot of discussions with my friends about this topic.  (Yeah, I just might need to get a hobby.) These friends are CPA’s, MBA’s, CFP’s, math geeks, as well as friends who have no financial background but who have always shown an ability to use common sense.  After years of debate and discussion (So….my friends need hobbies too!), we have found that there is no true consensus around this topic.  But, we have come up with what we believe to be the most important points to consider.

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