Summary:
The 9 biggest lessons I’ve learned as a financial planner for the last 9 years can be summed up into these 9 items:
- Progress Over Perfection
- Not All Advice is Good Advice
- Finding the Balance
- Systems Beat Motivation
- Focus on What You Can Control
- It’s Not Just About the Numbers
- Bend Not Break
- Simple Beats Complex
- You Can Do a Lot, but Not All At Once
This December marks my 9th year in the financial advising industry. When I first started, I had no idea what I was really getting into. Since then, I’ve grown personally and professionally, laws have changed, markets have gone through several cycles, and I’ve met with hundreds of families from all kinds of backgrounds to talk through their financial lives.
Sitting across the table from that many people, you start to see patterns: what actually moves the needle, what people tend to regret, and what they’re most grateful they did. I’m definitely still learning, but here are a few things that have really stood out to me over the years.
Progress Over Perfection
There are so many decisions when it comes to money, and life in general. I see people all the time who feel like they have to make the perfect decision: they stew on it, analyze it from every angle, ask for more opinions… and then never actually do anything.
“Should I invest in a Roth or traditional IRA? What’s the perfect investment? What’s the optimal % to put into my 401(k)?” That “perfect decision” trap keeps them stuck.
Meanwhile, the people who are willing to make an imperfect decision and do something usually get much farther in their financial journey (and in other areas of life, too). They learn by doing and can adjust as they go. For example, if someone starts contributing to an investment account and realizes it’s too much, they can dial it back. If they have room in their budget, they can increase it. Either way they’re actually investing, while the other person is still trying to calculate the perfect starting amount.
Progress beats perfection. Small, consistent steps toward paying down debt or building savings might feel insignificant in the moment, but over time they’re exactly what add up to big wins. And the sooner you start, the more of a head start you give yourself over “next year me.”
Not All Advice is Good Advice
The news, social media, friends, family members, even financial advisors (yes, including us) are constantly flooding you with advice. Each of these sources has its own agenda, experiences, timelines, and goals, some are genuinely trying to help you, others are more self-serving.
That’s why you have to pause and ask: “Does this actually make sense for me?”
I’m still working on this myself. There are a lot of good ideas out there, but it can be hard to sift out what’s truly the right move for your situation.
One of the most common examples I see is advice about Roth vs. traditional accounts. I often hear, “I contribute to a Roth because I’ve always heard it’s the best way to invest.” But when I ask why, most people aren’t sure. Don’t get me wrong, I love Roth accounts. But it doesn’t make sense to blindly contribute just because “everyone says so.” There are very good reasons why a Roth might not be the best fit for you.
At the end of the day, not everyone giving advice is qualified to shape your financial life. Be careful who you let influence your decisions and make sure their guidance actually aligns with your goals, not theirs.
Finding The Balance
What I’ve seen is that most people lean one way or the other: saving or spending. Some save every nickel for decades and do an incredible job building wealth, but they struggle to actually enjoy it because they’re always worried they might need that money in the future.
On the other side, some people live for today. They love experiences, upgrades, travel, eating out, and saving for the future always feels like a fight because “who knows what tomorrow will bring?”
It’s a balancing act. The best way I’ve seen to handle this is to be intentional:
- Know what actually brings you joy when you spend money.
- Be clear about your goals and what you want your future to look like.
Living at either extreme creates its own problems. Most savers wish they could loosen up a bit, and most spenders wish saving felt more natural. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle.
Systems Beat Motivation
I’ve watched well-intentioned families start saving with tons of enthusiasm, only to lose momentum when real life shows up. We plan to assume the best: I’ll save this much, spend this much, only buy a house for this much. But then life happens. We forget to max out the Roth, skip tracking HSA receipts, or get hit with an unexpected expense that derails the “perfect” plan.
Motivation fades. Systems don’t. For example, automate your retirement contributions every payday so they happen whether you’re “on it” or not. Build simple routines for saving, tracking receipts, and funding your goals so staying on track becomes the default, not the exception. Life will still get messy, but a good system keeps your plan moving in the right direction anyway
Focus on What You Can Control
As much as we’d all like to, we can’t control whether the market goes up or down, who wins an election, or what the economy does. And stressing about those things doesn’t change them. It’s easy to get sucked into endless “what if” thinking, even though our actions don’t impact those big forces at all.
Where you do have real power is in your own habits and decisions: how much you save, how you spend, whether you keep investing, how you talk about money at home, and how well you track things like taxes and HSA use. When you focus on what you can control and let the noise stay noise, your financial life gets a lot more manageable.
It's Not Just About the Numbers
Emotions factor into money more than we think. The numbers matter, yes, but our upbringing, past experiences, fears, desires, and future goals often shape how we spend, save, and invest far more than spreadsheets do. Questions like “Do I have enough to retire?”, “How much risk should I take?”, or “Should I take on more debt or be completely debt-free?” aren’t just math problems, they’re emotional ones too.
It’s a fine line, because you don’t want emotions to derail a solid financial plan. But if you’re losing sleep or constantly stressing about a decision, that’s a sign something needs to be adjusted. That’s where we come in: thinking outside the box to find solutions that align your emotions with your financial plan or at the very least, help you clearly understand the pros and cons of each path so you can move forward with confidence.
Bend Not Break
The best financial plans are built to bend, not break. Jobs change, business opportunities arise, relationships evolve, for the good and bad.
A plan shouldn’t be rigid. It should be flexible: investing in investments that don’t restrict what you can do, being tax-diversified, and having the right types of insurance are some of the ways you can adapt without derailing long-term goals. As life shifts, the plan should be able to shift with it.
Simple Beats Complex
There are two main ways I see people overcomplicate their finances:
First, too many accounts: multiple bank accounts and investment accounts spread across different companies. When there’s too much to track, it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks and causes unnecessary administrative work.
Second, owning investments or insurance policies they don’t understand. If you don’t know how something works, you can’t tell what’s good about it, what affects it, or when it’s time to move on from it. At the very least, having a basic understanding of what you own is crucial. The good news? Your investments and insurance don’t need to be complex to be effective.
Often, simplifying where it makes sense and choosing strategies you actually understand is one of the most powerful moves you can make
You Can Do A Lot, Just Not All At Once
Retiring early, taking big trips, paying for kids’ college, buying the dream home, helping aging parents, giving generously, these are all great goals, and I help people plan for them every day. But very few people can do all of them at once.
Most of us have to choose the one or two priorities that matter most right now and focus our energy and dollars there. If you are trying to chase too many goals at the same time, progress gets slow and frustrating, and everything feels halfway done.
What I have seen is that the people who are willing to narrow their focus, at least for a season, tend to make the most meaningful progress. There are no “right” or “wrong” goals, but there are tradeoffs, and being honest about them is where real clarity comes from. You can absolutely work toward many things over a lifetime, its just not easy all at once.
There's More to Learn!
I’m grateful for the opportunity to put everything I’ve learned to work for all of our clients, but I’m also grateful that I’ve learned so much from all of you, and I’m excited about what else I’ll learn in the future.