Spencer Financial Planning Turns 1!

Well, that was quick. 

Spencer Financial Planning turned 1 year old a few weeks ago. It has been an amazing year. 

I’ll share a few reflections and observations below, but let’s start with a few facts.

The facts

• Spencer Financial Planning went “live” on June 26, 2020, with my registration with the State of Washington being finalized then.

• I’m a solo firm; no employees.

• My client stats during the first year:

  • 9 clients signed up for Comprehensive Financial Planning (my ongoing service covering all areas of personal financial planning).

  • 4 clients signed up for a Project-Based Financial Analysis.

  • 2 clients signed up for a Jump Start Call.

• I have clients in Washington, California, and Kentucky.

• I registered my firm in the State of California once I reached 5 clients there (registration is required if you want more than 5 clients).

What have I learned?

Lots.

“Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”

Here are my reflections.

I love this stuff

Helping my clients with financial planning is so much fun. Sometimes I shake my head and think to myself just how blessed I am to do this.

I especially love the fact that my clients have chosen to open up their lives to me in this way. It truly is an honor. It’s so much fun to tackle an issue together and come to a great solution for them.

I also love the technical aspects; I’m constantly learning.

I liked my previous job working for an investment management firm. I really did. I wouldn’t have stayed there for 18 years if I didn’t. But there’s something so cool about being my own boss, creating my own schedule, charting my own course.

Having said all that…

Financial planning is hard

I said above that I love the technical aspects of financial planning. But I’m also reminded on a regular basis of just how much I don’t know.

There are so many rules, regulations, nuances, and pitfalls in financial and tax planning. Even as a CFP® and as someone who has been in the industry for a long time, I can’t possibly know it all. And even details I’ve previously learned quickly get foggy since I’m stuffing my head with more new information each day.

But that’s part of the fun of it, that it’s challenging.

Of course, there are also some less desirable aspects to running a business, such as regulatory, compliance, and administrative tasks. There are days that take a lot out of me doing stuff like that, so it’s not all roses and flamingos all the time.

I’m thankful for support

When tough stuff does come up, or when I need a second opinion, I’m especially thankful for the financial planning community I have around me:

• I’m a part of 3 different study groups / brain trusts / mastermind groups (choose your favorite moniker).

  • One with 3 other XY Planning Network (“XYPN”) members.

  • One with 3 other Alliance of Comprehensive Planners (“ACP”) members.

  • One with 4 other local Spokane financial planners.

• And I meet regularly with my ACP mentor.

Being able to “talk shop” with those folks has been invaluable.

I honestly didn’t think my first year would go this well

When I left my previous job, I was fully prepared to go a long time before getting my first client. Even after my first few clients signed on, I thought, ok that’ll be it for quite a long time.

My wife and I decided to save up a good amount of money before I left my previous job to ensure we could live for a while without any income. We budgeted for several years’ worth of lean times. That’s the financial planner in me coming out; hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

Well, here I am, having been blessed with waaaaaay more business than I thought I’d have at this point.

I’m extremely grateful.

I love working from home

Having worked in a high-rise office building for 18 years, commuting by train about 90 minutes each way, I was ready for a change.

Working from home has been so, so cool.

I’m getting more sleep than I did before, since I don’t have to get up at 4:45 AM each morning. That has led to better health, less stress, fewer headaches, etc.

Oh yeah, wearing jeans or shorts or whatever every day is so fantastic.

And it’s so cool to be around my family all day. Being able to take a break from work and walk to the next room to see my wife and four kids has been awesome.

Of course, I have to live with the occasional screaming, crying, or laughing in the background during Zoom calls with clients, but it’s well worth it.

My wife is a rock star

Perhaps not literally. But wow is she amazing.

She’s the glue to our family. She allows me to be in my office most of the day while she corrals a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old and homeschools a 13-year-old and an 11-year old. Oh yeah, plus cooking amazing meals and generally taking care of our household.

She was, of course, doing all this when I worked in that high-rise building in Los Angeles, but I’ve been able to see it much more closely at home now.

I really don’t know what the future holds

I know, shocker.

I’m sometimes asked by prospective clients how “big” I want to grow my firm.

The answer is an unsatisfying “I don’t know”.

Basically, my thought process goes something like this:

• I don’t have any plans to hire employees or bring on other financial planners. Maybe way down the road, but not now.

• I’m quite content to allow this to be a “lifestyle practice”, where I grow to the point of being able to properly serve a certain number of clients, but not beyond that.

• A “typical” workload for financial advisors in the industry is to have 50-100 ongoing clients per advisor.

  • I think that number is way too high for me, because I spend a lot more time with each client than the typical advisor.

  • So it needs to be a lower number for me.

  • Is that number 25? 30? 40? Don’t know.

  • My plan is to grow slowly and see how it goes. If I feel full at 25, I’ll stop there. On the other hand, if things feel quite manageable, I’ll go to 30 and see how that feels, and then 35, etc. My main concern is that I continue to have enough capacity to give each client the time they need and deserve.

Is that the “right” approach? I dunno. But it’s the approach I’m taking for now.

And I could change course during the next year and want to grow into a mega-empire that conquers the world. Maybe.

In the end, I feel like it’s something I don’t have to figure out right now, so I’m not stressing about it.

Let’s wrap this up

Ok, that’s enough babbling from me.

Thanks so much for reading this! You get a piece of virtual birthday cake on me. You deserve it.

And thank you SO MUCH for going on this journey with me. Even if all you’ve done is read this one blog post, you’re a part of what I’m doing, and I appreciate it.