Young Professional Family
Ages:
Nick (45), Jenna (42)
Why They Reached Out:
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Their family, professional and financial lives are becoming complex and
they don’t want to lose focus of their financial lives.
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Need someone they can go to for questions and proactive guidance
while they focus on “what really matters.”
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Need help prioritizing between saving for college, retirement, enjoying
life now and debts.
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Need help organizing what they have and make sure they stay focused
on their goals.
Nick and Jenna’s Story:
Nick and Jenna are living the modern upper middle class lifestyle. They are two working parents
focused on professional growth but also raising two children and just trying to keep it all
together!
In the last 5 years they both hit their strides at work. Nick is a star sales executive and Jenna is a
high earning physician’s assistant. They purchased their dream home and have one child in
daycare. For the past 15 years they just tried to advance their careers. Now as they reflect, they
wish they saved more and want their children to have an even better life than theirs.
Nick and Jenna’s Questions
With such complicated lives, they need direction but also an ongoing accountability partner. In their
personal lives they spend money on healthy food and on personal trainers to stay in good-shape.
They now recognize if they can invest in their health, why aren’t they investing in good financial
advice?
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Nick wants to be able to project the cash he will get from his stock options in the future.
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He also wants to minimize the tax liability on his options.
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Jenna was fortunate to graduate debt free and she wants to save for her children’s future.
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Nick and Jenna want to know how to prioritize between saving for their children’s
college, their retirement and enjoying life now through vacations. -
Even though they don’t have a large portfolio to manage, they want someone to look at
their benefits at work and give them advice. -
Nick’s father passed away and he wants someone he trusts to help his mother.
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They just had a friend pass away unexpectedly and are wondering if they have enough
life insurance and need wills or other legal documents to protect their own family. -
They are too busy to meet in-person 4 times a year but would appreciate proactive phone calls to make sure they are doing everything they should be.
The Results
Nick and Jenna met with several other advisors. They all had minimum portfolio sizes and
weren’t willing to help them for a monthly fee like their personal trainers. They were feeling that
they were successful and wondering why no one would help them.
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After organizing their financial information, we put together a 2 page financial plan to
give them specific action items.
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We called Nick and Jenna every other month to make sure they were staying on track and
completing the items we talked about.
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We introduced an attorney to make sure they had guardians in their wills for their
children.
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We helped them implement a low-cost 30 year term insurance policy and replaced the expensive whole life policies they were sold by a family friend.
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We reviewed both of their employer benefits to helped them reduce their taxable income
by $30,000/year (saving $8,100 in taxes).
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We helped them setup monthly contributions to a Maryland 529 plan and projected how
much they should save to fund college.
We helped them pay-off the “bad” debts and created a payment plan for their “good” debts.
Today Nick and Jenna are feeling more secure because they can focus on their family and jobs.
Nick understands his stock options more and may even join a start-up company. Jenna feels that
she finally has some breathing room and appreciates the proactive phone calls.
Our relationship is built on trust, not transactions, and they know that whenever they have a
question, they can call our office anytime and have a return call that same day. They know that
we proactively schedule meetings and phone calls just to check-in and know all about their
family and their dreams for the future.
Most importantly, as their advisors, we encourage them to live life to its fullest.