Location Independent?
Tax season is over and it's time for me to get back on track to build my financial planning practice.* (Actually, I still need to process that tax season, but that can be a separate post.)
The last week in April and the first week in May I made it a point to drive into Boston for working group meetings of other financial planners, mostly just to help get myself into the groove. The first one was a NAPFA meeting. NAPFA is an umbrella organization for all fee-only fiduciary planners. There are maybe 2,000 members. Besides a spring and a fall national conference (one will be eastern, one western) there are also state chapter meetings. I live in a little state and it's pretty much the same distance for me to go to the Vermont, Connecticut or Massachusetts meetings and I rotate through them a bit. I don't have a strong connection to anyone there in particular. The NAPFA group presents speakers and we get continuing education credits for going to them. NAPFA as an organization is super important to the development of my new profession (both new to me and new to the world) and it relies on the labor of volunteers, so NAPFA meetings feel a little fraught with peril in some ways. For example, when I was there two weeks ago I got hit up to be the speaker for one of the sessions. (I signed up for October's.) I know I have a duty to volunteer some of my time and talent to NAPFA, and I will, but it isn't as fulfilling as the next group.
I'm also a member of the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners. We have 200 members across the country and our study groups are regional rather than by state. There are about a dozen who attend the quarterly study group with me. It's great. We talk regularly on a bulletin board, we call and email each other with specific issues once and a while, we'll have lunch with each other at national conferences, some of the members room together to save on hotel fees at conferences. Our annual national conference isn't a chore, it's a party. (I keep trying to get my husband to go with me.) The format of our study groups is we basically cross-fertilize. Here's a problem I'm having. You've all faced it, too. How did you solve it? For example, I've recently called the Mass. Dept of Revenue about something: I shared my experience with them. One had a state regulator in to do an audit: they told us about that. This time we talked about podcasts. Who was listening to what? Then we taught the old fogeys how to listen to podcasts. (I was thinking about the NPR #Trypod as we did that.)
One of them mentioned they were listening to XY Planning Network podcasts. Another said Carl Richards. Another mentioned that Kitces had started one. Oh, wow! Kitces is a guru/mentor/blogger who I think of as a friend on the basis of him having replied to comments I've made on his blog, and maybe having spoken to him in an elevator once. (That's what "friend" means, right?) I read his work at least weekly, sometimes more often. I have him flagged to come up first on Facebook, for example.) But somehow I missed that he'd started a podcast. He's only 18 episodes in, but the episodes are over an hour long, sometimes approaching two hours. It's a fairly big time commitment to listen to his. The Carl Richards Behavior Gap ones are 3 to 9 minutes long: I've been binge-listening to those. But the biggest boon has been the XYPN podcasts. There are around 100 out there now and they're all WONDERFUL. They're like flying to a conference in Seattle and having every panel be the very best panel you've ever been to, but without having to fly to Seattle. In fact, they're SO good that it's making me re-evaluate whether I need to get to one of their conferences. I'd been meeting to go to one at some point but I'm pretty thrilled to sit at home and learn from podcasts.
But this started out saying that it's nice to get cross-fertilization and that going out amongst other people in profession helps me to get re-focused on my career. I'll consider where XYPN fits with that. When I was evaluating whether to join Alliance of Comprehensive Planners I considered joining XY Planning Network. Like the ACP, XYPN is a subset of NAPFA. Like ACP, XYPN is a close-knit group of supportive advisors. Their product and the way they get paid for it is pretty much the same, except that ACP has a focus on being tax-knowledgeable advisors that appeal to Baby Boomers with deferred comp and XYPN has a focus on being tech savvy virtual advisors that appeal to Gen X and Gen Y clients. ACP fit my life better, so I joined that. But I'm tech savvy and handle Gen X and Gen Y clients too (and now Millennials) so maybe I should consider joining XYPN, too. I know a couple of the ACP members are in both. (There's a small shade of sibling rivalry, I think.)
Maybe I should go to an XYPN conference. There's one in Dallas this Fall. Ugggh. I am fine going to two conferences a year, and accept the possibility of maybe three conferences once in a while, but four conferences seems silly. The ACP conferences isn't optional: ACP Members attend the annual conference if it is at all possible to do so or they get kicked out. I've also signed up for an AICPA conference in Las Vegas next month that I'm pretty excited about going to. (I've wanted to go to it for years, but it never worked for my parenting schedule.) Now, with Small Boy's high school graduation the week before that, I can finally go.) I'd been sort of thinking about going to the NAPFA conference in Orlando in October. I'm also flying to London in December. Note that I detest flying. Hate it. Okay, then, just talked myself out of Dallas. Orlando is easy-peasy: direct flights from my local airport, thanks to high demand for the Mouse.
So, no XYPN conference, but why the sudden affinity for them? It's really because of the ideas I'm getting from their podcasts.
One was "12-4-2": Is how Ritholtz Wealth Management systemizes their client interactions. Instead of the triage method I've been doing, they set it up so each client has 12 touches - monthly messages or reminders or newsletters or birthday cards or whatever and four investment advising meetings and two financial planning meetings a year. Oh. I could do that!
Sophia Bera talks about being "location independent". This was the general appeal of XYPN, but she explains that she travels around the world doing "work-cations". She recently spent a month in Barcelona. She'd work for a few hours in the morning from her hotel, spend the afternoon seeing sights, come back in and go back to work OR go out for the evening with friends. Basically working half-time every day, except that it's more like 6 hours x 7 = 42 hours, so not so half-time, right? When I first heard this I dismissed it as sort of awful. I hate flying, I don't want to live in hotels, and I've got gardens to tend. But then it got me thinking about my polydoma life-style. My kid is graduating from high school this month. I have a spare home on the ocean three hours away. I don't have to get this 100% figured out, just SOME of the way figured out and then I could work from my house on the island some of the time. This seems like an attainable thing.
The last week in April and the first week in May I made it a point to drive into Boston for working group meetings of other financial planners, mostly just to help get myself into the groove. The first one was a NAPFA meeting. NAPFA is an umbrella organization for all fee-only fiduciary planners. There are maybe 2,000 members. Besides a spring and a fall national conference (one will be eastern, one western) there are also state chapter meetings. I live in a little state and it's pretty much the same distance for me to go to the Vermont, Connecticut or Massachusetts meetings and I rotate through them a bit. I don't have a strong connection to anyone there in particular. The NAPFA group presents speakers and we get continuing education credits for going to them. NAPFA as an organization is super important to the development of my new profession (both new to me and new to the world) and it relies on the labor of volunteers, so NAPFA meetings feel a little fraught with peril in some ways. For example, when I was there two weeks ago I got hit up to be the speaker for one of the sessions. (I signed up for October's.) I know I have a duty to volunteer some of my time and talent to NAPFA, and I will, but it isn't as fulfilling as the next group.
I'm also a member of the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners. We have 200 members across the country and our study groups are regional rather than by state. There are about a dozen who attend the quarterly study group with me. It's great. We talk regularly on a bulletin board, we call and email each other with specific issues once and a while, we'll have lunch with each other at national conferences, some of the members room together to save on hotel fees at conferences. Our annual national conference isn't a chore, it's a party. (I keep trying to get my husband to go with me.) The format of our study groups is we basically cross-fertilize. Here's a problem I'm having. You've all faced it, too. How did you solve it? For example, I've recently called the Mass. Dept of Revenue about something: I shared my experience with them. One had a state regulator in to do an audit: they told us about that. This time we talked about podcasts. Who was listening to what? Then we taught the old fogeys how to listen to podcasts. (I was thinking about the NPR #Trypod as we did that.)
One of them mentioned they were listening to XY Planning Network podcasts. Another said Carl Richards. Another mentioned that Kitces had started one. Oh, wow! Kitces is a guru/mentor/blogger who I think of as a friend on the basis of him having replied to comments I've made on his blog, and maybe having spoken to him in an elevator once. (That's what "friend" means, right?) I read his work at least weekly, sometimes more often. I have him flagged to come up first on Facebook, for example.) But somehow I missed that he'd started a podcast. He's only 18 episodes in, but the episodes are over an hour long, sometimes approaching two hours. It's a fairly big time commitment to listen to his. The Carl Richards Behavior Gap ones are 3 to 9 minutes long: I've been binge-listening to those. But the biggest boon has been the XYPN podcasts. There are around 100 out there now and they're all WONDERFUL. They're like flying to a conference in Seattle and having every panel be the very best panel you've ever been to, but without having to fly to Seattle. In fact, they're SO good that it's making me re-evaluate whether I need to get to one of their conferences. I'd been meeting to go to one at some point but I'm pretty thrilled to sit at home and learn from podcasts.
But this started out saying that it's nice to get cross-fertilization and that going out amongst other people in profession helps me to get re-focused on my career. I'll consider where XYPN fits with that. When I was evaluating whether to join Alliance of Comprehensive Planners I considered joining XY Planning Network. Like the ACP, XYPN is a subset of NAPFA. Like ACP, XYPN is a close-knit group of supportive advisors. Their product and the way they get paid for it is pretty much the same, except that ACP has a focus on being tax-knowledgeable advisors that appeal to Baby Boomers with deferred comp and XYPN has a focus on being tech savvy virtual advisors that appeal to Gen X and Gen Y clients. ACP fit my life better, so I joined that. But I'm tech savvy and handle Gen X and Gen Y clients too (and now Millennials) so maybe I should consider joining XYPN, too. I know a couple of the ACP members are in both. (There's a small shade of sibling rivalry, I think.)
Maybe I should go to an XYPN conference. There's one in Dallas this Fall. Ugggh. I am fine going to two conferences a year, and accept the possibility of maybe three conferences once in a while, but four conferences seems silly. The ACP conferences isn't optional: ACP Members attend the annual conference if it is at all possible to do so or they get kicked out. I've also signed up for an AICPA conference in Las Vegas next month that I'm pretty excited about going to. (I've wanted to go to it for years, but it never worked for my parenting schedule.) Now, with Small Boy's high school graduation the week before that, I can finally go.) I'd been sort of thinking about going to the NAPFA conference in Orlando in October. I'm also flying to London in December. Note that I detest flying. Hate it. Okay, then, just talked myself out of Dallas. Orlando is easy-peasy: direct flights from my local airport, thanks to high demand for the Mouse.
So, no XYPN conference, but why the sudden affinity for them? It's really because of the ideas I'm getting from their podcasts.
One was "12-4-2": Is how Ritholtz Wealth Management systemizes their client interactions. Instead of the triage method I've been doing, they set it up so each client has 12 touches - monthly messages or reminders or newsletters or birthday cards or whatever and four investment advising meetings and two financial planning meetings a year. Oh. I could do that!
Sophia Bera talks about being "location independent". This was the general appeal of XYPN, but she explains that she travels around the world doing "work-cations". She recently spent a month in Barcelona. She'd work for a few hours in the morning from her hotel, spend the afternoon seeing sights, come back in and go back to work OR go out for the evening with friends. Basically working half-time every day, except that it's more like 6 hours x 7 = 42 hours, so not so half-time, right? When I first heard this I dismissed it as sort of awful. I hate flying, I don't want to live in hotels, and I've got gardens to tend. But then it got me thinking about my polydoma life-style. My kid is graduating from high school this month. I have a spare home on the ocean three hours away. I don't have to get this 100% figured out, just SOME of the way figured out and then I could work from my house on the island some of the time. This seems like an attainable thing.