In our research for our PowerPoint presentation episode, we learned about William Playfair, and the world hasn't been the same since. Loyal listeners will recall that, among other things, Playfair invented (yes, INVENTED) the bar chart, the line chart and the pie chart.  For most people, that "among other things" would be pretty insignificant. But not for William Playfair. Not only did he birth data visualization into the world, William claimed to have introduced the semaphore telegraph to England, blackmailed a Scottish lord, and participated in the storming of the Bastille. Not bad for a day ..read more

Through the magic of podcasting, we find ourselves whisked away to sunny Phoenix for the 2018 FPA Retreat.  Our guide on this mystical journey is our friend Holly Donaldson, who attended in person and took copious notes. Here's Holly's post-conference reading list.  Like we said, she took copious notes... Richard Wagner, Financial Planning 3.0 George Kinder,  A Golden Civilization (not published yet) Martin Seligman, Well-Being Theory George Leonard, The Master’s Journey Cindy Wiggelsworth, Deep Change, Inc. Ken Wilber, Integral Approach to Money Ed Schein, Helping Chip and Dan Heath, Switch C ..read more

We return to our not-very-popular series in which Ben and Roger interview themselves on or near their birthdays.  In Part 1, Ben interviewed Roger on his journey to becoming an financial planner.  In this second part, Roger interviews Ben. We get to hear about how he overcame being a Californian, how he found himself doing stand up comedy, and how he found his calling as a financial planner.  And since we've been joking about it for 14 months, we also found a way to talk about his studies in kinesiology ..read more

Tired of using your Alexa device just to check the weather and store your grocery list?  We have a solution: the brand new Zebra Smash Alexa Skill. Our Alexa skill isn't another lame podcast app.  Nope.  Instead we built a turn by turn adventure game.  Collect items and encounter mythical creatures as you attempt to "win" a financial planning conference. How do you enable the skill and then play the game?  Two steps: Step 1: Say "Alexa, enable Zebra Smash" Step 2: Say "Alexa, open Zebra Smash" Ben learned the hard way that saying "Alexa, play Zebra Smash" gets you to a place you don't want to ..read more

Two conference recaps in a row?  Do Ben and Roger ever do any actual work in their offices?  Probably not, but that's for another episode.  In the meantime, they're back with all of their findings and opinions on the NAPFA South symposium, which took place on Monday, February 12, 2018 ..read more

Holly Donaldson, (for NAPFA members listening, you know her as Holly Thomas), built her business as a plug and play operation.  Clients would go to her for financial planning, but with her help they could plug into whichever 3rd party investment manager they saw fit.  Why did she go that route, and how did it work out?  And what sorts of clients were drawn to her approach ..read more

On a cold January 2nd, 2018, we spoke with Linda Leitz over Skype about why she went back to school to get her PhD, and how that experience has shaped her as a practitioner and as someone who serves in leadership roles within the profession.  Linda has done great work for financial planners for years, so its no surprise that one of her motivations behind going back to school was to look for new ways to help the profession grow and improve. Links: Linda's Dissertation - She said it couldn't be found!  Google said otherwise. Heat Pumps in Cold Weather - A lot of articles say they work fine, bu ..read more

One 2017 business story you might have caught was IBM's decision to eliminate all remote work.  They announced it during the spring, but basically if you want to work at IBM, you have to work in the office.  No more working from home. No financial advisory firm has reached IBM's size and complexity just yet, but we grapple with the pros and cons of remote work just like they do. In this episode, we chat with Bethany Griffith of the Abacus Planning Group, who continues to work for her South Carolina firm while living in Germany.   Bethany mentions two helpful systems that keep her connected to ..read more

The next episode in our series of conference summaries.  Thanks to Chad Smith for taking great notes at the Fincon 2017 conference ..read more

Roger missed the NAPFA Fall conference due to theatre commitments back home in Texas, but his wife Natalie was there and was willing to share her experiences with us.  Did she sugarcoat her review to avoid any awkwardness with conference chair Ben Birken?  (Hint: No ..read more