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First meeting with CFP done

October 30th, 2021 at 05:15 pm

We had a meeting yesterday with a CFP. He happens to be my wife's cousin and is someone we know and trust. He's the farthest thing from a sleazy salesperson type as you can get. Very upfront and honest about everything. We told him before we scheduled the meeting that we were not interested in money management services and did not want to be sold anything. We were strictly looking for planning services.

Prior to the meeting, he sent a list of information he wanted us to bring: income statement, SS statements, tax returns, spending log, and portfolio review. All easy enough for me to put together.

We started by talking about our situation and goals and what we'd like retirement to look like. He asked if we had any specific questions or concerns we wanted him to address. I then walked him through our portfolio spreadsheet because it's not really designed for a stranger to necessarily read and clearly understand so I wanted to make sure he knew what everything was and how to follow it. We talked a fair amount about our spending and how we envision that changing (or not) in retirement.

He explained the review he will do and what the results will look like, what sorts of things he models in, etc. We scheduled a follow up visit for 11/19 to go over what he comes up with.

Without giving us any specific answers, which he can't do just off the top of his head understandably, he was impressed with our situation, portfolio, knowledge, and mindset. Just based on the initial review, he thought we were in good shape overall to retire in the near future but will go into far more detail once he runs all the numbers, analyzes our portfolio, etc.

One thing he particularly liked was how we have good diversity of account types. Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, 401k, taxable accounts, etc. He said it's always challenging when someone comes to him who has a lot of money but it's all in one place, like their 401k. The diversity creates much more flexibility when it comes to withdrawal planning and managing tax efficiency.

So overall he thinks we're on the right track and have managed things well. I'll post again after we have the follow up in a few weeks.

Posted in Personal Finance, Work/Career, Spending | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “First meeting with CFP done”

  1. Wink Says:
    October 30th, 2021 at 06:22 pm 1635618171
    1635618171

    It's wonderful that you have a trusted professional to utilize. I think that can be one of the most important and daunting decisions people can make when undertaking financial planning. It can be so hard to know who to trust.

  2. terri77 Says:
    October 30th, 2021 at 09:31 pm 1635629499
    1635629499

    That’s a good point about not having all your money on one basket. The majority of my money is in the TSP, just because of the larger contribution limits, but I also have a Roth IRA & brokerage account that I opened with the proceeds from my condo.

  3. Dido Says:
    October 30th, 2021 at 11:38 pm 1635637112
    1635637112

    Sounds good. And yes, that diversity of investments is a boon--especially having the mix between tax-deferred (retirement) accounts, tax-free (Roth IRA) accounts, and taxable accounts. Asset location matters too, not just allocation. I've seen too many clients who have all of their money in either retirement accounts (who then end up with large Required Minimum Distributions and large tax bills in retirement (or they end up giving huge sums to charity), or, alternatively, those who have kept most of their funds in their taxable accounts. Have a mix of accounts is ideal.

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