Seasons of Life Planning

It’s back to school! In between buying school supplies for my girls and helping them plan their first-day-of-school outfits, I am thinking about investing and their future education goals. We often hear about 529 plans being useful savings tools for college, and they can be, but how do they affect a student’s ability to get financial aid? A quick refresher – 529 accounts are an education savings tool. Investments in the accounts are able to grow tax-free. In addition, withdra

Legal documents you need when your kid turns 18 Launching kiddos can get pretty emotional for all of us, including this Dad. It’s also busy. While we are having so much fun with a graduating senior heading off to college, like Casey “Special K” Krueger here, this Season of Life post is about an often-overlooked topic that is not fun to talk about. I asked Shelley to share her experience and wisdom around this season and write a post with a simple checklist. Before we can have

The word “enough” is a funny one. It has negative uses (like me saying “Enough!” to my girls when they are arguing) and neutral uses (“No more coffee, I have enough”), but I’m more interested in its positive uses. The feeling we get when we look around contentedly and say “I have enough.” I think a lot about what it means to have enough and even reworking our definition of enough. We live in a world driven by consumption. Our lives are filled with ads and product placement

My first job in financial services was filing papers and answering the phone for my dad, Doyle. I was 15. He started a financial planning and wealth management firm in Fargo, ND, when I was 3. Even though I grew up hearing about his work and meeting his clients, I never planned on being a financial planner. I was the college kid who made it my mission to take classes in every building of my small liberal arts college and changed my major multiple times. After graduation, I sp