“I define wealth as the luxury of choice.”

–Kaitlyn Carlson

Do you like the sound of financial freedom or work optional? If you’re uninspired by the idea of a retirement fund and underwhelmed by the idea of money management, this conversation with certified financial planner Kaitlyn Carlson is for you.

A financial planner helps you take the 30,000 foot view of your financial situation. They see your business, your other assets, your liabilities. They see where you are and where you want to be … and the different paths to get you there.

If you are looking for the luxury of choice, wealth creation needs to be part of your plan.

We talk about: 

• Living in your purpose and looking at your work optional date
• 3 levers you can change the numbers you settle on make you panic
• Writing down your financial goals
• Growth over time and why to start now even if you can’t save what you think you should be saving
• Using a retirement calculator 
• Getting help with financial planning instead of feeling like you have to know everything about it

ABOUT KAITLYN

Kaitlyn is the Founder & CEO of Theory Planning Partners, a boutique wealth creation firm for the top female entrepreneurs in the United States.

Before launching Theory Planning Partners, Kaitlyn spent the majority of her career at UBS Financial Services, Inc., where she held roles in both the southern and northeastern regions of the U.S.  There, she developed more than 300 financial plans for clients with assets ranging from $500,000 to $1 Billion.  Subsequently, she became an advisor on a private wealth management team that managed over $600 million for a few dozen families. Her career began in asset management with Putnam Investments.

Kaitlyn is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™️ (CFP®), Certified Exit Planning Advisor™️ (CEPA™️), and an Accredited Wealth Management Advisor (AWMA®).  Outside of work, she is a spiritual seeker ravenous to understand why we are here and how to make a meaningful life.

Kaitlyn lives in Marblehead, MA, with her husband, Jake, their three children, Russell, Luke, and Grace, and their affectionate dog, Bacchus. In her free time, she enjoys exercising, reading, traveling, and trying new restaurants around Boston.

LINKS

• theoryplanning.com
• https://www.instagram.com/theoryplanningpartners/

DOABLE CHANGES

At the end of every episode, we share three doable changes, so you can take what you've heard and put it into action. Change comes from action. 

Sometimes action gets a bad rap. You can be kind to yourself. You can practice being AND doing, but for change to happen you have to take steps. The way we take care of ourselves is making the steps doable and focusing on one thing at a time. We take time to integrate the change and then move on to the next one. Pick a Doable Change that resonates with you the most to start from. 

Here are three Doable changes that we chose from this conversation. 

• FIND YOUR FREEDOM DATE NUMBER. Use a retirement calculator to figure out how much you need to live the lifestyle you want based on when you want to be work optional.
• ADJUST YOUR FINANCIAL FREEDOM NUMBER. If your freedom date number scares you, change one of the levers. You can adjust how long before your freedom date, how much money you want to live on monthly, or play with your savings rate. You can keep adjusting too.
• START INVESTING. Don’t think that you have to hit your number right away. Start now with what you can do. Work toward reaching that monthly goal (and know that if you exceed it, you will make up for some of the lower months).