New offering: but which way's my way?

Earlier this week, we announced some new offerings at Seaborn, effectively allowing you to engage in financial planning your way. But what if, like Fezzik, you find yourself wondering: "which way's my way"? Good question! Here are our recommendations.

If you have just one specific question, like "how do I start budgeting" or "what do I do with my employer stock": we recommend an hourly project.We'll meet, figure out what analysis needs to be done (if any), and get you an answer.

If you don't already have a comprehensive financial plan in place, but (a) you're single and just starting your career, or (b) you're still working on getting out of credit card debt: we recommend an hourly project -- specifically an AMA (Ask Me Anything). At this point, the main goal is to get you pointed in the right direction, and a 60-90 minute conversation will go a long way!

If you don't already have a comprehensive financial plan in place, are out of credit card debt, and have a family and/or are mid- to late-career: we recommend comprehensive financial planning. There's a lot of stuff to cover, from cash flow management to your asset allocation to insurance to retirement planning to employer benefits to taxes to estate planning and more. Comprehensive financial planning gets you all of that for a flat fee, for much less than if you were to create a plan at our hourly rate. Plus, a flat fee means that you can feel free to ask questions, explore alternate scenarios, and otherwise make use of Seaborn to your heart's content, without worrying that you're "on the clock".

If you've already got a comprehensive financial plan, but you'd like to see if it can be optimized: we recommend an hourly project in the form of a financial plan audit. We'll go through all the subjects covered in a comprehensive financial plan, but only to the depth you desire, and we'll only run analyses you agree to. Given the way that financial optimizations can compound over time, this can potentially put a lot of money back in your pocket -- for a relatively low cost.

And if you take on comprehensive financial planning, or if you have at least $150,000 in investable assets: we recommend investment management, with a low fee and research-based features such as daily opportunistic rebalancing, daily tax-loss harvesting, tax-efficient asset location, and multifactor investing via DFA. (Seriously: follow those links and read up, and/or check out our investment scorecard. Whether you work with us or someone else, we don't want you to leave money on the table!) We waive our asset minimums for clients engaging in comprehensive financial planning, so we can start wherever you are.

Note: these are just our recommendations. You know your specific situation, preferences, cash flow, etc. much better than we do. Take our thoughts under advisement, but ultimately, it's your call!

Got more questions? Send me an e-mail or set up a call, and we'll figure it out!