Math:

• Financial projections of where you are anticipated to be based on identified financial hopes and dreams
• Review multiple scenarios of realistic different outcomes based on your hopes and dreams
• Review insurance of all the adulting things (personal: life, health, disability | physical: home, auto, umbrella)

Mind:

• Discuss what financial freedom looks like to you- if that's different than your spouse/partner (if applicable), facilitate conversation on how to speak each other's language
• Financial tools to coach you on personal financial satisfaction, resilience, and setting meaningful goals with your time and money.

Help you win at life ("coaching on your financial plan"):

• Where are you now, and where do you want to be? (this informs what your "financial goals" could be)
• Validation on what you are doing well, feedback on areas where you could be doing better
• Identify upcoming challenges you want to take on (and crush)
• Review of your history with money (your "money script") to see what may be limiting your forward progress, and identify what motivates you to make good choices with money
• Ask you hard questions: what is your estate plan? who do you want your beneficiaries to be? (& review if you actually have that set up to reflect that)

Tax planning:

• Check for tax inefficiencies in current situation
• Recommend funding the appropriate accounts based on current and projected tax rates
• Tax-efficient strategies for getting out of legacy investment capital gains
• Calculate if roth conversions make sense based on current and projected tax rates
• Review your tax return annually
• Coordinate with your tax advisor

Investment Management: 

• Review all of your financial accounts
• Figure out if your accounts are invested in line with your risk tolerance (gut check) and risk capacity (math of how much risk you can take)
• Recommend and implement investment changes as needed

Ongoing support:

• Celebrate wins in your life (new job! baby! retirement! something else that is important to you!)
• Empathetically listen, cry with you, and empower you to make smart financial choices during losses (divorce, death, unexpected transition, grief)
• If retired/not employed, create an annual income plan based on your financial goals and smart tax planning
• If employed, review employee benefits annually to ensure you're getting the best bang for your buck | recommend appropriate savings into retirement & investment accounts

Smart financial strategies:

• Based on what you want to do/be- recommend which accounts to add money to, and why
• Review compensation packages
• Review expenses/budgets in a way that works best for you (instead of overwhelming task)

Financial planning encompasses your entire financial life; we look at all the numbers of all the investment accounts, but we also talk about what money means to you and why. We have a collaborative approach ("power with" you instead of a weird ego complex of “power over” you) that combines:

Financial Planning for the Unknown: We help you plan for the unexpected, mitigating financial risks and creating a roadmap for your evolving goals.

Empathetic Financial Coaching: We address the emotional aspects of money, helping you identify hidden obstacles and build confidence in your financial decisions.

Life Planning Tools: We empower you to articulate your values and translate them into a financial plan that supports your desired lifestyle.

Bonus? Astraea's practice is inclusive. LGBTQ+, straight, single, or married – whoever you are, you're welcome here.

Math:

• Do you have the right amount of financial assets to retire?
• We run the math on multiple scenarios of your base living expenses, how much money you want to (vs can) spend, and visualize the potential success of each scenario.
• Pension, deferred comp, or some other type of employer retirement plan? We talk through all the different options and what could be best for you.
• Income: We create an annual income plan based on your financial goals and smart tax planning
• Tax planning: Taxes are one of the most important things to consider in retirement.
• We analyze your current situation and recommend which accounts to take funds out of in the current and future years based on paying lowest projected tax rates.
• Estate planning: We talk about hard questions, like how much money you want to leave to beneficiaries, your view on personal longevity.
• We review any insurance you have as well as coordinate with your estate planning attorney to make sure your accounts are titled correctly with their recommendations.
• Social Security: When’s the right time to take it? We discuss the pros and cons of starting at different times, as well as options for filing on behalf of a spouse (including if you are divorced or widowed).
• Healthcare: We talk about your employer coverage, Medicare questions, and refer you to a specialist for purchasing the appropriate Medicare supplement or healthcare marketplace coverage.

Mind:

• Who are you going to be? Retirement is an exciting and potentially overwhelming time. Some people know exactly what they want to do. Others don’t. Based on where you are, we talk about what your life is going to look like from a purpose perspective, and use that to inform your financial goals of what money you need to achieve these hopes and dreams.
• Retirement vision statement: We help you to create a statement of what your hopes and dreams are for retirement, and revisit that as we revisit your plan. And don’t worry, this can change - but it is helpful for navigating the first few years and informing why you’re making the choices you’re making.
• Resources:
• What is your history with money? We talk about your financial background and how that likely informs how you view using your retirement savings for income.
• We also talk about the different phases of psychological retirement and how you plan to support yourself without an employment-based network.
  

Mind:

• Let's talk about who the person is that is important to you: how can you use these assets to both honor them and your financial hopes and dreams? what is their story, and how can we continue to celebrate/remember them?

Math:

• Taxes, taxes, taxes: discuss the best way to save or distribute the funds while being sensitive to tax consequences
• Investment management of the inherited funds
• Discuss changes to legislation regarding inheritances and how it impacts you

college planning:

• When your kids are little, we look at your current cash flow situation, your tax situation, and recommend how much you should put into college-type accounts vs. parent's personal/retirement accounts to make sure you strike the balance you're looking for.
• When your kids are entering college, look again at your cash flow and tax situation, but this time to figure where best to fund each year of school from.

gifting:

• Your kids are older, and you want to give to them while they are struggling in their 20's and 30's; not leave them an inheritance when they are 60 or so since they need the money more now. We model out scenarios illustrating what gifting more now vs. when you pass looks like, as well as talk to you about athe pros/cons from an emotional, tax, and financial viability standpoint.

kids at all?

• You know the right number of kids for your family. Maybe it's 0, maybe it's a bunch. We can help you plan no matter the number.
• Maybe you're just considering having kids, but have limitations on conceiving and you’re on the road to IVF and possibly surrogacy. IVF or other form of conception, that's great! We'll run the math out on how to make that happen financially.
• And, if you want to talk about any parenting questions you may have, not financial related, that’s fair game too.